Reviews & Ratings for
Automatic More at IMDbPro »

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5 out of 6 people found the following review useful:
Oliver Grunner steals the show in "Automatic"!!, 1 April 2002
Author: brian james from at the critic's desk

Oliver Grunner stars in this very entertaining movie about cyborgs and the effect they have on a futuristic society. John Glover stars as Goddard Marx, the president of RobGen; an artificial human production company. This IS the future and these things or androids are as common as automobiles and are used for factory labor, security, entertainment and even as sexual surrogate partners. Everything is fine at the company until a RobGen executive tries to savagely rape a female secretary named Nora Rochester (well played by Daphne Ashbrook). Oliver (he plays multiple roles very well in this movie!) interrupts the attack (he IS programmed to protect life, after all!) and in the course of the encounter accidently kills the out of control corporate man. What follows after this is a mad struggle for survival and escape as Goddard Marx calls in a special human merc unit led by a Major West (well played by Jeff Kober). There is lots of good special effects action as well as a few very interesting surprises in the plot. Grunner is always at his acting best and carries the role of J269, etc. well. Add this one to your collections of movies on the science fiction shelf! Good movie!!

3 out of 4 people found the following review useful:
Robots in disguise..., 17 March 2008

Author: Frank Markland from United States

Olivier Gruner finally finds the one role he excels at, a robot who protects a woman from her boss/rapist who the corporation then decide to send an army to kill both her and the robot to avoid bad press and save face with stock holders, making Gruner the only one who can protect her and save the day. Automatic is a solid reason why one can't write off straight to video science fiction. Automatic is well directed, well made and has moments of true atmosphere. The movie also has some good ideas such as how robots are intertwined with humans and how the robot in question weren't trying to take over the world and rather provide confused responses to human nature. This is a movie where the bad guys are human and the hero is a robot who deals in black and white morals because it's the way he's been programmed. It also has that Blade Runner vibe of how the corporations are the evils of society and on its own level it succeeds rather well. This is easily the best thing you'll ever see from Olivier Gruner and aside from the bad acting from the cast (John Glover and Gruner aside...) the film works in both categories its been sold as. My only complaint was that it didn't feature more robot's responses toward issues regarding human nature but it is an Olivier Gruner movie. His best one by the way.

* * * out of 4-(Good)

2 out of 3 people found the following review useful:
Good fun for a late-night cable movie, 4 April 1999

Author: AlabamaWorley1971 from NJ, USA

Basic Die Hard rip-off action flick with touches of wit and even satire. John Glover as the jolly corporate mogul is great. (Particularly in the first five minutes!) Jeff Kober, as always, has a lot of fun with a small role. I enjoyed this more than I thought I would!

Why so many positive reviews for this predictable bilge?, 18 August 2012

Author: edwithmj from United Kingdom

*** This review may contain spoilers ***

This film is one of the worst robot sci-fi flicks I've ever seen. The actor who played the lead role was worse than awful - he can't say one line correctly in the whole film. The plot is nonsensical - the aforementioned robot is a security guard or something who is super-strong and knows martial arts (although why he needs martial arts when he's almost indestructible isn't explained) finds its boss attempting to rape a woman and kills him. The corporation then retaliates by sending HUMAN mercenaries after the robot! What did they expect? That the humans would somehow destroy the super-strong, super-intelligent robot? They should've sent super-strong ROBOTS after him - they had enough of them! I was never in any doubt that the robot would win every time - the mercenaries never come close to killing it. The viewer is expected to feel sympathy for the robot and the other robots despite the fact that they're busy taking jobs from the humans as well as killing them - I was rooting for the humans all the way. They even have this ridiculous "sorrowful" scene with a robot head with no body with the woman saying something like how awful and cruel it is! Yeah, the next time I throw a broken toaster away I'm going to write a eulogy and say a few words... a truly nauseous scene indeed.

As I said before, the viewer is never in any doubt that the robot would win, the mercenaries never had a hope; and I'm expected to delight in the killing of the mercenaries trying to make a living by a homicidal machine? Ha! The "twist" at the end takes the biscuit though. We find out the woman who was being attacked at the beginning is bizarrely also a robot and one of several hundred at that. Plot holes abound because of this: why are there hundreds of the same model? If the woman were in fact a robot, why didn't she have the super-strength like the protagonist had which would've enabled her to stop her attacker? Why didn't the man who was killed for attacking her know she was a robot and why didn't the protagonist robot know? Also vexing is the knowledge that the man was killed for attacking an advanced blow-up doll who wasn't even human and therefore was committing no crime thus making the robot even more homicidal and malfunctioning.

The producers seem to have wanted to make some sort of film highlighting the "plight" of robots except they seem to be unaware that robots don't exist and thus support for their film from the oppressed minorities of electrical beings is therefore impossible.

The morality, the plot, the acting, the characters and the general look of this film are completely amateur, unentertaining, predictable and formulaic. You've been warned.

