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Bicentennial Man
EMAILPRINTBuena Vista Pictures
Mixed or average reviews
Based on 31 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
Based on 12 votes
Read user comments
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Movie Info
Genre(s): Sci-fi
Written by:
Isaac Asimov (short story and novel The Positronic Man)
Robert Silverberg (novel The Positronic Man)
Nicholas Kazan
Directed by: Chris Columbus
Release Date:
Theatrical: December 17, 1999
DVD: June 13, 2000
Running Time: 130 minutes, Color
Origin: USA
Summary
RATING: PG for language and some sexual content
Starring Robin Williams, Sam Neill, Oliver Platt, Embeth Davidtz, and Hallie Kate Eisenberg
Follows the life and times of Andrew (Williams), a robot purchased by the Martin family as a household appliance programmed to perform menial tasks. As Andrew begins to experience emotions and creative thought, the Martins soon discover they don't have an ordinary robot. (Touchstone Pictures)
Also On Metacritic
FILM: Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone Home Alone Mrs. Doubtfire Rent Stepmom
Also On The Web: Internet Movie Database
What The Critics Said
All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...
Seattle Post-Intelligencer William Arnold
Finally becomes a somber, sentimental and rather profound romantic fantasy that is more true to the spirit of the Golden Age of science-fiction writing than possibly any other movie of the '90s.
Read Full Review >Film.com Tom Keogh
Captivating an audience from the get-go and drawing our attention and emotions ever deeper into the layered mysteries of a dreamy fable.
Read Full Review >Austin Chronicle Marc Savlov
More a meditation on the nature of life itself than anything else, and a welcome respite from Robin Williams, the emotion sponge.
Read Full Review >Charlotte Observer Lawrence Toppman
May wrestle with big ideas, but it does so through a succession of small emotional moments.
Read Full Review >New York Daily News Jack Mathews
A fragmented, episodic feel and a conclusion that seems both remote and remote-controlled.
Read Full Review >Miami Herald Curtis Morgan
Entertains but never quite engages.
Los Angeles Times Kevin Thomas
A mainstream holiday movie, complete with stupendous special effects, amazing make-up artistry and sumptuous production design.
Read Full Review >TNT RoughCut Bill McLochlin
Though Williams gives one of his better performances in recent years -- finding the right combination of humor and restraint for this role -- none of the human characters are fleshed out in any way.
San Francisco Examiner Wesley Morris
Reinforcing the chasm between movie magic and wishful thinking.
USA Today Susan Wloszczyna
The sad fact is Williams is at his best while trapped in Andrew's original sleek form. His performance is subtle, his reactions restrained. The more Robin is exposed, the more ham is served.
The New York Times Stephen Holden
Except for Williams, the sitcom-meets-sci-fi acting throughout the movie is strictly of television caliber.
Read Full Review >Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert
Begins with promise, proceeds in fits and starts, and finally sinks into a cornball drone of greeting-card sentiment.
Read Full Review >Chicago Tribune Michael Wilmington
Has heart, but lacks bite.
New York Post Lou Lumenick
The once-funny Robin Williams is still stuck in his excruciating touchy-feely mode.
Christian Science Monitor David Sterritt
Kids may yawn at the movie's dawdling pace.
Read Full Review >Variety Todd McCarthy
Columbus' approach is intended to cloak such topics as mortality and human identity in the warm glow of greeting card sentiment, which renders the prescription palatable for mass consumption but hopelessly diluted.
Read Full Review >Entertainment Weekly Lisa Schwarzbaum
Director Chris Columbus...seals this comedy in an impenetrable bubble of hollow humanism.
Read Full Review >TV Guide Ken Fox
The play for the heartstrings is so cold and calculated that the movie's sentimentality feels as synthetic as its hero, and the philosophy is simpleminded and lazy.
Read Full Review >Chicago Reader Lisa Alspector
The childish humor and sensationalistic effects undercut the movie's philosophical agenda.
