Was very surprised at how much I liked it. It might not be for everyone, and a few times I felt why it might have flopped as it tried to shift tone a bit and was a bit more of a caricature at times than some might expect from other moments (which seemed very Williams and Cusack stylized). It has some pacing issues, but it also has enough surreal scenery and creations to make it interesting. It also has an interesting feel as a transition between 80s to 90s culture, going from new wave zany romp to early digital culture-apocalypse. I'd almost say this should be tagged in to a semi-scifi category. One great thing is knowing some of these actors you can sense how the message of positivity over violent play in this movie is important to them. Not that it's heavy-handed or moralizing, but it shows the value of simple innocent fun -- something most of us know Williams likes to share (when he's not being a raunchy devil). Robin Williams and Joan Cusack make a great comedic pairing, never realized how great they could be together, and I wanted so much more time between them in the film. Robin Wright was ok here, had a couple of funny moments, but had good tender moments helping with other characters' development. LL Cool J does a great job as an odd military satire alongside Michael Gambon's cartoonish villian. Finally, credit to the props dept, special effects teams, and overall artistic design of the film. Sometimes the basic cinematography was rather bland in the blank canvas factory setting (probably intentional for plot focus) but in the other moments of the film the clever designs, beautiful and surreal backdrops and scenes, made this film visually fun.

A very funny movie, Robin Williams is hilarious once again! It's long but it managed to hold my attention the whole way through! Very unique!

"What is it?" "Oh it's a smoking jacket of course!" Showcases a lot of perfectly timed Robin Williams' oddball humor, unfortunately the rest of the movie really is painful. No surprise this was a box office flop.

Man, this is a weird movie. They say Barry Levinson worked for over 10 years on the script and had to make a lot of movies for the studio before the studio will allow him to make this movie. Anytime you hear that a writer/director spent that much time on a property and finally brought it to screen, you can guarantee that there's going to be problems with it. Something happens in those rewrites where the Creator gets so close to the material that they can no longer discern what is good and what is bad and lose the connection to the audience that is necessary to tell a story. [spoiler]Overall the performances aren't bad. Robin Williams was given a lot of room to riff and throw out some genuinely funny lines, but as far as his character? Uhhhh.... I can't remember anything of an actual arc for him...he begins and ends the same, only without a girlfriend and not running the company. At the end, he has a girlfriend and is running the company, but what did he learn? How did he actually _grow_? Joan Cusack is delightful and somehow becomes a goofy foil in order to make Robin Williams' character her "straight man." And, oh yeah, _she's a fucking robot??????_ Robin Wright's accent is distracting, but unlike so many of her other parts, vulnerable goofiness suits to humanize her a bit. With _Forrest Gump,_ she became known for her dramatic performances and has never really returned to this level of RomCom love interest. Michael Gambon is acting the hell off of what he has to work with, but what is it exactly? What is happening to him in this movie? His brother brings him in to run the Toy Company and hires Robin Wright's character the same day in order to force his son to grow up? Because the robot sister didn't work? [/spoiler] Again, I'm not saying the actors did a bad job at all, I'm just saying, they were really putting a lot of work into what may have been very deep material within Barry Levinson's head, but what actually translate's to screen is a very thin narrative full of scenes, albeit funny.... but man, this is a weird movie for something on which someone so talented spent so much time.

A playful and colourful (pop) look for a strange film.