What if HAL were a bunny boiler? Such is the premise of "Homewrecker", in which a computer scientist invents, with US Navy backing, an artificial intelligence system that goes rogue and kills a family flying in a small plane. Being the genius that he is, Dr. David Whitson (Robby Benson) later decides to modify the same AI into a kind of Alexa of the 1990s at his family's cabin in the woods, where the machine begins to develop a fixation with David and, predictably, a distaste for the wife he's trying to win back. As you might expect of a '90s TV movie, "Homewrecker" is a blandification of themes of technology gone awry that have been tackled with more gusto in better movies. Indeed, the most interesting thing about this dull, predictable affair is the fact that it was directed by Fred Walton, who earlier helmed "When a Stranger Calls" and "April Fool's Day", themselves middling, if more well known, exercises in low-stakes horror. Walton wasn't exactly a daring or especially creative director, and sadly this movie is par the course for him, although it has its moments where it flirts with actual horror in its drab, frigid way.
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