2001, 2 hrs 30 min., Rated PG-13.�Dir: Steven Spielberg. Cast: Haley Joel Osment (David Swinton), Jude Law (Gigolo Joe), Frances O'Connor (Monica Swinton), Sam Robards (Henry Swinton), Jake Thomas (Martin Swinton), William Hurt (Professor Hobby), Ben Kingsley, Narrator.

After seeing A.I. with Nana and talking it over, I still have a clouded mind as to what to actually review. I think both of our summations were �Hmmmmmm��

It�s easy to write about a movie you hate, tougher to describe one I love, but almost impossible coming up with a review about a film I have to think about philosophically. I feel like I should read Kierkegard and Nietzsche before starting. But since I just had to look up those names for correct spellings (I got one out of two right) probably indicates that I wouldn�t have much to use from them in my look at A.I..

Sure, it opens with a global warming myth that had my sighing. But that�s just a throwaway point that�s best left for the Ice Age. There are more pressing moral questions to deal with in A.I., like when Osment�s �Mommy� notes that �outside he looks so real, like he is a child,� but on the inside can she make the jump to loving someone that�s not flesh and blood?

I can start with the overall picture. Since it�s a story by the late Stanley Kubrick with the look of director Steven Spielberg, you�re going to see plenty of �wow� shots framing a plot and script that leaves your eyebrow permanently furrowed. Sure, it moves at a snails pace throughout and starts off a little creepy, but that just means that adults only, please. Kids would get bored stiff real quick, as will many adults. It�s two-and-a-half hours long, so settle and take it all in.

Any way you look at A.I. - good, bad or indifferent (which I don�t think you can be) - the acting is incredible. We already knew that figuratively Spielberg could pull out a masterful Oscar-worthy performance from a robot. In this case, he does so literally.

Haley Joel Osment may once again get a nomination or two come awards season, and rightfully so. He was perfect for the role, and is certainly the best actor under age 13 in Hollywood. How he transforms from wooden to feeling is slow and methodical, so that we embrace him little by little, as he learns not only to feel love but also hate.

Jude Law continues to shine in any role he takes, this time as a �lover robot,� the ever cool and suave Gigolo Joe, who gets more help from Osment than he dishes out due to his limited range, but he does have a significant impact on the film.

Of course, in the end the real star may be a supertoy named Teddy. I want one. Oh, if only my stuffed animals could talk when I was a child, although I know my imagination would have been for squat and yadda yadda. But to have Tippy the tiger say �Hi, Jeff� would make my day.

This is one of those pictures that I may have to wait 25 years to decide my final opinion. Will people regard it as genius or merely a failed noble effort? I think that after this weekend sales will fall off considerably if only that the general public isn�t expecting this film with Spielberg attached. But intellectually A.I. can provide so much more. Like any Kubrick film, it may take years of retrospection and study in film classes before the final decision is rendered.