Dreadfully Boring

Absolutely brilliant

Not sure how, but this is easily one of the best movies all summer. Multiple levels of funny, never takes itself seriously, super colorful, and creative.

It's simply great fun, a winsome film and an occasionally over-the-top luxury fantasy that never flags.

Joy Andrews (Lucy Griffiths) is a reporter who is given the opportunity to spend 7 days with a robotics expert David Kressan (Mark Webber) and his creation Adam (David Clayton Rogers) whom is the most believable and realistic AI that has ever been created - he's an AI that David has lived in isolation with for the last 7 years. Things start to take a turn for the worse when Adam starts to exhibit abnormal and disturbing behaviour towards Joy when it seems that both the AI and its creator begin to develop feelings for the same woman...There are two words that sprung to mind when I was watching this film 'EX MACHINA' and it seems fairly obvious that ANDROID borrows quite heavily from this film. Both films cover the same theme of developing an AI that is capable of fooling humans and with an AI that is more self-aware than its creator imagines or believes.The problems with Android begin at a very early stage with the initial story set-up; the dialogue that is exchanged between the characters is mind-boggling and contains words that only scientists or members of MENSA are likely to be able to understand. I got the feeling that this was included at the start of the film to try and make it seem clever (which in retrospect becomes laughable when you learn of the simplistic plotting). The poor dialogue and lack of much happening in the first half makes for a fairly slow opener (although those for a penchant for Chess will be well catered for here).The second half is better if only because it has some life to it and has more going for it; there is a battle between the AI and its creator and the power struggle between the two is interesting, but whilst it is interesting it's never really a story that grips or involves (mainly because it offers nothing that we haven't seen before). It's difficult to critique performances in a film focusing on AI as naturally some performers are going to be 'cough cough' slightly robotic; this is the case for Webber and Rogers for the most part although Rogers fares best out of the two men (but in fairness this is because he is given more to work with). Griffiths is given the role of the most 'normal' person, but she works the role well giving a rather natural performance, but she's able to flex her acting chops later in the film.The end result of all this is a rather poor film with little in the way of originality or surprises and with its rather dull and dialogue-heavy first half it makes for an uneven film which sadly, for the most part, is fairly uninvolving. It's very similar to Ex Machina and even though I thought that film was overrated and had its fair share of problems I would still pick that film over this one.

Mind boggling! In the sense that it's so difficult to imagine, but the unforeseen twist near the end explains so much. This is a film I will definitely recommend and can talk at great length about. But there is so much I cannot say, so as to not ruin your experience. So I will tell you what little I can.David is a young man, a genius, and he has been cooped up in a huge workshop environment. This is where he works on constructing robotics, bionics and where he generates scientific research. Ground breaking research. So it comes as no surprise that this is a man with many secrets. And there are few which are not his to share. He is working for Castle, an enigmatic figure who has offered David this opportunity to create anything, with anything.David is not alone at this workshop, for he has someone with him: Adam. He is a strange man, but is he man at all? No, for he's David's creation- a robot. They get along well: David and Adam, like brothers. But then their relationship becomes strained, marked by the arrival of an intelligent, beautiful young woman: Joy Andrews. What happens then? Can a robot feel anything? Can a robot become human? Believe it or not, I have not revealed the whole film. There are more intelligently crafted surprises this film has to offer.I am not exaggerating when I declare this film was 'intelligently crafted', if anything that is an understatement. It's just that when the big secret was revealed, so much was explained. All that stuff I barely noticed, all those strange occurrences, it was a jigsaw missing a vital piece. And at the end, everything slotted into place. This film was so well though out, and so brilliantly put together.Also, I especially liked the acting, just as well as the dialogue. David Clayton Rogers, who plays Adam, was brilliant and his dialogue was especially passionate and at times, quite inspiring. And to think there are only four characters in this film and only really two locations. Amazing! It had me thinking Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, at some points. Is the creator and the creation one and the same? Is the creation an illusion?

Is my car faster than yours? Is your phone newer than mine? Is your wife better than mine? One of those questions is not only out of line and insensible, but makes the questioner a bit of a psycho. Equally complex and beautiful entities should not be compared. "Uncanny" starts off with two guys playing chess. Dialogue, acting, cut and soundtrack instantly create the atmosphere and draw one in. If a sci-fi can do that without fancy concepts explained in words, big motherships and fasers it's worth watching. They manage to do this with the same tools throughout the movie. Yes, you know it's a movie about an AI, and you kind of expect it to go berzerk, as they tend to go since Space Odyssey; but then again, the robots in Interstellar did not. So will this one? The plot twists, turns and evolves while there are several occasions you expect the robot to snap. It's probably the main source of maintaining a sense of suspense besides the soundtrack, which fits in perfectly. At the same time it lets You keep enough distance to remain relaxed and consciously digest the concepts and thought-seeds presented. I love this aspect, and few movies manage this magic act of balance. My rating is 9/10 because the ending is flawed. It's flawed not because it's bad. It's actually quite good. Uuhm... at least one of them. The movie has 3 endings. The last one even comes in after the credits start. I will never understand why great movies sometimes feel the need to throw in all ending ideas the scriptwriter scribbled on a paper towel in the first draft. "Coffe or Tea?" "Both, and please mix them in the same cup!" :)

From thequickflickcritic.blogspot.com/ Too often it is not an encouraging signal when I see an army of Executive and customary film Producers presented on screen before the story even gets underway. However, so many times this is what it takes to fund a movie, particularly if it is a modest independent like "Uncanny". The hope is that it doesn't wind up being a case of too many cooks spoiling the resultant broth. Gratefully, veteran indy Director Matthew Leutwyler's sci-fi fantasy rewards resplendently with this tale of a robot behaving "uncannily" like a human, in what is essentially a lower profile version of last year's much bigger budgeted yet underwhelming "Ex Machina".Lucy Griffiths (HBO's "True Blood") is as naturally talented as she is beautiful in the role of Joy, a high-tech magazine writer who is on a week-long assignment being introduced to the top-secret inventions fashioned in a cutting edge lab known as "Workspace 18". She meets and comes to know long-cloistered genius David and his most cherished "accomplishment", Adam (a not-so-subtle Biblical reference), an astonishing creation of Artificial Intelligence that, at first, completely passes for a man of flesh and blood in her eyes. Joy will learn that while Adam's physical being is one thing, this programmed fellow's emotional WELL-being is a whole different breed of animal.Early on in these proceedings, I got the spooky sense that this unusual visit was heading inexorably down an ominous road. My hunch was later realized as the relationship among the principle characters degenerates into a warped and progressively dangerous brand of love triangle. The persistent aura of uneasiness was insistently and effectively enhanced by the eerily atmospheric score courtesy of Music Director Craig Richey.In time the only question here becomes how calamitous will be the climax? "Uncanny" ultimately presents a pair of back-to-back twists with which to wrestle. Unlike me, you may see one or both of them coming. I am of the notion that at least ONE of these predicaments can be rectified. But in the end, the beauty of this deliciously unorthodox conundrum Leutwyler leaves us with is this: The cold conclusion that NONE of us can REALLY know for sure.For more of my Movie Reviews categorized by Genre please visit: thequickflickcritic.blogspot.com/