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Circuit clowns
The extremely low-budget sci-fi effort "The Strange Case of Señor Computer," about a robot who needs to teach its creator how to live, turns out tepid.
By JOSHUA TANZER
Offoffoff.com
"The Strange Case of Señor Computer" starts with some dimly seen snippets of old B horror movies, so at first I was afraid this would be one of those amateur horror movies that have their own weird but devoted bloodlust-crazed subculture these days. Fortunately, at least it's not that.
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| | | THE STRANGE CASE OF SE–OR COMPUTER | Written and directed by: Tom Sawyer.
Cast: Rick Ziegler, Spencer Koerner, Will Lewis, David Damico, Gladys Hans, Lisa Goodman, Constance Tillotson, Barbara Beneville, Precious Chong, Frenchy O'Brien, Isaiah Jurado.
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With about the lowest production quality possible, "Señor Computer" is a quasi-philosophical sci-fi yarn about a computer-brained robot that becomes smarter than its creator. The robot, which names itself "Ike," learns enough about the world to try to remake its creator from a dweeby, solitary technonerd into a guy who can get a date.
It's an ambitious idea, maybe, but writer-director Tom Sawyer is no Isaac Asimov. Despite a few clever jokes, the story never seems to take off. It's hard to discuss the elements that usually make a good movie — even the lowest-budget indie movie — like characterization, dialogue or visual style, in connection with "Señor Computer" because it doesn't aspire to do any of them well. It's a modest, maybe somewhat likeable movie, but it's hard to figure why people would go out of their way to see it.
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OCTOBER 6, 2001
OFFOFFOFF.COM • THE GUIDE TO ALTERNATIVE NEW YORK
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