Comedy “(Not) Perfect Robots” by Casper Christensen and Anthony Hines. Review

The comedy “(Not) Perfect Robots” by Kasper Christensen and Anthony Hines is a free adaptation of the Robert Sheckley short story “My Robot Double” by Robert Sheckley. The authors upgraded the text, generously adding topical issues to it, but completely lost its gentle humor and humanism, believes Yulia Shagelman.

In 1973, when humanity was still somewhat optimistic about its future, Robert Sheckley described in a short story a society of the future in which everyone works so hard that there is no time for good old romance. Therefore, having fallen in love, his characters Charles and Elaine instead send twin robots on dates so as not to be distracted from their busy schedules. The result is unexpected – androids teach people a lesson in humanity, and they decide from now on to pay a little less attention to work and a little more life.

In the not-too-beautiful new world that Christensen and Hines’ writing/directing duo portrays, things are a bit different. They place the action in the very near future: 2032. Conservative politicians in the United States won and nevertheless erected a wall on the border with Mexico, and at the same time expelled all immigrants from the country. Now the work that guest workers used to do is done by robots, and they are all made according to two models (outwardly resembling Mexicans – obviously, racism has not gone away), and their mechanical nature is noticeable from afar. However, some cunning citizens, as in the original source, can order illegal double robots that are indistinguishable from people.

But by no means in order to work more ourselves. For example, Charles (Jack Whitehall) exploits his P2 (also Jack Whitehall) in the tail and mane: while the owner sits at home on the couch and plays shooting games, the robot goes to work for him, rustles around the house, and most importantly, meets and takes care of girls . And only when it comes to sex, Charles himself takes over and gives the chosen ones “five minutes in paradise.” With another such chosen one, Elaine (Shailene Woodley), everything goes according to a proven scenario, until – in a rather humiliating context for Charles – it turns out that she is not so simple. The girl goes on dates with men to breed them for expensive gifts, but E2 (also Shailene Woodley) goes to bed with them, who, like Ch2, plays the role of a servant of her capricious and self-centered owner during breaks.

Due to a mix-up with the address, Ch2 and E2 end up on a date with each other, and as a result of a five-hour mechanical sex marathon, they fall in love with each other. They decide to abandon their masters and flee to Mexico, where robots are rumored to have the same rights as humans. The real Charles and Elaine, of course, cannot come to terms with such a betrayal (besides, they both face terms for using doubles), so they rush in pursuit. They will be helped to catch the fugitives by Zack (Paul Rust), who made them – a caricature of an IT nerd, and Charles Ashley’s friend (Paul Yurevich) – a caricature of a slacker with overweight gained on fast food, rather strange in a film that seems to pretend to be to present progressive ideas in a package of light comedy.

However, there is nothing surprising in this: the ideal for Christensen and Hines was clearly the outrageous comedies of the 1990s like “Dumb and Dumber” or “Crazy About Mary”, which did not take into account the norms of political correctness. Hence, in their film, risky gags on the verge of a foul and even some nudity (male, because it seems to be funnier). However, the creators of those films, the kings of toilet humor, the Farelli brothers, for all their ostentatious rudeness, loved their ridiculous characters, while the authors of “(Not) Perfect Robots do not like anyone. And if it is difficult to reproach them for the lack of warm feelings for Charles, Elaine, Zach and the rest of the honest company – they are really extremely unsympathetic, then what the audience deserved such an attitude, having been tested by vulgar jokes for an hour and a half, is absolutely incomprehensible.