Directed by: Miguel Sapochnik
Starring: Tom Hanks, Caleb Landry Jones, Skeet Ulrich, Samira Wiley
One of the funniest movies of the year.
How can a post-apocalyptic sci-fi movie be so much fun? Just ask Jeff the Robot and Caleb Landry Jones.
Tom Hanks was naturally projected as the star of this movie “Finch.” But in fact, the machine became the lead role. The robot steals the show. Completely. Big time.
“Finch” is also a compilation movie. Not only does it look like a sci-fi sequel to “Cast Away,” it also brings in a lot of details from “Back to the Future,” “The Terminator,” “I am Legend,” and “Star Wars.”.
The similarity with “Cast away” is loneliness, which is the desire to have a friend, to not be alone in the open and empty space. In “Cast Away” the volleyball Wilson is the imaginary friend and here Jeff the Robot is the imaginary friend. The evolution from “Cast Away” to “Finch” is that in the sequel the imaginary friend is not so imaginary because it is a man-made product built from metal and wires and has tons of intelligence and even a kind of spirit. On top of everything, the machine is also an excellent verbal communicator compared to Wilson the Volleyball. Speaking about comparisons: Hanks is obsessed with the rubber production industry- in “Cast Away” the ball was the brand Wilson. Now in continuity you would expect the dog in this movie to be called “Mikasa,” “Molsten,” or “Dunlop.” But Hanks tricks you by naming the dog “Goodyear. It could have easily also been “Michelin”, “Firestone” or “Pirelli.”
The hints of “Back to the future” are probably coming from executive producer Robert Zemeckis. In “Back to the Future” a crazy scientist invented a car to take you back in time, here a weird engineer invents a robot with only one task: to take care of his dog when he is dead and gone. While Hanks is obsessed with the rubber production industry, Zemeckis is all in on pet food production- in the “Back to the Future” there was an automatic pet food can opener- in “Finch” the evolution is that Jeff the Robot has an automatic dog food can opener integrated in his abdomen. Big progress, huge achievement, isn’t it?
“The Terminator” is in the power of the machine to lift cars and RVs and “Star Wars” is the combination of a tall and verbally annoying robot and a short mute robot.
The action in this movie is made by some old fashion standards and that is not bad at all. There is so much adventure in this movie, it might be classified as more of an adventure movie than a sci-fi movie.
The story: how the engineer Finch, his new produced robot, self named as Jeff and his dog Goodyear escape from an apocalyptic central part of the United States where after some devastating sun activities the ozone is like “Swiss Cheese” as Finch describes it. They try to reach the West Coast, possibly San Francisco. The Golden Gate Bridge is a random destination chosen by Finch, but his intuition was right and moving west pays off. As they approach a range of about 400 miles to their final destination they find that there are almost normal living conditions: ozone is still in good shape, no sun rays that are harmful to the skin, low level of radiation. Unfortunately, Finch was already exposed to harmful influences for so long that he does not make it, but the Robot and the Dog are carrying on.
So this leaves the door open to continue the story. Zemeckis likes sequels a lot so why not? For example: The Robot and the Dog will meet a very old man in San Francisco, later on they will discover that the man is Finch’s father who apparently sometime in the past sent postcards with photographs of the Golden Gate Bridge to his son.
Anyhow, the film is fun and very watchable. It is a bit pathetic in the last part, but it’s still okay.
Again. The big superstar of “Finch” is Caleb Landry Jones in the voice role of Jeff the Robot. He is so good. Probably the only fresh and completely original part of the movie.
