Brendon Jones
It’s fine. It's literally the definition of a fine movie. You’ve seen it before, you know every beat and outcome before the characters even do. Only question is how much escapism you’re looking for.
Neive Bellamy
Excellent and certainly provocative... If nothing else, the film is a real conversation starter.
Tobias Burrows
It's easily one of the freshest, sharpest and most enjoyable films of this year.
Sean Richard McCarthy
This is a very good movie, despite the extremely bad acting! It has Barrett Oliver (Never Ending Story) and Danny Corkill (Without A Trace). In my opinion, this movie was the inspiration for Artificial Intelligence. I recommend watching this movie, because of the extremely great story. Just overlook the bad acting (it's not hard to do).The movie is about a robot in a boy's body. He is misunderstood by his creators, who believe him just to be a mechanical being, not capable of the will to live, to have the ability to love, or feelings and emotions. But, he does have all these traits, and you will come to care about him. (now doesn't that sound like A.I. to you?) SPOILER ALERT:What makes this movie's peak of emotions is the ending, where the song 'Somewhere I Belong' by Teddy Pendergrass is played. Give it a chance, you won't regret it!
sol-
Found wandering in the wilderness and suffering amnesia, a preteen boy comes to suspect that he is very different to other children his age in this intriguing thriller with a science fiction twist. While the title, promotional artwork and plot summaries (include on the DVD back cover!) spell out the fact that him feeling different is due to being a robot, the filmmakers keep this plot detail deliciously vague during the first half, which in turn becomes an involving tale of an abnormal young person trying to fit in. As others have pointed out, with his quick-learning abilities and lack of social skills, it is easy to see Daryl as metaphorical for someone on the Autism Spectrum and the overall movie has some positive messages as such in terms of acceptance for all. The second half of the film, which is more thrills than mystery-based, is not quite as strong as the first half, but lots of impressive (if improbable) stunts keep things chugging along. The ending certainly feels a little rushed and Marvin Hamlisch's sentimental music score does not always work. In general though, this is an engaging tale along the lines of 'Pinocchio' and 'A.I.' with the idea that all kids are kids even if their minds work differently.
r-c-s
OK, this is a B movie. It has B actors and B content. It isn't difficult to find almost every 'early 1980s' craze in this movie...the computer craze...the secret defense experiment craze...the super military airplane craze...the children adventure/lampoon craze...of which one can find better examples, but not combined into one individual product like this. It gets B actors but it doesn't want to go farther, and thus the result is much more enjoyable than bigger budget products with bigger budget actors. In this, actors really blend together and give a 'real' feeling...even in AAA+ theater productions there may be moments viewers guess it's just make-believe. Computers? HAHA! The 1980s! The computer in Turtle's sister's room is the same I had back then! Of course now every $19.99 cellphone is likely to be more technologically advanced... Good, entertaining, mild family movie in which the sci-fi element serves as mere bait. Recommended.
OliverGbyrne-1
Yeh this film is not Oscar material but what it does I believe it does well.I grew up watching this film and I love it dearly.I love movies about robots for some reasons A.I,I am Robot,Terminator even the TV show Small Wonder I used to watch but Daryl is a nice family film and its different from the typical sci fi movie.The first half of the movie you don't even know DARYL is Robot , you would think he's just a genius it's only in the other half of the film were you get the full Truth,it's like two film in one the first half is a family comedy/Drama the other is Action/sci-fi.It's very 80s but I think that's what make this film charming,it has a great nostalgia value to it (Well for people in their 20's at least). Barett Oliver(DARYL) was very talented and most of all he was natural. I love this film,it's one of the greatest kids film of the 80s for me,I'll place it between "the Goonies" and "Flight of the navigator". I'll give it a 8 out of 10.
