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Robot Stories Movie

Posted by michael on from the cowboyneal's-love-is-real-but-he-is-not dept.

Ant writes "One line synopsis -- Winner of over 23 awards, 'Robot Stories' is science fiction from the heart, four stories in which utterly human characters struggle to connect in a world of robot babies, robot toys, android office workers, and digital immortality." There are a few reviews available.

6 of 111 comments (clear)

  1. Independents need to hit Netflix quickly by sapped · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Independent movie producers like this with their limited movie release schedules must hit Netflix style distributers early.

    Much as I would like to see these movies, I am not willing to fly to some other city just to watch a movie.

    I hope they make it to Netflix or something similar so that I can support them then.

    1. Re:Independents need to hit Netflix quickly by Rico_za · · Score: 4, Insightful

      I just visited the website and thought: "I really want to see this!". Then I clicked on the link for show times and checked when it will show in London. 31st of January. DOH! My next thought was: "Maybe I can get this on Kazaa? Naah, probably not, and I'd rather pay to support the movie." Now what are my options?

      Why don't movies like this have some kind of digital distribution serviec yet? Surely if it's as good as it looks it will make more money than the setup and maintenance costs for such a system. Hell, if some-one payed me enough I'd quit my job and set it up for them (it would take me a while to figure out how, but I'm sure I'll figure it out).

    2. Re:Independents need to hit Netflix quickly by Joe+Tie. · · Score: 2, Insightful

      That really bugs me too. I don't have much money at the moment, but I'd be more than happy to spend it on a movie with quality writing and ideas. I've had to think that way too many times with movies like these. I want to buy it, I'm sure they'd love to get my money, but there's no way to do it. Even more annoying, the second choice to just get the thing off p2p has never worked for me either. You can find comercial stinkers like house of the dead represented over and over again, but anything indi or indi'ish is usually pretty scarce to nonexistant. Which would be cool in a way, I think they need the money more than a big studio. But my ideals shrink a bit when it becomes the only way I'd be able to see something like this at all.

      A digital distribution system seems exactly what they need. They'd win because they'd get a way to earn any money from the public at large and have a way to get their story out there, while the public would win from hopefully lower prices without actual printing needed, and from just having a way to see the thing at all.

      --
      Everything will be taken away from you.
  2. A "Safe" Sci-fi movie? by Xthlc · · Score: 4, Insightful
    From the ad copy, this film is selling itself hard to the indie theater crowd who normally look down their noses at science fiction.

    I like the quote on the front page:
    "... Following in the footsteps of Ray Bradbury, Rod Serling and Philip K. Dick rather than George Lucas, Pak returns to the tradition of intelligent, humanistic sci-fi and reminds us of the value of good genre fiction."
    Translation: "If, during the wine and cheese portion of the dinner party, Kaitlyn and Rog look at you askance when you mention you went to see a movie called 'Robot Stories' down at the Brattle House Theatre last weekend, here are some literary / retropopcult names you can drop to reassure them of your continued hipness. Don't forget to contrast them with George Lucas, chief purveyor of the kind of mass-culture pablum they show on the SciFi channel, which you are so obviously and hiply above"

    Not that there's anything WRONG with that. The more exposure scifi gets in different subdivisions of pop culture, the better. We need more people to start thinking seriously and honestly about our future, given how rapidly it seems to be approaching.
  3. What it means by hey! · · Score: 4, Insightful
    utterly human? what exactly does that mean? why do slashbarf writers always have to put too far much emphasis on mundane topics? why do they hype hype hype rather than just learn how to research and write? if the topic were actually interesting, would it not stand on its own?


    Utterly adv.

    Completely; absolutely; entirely.


    In other words, the writer is positing by the phrase "utterly human" is that in a world where machines are becoming more human, humans can't meet them half way. We are what we are, that is to say human nature is fixed. However, the situations in which we find ourselves, particularly due to technology, are constantly changing and hilighting different aspects of human nature.

    Which is why technology is an appropriate topic for artists to be interested in.

    Notes to usage nazis on /.:

    (1) Slashdot is more of a cafe atmosphere than a journal. While we the readers appreciate effort in composition, a relaxed and tolerant attitude towards usage and spelling is appropriate. Rampant pedantry is one of the reasons I stopped reading K5. Yes I realize this post is pedantic, but I don't believe in unilateral disarmament.

    (2) This is a instance of a common usageanarian nitpick: the application of adverbs to adjectives indicating class membership. The laws of Aristotlean logic don't apply to natural language, because the law of the excluded middle is false. The degree to which adjectives embodying abstract concepts like "good" or "human" apply to a real world thing is not fixed at absolute truth or falsity. It is almost always fuzzy. For that reason it is entirely appropriate to apply adverbs such as "utterly" to adjectives such as "human" which on their own would indicate class membership.

    (3) If you are going to get on your usageanarian high horse, you should pay attention to spelling, usage and capitalization in your own posts.

    --
    Post may contain irony: discontinue use if experiencing mood swings, nausea or elevated blood pressure.
  4. 7 thumbs up! by trippcook · · Score: 5, Insightful
    I saw this movie at the 2003 Slamdance festival (while helping an old high school buddy promote a documentary he'd made), and I can say it's great. The 4 vignettes are a touch uneven, but all are good. He cast the movie primarily with Asian folk, and it kind of makes you think about how rare it is to see Asians in popular entertainment that aren't just cast to play an "Asian" style character, if that makes sense. Plus, there are robots GALORE, and who doesn't like that?

    I spoke with the director about the way some webcomics and other online media outlets were giving away content to make $$$. For instance, I bought the Small Stories book, even though I'd already read Same Difference for free online. I thought giving away one of the vignettes from the website would be a do-able notion (especially with advance promtion somewhere like /., followed with a Bit Torrent to ease his bandwidth bills), which could then fuel direct DVD sales of some kind.

    Bottom line, if this comes by you, see it! I can't believe a movie like this has been making the festival rounds for so long and has not been picked up by a cable outlet or some type of distributor. Heck, if SciFi has money to waste on some of its crap-tacular originals, I'm sure it has the money to buy up something this small-scale. Maybe a grass-roots geek agitation could help this deserving flick out!