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andrewnmc
Reviews
Smart House (1999)
Doesn't live up to its own potential
Unlike "Brink!," this was a DCOM that unfortunately didn't hold up as well as I'd hoped. Which is a shame, because I remember this being one of my favorites.
The main kid's anxiety about his late mother being replaced drives the story, and the idea of PAT trying to become the very thing he feared -- after he, himself, programs her to be more "maternal" -- is a very unique and intriguing premise.
Unfortunately, the actual movie doesn't live up to its own potential, and it's really all in the details.
We see the main kid use a website, then he's suddenly reprogramming a highly advanced supercomputer. Um...what? Why not show him developing a program that submits entries to the contest automatically? It would better establish this element of his character, and it'd have the added bonus of lending more credibility to his entry being chosen. Regardless, for such an important turning point in the story, the kid being knowledgeable enough to reprogram something so advanced really could've used some setup.
And why does a 13-year-old in 1998 think sitcoms from the 50s are the ideal depictions of motherhood? I'm fine with that as a premise, but some minimal form of explanation would've been nice, even if it's just an insert of a 50s sitcom on in the background while the kid is making dinner in his introductory scene.
Ultimately I think the movie just had too many ideas and not nearly enough time to flesh them all out properly, and nowhere is this more clear to me than the ending.
So the movie is about a kid who doesn't want his mother to be forgotten and replaced, right? Obviously, the lesson he needs to learn is that his mother can't be replaced, and that anyone who deserves to be a part of their lives shouldn't want to replace her. And he *does* learn that lesson by the end of the excellent scene between him and his father when he's told "you're not the only one who lost someone." So when PAT goes full-on Terminator, the stage is set for our protagonist to take that knowledge and use it to save the day.
So for the actual climax to be the kid yelling at a sentient computer program she can never be his mother because she's not "real" feels...weird? And completely out of place with the rest of the movie? Wouldn't it have been more appropriate for his argument to be that PAT can't replace his mother because a child's mother is irreplaceable, and PAT not being able to understand that is the lack of humanity that disqualifies her?
This ending really feels like a first draft, and I could see the writer not being fully satisfied with it, but some Disney Channel executive just went, "Bah! The kid's'll never notice! Go shoot this one as-is, LeVar!"
Which brings me to LEVAR BURTON! All these years, I never knew he'd been the director. And overall, the direction was solid. The scene with the main kid watching the home video of his mother was simple yet heartbreaking, and as I mentioned before, the scene between the kid and his father right before the final act is simply fantastic. It's the best written scene in the whole movie, feeling like an actual argument that earns its heightened emotion and eventual resolution, and Burton guides the scene perfectly by getting the actors to give their best performances in the movie and letting the filmmaking give them center stage. If only the rest of the movie had come together as perfectly as this one scene.
That brings me to my other big disappointment -- and I get this is unfair -- but I wish the movie could've gone farther with PAT going rogue. The setup is so perfect for a truly insane, paranoid, even horrifying third act, but it's a DCOM, so there's only so much they could do.
But even with what they had, I feel the movie gets in its own way. Basically, from the moment PAT creates the virtual projection of herself, it should be nonstop insanity, but the movie keeps starting and stopping, and starting and stopping, leaving no room for any final act momentum to build properly.
For instance, the shot of the keys melting into the counter was clever, creepy, and perfectly sets the stage for a really suspenseful final sequence, but it's followed by, like, five minutes of them standing in one place, talking about how kids need fresh air and friends. And then the next time we see them they're just camping in the living room. Why couldn't they have cowered in fear in the bathroom the whole night, lit only by a candle or flashlight, with the dad keeping watch with his back against the door and telling his daughter a story about her mother that she ends up remembering?
I know I'm way overthinking this, but this is what I mean when I feel like the movie has a great premise but never lives up to its potential. This would be one Disney remake I'd actually be interested in seeing, so long as they were willing to go as full-on intense and creepy as the premise so clearly deserves.
Brink! (1998)
A great movie in its own right
There are plenty of DCOMs that only have nostalgia going for them, but "Brink!," in my opinion, is a legitimately good movie in its own right and holds up incredibly well.
The central conflict is well explored and perfectly reinforces the theme of "you are defined by the company you keep and how well you keep it," Val is a great villain and a perfect foil for Brink, and am I the only one who's impressed by how well this movie tells its story visually?
Take the worm-sandwich prank. The entire thing takes place over the course of two scenes, both of which unfold in oners. The classroom scene starts on the worm tank, does a crane and pan move to establish the space and how boring the class is, then cranes back down to end right back on the worm tank when Brink begins explaining his plan. Then for the prank itself, it's basically a mini "Ocean's Eleven," done in a constantly moving oner with solid blocking.
It's no "Children of Men," but this movie's cinematography shouldn't be dismissed just because it aired on Disney Channel.
My praise for the visuals also extends to the skating scenes, which are dynamic, well-paced, exciting, and do what all good action sequences should do: they move the story and characters forward.
My favorite element of the movie, though, has to be the father/son relationship. It feels infuriatingly honest, especially for a DCOM, and frankly it's refreshing to see a previously-disapproving parent just...tell their child they want to support them now? Like, how many other movies have you seen where the kid is at the championship, thinking they're on their own, and then sees the mentor/father figure in the crowd, and that gives them the motivation to win the day? Brink! Doesn't do that, and I think it's all the better for it.
So yeah. This is probably the most digital ink that's ever been spilt over Brink!, but I was just so delightfully surprised by how much I still enjoyed this movie as an adult that I just had to share.