Short Circuit 2 (1988)

I've been a long-time fan of Short Circuit and it's sequel, Short Circuit 2. When it comes to DVD's, I'm there! They're great in so many ways. The Short Circuit DVD is great in some ways, but definately could've been better.

First off, the film transfer is pretty good. For the first time ever, I was able to watch the film in widescreen, while before I was only able to view the "fitted to TV" 3:4 aspect ratio (for any fans of the 3:4 picture, this DVD IS double-sided and HAS the 3:4 picture size version as well). The colours are vibrant (but not too vibrant), the picture is sharp, and there are only a few blemishes and dirt marks on the film. The sound was great! Sure, it hadn't been remastered in Dolby 5.1, but it still was Dolby Surround. The music was MUCH clearer than what was heard on the VHS version. Many areas of the film's musical score which were barely audible before were very clear on the DVD.

Here's the bit of down-side to this DVD: there are hardly any extras. The making-of featurette is at most five minutes long, and though we do get to see that Fisher Stevens is very unlike his character Ben Jarhvi, it ends very abruptly. The movie trailer section doesn't even include the Short Circuit 2 trailer. It would have been nice if more extras had been inserted, like the Short Circuit Special Edition DVD.

If you're a fan of Short Circuit though, you should get this DVD. It's more worth it than getting the VHS version :)

It would probably be much like this; two everyman protagonists, themes of loneliness and isolation and yearning, a robot who is far more humane than his human counterparts...

Unlike the first Short Circuit Movie where there wasn't much time to explore the character of Jonhhy Five, or invest the machine with character, the second film does just that and it does it very well. The viewer's suspension of disbelief is fully engagedeven as an adult I find myself lulled into feeling a deep sesne of pathos and compassion for Number Johnny Five. This is in part due to an amazing pre-CGI special effects/machine team and also due to the exceptionally unselfconscious acting of the human cast: Fisher Stevens ((the bad guye from hackers)) is truly phenomenal as Ben Jharvi, an Indian ((I think)) computer programmer who is as inept at expressing his feelings as Johnny Five is as understanding his own); Michael McKean and Cynthia Gibb are also great (McKean is perfect as a petty conman who betrays and then saves Johnny Five). The actors did an amazing job interacting with the machine and their performances add subtly dazzling layers of humor and sentiment to whta could have been a really awful movie but instead becomes a marvelous thing to watch.

OK. The script is somewhat shoddy at times and the pacing is not so well-handled. There are some dead-end scenes, but for the most part everything really hangs together wellJohnny Five stumbles through several mishaps trying to understand why humans behave as they do and why he feels what he feels. Oh, there's a chase scene set to the godawful "I need a hero," song. The kitschy 80's pop score wears a tad thin afterawhile. But then, this is a kid film at heart, and a rather unique one at that.

One scene always breaks my heart, one of my all-time favorite poignant scenes: Johnny five, after being caught by the cops, is taken and chained in the police basementthe stolen property room. He is slowly reading two books, page by page. His friends come to have him releasedwhen allowed to leave he breaks his chains easily and sadly leaves (you see, he could have left at anytime had he wanted to; there's some Sadean undertones in how #J5 repeatedly allows himself to be demeaned and debased and almost destroyed by humans without fighting back lethallywhich he easily could... a postmodern and mechanical kin to Justine, perhaps).

The books he was so slowly reading were Pinochio and Frankenstein. It always slays me, just like the Rockbiter's monologue in The Never Ending Story ("They look like big, strong hands...").

This one is so much better, in my opinion, than Spielberg's execrable A.I., if only in that Stevie over-reached himself (again) on that crite film; trying to make a 'serious' film about 'serious' issues... and then he tacked on a completely odious ending.

This film has no such pretensionsit mostly aims at fun. Because of that it achieves more than most serious cinema struggling with the same themes of technology and identity.

Buy Short Circuit 2 (1988) Now

What to do now there's no more Short Circuit movies to watch? Why was there never a third? And why, apart from Johnny 5, was Fisher Stevens the only original character brought back?

