D.A.R.Y.L.

title: D.A.R.Y.L.

year: 1985

cast: Barrett Oliver, Michael McKean, Mary Beth Hurt, Josef Sommer, Colleen Camp

rating: **

Daryl has some sort of amnesia and very special powers. He can play piano without having played before, and most importantly, he can hit a baseball right out of the park. The scenes involving Daryl (played nicely by Barrett Oliver), his foster parents, and his buddy "Turtle" - who's the comic relief here - are wonderful. Then, something happens. Fifty minutes through - just as the audience is getting into the rhythm of a very laid-back fish-outta-water story... Daryl is picked up by his "real parents", who turn out to be the scientists who "created" him. Daryl's name is actually spelled D.A.R.Y.L., which stands for "Data Analyzing Robot Youth Lifeform" (imagine his teacher reading that name off in role-call). At this point it's all downhill and keeps going down, further and further till you just don't care if little D becomes a pile of scrap metal or if he finds a new life as a "real boy". More family fun and less formidable military evil and this would have been a terrific movie.