A.I. Artificial Intelligence

Yeah.

Well, you're also reminding me, my favorite Spielberg movie is AI Artificial Intelligence.

And that's very, very mother coded.

And that's very, very coded, like how I looked at my mom, because again, I was an only child raised by a single parent.

Today we're delving into the Rogue Reviews archive and releasing an episode we recorded back in 2022 of the sci-fi miniseries Delete, which aired in 2013 and can still be watched on Prime Video.

Directed by Steve Barron, the story follows a young hacker and a reporter as they slowly discover the world is being taken over by a powerful artificial intelligence.

With the help of an FBI agent, they must race against time to put a stop to this malevolent entity.

The series stars an ensemble cast that include Keir Gilchrist, Erin Kaplunk, Ryan Robbins, Jewel Bellows and Matt Frewer.

I felt that they didn't really know how to end it.

And they kept it open to the very last minute.

At some point, it was about creating another artificial intelligence to combat this one.

But then that all fell through and it concluded with Daniel finally letting it integrate with him, which somehow gave it empathy and stopped attacking humanity.

I'm Kevin Jacobson, Glenn Close is my favorite actress, and this show is all about exploring the career of one of the finest actors of her generation.

Each episode, I'll be joined by a guest as we dive into one of Glenn's movies, TV shows, or stage productions, going chronologically through her career, discussing her performance, and assessing the project itself.

And today, we're talking Glenn's performance in the Apple sci-fi drama, Swan Song.

I am eight-time nominee Glenn Close, motherfuckers.

So, here we go, Chris.

Thoughts on Swan Song overall and on Glenn's performance?

Like many of us who watched this movie and then to varying degrees forgot about it, this was a late stage pandemic movie where I think especially a few years removed from that time, I think we can accept that we were both... too easy on some movies and too hard on others.

And I think this is a movie that people were a little too hard on at the time in terms of just like, everybody's pretty mild negative on this movie.

Yes, I do recall that... that event very distinctly because I was with my wife, Tracy.

We were watching the film AI at a cinema somewhere, at Lido, I believe.

And I suddenly got a buzz in my phone and I couldn't help but take a peek at it.

And it was a friend of mine who had texted me to say World War III has started.

And we were just glued to the screen for the next few hours just watching.

in complete disbelief.

And one kind of ironic thing about that event that stuck in my mind was just a couple of hours before that, I was watching the film AI and looking at that scene where the whole of New York was submerged underwater and the Statue of Liberty in New York completely drowned out.

And the residences of what I had just seen and then coming to the real world and seeing what was this horrific thing that was happening across the world just stuck in my memory very distinctly.

And Romulus was just Alien again.

And that, I mean, I've seen some reviews about this movie having that issue, where it's like this is a Spielberg, like AI Spielberg vibe.

And it's like-

Nah

Um, the one robot that won, it beat Usain's Bolt records, is the one that apparently has a sort of slight lean when he runs, which is super funny to watch, um, and it even has its own name.

But I don't know, looking at these games, it just makes me think of, like, slightly terrifying reality of maybe, you know, Ex Machina or M3GAN or I don't know if you guys remember, and this might be, like, me dating myself, but, um, remember that movie, AI Artificial Intelligence? It was about the little boy who figures out he's AI and tries to find out where he came from, and I'm like, "This is a little bit too close to home." I don't understand why we have to give them human bodies.

So that's my take on that.

Oh, I, you know what? I'm, I'm not gonna...

I was gonna originally talk about something else, but you, you brought up AI, that, that, uh, that movie, and it was, the saddest part of that movie was the fact that we were thinking, you're seeing this kid live, like, for 10,000 years, you know? It's, that's, that's just a scary thought.

I just... wow, to be lonely in the world for 10,000 years is like, oh my goodness.

So anyways.

Mm-hmm

Speaking of 1999, it stars two of 1999's Best Supporting Actor nominees, two among the three who probably should have won, The Sixth Sense, Haley Joel Osment, and the talented Mr. Ripley's Jude Law, along with Francis O'Connor, William Hurt, Sam Robards, Brendan Gleeson, Bicentennial Man himself, Robin Williams, and a whole host of tiny roles from other notable actors, including Paula Malcolmson, Galaxy Quest star Enrico Colantoni, and Adrian Grenier.

In this episode, we'll be talking about AI, artificial intelligence.

When's your birthday? I never had a birthday.

His name is David.

Mm.

Your most underrated was AI: Artificial Intelligence.

Mm.

Your worst is The Adventures of Tintin.

And, and but totally side story, so many people were like, "This is so funny," and I was like, "I don't know," 'cause I'm still...

That Spielberg AI movie that came out, like, 25 years ago, and they, you know, they, people go into sort of, um, there's a bloodthirsty thing of watching the robots battle each other because we are sorta-

Right

... it's kind of like a cockfight with robots.

Studios too often treat an unconventional or commercially uncertain film as disposable, yet cinema history is full of projects.

among them the Kubrick-Spielberg collaboration, AI Artificial Intelligence, and David Lynch's Mulholland Drive, that were rejected, delayed, or abandoned before being reclaimed as enduring achievements.

Coyote vs. Acme makes its case for existence with a riotous plot about hapless roadrunner chaser Wile E. Coyote, With assistance from his earnest lawyer, Kevin Avery, played by Will Forty, he's suing Acme Corporation after suffering decades of pain from its defective rockets, anvils, and other tools that have repeatedly backfired in his pursuit of the speedy bird.

The film is a satirical missile aimed at corporate greed and corruption, especially apt targets these days, given WBD's own well-publicized boardroom battle.