Those were only minor quibbles for a great movie. And the god awful cover art, which the more I look at, the more I hate. But then they could have done worse. It could have been a white background with the two main characters photoshopped in.

I really enjoyed the first Short Circuit movie. The second? Even better. With more fun from Johnny, including even more interaction with Ben (Fisher Stevens), and more fun-ness, including making the toy Johnny 5's dance, and more, Short Circuit betters the first.

I was kinda disappointed that Stephany didn't reappear for the second movie, she was a bit of a miss, and was only mentioned a couple of times, apart from a voice recording but at least she wasn't completely forgotten about.

What's good about reading other reviewer's ... reviews is that the amount of people is saw this when they were young. I always seem to get introduced to these movies a lot later in life for example I'm a nearly mid-twenty something and seeing this for the first time. What would it have been like to see it as a child? That, I can only dream about.

Short Circuit 2 pretty much follows on from the first, with Ben now in the big city, trying to sell his toy Johnny's on the street, next to a fake Rolex selling vendor. A toy buyer, Sandy, stumbles across a toy Johnny after it 'escapes' and brings it back. Talk of money is banded about, and next thing Ben knows, he needs to make 1000, in 31 days. With the fake Rolex selling vendor, Fred (Michael McKean) as his partner. But bad guys want to break into a bank to steal some priceless jewels, but how are they going to do it? The rest is predictable, but fun.

Jack Weston appears as one of the bad guys, who befriends Johnny, in order to get him on his side, finding out he is incredibly naive. For any eighties rom-com fan will recognise him from Dirty Dancing, as Max Kellerman. (For anyone who hasn't seen this or Dirty Dancing, boy do you need some education!) Short Circuit 2 actually appears to have been Jack Weston's last movie before he died from lymphoma in 1996.

I'm disappointed there was never another Short Circuit movie. And another one. And another one. And another one. It could have been a great franchise. But what's good is normally best left to a minimum, before it loses its glow. Short Circuit didn't pander to the major franchising deals, the endless mindless sequels, and instead left the world a different place with just the two films.

Now where do I buy a little Johnny 5?

Read Best Reviews of Short Circuit 2 (1988) Here

I saw the original Short Circuit when it first came out and recently bought it on DVD. I enjoyed it just as much and found that age had not dimmed the humour. I had no idea a sequel had been made until Amazon emailed me to let me know (that is a great service by the way). Normally sequels are a letdown so I was in two minds whether to order it or not but thought, why not as the price was right. I am pleased that I did as again I thoroughly enjoyed it and can honestly say that the sequel is just as good as the original. Without giving away the storyline, there are some sad moments where I was amazed to find myself empathising with a robot!!

This is one of those movies that while lightweight, do make you feel good after watching them and I do believe that we need a dash of this every now and again.

Want Short Circuit 2 (1988) Discount?

In the first "Short Circuit" film, Number Five was viewed as more of a prop than a character. While the story revolved around a robot coming to life, the story seemed to focus more on the reactions of the people it interacted with than the robot himself. In this film, Number Five (who has adopted the name "Johnny Five") is a main character. He is given more of a personality, a bigger sense of humor, but most importantly, he is given emotion. Johnny Five knows he is alive, but he struggles throughout the film trying to prove it to the rest of the world.

Humor is not the main goal in this film (although it does exist); the movie is more of a drama. You almost forget that the main character who gets depressed with the fact that no one will accept him is a robot.

While not as funny as the first one, what the film lacks in humor it makes up with feeling. You'll even cry as Johnny is confronted by a group of thugs (I won't spoil it for you). That's not to say that there aren't good jokes along the way (one in particular when Ben, who already struggles with English, is prompted by Johnny Five while attempting to woo a girl).

Another plus with this film is the presence of muliple plots. This gives the movie a faster pace than the original. Ben, J5's co-creator, is attempting to break into the toy business (with some help from con man Michael McKean); two thugs, using Ben's warehouse as a means of breaking into the vault across the street, are terrorizing the two would-be toy makers; and Ben is struggling to win the love of a girl who sees him as nothing more than just a toy maker. There is nothing to bog this film down, and in the end, all the plots come together nicely.

All in all, this is a GREAT movie!!!

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