Automatic

1995 "Wired for action. Programmed to defend. Determined to survive"
5.2| 1h30m| R| en| More Info
Released: 08 April 1995 Released
Producted By: Lakeview Productions
Country: United States of America
Budget: 0
Revenue: 0
Official Website:
Info

Robgen industries newest security system is "The J Series Automatic", an android model designed and programmed to protect humans from violent attacks. But one night, an Automatic named J269 discovers a Robgen executive trying to rape a female employee named Nora Rochester. While trying to stop the crime, he inadvertently kills the executive. At this point, J269 then calls Goddard Marx (his creator and a Robgen chairman) to inform him of the incident. Marx tells the android to stay there with Rochester until help arrives, but Marx is intent on sweeping the fiasco under the rug by sending mercenaries to eliminate both J269 and Rochester. Now the two are fugitives on the run from a para-military hit squad.

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Director

John Murlowski

Production Companies

Lakeview Productions

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Automatic Audience Reviews

Karry Best movie of this year hands down!
FeistyUpper If you don't like this, we can't be friends.
VeteranLight I don't have all the words right now but this film is a work of art.
BelSports This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.
Comeuppance Reviews In a future where stylish Cardigan sweaters are the norm, so are human-defending robots. When the latest-model android, J269 (the perfectly-cast Gruner) stops an attempted rape of Robgen company employee Nora Rochester (Ashbrook), and accidentally kills one of the bosses in the process, the CEO, Goddard Marx (Glover) calls in a bunch of mercenaries to put an end to J269, such as Major West (Kober) and Epsilon Leader (Holden - they didn't even give her a proper name, sadly). So now Nora and J269 have to fend off their attackers, all while INN (groan) news reporter Gloria Takamatsu (Gurwitch) reports on things. Will Nora grow to love J269? Will he live to be robotic another day? Find out, or something...Oh, The Terminator (1984)and Robocop (1987), what hath you wrought? If the makers of those movies could have predicted the slipstream of DTV crud left in their wake, would they have made them at all? Well, probably yes, but here we go with another run-through of a bunch of stuff we've seen before collated into a new package and now called Automatic. Of course, the melange wouldn't be complete without a healthy dose of Die Hard (1988), and we also have a pinch of Blade Runner (1982), a dash of Universal Soldier (1992), and it's reminiscent of competitors like Class of 1999 II (1994), American Cyborg: Steel Warrior (1993) and Fortress (1992), but Fortress is better. And Fortress (not to mention Robocop, of course) actually have Kurtwood Smith, rather than the Kurtwood Smith lookalike on display here.Let's not kid ourselves here: this is a sci-fi slog. yes, Olivier does some Gruner-Fu on the baddies, and that does help, and there's some gun-shooting, but it all could have been so much better. Jeff Kober is wasted in what is a glorified sit-down role, and Marjean Holden is a far cry from the butt-kicking of Ballistic. Even Annabelle Gurwitch has nothing to do. The whole mercenaries versus robots thing could have worked, if only the filmmakers didn't cling to tried and true clichés like a desperate man to a life raft. Go nuts! Break free! That's what we were hoping for with Automatic. It doesn't even have a Timebomb-era Michael Biehn to power things along. Instead, it all takes place in one building, for the most part, and they never turn any lights on.That, perhaps, is the most infuriating thing about this and other movies of its ilk. It's not hard to turn the lights on. This is the basics - it's a movie. We're supposed to SEE it. How are they not grasping this? Children's movies and comedies are always well-lit. There's no excuse. Maybe they're trying to obfuscate its low budget, but that backfires because the whole no-lights thing screams "low budget". Who cares if it's low budget? Own it, don't try to vainly hide it. And while the outing, as a whole, is overly talky, it's good to see they predicted the rise of the Roomba by several years.Automatic is typical 90's product, which we're usually in favor of, but there's so much missed potential. Consequently, it holds a very loose grip on the audience, and surely was just another tape collecting dust on a video store shelf. And not entirely unjustifiably.
kamnorth 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.
bronsonskull72 Olvier Gruner stars as J269 a robot who becomes the target of a group of mercenaries sent to destroy him after he kills a man trying to rape Nora Rochester (Daphne Ashbrook), fearing bad press Goddard Marx orders the machine dead in this well made yet very routine rip off of Robocop and The Terminator. Automatic however does have good actionscenes.
brian james 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!!