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                  Living Hell - Volume #1, Issue #4

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[ From: Phil Hanna in Raleigh ]

> Mike, I'm going through Movie Hell withdrawal!
>
> What did you think of A.I.?  I saw it last night and enjoyed it
> immensely, but I wish I'd left the kids home.


[ From: Mike to Phil ]

> I was quite enthralled, *but*... I misinterpreted the ending.  I
> thought they were *aliens* and was very off-put, thinking it such
> a deuce-eh-machine-ah device.  Tone was way more clinical than I
> expected, as well.  (Interesting context of "boy as lab specimen"
> throughout!)  Was also disappointed at the over-allusions.  Such a
> literal, over-explained movie.  Sigh.  Visuals and some plot
> points make you swoon, but I wish we weren't spoon-fed quite as
> much.  (I would've left out the opening; not introduced William
> Hurt's character till the end.  Heck, I'd even leave the audience
> in the dark about the kid and origins until later!)

[ From: Phil to Mike ]

> It's been criticized as too long, but I didn't think so.  The
> trilogy-in-one technique (with his family, with Joe, with the
> supermechans) added to the unreality surrounding David and his
> hopeless situation.  It was love, a feeling frozen (literally)
> in a moment for eternity, always yearning but never able to re-
> alize the object of its desire.  Imagine looking at the Blue
> Fairy for 2000 years, whispering "please... please."

[ From: Mike to Phil ]

> You know, I would've been *very* satisfied, had the movie ended
> at *that* point.  That would've been *real* daring.
>
> Knowing, now, that the robots at the end were just that, I'm not
> nearly as offended by the double (or was it a triple?) coda.  In
> fact, I really liked its underdeveloped thread of "humans as so
> precious that they can't be created/recreated."  Just wish (at
> the end) it could've been... spelled out without being spelled
> out.  :-)
>
> Brings back memories of James Cameron's painfully literal, cut-
> for-theatrical-release-but-restored-for-special-edition ending
> to his otherwise excellent ABYSS.  Oof.


About the latter writer:  Phil Hanna is a software developer in Ral-
eigh, North Carolina.  He also recently authored the 876-page combin-
ation bug killer-booster chair "JSP: The Complete Reference" (Osborne
McGraw-Hill).

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