Read Full Review >Philadelphia Inquirer Steven Rea
I'll be darned if I can think of a more excruciating, ponderous, remarkably unfunny and inert cinemagoing experience to come down the pike in ages.
Mr. Showbiz Cody Clark
This saga of one robot's determined quest to become human is so coldly calculated it could give you frostbite.
Portland Oregonian Shawn Levy
You're likelier to shrink in astonished horror from it than laugh.
LA Weekly Nicole Campos
With this desperately eager-to-please fable based on a short story and novel by Isaac Asimov, director Chris Columbus clinches his berth as the master of shiny-happy message movies.
Read Full Review >Village Voice Jessica Winter
Amid the complacent self-congratulation...is a bizarre reactionary bent.
Read Full Review >Dallas Observer Andy Klein
It's not really a kids' film, nor it is particularly funny, by either design or execution. It is, rather, Columbus' latest attempt at a comically tinged tearjerker.
Read Full Review >Time Richard Corliss
The tone is cloying, the running time bloated.
Baltimore Sun Chris Kaltenbach
Must be among the most blatantly manipulative movies ever made. It's cold, calculated and treats its audience like its robotic central character.
Newsweek David Ansen
Kids will be bored, the rest of us baffled.
What Our Users Said
The average user rating for this movie is 6.9 (out of 10) based on 12 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.
Keith H. gave it a1:
A boring movie. I was intrigued, when in the beginning they recapped asimov's three laws of robotics, but then they never used them. At the end, one robot even seems to break them. Plodding pace, a weepy score that will put you to sleep and Robin Williams mugging for the camera in almost every scene (not for the first time either) make this a movie to avoid.
[Anonymous] gave it a7:
Flawed, but I liked it. A bit too much Robin Williams in the mix, though. While I, Robot was a good actioner/thriller that interplayed the three laws of robotics, this one looks from a calmer perspective, feeling more like an Asimov short story.
Rachel M gave it a5:
This story approaches classic Sci-Fi ones, introducing the topic "how things would be when...", or better, "how men would be when...", reflecting on vital topics, etc. Asimov's story is great in this sense, but Buena Vista adaptation is focused on commercial success and some special effects. And the result is POOR! The worst in this movie is its construction: time seems to fly, leaving no time for emotion or reflectio. Of course, anything performed by R.Williams is great, but I'm afraid he is too human to perform a robot! I didn't like it.
Hans S gave it a10:
Makes you think how much more fun we could have, how much more we could get out of life if we were more rational and of service to others. Presents the wonders of intelligent systems better than anything to date. I'm sorry to see that most reviewers can't be considered such. As with most things, with emotion, less is more. "The world is a tragedy to those who feel, but a comedy to those who think." -Horace Walpole.
Gilbert Mulroneycakes Must Die gave it a 3:
Asimov'd spit. The story is great, one of the best Isaac wrote (and he wrote some glorious ones). But poor old Chris "I discovered America!" (points down) "Look, there it is!" "Stop doing that." Columbus turns it from a thought-proving piece of SF into a sappy, sentimental mess. Shame.
Victor gave it an 8:
Original short story / remade novel aside, let's look at the movie itself. Poignant to excess, (e.g. Little Miss' holding Andrew's first expression of creativity in her dying hands), this movie engages the viewer to consider, "What really is humanity?" At its most humorous when Robin Williams' creativity is caged by the robotic form ("Good ... Night"), this movie is certainly not the laugh riot that the studio publicists tout. The underlying message of the movie is that change is unavoidable. The only thing that we can control is how we react to it. Even the character of Andrew, who fights human aging because of his own needs, finally acceeds to the inevitable. There is indeed a natural order of things, and only in acceptance can we find peace. After 200 years, we finally understand.
Jennifer T. gave it a 10:
This is the most amazing movie I have ever seen in my life!! It touches the heart on so many different levels that other movies can't even come close too. It is amazing.
