I had seen this when I was a pretty undiscriminating kid on TV a couple of times. I remember thinking it was just so-so. Seeing it now, I can't get over how horribly misconceived it is, from its cheesy "grabber" of an opening, its lame title, and its completely nonsensical surprise ending. The film stars Matthew Laborteaux as a young teen who moves into a new neighborhood with his mom and robot friend and meets the young Kristy Swanson, a pretty girl who lives with her physically abusive father. The opening scenes of this are a mess-mostly it seems as though we are asked to laugh along with the antics of the unbearably cute robot, then he'll do something menacing, and then it's back to more goofball "humorous" scenes. Then the robot is "killed" and coincidentally so is Swanson. Matthew puts a microchip from the robot in Swanson's head and voila! she's alive again, but now moving like a robot and in a murderous, vengeful state of mind. The only real reason to see this is the first (and presumably only) decapitation-by-basketball scene in cinema history. I also have to admit to being slightly touched by the (admittedly silly) theme of Swanson regaining her humanity gradually, but this is eventually completely jettisoned for the awesomely ludicrous "shock" ending.
Review of Deadly Friend
