DVD Review: SHORT CIRCUIT (1986)

This is the second review I've done about an older film on DVD. It may become a weekly series if I have time.


Short Circuit

Released: May 9, 1986

Box Office: $40.6 million
(Ranked 21st of 1986)

Starring- Ally Sheedy, Steve Guttenberg, Fisher Stevens, Austin Pendleton, G.W. Bailey, Brian McNamara

Directed by John Badlam

DVD Issue: 2004

Grade: C+



As the Wall-E previews made the rounds late last year, many keen observers born in that span between Generation X and Generation Y, the ones who grew up on the highest content of Saturday morning sugar, television and movies, were quick to dismiss the compact little robot as a Johnny Five knockoff.

Nevertheless, while there's no doubt the two robots share quite a few striking similarities in both looks and actions, Short Circuit was made in an era that valued niceties and a breezy entertainment formula that hinders its potential. Even more so after the looming monolith of what Wall-E has become. In fact, Wall-E is everything Short Circuit aspired to be, 22 years too early.

Viewed in 2008, Short Circuit is seen as a good example of the lighthearted fare of the mid-1980's. It's extremely dated yet innocent enough to provoke a fun attitude, whether its a childhood classic or seeing it for the first time. It has a genial message of love and the appreciation of living life, and chugs along at a steady pace towards its climax, replete with kid-friendly humor and a predictable turn of events.

Newton Crosby (Steve Guttenberg) is a lead programmer of NOVA's newest military robots. Designed to blow up enemy warfare in the fight against the Soviet Union, a malfunction causes the last of these prototype robots, Number Five, to become 'alive' with feelings and thoughts. He escapes and finds himself bonding with Stephanie (Ally Sheedy), a quirky girl who takes care of a hoard of pets. Together, along with Newton, the trio must stop NOVA from destroying Number Five from being deprogrammed, which according to him is equal to death.

Number Five (commonly referred to Johnny Five, despite only calling himself that at the very end) not only shares common ground with Wall-E, but I believe his inspiration in 1986 was E.T. Both are non-human creatures that at first are ugly in appearance but become comfortable and even cute to look at. Both are curious, intelligent, and their mysterious properties forces them to run from the authorities. Most importantly, both aimed to cash in the family market with PG-rated antics. While Short Circuit was a modest success that spawned a sequel two years later, it was not anywhere in the monetary and thematic stratosphere as E.T. was.

Let's get this fact out right now: Guttenberg and Sheedy make one of the worst pairs in cinematic history. If there was a Prezzie Awards back in 1986, Sheedy would win Worst Actress hands down. I'm not sure if she was just playing a loud, crass, annoying, vapid, spaced out twit, or if Sheedy really is that bad of an actress. She was definitely tolerable in The Breakfast Club, but her overexaggerated mannerisms and complete lack of subtlety interacting with an inanimate character endangers the entire Short Circuit project.

Never one to set an example, Guttenberg, already a grizzly veteran of three Police Academy films and Cocoon, isn't much better. But at least he doesn't scream his lines with all the fervor of an actress looking for a coke fix. Also among the shockingly terrible is Fisher Stevens, playing perhaps the most stereotypical horny Indian-American computer scientist in the history of the world. Never mind that Kal Penn must have drawn inspiration from him for the Van Wilder films, but Stevens isn't even Indian. Kind of derogatory.

Another dated but fun reference to the time period Short Circuit offers (besides its terrible actors who mostly disappeared after December 31st, 1989) is the "advanced" technology used on the Soviet Union front. Like films such as Firefox, Red Dawn, WarGames, Russkies, Spies Like Us, Rocky IV and countless other 1980s seminal classics, Short Circuit features characters navigating fancy green and black computer screens, making not so subtle jabs at the Russians. You're not a scientist unless you have a robotic hand giving the middle finger.

Short Circuit is just one of the glut of movies from the 1980s that appeal to 20 and 30 somethings out of fond memories, not outright goodness. We are forced to deride films released today that might be on par with Short Circuit, but in reality the kids who see movies such as Journey To The Center Of The Earth will love them 20 years later like the parents of today loved The Goonies. Short Circuit may not even be fit to wash Wall-E's treads, but it's a cute diversion, exactly what nostalgia was made for.