Movies: Short Circuit & Short Circuit 2

Director John Badham must have had a thing for intelligent machines, since after directing the oft-parodied "WarGames," he went on to film Johnny Five, one of the robotic mascots of the 1980s, in "Short Circuit." The plot is pretty simple - Number Five, a military robot, accidentally gains sentience, and all sorts of kinda-hilarious pandemonium follows. Eventually, he befriends a woman played by Ally Sheedy, and even his creator, Steve Gutenberg (basically playing himself).

It's not a great movie, or even a particularly good one. The premise dips into absurdity pretty early on - indeed, there be exploding boats here. Steve Gutenberg gives his usual workmanlike performance, and Ally Sheedy's portrayal is so mired in the decade's conventions that it's hard to keep a straight face sometimes (who uses "mutation" as an insult?). The production budget was reportedly blown entirely on the various versions of Johnny Five, which explains why most of the action takes place around the same section of town. Still, there's a certain charm here, especially in Johnny Five's battle with his robotic clones.

Rating: 6/10

"Short Circuit 2" is every bit the typical inferior '80s sequel except for a peculiar quirk of screenwriting: if you subtracted all the crap before the last half hour or so of the movie, it'd actually be a better film than the full length version. Not many movies have this characteristic. It almsot feels like the writers figured out that no one cared about the humans - the audience just wanted to see more Johnny Five, not boring conversations in a New York City that bears a suspicious resemblance to Toronto.

Thus, the final sequence includes lots of memorable moments. Johnny Five is savagely beaten, repairs himself, and vows revenge. He chases down the head evildoer in a climactic struggle between good and evil, with the up-tempo Bonnie Tyler song "Holding Out For a Hero" underlying the action. After that, Johnny Five gets pimped out in gold plating and becomes a U.S. citizen. That, my friends, is all you need for a movie:


Johnny Five getting beaten up:


Johnny Five out for revenge:


Rating: 4/10