It’s hard to think of two more different filmmakers than Stanley Kubrick and Steven Spielberg. One of them brought us dark classics like “Dr. Strangelove” and “A Clockwork Orange,” the other brought us blockbusters like “E.T.” and “Raiders of the Lost Ark.” One specializes in cold, clinical dissections of the faults of humanity, the other uplifts us with celebrations of the human spirit. Also, one is still living, and one died more than 20 years ago.
But, once upon a time, before he died, Stanley Kubrick worked on bringing the story of a robot boy to the screen, and after he passed, Steven Spielberg picked up the project and carried it over the finish line. The result, 2001’s “A.I. Artificial Intelligence,” is a strange hybrid of Kubrickian science and Spielbergian wonder, with Haley Joel Osment (still a sensation after 1999’s “The Sixth Sense”) starring as David, the artificial child who, rejected by his adoptive mother, goes on a bizarre journey as he tries to follow in the footsteps of Pinocchio and become a real boy.
On this episode of Out of Theaters, Billy and Will pick apart “A.I.,” discussing what works, what doesn’t and what hits Billy right in the heartstrings. They debate what elements Stanley and Steven brought to the film, and talk about that ending, and why it should have happened about 20 minutes before it (finally) does.
Plus, as a bonus, Billy describes his odyssey into an actual theater in our COVID-infested world and reviews Christopher Nolan’s brand-new blockbuster, “Tenet.”
