{"id":28635,"date":"2018-10-14T17:45:33","date_gmt":"2018-10-14T21:45:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/?p=28635"},"modified":"2018-10-14T21:04:57","modified_gmt":"2018-10-15T01:04:57","slug":"short-circuit-1986","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/2018\/10\/14\/short-circuit-1986\/","title":{"rendered":"Short Circuit (1986)"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>In the decade that gave us \u201cE.T.\u201d and droids, \u201cShort Circuit\u201d introduces a hero that\u2019s a little bit of both. \u201cShort Circuit\u201d is very much like \u201cChopping Mall\u201d except when lightning strikes a military grade robot he becomes hyperactive and charming like Robin Williams. I wouldn\u2019t call \u201cShort Circuit\u201d a childhood favorite but I fondly remember re-visiting the movie time and time again on network TV when I was a kid and didn\u2019t hate it. In the spectrum of \u201cMac and Me,\u201d and \u201cE.T.,\u201d its right there smack dab in the middle with \u201cBatteries Not Included.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

The military is now developing a group of armed drone robots for potential combat. When model Number 5 is struck by lightning, it gains the sentience of a human being and escapes from the base. Crossing paths with a young woman named Stephanie, he begins craving information and adapting to pop culture, particularly taking a love to television and music. Meanwhile Number 5\u2019s creators Newton and Ben are on its tail hoping to bring it back before the military destroys it.<\/p>\n

\u201cShort Circuit\u201d is one of the classic VHS rental success stories where it did okay in the box office but became a classic thanks to home video renters. \u00a0And why not? \u201cShort Circuit\u201d has that down to Earth appeal where it\u2019s much better appreciated at home with a bowl of popcorn rather than in a big theater. John Badham\u2019s film is not wildly epic or grand in scale, but a sweet little science fiction fantasy. Number 5 (or Johnny 5) is a nice enough protagonist who sports a neat chemistry with Ally Sheedy, and Badham even features a nice nod to his masterpiece \u201cSaturday Night Fever\u201d. Sheedy is primarily the foil for Number 5 who introduces him to the world, and he begins to slowly form affection for her.<\/p>\n

Steve Gutenberg and Fischer Stevens are fun as two scientists anxiously tracking down their project, and getting in to all kinds of mishaps. G.W. Bailey is on board as well, pretty much playing a military version of his character Captain Harris from the \u201cPolice Academy\u201d movies. Like many films of this ilk, it\u2019s easy to figure out who to root for and who to jeer, as Gutenberg brings his usual everyman quality and charm to his performance. All the while the military men run around screaming and shooting at poor Johnny 5. \u201cShort Circuit\u201d is a pleasant enough genre film with some great special effects, sharp humor and all around fun premise I wouldn\u2019t mind seeing re-invented in a modern setting.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In the decade that gave us \u201cE.T.\u201d and droids, \u201cShort Circuit\u201d introduces a hero that\u2019s a little bit of both. \u201cShort Circuit\u201d is very much like \u201cChopping Mall\u201d except when lightning strikes a military grade robot he becomes hyperactive and charming like Robin Williams. I wouldn\u2019t call \u201cShort Circuit\u201d a childhood favorite but I fondly […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,12],"tags":[58,71,219,340,349,580,865,874,906],"class_list":["post-28635","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-halloween-horror-month","category-movie-reviews","tag-action","tag-adventure","tag-comedy","tag-family","tag-fantasy","tag-kids","tag-robots","tag-romance","tag-science-fiction"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28635","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28635"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28635\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":28637,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28635\/revisions\/28637"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28635"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28635"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28635"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}