F.R.E.D.I – a Review

This 2018 movie is currently available to watch on Netflix till the end of this month, but you can also view it on Amazon Prime, YouTube, Google Play or Apple TV, all of which for a small fee.

IMDB has a trailer you can view and covers a brief About for the movie – the mini blurb, Director, Writers, Stars. So since all that’s already mentioned, let’s just get down to my own thoughts.

The standout cast:

Let’s start with F.R.E.D.I shall we? Candace Cameron Bure played her role beautifully as FREDI’s voice. But then I think I’m biased. I’ve watched her grow up on Full House, and admired her brother, Kirk Cameron, who acted on Growing Pains. Two favourite TV shows from the 80s/90s. But having FREDI with a female voice just adds to that adoration aspect with this little charmer. How can you not love it?!

I LOVED the two boys, Danny (played by Reid Miller) and James (Lucius Hoyos) as the two lead characters of this film. Danny is the nerdy boy who does well in school, gets excellent grades and even tutors on occasion. James doesn’t do as well in school, but with personal issues at home, living apart from his mother and sister, with a possibility that he and his father can lose their home and business, can you blame him for struggling with his schoolwork?

Angus Macfadyan, who played Grant as the villain of the movie played his character perfectly. It probably helped that he sounded similar to a current president if that president were to have a bit of an English accent which, I felt, couldn’t help but make him that much more villainous.

Actually, a little bit of a background check on Angus shows me that he’s actually a Scottish actor, born in Glasgow in 1963 and has appeared in other great movies, including Braveheart. As the villain, he adds a touch of seriousness to this movie adding a bit of depth, so that we see it more as a family drama with a bit of a challenge.

The other stand out characters here that I really enjoyed watching was:

Tyler Christopher, who played Randy Nash, James’ very supportive father, and we see just how supportive he actually is towards the tail end of the movie.

I was surprised to see that the lead girl, Mandy who, from memory, is James’ crush, is actually played by Chloe Lukasiak, a past fan favourite on Dance Moms. Considering that I failed to recognise her from her past in that series tells me she played her character in this movie excellently. It shows she has the ability to blend into any character she plays which is a good talent for an actor to have. Moving forward, I’m looking forward to seeing what other movies, aside from the 14 she’s already been in, I can find her in. I do hope, with her talents, she continues her acting career.

Dr. Andy Palmer (played by Kelly Hu) did a great job as the inventor of FREDI and is the perfect heroine in this movie from the very start of the movie to the very end, it’s immediately known that she’s one of the ‘good guys’.

And finally, with every good family drama, there’s always the comic sidekick that gives the movie it’s lighter moments, and we see that in Brody, played by Texas Battle. As one of the villain’s minions doing his best to please Grant, you can’t help but like this guy with his amusing antics like falling for red herrings, discussing who gets the blame for not finding the robot or just the vision of him hopping on a little girl’s bike. No matter what he does in this movie, you can’t help but giggle.

What I liked:

The entire storyline itself was beautifully told. An amazing invention designed to help humanity, wanted by someone who instead, wants to use it as a weapon and, without giving away too many spoilers, with the adventure starting from this storyline alone, you can almost predict the outcome of the movie. But this movie is not about the storyline itself…

As the movie progresses, we see the amazing things FREDI can do from healing wounds, to manipulating gravity and even mundane things like changing a tyre. The more abilities that FREDI reveals to us, the more it makes us wish we all had a FREDI in our own lives.

What I didn’t like:

As much as there was a pre-ending closure (which I actually did appreciate), I didn’t like that at the very end, there was a tease of a promise for a F.R.E.D.I 2, which, after much searching online, I can’t find any related movies that have been made. This movie now is already 6 years old, which means as the years progress, the chances are slimmer that one will be made as the movie may be forgotten over time.

Perhaps as CGI advances more, someone will take this movie on board, and if they do, let’s hope the sequel is as great as the initial movie.

Personally, I’d like to see this movie being remembered like past robotic movies that I’ve thoroughly enjoyed. “Number 5 is alive” from Short Circuit (1986) comes to mind. Am I showing my age here?

Highly recommend this to anyone with kids, and especially to anyone who loves a great sci fi movie.

5 out of 5 stars.

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