Robot and Frank
Robot & Frank is the heartfelt and charming comedy about an unusual friendship between a retired cat burglar, Frank (played by Frank Langella), and a walking, talking humanoid programmed robot.
Bought by Frank’s worried children, who are concerned Frank can no longer look after himself due to his deteriorating physical and mental health, Frank slowly begins to accept Robot’s unique skills and it’s not long before a blossoming, yet unusual friendship is formed
To celebrate the Blu-ray and DVD release of Robot & Frank out July 15 we take a look at some of the other most unlikely friendships seen on film.
In Free Willy (2003) fishermen separate a young orca whale (Willy) from his parents and he ends up in a fish bowl at a marina. Meanwhile, a street kid runs afoul of the law and gets caught vandalising the marina, but his social worker gets him off the hook (so to speak) provided he cleans up his mess at the marina.
While there, he befriends the whale and teaches him tricks, something the trainer hasn't been able to do.
But when Willy is a dud in front of the audience, the marina owner plans some bad things, and the boy and his
friends must try to free Willy
In Turner & Hooch (1989) Scott Turner (Tom Hanks) has 3 days left in the local police department before he moves to a bigger city to get some "real" cases, not just misdemeanours. Then Amos Reed is murdered, and Scott Turner sets himself on the case.
The closest thing to a witness in the case is Amos Reed's dog, Hooch, which Scott Turner has to take care of if it's going to avoid being put to sleep. At first, Hooch tests Scotts patience, but over time a strong
bond is formed.
Toy Story (1995) is about a little boy named Andy who loves playing with his toys, especially his favourite doll, Woody. When Andy is not with the toys, they come to life. Woody believes that he has a good life.
However, at Andy’s birthday party, Andy's mother gives him an action figure known as Buzz Lightyear, who does not believe that he is a toy, and quickly becomes Andy's new favourite toy. Woody, who is now consumed with jealousy, tries to get rid of Buzz.
Then, both Woody and Buzz become lost. Buzz and Woody quickly learn that they must put their conflict behind them to work as a team and find a way to get back to Andy before he moves home without them, avoiding ruthless toy killer, Sid Phillips, along the way.
In The Goonies (1985) Mikey Walsh and Brandon Walsh are brothers whose family is preparing to move because developers want to build a golf course in the place of their neighbourhood unless enough money is raised to stop the construction of the golf course, and that's quite doubtful.
But when Mikey stumbles upon a treasure map of the famed "One-Eyed" Willy's hidden fortune, Mikey, Brandon, and their friends Lawrence "Chunk" Cohen, Clark "Mouth" Devereaux, Andrea "Andy" Carmichael, Stefanie "Stef" Steinbrenner, and Richard "Data" Wang, calling themselves The Goonies, set out on a quest to find the treasure in hopes of saving their neighborhood.
The treasure is in a cavern, but the entrance to the cavern is under the house of evil thief Mama Fratelli and her sons Jake Fratelli, Francis Fratelli, and the severely disfigured Lotney "Sloth" Fratelli.
Chunk is caught by the Fratellis and place him and Sloth together, where an unlikely friendship forms. In the end Sloth decides to helps the Goonies leave with the treasure and save their family homes.
Shrek (2001) is a grouchy green ogre who after discovering his swamp has been 'swamped' with all sorts of fairytale creatures by the scheming Lord Farquaad sets out to 'persuade' Farquaad to give him his swamp back.
Shrek intends to visit Farquaad alone, but along the way comes across the very loud and talkative ‘Donkey’, who refuses to leave his side. At first, Shrek and Donkey don’t see eye-to-eye, but Donkey proves himself invaluable as Lord Farquaad agrees to give Shrek his swamp back if he agrees to rescue Princess Fiona - in turn, allowing Farquaad to become King.
Donkey ends up saving the day as to get to Princess Fiona Shrek must overcome a fire breathing dragon. The dragon turns out to be female and Donkey ends up sweet talking the dragon allowing Shrek to rescue Princess Fiona, who is waiting for her one true love.
But once they head back with Fiona, it starts to become apparent that not only does Shrek like Fiona, but Fiona likes Shrek and is herself an ogress.
Ted (2012) sees eight year old John Bennett (Mark Walhberg) make a Christmas wish that his one and only friend, Ted his teddy bear, would love him forever. Miraculously John gets his wish and Ted comes to life, garnering Ted his proverbial fifteen minutes of fame. Twenty-seven years later, John and Ted have remained best friends.
John's girlfriend of four years, Lori is successful professionally, and although she loves John and likes Ted as John's best friend believes that John's emotional immaturity and lack of professional drive (John works in a dead end job) is because of his friendship with Ted, with who he parties all the time.
When Lori dumps John, John knows it’s time to part ways with Ted. However, when Ted gets into trouble and is kidnapped by a stalker father and son duo, its best friend John that comes to the rescue. John shows Ted that they have an unbreakable friendship and that nothing will come between them ever again.
Robot & Frank is set in the near future and sees an aging ex-convict and thief named Frank, who lives alone experience increasing serious mental deterioration and dementia.
Frank's son Hunter grows tired of making weekly visits to his father's home and so purchases a robot companion which is programmed to provide Frank with therapeutic care.
Initially wary of the robot's presence in his life, Frank warms up to his new companion when he realises the robot is not programmed to distinguish between legal recreational activities and criminal ones, and can assist him in lock-picking.
Together, the two commit a heist but the police aren’t far behind and question Frank, who maintains his innocence, feigning deathly illness. In order to cover his tracks, Frank is faced with the decision of whether or not to wipe the memory of his robot, even as his own memory rapidly deteriorates.
This is a decision which Frank wouldn’t have hesitated about previously, but unusual as it may be, Frank and the robot have developed such a close bond Frank finds it heartbreaking to wipe his robots memory.
Robot & Frank is out on Blu-ray, DVD and download on July 15
Tagged in The Goonies Toy Story