Evolver

I don't see why people dislike this movie. Probably the same people who watch movies only for special effects (i.e. The Matrix) This movie has alot of entertainment value, especially if you're into Robotics,Virtual Reality or just plain Sci-Fi/Horror.

*** 1/2 out of *****

Although a little nasty in some scenes, Mark Rosman's "Evolver" is mostly a fun romp. It focuses on a computer whiz (Ethan Embry) who wins a robot with whom to play laser tag, only to find that this particular robot got designed for an army program, and is therefore intended as a killing machine. Specifically, one that never loses. There were a few scenes that I think that they could have done without, but otherwise the movie is pretty enjoyable. Maybe a little predictable, but no one expects much else from one of these movies, right? Also starring Cindy Pickett (the mom in "Ferris Bueller's Day Off") and William H. Macy as the voice of Evolver.

I'm one of those guys who enjoys pretty much any movie, so I guess I don't count. There are some things that struck me as stupid, but what could they do? CDRs didn't exist at that time, so they had to fake it. Still, the fact that they stuck what amounts to a CD in a floppy drive and faked reading it. The effects were great for the time, and are still decent. Back to some technical errors. Now, it IS possible to boost a laser to the point where you can burn things, but the power of the laser goes down as the distance goes up. Which means that if you put one up against a magnifying glass or something, the magnifier would melt. Also, boosting the power of a laser would not change the color. But still, it was a more than enjoyable, in my humble opinion.

Mark Rosman's best movie is this highly guilty pleasure from the mid-nineties. True it's a pretty insubstantial horror film with crappy special effects & highly predictable story, but seriously how can you hate a film that features Q creating a murderous robot with the voice of the Shameless William H Macy? And the family that 'wins' it in a contest. This one has a few very quotable lines as well. It's MUCH better than the similarly-themed "Brainscan" at least. But one note: This movie goes better with alcohol

Eye Candy: 2 extras are topless when evolver goes on a spy run in a locker room

The plot has been done many times. AI gaming robot with a secret military subroutine. Hmm? I could start a list. You could do a lot with that with CGI and real actors. Here, there's no CGI (yet), so we have toys and stop motion and bad acting, and unfinished characters, and a primitive Robby the Robot concept from the 50s. The whole movie looks 1980s, not 1995. It almost looks like a high school comedy, but turned dark. I couldn't empathize with any of the characters, and kinda wished all of them had been done in. It's also in 4:3 format. I had my fingers on the FF.