Robots Movie Review (2023)

A painfully awkward film about selfish humans who keep androids of themselves to do everything they don’t want to do, Robots purports to be a romantic comedy, but it’s just not funny.

Every once in a while, you come across a movie that could be cute. You have a gut feeling that it might not be, but you want to give it a chance, so you hit play. I had this experience with The Best You Can and Honey Don’t!, but against my better judgment, I hoped this one would be different. Boy, was I wrong.

Robots is about Charles, a man who works for his stepfather’s company, is considerate and thoughtful, and meets women at an ice skating rink. However, that is actually his robot double, which does everything the real Charles doesn’t want to do until it is time to go to bed with a woman the robot has been courting. Robot Charles then meets Elaine, a beautiful woman who uses men for money and sends her robot to sleep with the men she is “dating” until she wants to break up with them.

This is a terrible movie, and it’s disappointing given the premise, which actually makes it sound interesting. In the United States, the right has taken over the government and removed all immigrants, saying that more jobs would now be available to citizens. Instead, robots have been created and work for free. In the United States, robots are treated as slaves, but in Mexico, they are free. So the government and citizens try to keep them within the borders, using them at their disposal.

That’s about all you get from that storyline. Instead, you follow the irritating Charles (who has a British accent and is living in the States, but this is never explained past him having a step-father in the States – or I missed it because it was nonsensical) and the shallow Elaine, the two of whom have zero chemistry – romantically or comedically. She gets frustrated and throws things, he tries to be cute and fails. It is charmless and desperately unfunny.

There are very few locations or actors, so this feels like it should be exceptionally low-budget, which might at least have offered some explanation. But Robots stars Shailene Woodley, who typically makes better choices than this garbage, so that adds an additional layer of confusion.

With jokes that don’t land, attempts at physical humor that just feel cringey, and unbelievably annoying characters, this film is actually embarrassing. I don’t know what else to say because I thoroughly have the ick after watching it. Don’t make the mistake that I did.

Runtime: 93 minutes

Motion Picture Rating: R

Languages Spoken In The Film: English

Should You Watch It? NO

Did I Cry? Only from the pain of watching this

My Rating: 1/5 Stars

Available: Free on Hulu and Disney+, to rent on Prime Video, or may be available for free on other streaming platforms