Number 5 is alive!
If you've seen Short Circuit, there is a good chance you already have a smile on your face. If you saw it as a child, there is an even better chance you are thinking about the time you watched it with friends or maybe played it out in the park. That's the power of cinema.
Struck by lightening, No. 5 (voiced by Tim Blaney), a robot constructed at Nova Technologies, a defense firm, starts behaving like a human. Its hunger for "input" (information) leads it to Stephanie Speck (Ally Sheedy) who initially thinks of it as an alien but eventually takes on the task of protecting it from Nova Technologies who now wants to destroy No.5. Helping her along the way is the creator of Number 5, Newton Crosby (Steve Gutenberg).
Short Circuit is a great film is you want to learn word synonyms for No.5, after going through a dictionary, has a tendency to speak them out every chance he gets.
Stephanie Speck: I thought you were alive, Number 5. I let you tear my house to shreds and you're a ROBOT! You're a machine from that dumb war lab place. God, I'm so stupid! Number 5: Stupid - foolish, gullible, doltish, dumbell...
Short Circuit is a great film if you want to laugh-out-loud as the team of military men and scientists try their best to catch Number 5 who seems to always be one step ahead of them.
Skroeder: Maybe it's pissed off. Newton Crosby: It's a machine, Schroeder. It doesn't get pissed off, it doesn't get happy, it doesn't get sad, it doesn't laugh at your jokes... Newton Crosby/Ben Jabituya: ...IT JUST RUNS PROGRAMS!
Short Circuit is an essential watch if you want to wipe tears off your eyes from laughing hard at the dialogues of Ben Jabituya (Fisher Stevens), who in all probability is Apu (Simpsons) reincarnated as a scientist helping Newton find Number 5.
Ben Jabituya: With excitement like this, who is needing enemas?
Howard Marner: Don't tell me its laser is still armed. Ben Jabituya: Bimbo.
Ben Jabituya: Newton, we are wasting valueless time here.
Ben Jabituya: Bye-bye, goofy woman. I enjoyed repeatedly throwing you to the ground.
Stephanie Speck: ...Where're you taking him? Ben Jabituya: This is not being a HIM. It's only being wires and several mechanisms and other such machine-type apparatus, for the Pete of sake - the sate of Peeckle...
Short Circuit is a wonderful 1980s comedy that manages to still amuse audiences after almost three decades of its release. It provides a sense of adventure of the most unlikely kind as a robot goes out in the big bad world and learns the importance of life, that of its own and others.
The magic of Short Circuit is that it works on many levels. It's a look at society and its eagerness to destroy anything that is not the norm. The film is great entertainment full of numerous fun filled chase sequences. Most importantly, it is a film for the entire family, especially the kids who are sure to be charmed by Number 5. As for the ladies, one look at Number 5 copying Travolta's moves from Saturday Night Fever, and you are bound to be floored.
Short Circuit is amongst a group of great children's comedy classics from the 1980s (The Breakfast Club, Flight of the Navigator, Goonies, Herbie Goes Bananas, A Christmas Story, BMX Bandits, ...) that have become essential viewing for the newer generation because even with the passing of time, these films have remained as refreshing and crisp as any new film being released today.
Rating 4.5/5
DVD Information: Special Features: Original Trailer, The Creation of Number 5, Cast & Crew Interviews, Behind the scenes featurette, Commentary. UK Release Date - 19 November 2012 Running Time - 95 Minutes Region Code - Region Free Certificate - PG
