Automatic (1995)
Robgen industries newest security system is "The J Series Automatic", an android model designed and programmed to protect humans from violent attacks. But one night, an Automatic named J269 discovers a Robgen executive trying to rape a female employee named Nora Rochester. While trying to stop the crime, he inadvertently kills the executive. At this point, J269 then calls Goddard Marx (his creator and a Robgen chairman) to inform him of the incident. Marx tells the android to stay there with Rochester until help arrives, but Marx is intent on sweeping the fiasco under the rug by sending mercenaries to eliminate both J269 and Rochester. Now the two are fugitives on the run from a para-military hit squad.
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People are voting emotionally.
Memorable, crazy movie
Although it has its amusing moments, in eneral the plot does not convince.
Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.
This film is one of the worst robot sci-fi flicks I've ever seen. The actor who played the lead role was worse than awful - he can't say one line correctly in the whole film. The plot is nonsensical - the aforementioned robot is a security guard or something who is super-strong and knows martial arts (although why he needs martial arts when he's almost indestructible isn't explained) finds its boss attempting to rape a woman and kills him. The corporation then retaliates by sending HUMAN mercenaries after the robot! What did they expect? That the humans would somehow destroy the super-strong, super-intelligent robot? They should've sent super-strong ROBOTS after him - they had enough of them! I was never in any doubt that the robot would win every time - the mercenaries never come close to killing it. The viewer is expected to feel sympathy for the robot and the other robots despite the fact that they're busy taking jobs from the humans as well as killing them - I was rooting for the humans all the way. They even have this ridiculous "sorrowful" scene with a robot head with no body with the woman saying something like how awful and cruel it is! Yeah, the next time I throw a broken toaster away I'm going to write a eulogy and say a few words... a truly nauseous scene indeed.As I said before, the viewer is never in any doubt that the robot would win, the mercenaries never had a hope; and I'm expected to delight in the killing of the mercenaries trying to make a living by a homicidal machine? Ha! The "twist" at the end takes the biscuit though. We find out the woman who was being attacked at the beginning is bizarrely also a robot and one of several hundred at that. Plot holes abound because of this: why are there hundreds of the same model? If the woman were in fact a robot, why didn't she have the super-strength like the protagonist had which would've enabled her to stop her attacker? Why didn't the man who was killed for attacking her know she was a robot and why didn't the protagonist robot know? Also vexing is the knowledge that the man was killed for attacking an advanced blow-up doll who wasn't even human and therefore was committing no crime thus making the robot even more homicidal and malfunctioning.The producers seem to have wanted to make some sort of film highlighting the "plight" of robots except they seem to be unaware that robots don't exist and thus support for their film from the oppressed minorities of electrical beings is therefore impossible.The morality, the plot, the acting, the characters and the general look of this film are completely amateur, unentertaining, predictable and formulaic. You've been warned.
Olivier Gruner finally finds the one role he excels at, a robot who protects a woman from her boss/rapist who the corporation then decide to send an army to kill both her and the robot to avoid bad press and save face with stock holders, making Gruner the only one who can protect her and save the day. Automatic is a solid reason why one can't write off straight to video science fiction. Automatic is well directed, well made and has moments of true atmosphere. The movie also has some good ideas such as how robots are intertwined with humans and how the robot in question weren't trying to take over the world and rather provide confused responses to human nature. This is a movie where the bad guys are human and the hero is a robot who deals in black and white morals because it's the way he's been programmed. It also has that Blade Runner vibe of how the corporations are the evils of society and on its own level it succeeds rather well. This is easily the best thing you'll ever see from Olivier Gruner and aside from the bad acting from the cast (John Glover and Gruner aside...) the film works in both categories its been sold as. My only complaint was that it didn't feature more robot's responses toward issues regarding human nature but it is an Olivier Gruner movie. His best one by the way.* * * out of 4-(Good)
Although it is obviously "low-budget," this film combines "standard" action sequences with surprisingly well-done reflections on the plight of sentient "artificial life forms." I recommend it for its "science fiction" themes, and for those strictly seeking an "action-thriller" it's not lacking in explosions, shootings, and other mayhem either.:)
Basic Die Hard rip-off action flick with touches of wit and even satire. John Glover as the jolly corporate mogul is great. (Particularly in the first five minutes!) Jeff Kober, as always, has a lot of fun with a small role. I enjoyed this more than I thought I would!