DVD Movie Rating for: Bicentennial Man

4 out of 5

Movie Plot of: Bicentennial Man

This film follows the 'life' and times of the lead character, an android (Robin Williams) who is purchased as a household robot programmed to perform menial tasks. Within a few days the Martin family realizes that they don't have an ordinary droid as Andrew begins to experience emotions and creative thought. In a story that spans two centuries, Andrew learns the intricacies of humanity while trying to stop those who created him from destroying him.

DVD Production Details of: Bicentennial Man

Starring: Robin Williams

Director: Chris Columbus

Format: Color, Closed-captioned, Widescreen, Dolby

Studio: Touchstone Video

DVD Release Date: May 6, 2003
DVD Features:
Theatrical trailer(s)

Making Of Documentary

Widescreen anamorphic format

Cast of the movie: Bicentennial Man

• Robin Williams .... Andrew Martin
• Embeth Davidtz .... Little Miss Amanda Martin/Portia Charney
• Sam Neill .... 'Sir' Richard Martin
• Oliver Platt .... Rupert Burns
• Kiersten Warren .... Galatea
• Wendy Crewson .... 'Ma´am' Martin
• Hallie Kate Eisenberg .... 7 Year Old 'Little Miss' Amanda Martin
• Lindze Letherman .... 9 Year Old 'Miss' Grace Martin
• Angela Landis .... 'Miss' Grace Martin
• John Michael Higgins .... Bill Feingold, Martin's Lawyer
• Bradley Whitford .... Lloyd Charney
• Igor Hiller .... 10 Year Old Lloyd Charney
• Joe Bellan .... Robot Delivery Man
• Brett Wagner .... Robot Delivery Man Stephen Root (I) .... Dennis Mansky, Head of NorthAm Robotics

Photo Gallery of the movie: Bicentennial Man

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Reviews of the movie: Bicentennial Man

Bicentennial Man was stung at the 1999 box office, due no doubt in part to poor timing during a backlash against Robin Williams and his treacly performances in two other, then-recent releases, Jakob the Liar and Patch Adams. But this near-approximation of a science fiction epic, based on works by Isaac Asimov and directed, with uncharacteristic seriousness of purpose, by Chris Columbus (Mrs. Doubtfire), is much better than one would have known from the knee-jerk negativity and box-office indifference.

Williams plays Andrew, a robot programmed for domestic chores and sold to an upper-middle-class family, the Martins, in the year 2005. The family patriarch (Sam Neill) recognizes and encourages Andrew's uncommon characteristics, particularly his artistic streak, sensitivity to beauty, humor, and independence of spirit. In so doing, he sets Williams's tin man on a two-century journey to become more human than most human beings.

As adapted by screenwriter Nicholas Kazan, the movie's scale is novelistic, though Columbus isn't the man to embrace with Spielbergian confidence its sweeping possibilities. Instead, the Home Alone director shakes off his familiar tendencies to pander and matures, finally, as a captivating storyteller. But what really makes this film matter is its undercurrent of deep yearning, the passion of Andrew as a convert to the human race and his willingness to sacrifice all to give and take love. Williams rises to an atypical challenge here as a futuristic Everyman, relying, perhaps for the first time, on his considerable iconic value to make the point that becoming human means becoming more like Robin Williams. Nothing wrong with that.