1 out of 2 people found the following review useful:
Classic Robot Flick, 22 June 2011

Author: sydneyswesternsuburbs from Australia

Director John Murlowski who also created the classic flick, Black Cadillac 2003 has created another gem in Automatic.

Starring Oliver Gruner who has also been in another classic robot flick, Nemesis 1992.

Also starring John Glover who has also been in other classic flicks, Payback 1999 and another classic robot flick, RoboCop 2 1990.

Also starring Daphne Ashbrook.

I enjoyed the shootouts and action scenes.

If you enjoyed this as much as I did then check out out classic robot flicks, Death Machine 1994, Drive 1997, Hardware 1990, Real Steel 2011, CyberTracker 1994, Cyber-Tracker 2 1995, Project Shadowchaser 2 1994, Suspect Device 1995, Screamers 1995, Black Cat 1991, Robotrix 1991, Westworld 1973, RoboCop 1987, Universal Soldier 1992, Universal Soldier: Regeneration 2009, Blade Runner 1982, The Terminator 1984, Terminator 2: Judgement Day 1991, Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines 2003 and Terminator Salvation 2009.

1 out of 2 people found the following review useful:
Great little film, 29 April 2009

Author: kamnorth from United States

*** This review may contain spoilers ***

Was this really a great movie? Not by any means, yet it was an unexpected low-budget semi Sci-Fi gem that entertained. I found it so entertaining I rated it a 8. Lately I've seen too many big budget films well plotted and well acted but not very engaging, entertaining or remotely interesting.

All the actors in Automatic made the most out of the roles they could, even if some ended up a little over the top. Penny Johnson who went on to play the president's wife in 24 is aggravating even silly but in a good way, Daphne Ashbrook gets a little aggravating too at moments later into the movie, but is so charming it is all forgivable. She is far prettier than the girl next door and someone you will have warm sentiments for.

Many familiar faces like John Glover, Jeff Kober and even Jeffrey Sams who still seems to be permanently regulated to small roles, but it is Olivier Gruner in a leading role that is the surprise. As J296 he really develops the role as he changes from a robot with no emotions into a "real" human being. I must say the surprise in his acting "turn" actually is more charming than just looking at Daphne and strengthens the entertainment value of the movie. Thought Olivier would grow and develop his acting and be a much bigger star based on this film. I was ready for Automatic II with a bigger budget to see if they could pull off what worked about the film again, but that film was never forthcoming.

I don't know if the film ever was released in theaters in the US or went straight to video but I was ready for Automatic II. Its about time this movie is put back in rotation for viewing on cable TV. HBO and Showtime have great original shows making them worth the subscription but they both really need to crank up the numbers of actual movies viewable each month to match the number of movies you used to be able to view on Starz each month. It would be nice if they would periodically go a little farther back and re-run an entertaining and engaging film like this after several years. It has been at least five years since I've seen it but each time I see the actor, I think about this film.

1 out of 2 people found the following review useful:
Strong Silent Men, 5 November 2000

Author: jkburkholder from Oregon

Hey, the movie wasn't great. But for an evening in the easy chair and not much mind action..it was perfect. Oliver Gruner is my idea of a strong silent man...Not much talk but man, can he move. And Daphne Ashbrooke was not the wimpy female lead most often associated with "he-man" movies.

1 out of 2 people found the following review useful:
Surprisingly moving reflection on treatment of A/Is, 1 August 2000
Author: Westy-10

Although it is obviously "low-budget," this film combines "standard" action sequences with surprisingly well-done reflections on the plight of sentient "artificial life forms." I recommend it for its "science fiction" themes, and for those strictly seeking an "action-thriller" it's not lacking in explosions, shootings, and other mayhem either.:)

3 out of 7 people found the following review useful:
Excellent low-budget action movie, 7 August 2006

Author: djtranny

For a low-budget action/sci-fi film, this is a really good movie. Of course the acting is rather crappy as you'd expect from Gruener, but the action is good and so are the sci-fi elements. I have seen a few of Gruener's movies and this one is by far his best in my opinion. One thing that really impressed me in this movie were the guns that were used. They had lcd type screens on them that allowed the holder to see around corners - a few years after this movie was made the military looked into actually using a similar system on their rifles.

I highly recommend any fan of action/sci-fi movies to rent this one as it is actually better than some of the big-budget action movies these days.

0 out of 2 people found the following review useful:
Dark predictable sci-fi thriller, 27 February 1999
Author: malky123 from sunderland, england

This film is one of those that has you reaching for the brightness button on the remote. I'm sure that in some circumstances the Director must have been told to save on the electricity bill. Lots of sympathy for the decommisioned "'Tics" which occur during the film, but not much else worthy of note. As stated, the predictability of the film is noteworthy in itself - the fight scences, the heroine's dress, the crawl through the air vent, the finale - don't go out of your way to watch this one. See it once perhaps, and then log it away in the deep recesses.......

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