Short Circuit Reviews

To honest, it has been ages since I have this flick and when I was a kid, I thought it was pretty awesome. Sure, nowadays, we have ‘Wall-E’ which remains my favorite Pixar production, or even the recent ‘Chappie’ which was pretty cool without being a real masterpiece but, back in the 80’s, we had Johnny 5. Actually, coming back to the comparison between ‘Wall-E’ and ‘Short Circuit’, I have noticed that all the guys growing up with this 80’s classic are always complaining that Pixar pretty much plagiarized their childhood classic. Honestly, I find this argument a little bit ridiculous since ‘Wall-E’ is a downright masterpiece whereas ‘Short Circuit’ is fairly enjoyable but still really cheesy 80’s feature. Anyway, when I first saw this movie, I thought it was rather well made and quite entertaining and, of course, I thought that Johnny 5 was a really neat robot. Unfortunately, the other characters were rather weak, especially Steve Guttenberg who must have been one of the most underwhelming actors that showed up in the 80’s. To conclude, even though it is not a masterpiece, it is still a childhood favorite and I think it is worth a look, especially if you like the genre.

If by any small chance that WarGames didn't tickle your fancy, then don't worry, because the director John Badham will try another attempt, this time, with Short Circuit, which focuses on a military robot named Number 5, who becomes sentient after getting struck by lightning.

While the acting is really, REALLY ham-fisted and cheesy at times (ham and cheese?), the message of artificial things being sentient is rather thought-provoking. And Number 5 is still cuter and more likable than Jinx from Space Camp, which came out on about 1 month later.

My rating: 6/10

This was adorable and fun. I find it odd now that I somehow got through the first 26 years of my life without having ever heard of it. Usually when I watch 80s-90s films as an adult I find them pretty disappointing, but I really enjoyed this one. Johnny 5 is a lot like Wall-E but at the same time he's dissimilar enough so that neither movie suffers from the comparison. I love Stephanie Speck and her house full of animals and I kinda want to be her. I also really liked the exploration of what it means for something to be alive--it was surprisingly deep for an otherwise fluffy movie, and I think those questions are even more relevant today as we potentially approach singularity.