Welcome everyone. This blog mainly exists as a way of tracking all the movies I've been watching and some of the initial thoughts and general feelings I've had about them.
Rating System
5/5 - Fantastic movies; movies which need to be seen and enjoyed by everyone.
4/5 - Movies which are very good but don’t have that spark which compels you to make others watch them as well.
3/5 - Average movies; watchable and enjoyable, but nothing which elevates them higher. The baseline all movies are given before watching.
2/5 - Can be watched but really bland and forgettable.
1/5 - Minimal to no reason to watch these films. It may have some redeeming factors e.g. it’s so bad it’s good or there’s one character that’s awesome enough to make it not a total waste of time.
0/5- Total waste of time. Nothing redeemable about these films.
As with every review blog/site, this is all my own personal opinion so feel free to take everything with a grain of salt.
Also I'm Scottish so all reviews will be in UK English. Get used to theatre, colour and words ending in -ised.
Catching Elephant is a theme by Andy Taylor
#344/#61 Short Circuit 2
(Rewatch)
Ben Jahrvi (Fisher Stevens), having been fired from his job at NOVA following the events of the original short circuit, has moved to New York and is now selling miniature replicas of the NOVA robots as toys. When he and his wheeler-dealer business partner Fred (Michael McKean) are approached by a toy company looking for a thousand units, an amount they cannot hope to make on their own in time, Newton and Stephanie send Johnny 5 to the big city to help them out. Unknown to all however, the building they are renting is being used by criminals trying to rob the bank next door and intent to make life very difficult for everyone.
I think I might actually like Short Circuit 2 more than I do the original. We lose the bland Newton and Stephanie in favour of the scam artist with a heart of gold Fred and gain more time with Ben and Johnny 5. No 1 was the origin story but no 2 lets Johnny deal with bigger issues like why he’s alive and what that truly means. It lets us see him interacting with more people and come to grips with how they treat him differently.
It’s also got one Hell of an emotional impact near the end when certain events transpire. Doesn’t matter how old I am; when I see that scene I still get a little emotional for what’s essentially a robot puppet. That’s good film making. Plus it’s followed by one of the best kick ass revenge suit ups/montages of all times scored to ‘I Need a Hero’ by Bonnie Tyler. What’s not to love about that.
It has it’s faults but it’s miles above a lot of 80’s sequels to popular movies coming out at the time and makes the sensible decision to go out on a high note. 4/5
#342/#59 Short Circuit
(Rewatch)
When prototype military SAINT robot Number 5 is struck by lightning it becomes alive and escapes. NOVA robotics then send their security team and the robots creators Newton Crosby (Steve Guttenberg) and Ben Jabituya (Fisher Stevens) after it. All the while Number 5 searches for input and befriends the animal loving Stephanie (Ally Sheedy). Quickly it learns that killing is wrong and that it does not want to be disassembled by NOVA; opting instead to escape or prove to Crosby that Number 5 is, in fact, alive.
Continuing to ride the nostalgia wave, this was another childhood classic. Upon rewatch it’s pretty clear to see both Guttenburg and Sheedy are incredibly boring and bland in their roles. Anyone could have played their parts and it might have injected a little more life into the film. Similarly Stevens, whom I still find good in his role, is kinda racist by today’s standards. It’s a white guy essentially in ‘brown face’ playing an Indian. Time is not going to look back favourably on this casting choice as the years go on. This, however, doesn’t stop the fact that his lines and personality are the second best thing in the movie, after No 5, and probably the reason he’s the star in the sequel.
The main draw of Short Circuit though, has got to be Johnny 5. Like Crocodile Dundee the personality and design of the machine, matched with the wonderful voice acting/puppeteering of Tim Blaney, are enough to carry the whole film on just the one awesome character. We get to experience Johnny 5 taking his first steps towards sentience, his desire for input and his growth as a character. We grow to love his bad impressions, his kooky sense of humour and just his general likability.
This is a very 80’s film, and I’m not sure how much you would enjoy it if you saw it for the first time as an adult, but for me I still enjoy the lovable little scamp and boring supporting cast or not, I’ll still be checking out this film for years to come. 4/5
