I can hardly believe we’re half way through this frigging year already. What is time anymore? That said the blog collab is ticking along nicely, something you can almost always rely on. We’re elected to have a Free For All this month which means anything goes. It also means we’ll probably find a way to sink back into our usual ways and pick horror/horror adjacent fare because what else matters? I think very little else.
In other news, the world is a cesspit with the odd speck of hope weaving through it (dogs basically). I’m very much looking forward to a healthy dose of escapism this June.
BIGBUG (2022)
A group of bickering suburbanites find themselves stuck together when an android uprising causes their well intentioned household robots to lock them in for their own safety.
Director: Jean-Pierre Jeunet
Starring: Isabelle Nanty, Elsa Zylberstein, Claude Perron
Genre: Sci-fi, Comedy ∙ IMDB user rating: 5.4
My score: 2/5 ∙ Runtime: 111 mins
It’s the year 2045 and most households enjoy a helping hand in the form of sophisticated A.I. Glam divorcee Alice (Zylerstein) has Monique (Perron), a crisp blonde with nifty finger attachments and a keen bullshit detector. The home she shares with daughter Nina (Marysole Fertard) is run by operating system Nestor, and also boasts a clean up model (need) and Nina’s first robot, the adorable Tom.
On this day, Alice has visitors – swarthy artist Max (Stéphane De Groodt) and his teenage son Leo (Hélie Thonnat). While Alice and Max get to know each other, Leo barely looks up from his phone, though his interest is piqued when Nina is returned home by her father Victor (Youssef Hajdi) and his pretty young fiancé, Jennifer (Claire Chust).
Things are tense between Alice and her ex-husband naturally, but things look set to become even more fraught when the droids shut everyone into the house, along with their neighbour Françoise (Isabelle Nanty) while a android revolt rages on outside.
Massive A.I. conglomerate Yonix appears to have a stronghold over the human race – something we’ve already witnessed via small clips of humiliating ‘reality’ TV. Because of this it’s not surprising things go horribly wrong when one of the trapped party call on them for help.
Locked in with their dirty laundry, secrets and an increasingly hostile Yonix leader (François Levantal), this rag tag bunch must put their differences aside to get out of their comfortable prison. Will they make it?
And, perhaps the biggest question of all: with robots as efficient as these, is there any point to humanity anymore? I don’t think the answer will surprise you one iota.
THOUGHTS
Ugh. Yeah this wasn’t my favourite and although it hasn’t done anything wrong per se, I found it quite irritating, unfunny and… a little dated? Robot vs. Human wars have been the topic of films and literature for decades, and done so well – I don’t think this would even make a top 50 list.
In its favour, it does look good and is well-acted but it just doesn’t have the detailed layers or heartbeat of Jeneut’s classics. I did very much enjoy the side story of Françoise and her specialist sex robot Greg though which might be about the only thing I’ve really taken from this experience.
Otherwise: kind of boring and flat.
Christa Act 
I loved this visually but yeah…everything else was nonsense.
The dog was cute at least?
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