On February 22, the official premiere of the sci-fi rom-com “My Robot Doppelgänger” starring Jack Whitehall and Shailene Woodley took place at the Ukrainian box office. The plot of the film is based on the short story The Robot Who Looked Like Me by Robert Shackley from the 1973 collection. In this review, we will tell you how love, death and jobs are mixed in the film and how interesting it is to watch all this.
Pros:
a cute pair of heroes; the actors interact well in the frame; courage of local authors; some really good jokes; an interesting concept borrowed from the original story by Robert Shackley
Cons:
the banality of the plot, just like a romantic comedy; lazy implementation, which is manifested in the fact that the comedy is far from always funny, and the romantic component is extremely weak and does not evoke a response from the audience; general low ambition of the project
5.5/10
Estimated by ITC.ua
“My robot double” / Robots
Genre science fiction romantic comedy
Directors Anthony Hines, Casper Christensen
In roles Jack Whitehall, Shailene Woodley, Paul Rust, Paul Jurevich, Nick Rutherford
Premiere movie theaters
Graduation year 2023
Site IMDb
In 2032, robots begin to be used as handymen in the United States. But handsome and wealthy Charles found the best use for his illegal Ch-2 android doppelganger. While the brain shaker spends his days in front of the monitor playing first-person shooters, his mechanical copy not only goes to work and wipes dirt, but also meets girls, some of whom consider the films with Adam Sandler to be classics of cinema. After a series of dates, when it comes to the final base, this is where our crazy lover hero comes into play.
Somehow Ch-2, in search of another victim, stumbles upon the stunning beauty Elaine. The android works according to the usual scheme, and the day is approaching when the girl invites Charles to her home. But due to an unfortunate mistake, a robot double of the boy gets into this party, and not himself, and the next day it turns out that he has disappeared altogether. To find out what happened, the hero meets with Elaine and learns that she uses her own double to achieve selfish goals. Now the grieving cheaters are forced to join forces to find the clones who stole their lives.
The film reaches Ukrainian cinemas very late: its world premiere took place in May of last year. Moreover, February 22 is an odd release date for a romcom, given that Valentine’s Day was a week earlier. But we have what we have.
Already in the debut scene, the film’s directors and screenwriters, the co-authors of “Borat” Anthony Hines and Casper Christensen, issue a witty satire on Donald Trump’s migration policy and throw a pebble in Elon Musk’s garden. But after that, the satirical fervor suddenly comes to naught. It is obvious that the creators did not set ambitious goals to satirize political, technological or any other important aspect. Their main task was to entertain and make the audience laugh, and they managed it somewhere 50/50.
What Hines and Christensen certainly cannot be accused of is lack of courage. After all, shooting a film in 2023 with two white heroes (four in total, it turns out), where there was no place even for secondary characters representing LGBT people, where the man treats women like garbage, and the woman turns out to be just a mercantile bitch, is not progressive for you. skimpy romcoms from some Netflix.
In this context, “My Robot Doppelganger” seems to have been filmed in the zeroes, and then for some unknown reason ended up on the shelf, until it was accidentally discovered and released into the world. It’s a pity that this factor of the time capsule is not able to significantly affect the weak scenario and its frankly lazy implementation.
There are enough jokes bordering on the foul in the film, which is also quite a rare phenomenon in modern romantic comedies, because the times of projects like “Good Luck, Chuck!” (2007) with its nudity and politically incorrect humor are long gone. Some of the gags shoot, others leave indifferent. There is a scene where a robot shaves the intimate area of its owner, and it is kind of humorous. But there’s an episode where an out-of-control sex android tries to spank Charles’ ass, and it really puts a smile on your face.
Jack Whitehall and the star of the teenage dystopia “Divergent” Shailene Woodley interact well in the frame, but the script does not allow them to fully express themselves both in terms of comedy and romance. Closer to the finale, the actress will appear in a bold erotic image of a pseudo-high school girl — wearing high heels, a mini skirt, stockings, and two messy ponytails. Fans definitely shouldn’t miss it.
If we talk about any borrowings from the original story by Robert Shackley, then they are minimal. Hines and Christensen allowed themselves to take only its plot basis, the names of the main characters and that was it. The motives of the characters and their behavior are fundamentally based on what is in the original source. And certainly no one was going to kill anyone there, unlike the two fools from the movie.
My Robot Doppelgänger looks bold enough for today, but is still a sterile romantic comedy with road movie and sci-fi elements that offers mostly flat humor and a weak love line.
And the tape once again reminds us of our dependence on gadgets, which you can always read about on the virtual pages of ITC. After all, just like about robots.
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Conclusion:
“My Robot Doppelganger” may claim your attention with a stretch as a one-time evening entertainment, but the viewing pleasure will be extremely modest.
