Sadly Over-hyped

Better Late Then Never

Clever and entertaining enough to recommend even to members of the 1%

The film makes a home in your brain and the only cure is to see it again.

In this environmental disaster sci-fi flick the Earth has been left devastated by exploitation by man. The air has been rendered unbreathable by years of pollution and people have been forced to live in underground cities. A female bodyguard joins forces with a gigolo android with an appalling haircut - the circuitry man – in order to deliver sexual pleasure microchips to an underworld character on the other side of the country. They are pursued, however, by a gang led by an eccentric criminal called Plughead – a man with a headful of sockets.From the above synopsis it should be reasonably obvious that Circuitry Man is a film with quite a lot of imaginative ideas. Given the clearly low-budget you have to cut the movie some slack and say that it at least tried to bring something different to the table. However, it would only be fair to say that the premise is greater than the delivery, as it essentially becomes a chase film once our heroes run away from the bad guys. But it still has enough originality to keep it entertaining for the most part. The Plughead character is played by Vernon Wells who played the very campy bad guy in Commando. It was also followed by a very bad sequel.

After an environmental holocaust, all of the surviving humans have moved underground. With no new frontiers to explore they choose to expand their minds to the extent that one of the most important luxuries to be acquired is a pleasure microchip. "Lori" (Dana Wheeler-Nicholson) is a bodyguard living under Los Angeles who has been pressed into service to protect a smuggler by the name of "Juice" (Lu Leonard). As it so happens, Juice has a briefcase full of microchips she wants to exchange for money to a criminal by the name of "Plughead" (Vernon Wells). Things go wrong during the exchange and Lori winds up with the briefcase and attempts to flee to the underground city of New York with Plughead in hot pursuit. Accompanying her is a pleasure android by the name of "Danner" (Jim Metzler) who agrees to help get her to her destination. The rest of the film involves the chase and the troubles Danner and Lori encounter along the way. Now, although this wasn't necessarily a bad move, I found the wardrobes and some of the characters a bit too far-fetched for my taste and the acting was second-rate as well. That said, in my opinion the only two people I thought contributed anything of interest to this film was Dana Wheeler-Nicholson (who was attractive) and the character of Plughead. Other than that everything seemed to have a hollow feel to it. Others may disagree but overall I found the film slightly below average.

In the future, the earth will become unfit to live due to the end of rainforests and mankind's pollution, with an atmosphere lacking oxygen required for human life..so man went underground, "raping" each other's minds. Vernon Wells is a criminal named Plughead, a bald menace in a suit with plugs throughout his head used to ravage the minds of anyone he so wishes. His rival is Juice(Lu Leonard), an obese, loud, venal kingpin who operates her power in the subterranean version of Los Angeles. Juice "commissions" her former body guard, Lori(Dana Wheeler-Nicholson;Fletch)to protect her in a shady dealing of "chips" with Plughead..if she agrees, then Lori will be able to secure a much better living arrangement, getting out of the corrupt, degraded confines of Los Angeles. In an exchange that goes awry, thanks to police interruption(..detective Beany, played by Paul Willson(the plump barfly always looking for solidarity with his fellow drinkers on CHEERS) if often upstaged by those he's after), Juice and Plughead escape only to contact each other in an argument over the metal case containing the chips. Plughead believes, after snapping her neck, that he's rid of Juice, but chooses to confront Lori, losing the case getting stabbed by her in the process(..Lori's one tough broad). Snatching away the case, Lori persuades a "love machine", a "synthetic"(..a pleasure android manipulated by Juice)named Danner(Jim Metzler)to take her to New York. Danner was promised the whereabouts of this romantic love concocted by Juice if he delivered her the chips(..these chips are like narcotics for those with "outlits" in their heads), and Lori informs him that she will give the location of this girl is he will perform the task she wishes. Picking up a filthy derelict along the way(Dennis Christopher in an embarrassing performance, this is far away from his BREAKING AWAY day, that's for sure)who fed on leeches to survive as they travel the underground maze(..it looks like a parking garage, and probably was)to where the exit to "topside"(..above ground, in order to survive in the atmosphere, oxygen tanks are a must, which is why Lori and Danner take their trashy guest along thanks to his supply)is located. Following behind is Plughead and his new lieutenant, Yoyo(Barbara Alyn Woods, dressed in a suit, kind of a gunsel)who had worked for Juice and moves from one criminal to the next, and is a bit of a maneater. Soon Plughead will align himself with a gang of biker bandits as they pursue our heroes.While I found the cast mostly entertaining, this film disappointed me in certain areas, because there are several sequences where the action is shot off screen. There's a moment, for instance, where Danner challenges a trucker(..hauling oxygen tanks)to a game of pool. Danner is able to knock the 8-ball in one break yet it all occurs away from our eyes, only seen in the expressions on the faces around the table. Not very long after, Lori defends Danner in an altercation against those in the building so that he can escape a chamber lacking oxygen, with all most of the fighting away from our view..if Lori is a tough girl, then let us see her in action! Another scene has the trucker, giving Danner and Lori a ride, being pulled apart by motorcycles at Plughead's command, yet again we do not see it. Even at the end, during the climactic shootout between police and the bikers as Danner and Plughead have a "cerebral duel", both instances are never visually realized(..we never see the result of the shootout or Danner's final strike to escape the mind of his adversary). I'm guessing the film was low budget, not funded enough to stage big action sequences, but the failure to deliver left me wanting. And, seeing Wells with wires plugged in his head is pretty laughable, removing the menace he's supposed to convey. The desert becomes a major setting for the middle portion of the film as we see very little left after mankind's natural destruction.The idea of subterranean cities I think is a nifty concept, but CIRCUITRY MAN doesn't really have the monetary capabilities to fully establish such an ambitious concept. I think many will probably respond more to Danner and Lori's burgeoning romance rather than the plot they're involved in. Wells is in a handful of scenes, dispersed throughout, which is probably a good thing because if one looks at him too long, he'd probably induce giggles and rolling eyes. I can understand the cult for it, due to it's campy nature, but as serious sci-fi, CIRCUITRY MAN isn't quite up to the standard. My favorite sequence has the viewer within the twisted mind of Plughead where a mass of collected bodies appear as Danner must defeat him in his desired setting(..Wells' face carries a withered demonic shape).

It's an okay film. No monsters, no aliens, no computer graphics. What makes this film interesting is it is able to convey a plot with a modest to say the least budget a scifi film. It reminds me of William Gibson and Jonathan Lethem's writing in style and noirish presentation. The only thing wrong with it is the stupid, sad, and moronic atempts at humor. Especially that polic officer assistant that is supposed to be a comic relief. Other than that, you have to give the filmmaker's credit.