MOVIE REVIEW: We decide if AI-themed sci-fi-thriller 'Renner' is worth switching on
Dull then mean-spirited, you'll want to pull the plug long before the end credits roll.
Sci-fi-thriller Renner sees the titular computer genius (Frankie Muniz) create AI life coach Salenus (voiced by Marcia Gay Harden) to help him find love.
But when next-door neighbour Jamie (Violett Beane) comes into his well-ordered life, things quickly begin to unravel.
Renner is a strange film that takes the topical AI technology and doesn't do much with it until the latter stages.
Salenus is a giant glass eye who turns out to be slightly manipulative but a long way off M3GAN or Skynet.
Most of the runtime in Robert Rippberger's ( Those Who Walk Away) flick is full of awkward conversations and, apart from brief ventures into a corridor, his characters never leave their apartments.
There is actually a five-minute story about the board game Monopoly - yes, really.
The nervy Renner has OCD and is a germophobe and Muniz proves capable of portraying this nebbish side but the incredibly forced angry rants that burst from his mouth at times just don't suit the former Malcolm in the Middle.
Beane was better in Drop and Truth or Dare, however, she deals with Jamie's character shifts very capably.
Rippberger's use of UV light in certain scenes feels like a feeble effort to make the movie look futuristic - truthfully it could be set any time from the past few years.
Shots of Renner's morning routine become supremely repetitive and as the film went on it entered my mind it would have worked better as a 40-minute Twilight Zone episode.
The final third 'reveal' is less surprising than another Love Island couple break-up.
Blood randomly starts flowing thick and fast which really jars with everything we've previously watched.
Dull and then mean-spirited, you'll want to pull the plug on Renner and its average AI long before the end credits roll.
● Do you have any favourite AI-themed films?
Pop me an email at ian.bunting@reachplc.com and I will pass on your comments – and any movie or TV show recommendations you have – to your fellow readers.
Stevie Bishop got in touch to say: 'Mobland on Amazon Prime is superb. It has such a great cast and the storylines are full of surprises.'
● Renner is screening on Amazon Prime Video now.
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