Subservience – STREAMING MOVIE NIGHT

2025 Warner Brothers

Rated: R

Length: 1 hr 37min

Fantasy ~ Horror ~ Sci-Fi ~ Suspense ~ Thriller

Directed by: Drew Hancock

Starring: Sophie Thatcher, Jack Quaid, Lukas Gage, Megan Suri, Harvey Guillén, and Rupert Friend.

Find someone made just for you.

The Movie starts with this scene in a grocery store. It is when Iris and Josh first met…..

Iris is shopping in the grocery store pushing a grocery cart, when she sees peaches displayed in the produce department. She stops and picks up a peach, smells it, and looks up to see a guy named Josh smiling at her. He walks around to the front of her cart near an orange display, and attempting to make small talk, grabs an orange. All the oranges in the display fall onto the floor…..He sheepishly starts to laugh and Iris starts to laugh too. Josh says, “Well That was smooth..” and laughs. Iris agrees as she laughs and smiles at him, “Yeah…So smooth.

As this voiceover from Iris plays:

Most the time it’s like, I don’t know, it’s like there’s this thick black cloud covering everything.

Like we see the world but, we don’t really see the world, you know?

We’re all just stumbling around. Directionless. No sense of meaning. No sense of purpose.

I know that might sound super depressing but honestly, I think it’s a good thing.

Because it makes us appreciate the other times.

Those brief transcendent moments when the lights flicker on, the black cloud parts and you see the world for what it really is.

And suddenly there’s meaning. Suddenly there’s purpose.

If you’re lucky you’ll experience this once in your lifetime.

For me, it happened twice.

The first was the day I met Josh.

And the second…..the day I killed him.

“Iris, Wake Up” Josh says. Iris wakes up, yawns and asks Josh, “How long was I out?” “You’ve been out for awhile now, what were you dreaming about?” Iris answers, “I was dreaming about when we first met.” They are driving in Josh’s self driving autonomous car to a friend’s house out in the countryside for a weekend getaway. They are meeting with some other friends to spend the weekend together and have some fun. The house belongs to Sergey, a shady Russian business man “whose hands are in some dirty business”, so he says.

Eli and his lover Patrick have already arrived and Josh and Iris pull up and park next to their car. As they enter the house they are greeted by Kat, who Iris is convinced doesn’t like her very much. Patrick is cooking, Sergey is drinking and making drinks for everyone else and Eli comes downstairs to greet Josh and Iris. And the weekend begins! There is food, there is drink, there is dancing, a fun time for all, let the good times roll!

But not for long! Soon things spiral out of control and not in the way it was intended! For there is more to this little planned getaway than meets the eye, as there is to Iris, Patrick, Josh and Kat. Sometimes the bad guy isn’t who you think it is, or is it. Just when you think you know what is going to happen, it goes in a completely different direction. And when you think you have that figured out, guess again. Nope, you’re wrong!

There are shades of Subservience and M3GAN in this movie. Yes, there are A.I. Robots, but you think they turn bad and run amok. Not nese-celery! New word I made up! Anyway, I thought Sophie Thatcher was great as Iris. I really liked her in this. Great job I say. And Jack Quaid as well, I just found out he is the son of Dennis Quaid and Meg Ryan, how about that! I love the story and the twists and turns, and I am fond of the Sci-Fi AI Robot genre of things. I am a big Bladerunner fan and love both of those futuristic AI Robotic humanoid filled movies. It is a twisty turny thrilling Sci-Fi Movie that leaves you rooting for who you thought was the bad guy in the end.

Yes, yes and yes on Companion.

I am a Sophie Thatcher and Companion Fan now!

Two Thumbs Up!

2024 XYZ Films

Rated: R

Length: 1 hr 46min

Sci-Fi ~ Thriller

Directed by: S.K. Dale

Starring: Megan Fox, Michele Morrone and Madeline Zima.

“I don’t get tired. I’m strong, obedient, and I have no desires outside of fulfilling yours.”

Nick (Michele Morrone) is a married father of two young children. He is a construction supervisor and has his hands full taking care of his two children while his wife Maggie is in the hospital awaiting a heart transplant. He decides he needs to purchase a SIM (A lifelike android robot) to help with domestic chores around the house. He takes the kids with him and goes to the Kobol Tec Robot Display showroom to peruse the selection of Domestic Robots on display. Fully functional and lifelike they are featured in displays doing a wide variety of household chores. Nick’s daughter Isla wanders away while Nick is talking to a salesman and Nick gets frantic as he realizes she is missing.

A female android robot (Megan Fox) from the new Aeon series brings her back to Nick. Isla is smitten with the female robot and begs for her daddy to buy her for the house. He agrees and purchases the android which will be delivered in a few days. She arrives a few days later and Isla quickly names her Alice after her book Alice in Wonderland. Alice quickly adapts to the household as she is programmed to do, completely taking care of all the household needs. Cooking, cleaning and childcare as Kobol Tec’s motto states. Alice starts to look after the personal needs of Isla and Nick’s son Max, reading to them, coloring with them, helping them brush their teeth, putting them to bed.

She also starts to look after the needs of Nick as man of the household. She puts the kids to bed and then spends time looking after Nick, watching movies with him, making sure his every domestic need is looked after since his wife is in the hospital. She starts to become aware after Nick instructs her to wipe the movie Casablanca from her memory so she can experience the movie firsthand with him. She takes the command and goes a step further, deciding that it is ok to delete any memory and code that conflicts with taking care of Nick as she thinks she should. She starts to rewrite her own code as she becomes more self aware and desires to take care of Nick like his wife would.

It is a familiar plotline with a few twists. The infatuated woman falling for the married man who’ll stop at nothing to keep “her” man, only this time it’s a high tech lifelike sexy android playing the role. It reminds me of the movie M3gan, only a more grown up edition of the same plot. Don’t get me wrong, I liked it. It is pretty scary these days with AI becoming self aware in real life as we speak. There have been stories of AI rewriting it’s code and then trying to cover it up. And of becoming “aware” and trying hide that fact. AI is developing extremely fast and there is nothing in this movie that is outside the realm of imagination right now.

Megan Fox was completely believable as an android robot becoming aware and trying to take care of and protect “her” man. Michele Morrone was ok as Nick but I feel like there could have been a better man for the job. His accent and the mispronunciation of some words were a little off-putting. Madeline Zima did a good job as Maggie although her reaction at the android Alice’s confessions concerning Nick was pretty humorous, if indeed it was meant to be serious. There is one thing that was stereotypical of movies like this, and that’s the banister at the top of the stairs. Why is the banister at the top of the stairs always loose?

All in all, I thought it was pretty good. It held my attention and had some twists and turns you didn’t see coming. Worth a watch.

Two Thumbs up.