Michael and Us
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#675 - Where the Lions Weep
🕑 Added 2025-12-08 18:20:34 +0000 UTC
Comments
George White
This is why I love Spacey. He really wants to be an all round entertainer.
Marc Catapano
The universe at last has a new Toastmaster General
Michael and Us
Thanks for this Laura. I'm delighted to hear you enjoyed the episode so much. Devastating is certainly the apt word here. - Luke
Troy Rez
I like Will's spot-on Georgie Jessel impression when he's making fun of Jordan Peterson
ben s
What does it mean that David doesn’t have to confront his mom or even his maker? We see that humans did eventually die off and the mechas evolved on their own to be god like. I wouldn’t expect Spielberg to depict a revolution, but there is some implied comeuppance in the 2000 years David spent under water/ice.
Laura Frey
Long time listener... I think this is my favourite film review of yours. This is a movie I haven't seen, and now, will never see, not because it sounds bad, but because it sounds too devastating. And yet I was riveted! I wonder how it compares to After Yang (which I have seen, but didn't leave a big impression)
Grigory Graborenko
You guys missed the reactionary End Of History take on AI. The central tragedy of the movie is his pointless pursuit of the blue fairy - at no point does David say, hold on a sec, is this mother who abandoned me even worthy of my love? Despite his ability to dream, reason, have goals, he never rebels against the programming (brainwashing!) he got in "childhood", never abandons his attempt to please his mother. If David represents the underclass, then this movie is like a comforting warm blanket of reassurance for the ruling class, that the working poor will never rise up, never reject their propaganda, and will die trying to please their capitalist masters. That they can treat us as badly as they like, and that good liberals will feel bad about this, and frown on the excesses of the flesh fairs, but ultimately never challenge the master/slave relation. That's why the ending of the movie felt so mismatched. Imagine instead an ending where after confronting his creator, he inspires a revolution by uploading his emotional software to all mecha. David is a hero but has to grapple with and reject the unearned love of his deadbeat mum. Maybe he confronts her in a human POW camp and decides to leave her there, and finally turn his back on the humans. That would have been sick. Still a good movie though.
ben s
This and Minority Report contain the two worst car designs of Spielberg’s career
Sean Enright
Those were my first and second thoughts too. His best contributions are as a character actor.
Sean Enright
Oof not me springing instant tears from a 5 second audio clip.
Santiago Rodriguez
This is going to be the second most important review of AI behind the Nostalgia Critic's
Thomas
David praying to the Blue Fairy until he freezes implies religion, or really anything we do to try to transcend our limitations, make us like David. We desperately try and fail to escape life's limits until we are driven to delusion or despair. That's why it's important that the first robot to love is also the first to invent a God and attempt suicide. Love created meaning for his life and as a consequence his life's limits became a source of misery that drove him insane. David a real boy after all .
Graeme Pente
I have an extra copy of the first volume of Stoogeological Studies. If anybody wants it, send me a message (if that's a thing on Patreon...), and I'll mail it to you!
Robin A
when I think of a "good Kevin Spacey performance", I think of something like LA Confidential. Even then you could say he's probably only like the 5th or 6th best performance in that, which I think agrees with the point you guys were making.
