#27: Short Circuit

Release Date: May 9th, 1986

Format: DVD

Written by: Brent Maddock and S.S. Wilson

Directed by: John Badham

2.5 Stars

It’s difficult to be objective with this review. A Short Circuit VHS was in regular rotation at my mom’s house from the time I was five or six-years-old, and I’ve seen this movie dozens of times.

But it had been a few years since I’d seen it, so I fired up a DVD copy with Dakota and watched it on a Saturday night while drinking margaritas.

She had never seen it, so watching it with her forced me to try and see it with a fresh perspective. My take? It’s a great idea for a movie, with incredible robotics and practical effects, but a mediocre script, direction, and casting. 

In different hands this movie could genuinely explore the sentience of AI robots, their role in the military, and the responsibility of scientists in their creation. It’s begging for a Terminator meets Frankenstein philosophical exploration, and disguising it as a broad family comedy would make it even more brilliant. I could only imagine the possibilities if you gave this story idea to Steven Spielberg in 1986 and he spent $50 million on it. I don’t doubt that he could have turned it into something as special as E.T.   

But instead we’re given John Badham as the director with a $15 million budget. He’s a mediocre director and he has a mediocre male lead in Steve Guttenberg. Ally Sheedy is good, and Fisher Stevens is very good (Dakota had no idea he’s a white actor in brown face…I’m convinced not a single person who has ever watched Short Circuit has recognized that, that’s how convincing Stevens’ performance is).

But the real star of the movie is of course Number 5. Even in 2024 the robot effects work well and the character is charming. Enough to make this a good movie? If you’re a young boy in the early ‘90s, definitely.