As I recall the short stories in this book were once published separately in a serial science fiction magazine and than put together in one book in 1950. While they are short stories, they are a couple characters that move through different stories. This is also when Asimov was just starting to explore his Three Laws of Robotics. He often uses the psychology of the robots to explore different aspects of the human mind. An example would be the story of a robot, who after being assembled refuses to believe that creatures weaker and not as intelligent as itself could be its creators. This robot then postulates religious thoughts. No matter what evidence is given the robot refuses to change its ideas. This is similar to anti-science fundamentalists in our current(and current of the writing of the stories) civilization. Overall a very delightful book and it aged a little better than Foundation though seeing 2007 as though its a long time in the future is odd.

Also the movie has nothing to do with the book other than the 3 laws and the use of 2 characters.