Short Circuit
Published 2013-04-08
Film info
- Title Short Circuit
- Director John Badham
- Year 1986
- Run time 1hr 38m
- Genres Science Fiction, Family, Comedy
- Tagline Something wonderful has happened... no. 5 is alive!
An experimental military robot escapes after being struck by lightning and given human intelligence. He finds a home with madcap Stephanie Speck who believes he's an alien. Hot on their trail are scientists Newton Crosby and his assistant who must get to their creation before the army does, since its plan is to put Number 5 out of service permanently.
Live Blog
| Time | Comment |
|---|---|
| 0:36 | Something tells me this won't have aged well at all. It'll still be awesome though. |
| 2:39 | I can't remember the last time I saw wild poppies. |
| 3:45 | It's like Robot Wars but on a massive scale. |
| 10:35 | "Better get number five off that generator..." That's a setup if ever I heard one. |
| 15:32 | Cows! |
| 18:11 | People don't like it when you answer rhetorical questions. |
| 23:36 | That lady has a pet raccoon. Weird. |
| 24:23 | He's that excited about going outside. He must get out as much as Mr C does. |
| 28:01 | "We can get to know each other. Communicate. Input." |
| 34:57 | Jeez, if you learnt about the human race from television these days... |
| 39:31 | "Error." |
| 44:09 | Hanging over the edge of a cliff is not a great defensive position to be in. |
| 46:36 | "I am standing here beside myself." |
| 52:41 | Humming robot is cute. |
| 54:40 | Dancing robot may be cuter. |
| 1:03:06 | I think a pancake making robot would go down well in our household. |
| 1:03:40 | Having said that, the robot cooks like Mr C does. |
| 1:11:26 | The robot's playing baseball. Who's on first? |
| 1:12:53 | He's doing the commentary on his own escape. So cool! |
| 1:20:27 | "Today, Crosby, today." How quickly the robot picks up attitude! |
| 1:26:45 | Robot high five. |
Thoughts
Suddenly, Johnny Five was available to rent on iTunes in HD, and that was our cue to watch it. I felt like I had seen the film before, but gradually we came to realise that I'd seen the sequel and not the first. I had no idea Steve Guttenberg was in it!
I hadn't quite realised the Fisher Stevens controversy going into this and only discovered it when noticing - "Hey, that's the guy from Friends but... he's not Indian." So, there's that aspect of it which is a little disconcerting.
Overall, though, the film is fun, the characters are kooky and the robot is über-cool. It's amazing how quickly they can get you to care about a hunk of tin that was designed as a war robot.
Rating: 4 / 5