The greatest movie ever made..!

Purely Joyful Movie!

It’s fine. It's literally the definition of a fine movie. You’ve seen it before, you know every beat and outcome before the characters even do. Only question is how much escapism you’re looking for.

Excellent and certainly provocative... If nothing else, the film is a real conversation starter.

I watched this film when it was first released and pretty much any time it has been on TV since. My husband and I can quote the dialogue and thoroughly enjoy this movie. It is funny, sweet and life affirming. Short Circuit is a welcome change from the many dystopian sci-fi movies around, then and now, with much humour and a sound message of treasuring life, no matter the form. There are some truly hilarious scenes e.g. the 3 Stooges tribute and excellent effects which have easily stood the test of time. It reminds me somewhat of D.A.R.Y.L which focused on similar themes about the limits and beginning of sentience. As Ally Sheedy says in the film 'We're just machines, and we're alive, who knows how it happens??' What a pleasure to watch it again, and enjoy the film that gave me much joy through the years.

May 9, 2016Number 5 is a cute robot and brought to amazing life through special effects, however, I'm a little confused as to how this is a kids film? It's full of foul language, even from the robot and it got a real dark sense of humor that is more likely to scare kids that entertain them. Number 5 is a cute character when he is not shooting at something with his laser and when his eyes are blood shot red.It's about a series of prototype robots called S.A.I.N.T.S. (Strategic Artificially Intelligent Nuclear Transport) that are built by NOVA Laboratories. Newton Graham (Steve Guttenberg) is the designer of the robots and he disagrees with the companies agenda of using the robots for the Cold War. Number 5 is hit by a lightning storm and has his programming scrambled which gives him a sense of free will and he becomes intelligent. The Robot escapes the facility and ends up on the run with, Stephanie Speck (Ally Sheedy ) while a team of agents are in hot pursuit to recover the robot as his laser is still armed.Number 5 is a battlefield weapon. He moves and talks like a real person and has a strong intelligence he gathers from reading through books at lightening speed. His metallic body and impressive facial structure make him an interesting character to look at. The picture opens with a demonstration of the robots using lasers to blow up several army jeeps. Steve Guttenberg appears as a slack-type brilliant scientist who doesn't like media or press because of the companies intentions with the robots he has made for them. Guttenberg becomes the lucky hero when he must get the robot back before the company he works for loses all their funding.It's got an impressive story but this is a very dark and violent film. Whenever the robot is going to blast something, his eyes turn red and he looks like something nightmares are made of. He has a friendly heart but the army chases him throughout the whole picture and its a gunshot here and a gunshot there. It never rises above a basic premise to give us anything special. It reminded me of ET in the sense that Number 5 is almost like an alien. He is curious and has no assurance of his surroundings. He doesn't know what's going to happen next but he can sense the danger ahead.None of the characters in the picture is interesting except for Ally Sheedy. She is a third major character. She takes care of animals in her home so we can figure out what her personality is but she never does anything in the picture except try to hide the robot until Steve Guttenberg shows up and finally realizes the robot is alive at the last twenty minutes of the movie. When Number 5 shows up on her doorstep, she adopts him thinking he is an alien when she finds him in her ice cream truck. There are a lot of good ideas here but none of them are presented and we're left with a boring premise that showcases Number 5's robotic abilities and the plot never rise above a "Search & Destroy" movie that is too dark and violent for kids.

In Oregon, Number 5 is one of the experimental military robots build by NOVA Robotics. When it gets hit by lightning, its memory gets erased and becomes self-aware. Newton Crosby (Steve Guttenberg) and his assistant Ben Jabituya (Fisher Stevens) are its creator. It gets accidentally thrown out with the trash and gung-ho security captain Skroeder (G. W. Bailey) is sent to retrieve it. It lands on animal lover Stephanie Speck (Ally Sheedy)'s food truck. At first, she thinks it's an alien and Number 5 wants input. Eventually she contacts NOVA but it fears disassemble because "Number 5 is alive." Ally Sheedy is adorable and Steve Guttenberg is adorkable. Sure Ben is a racial stereotype character but Number 5 more than makes up for it by being so much fun. Number 5 is like an adorable baby who grows up with all the pop culture references. It is light charming family fun.

In the spirit of ET, comes an 86 hit, from a director who makes films like John Hughes writs scripts. Though if you look beyond the computer components and the boring banter of this high tech machine facility, what we have is a quite an adventurous, and surprise fun flick. When a experimental robot, among a score of them, is electrocuted and grows smarts and takes off from the facility to tour the splendour of San Francisco, it's creator, likable Guttenberg, a stay in, and his peers, one another Police Academy favourite, are desperate to recover it, where they do whatever it takes. The robot is befriended by a female vet, sweet Sheedy who harbours it, and the two become great friends. The manipulation of the robot is very smart as from the designers of it, and the escape sequences are so well done. Too, I liked the geeky, sleepy voice of one of the managers, as if illustrating sarcastically the enjoyment of this job. Fisher Stevens is a hoot as Guttenberg's assistant, who lectures him on how there's another world outside the facility. SC pretty much has the same kind of approaching climax, whether it's ET, Starman, where Sheedy, who of course strikes up a relationship with Guttenberg, will protect Johnny Five at all costs, from the facility guy who will turn back into an experiment. Not being a lover of kid's flicks, though I was more flexible as a teen, this film had grown on me, and it's song from El Debarge rocks. Certainly a movie for all ages, this couldn't be a more perfect flick for everyone. Of course it spawned a not as successive sequel, not in the same class as the first, with only Stevens staying for it.