OK, first things first - original this isn't. It is an amalgam of many road trip and robot movies that we have all seen many times before. That said, it is maybe the first actual robot road movie I think I have ever seen, and Tom Hanks and his metallic sidekick "Jeff" - along with their dog, make quite an entertaining fist of it. The world has been exposed to massive radiation and he appears to be the sole survivor. With an incredible storm approaching his home, he constructs his new friend and the three make for San Francisco in his heavily adapted motorhome. It's a well paced affair, this, and Hanks (who is definitely not my favourite actor) turns in quite an engaging performance as gradually he and "Jeff" begin to learn from each other - for better or worse. There is the sparing use of flashback to give us an indication of what happened to his family, and of how he ended up in his predicament, and as their journey progresses the film offers us a perspective on just what being "human" might mean as he gradually realises that all is not well. It is probably twenty minutes too long, the establishment scenes are unnecessarily extensive but, though not a great film, Tom Hanks invests just enough to keep it in the right gear most of the time.
