Reviewed by Johnny McNair 

Image Entertainment – 99 minutes – 1986 – Unrated – 1080i Widescreen 2.40:1 – DTS HD Master 5.1 Audio 

It’s hard to believe that when the movie Short Circuit was released in 1986 it was considered a technological achievement in filmmaking. With the current release of Pixar’s WALL-E (who bares a striking resemblance to Number 5), the nostalgia of the cute little robot is back. Short Circuit is now available on Blu-ray from Image Entertainment; but unless you are a Steve Guttenberg fan (all two of you), you may want to skip this one.

THE MOVIE

Somewhere in the genre of cuteness, there’s a place for Short Circuit; but in reality the film is extremely dated, feeling more like a Nickelodeon kiddie TV movie. Short Circuit is about a military operation that involves using robots as weapons of mass destruction, but when robot number five is stuck by lightning, he prime directives are eliminated and he begins to think for himself, hence the movie’s tagline “Number five is alive!”

Instead of being a deadly piece of machinery with a laser bolt eyes, he becomes a lovable bundle of bolts that likes watching TV, music and girls. Number five has escaped from his military unit, and being that he’s an expensive and deadly piece of equipment a team has been sent out to capture him by any means necessary. Number five’s creator, Newton Crosby (Steve Guttenberg) knows that they are going to destroy him, and sets out on a mission to get to number five before they do.

Number five has befriended Stephanie (Ally Sheedy) a young woman who shows him the positive and fun things in life, helping him to discover who he is more than a pile of bolts controlled by the military. Crosby finally tracks down number five and his new friend Stephanie, but the military is right on there heals, leading to a chase and race against time to save the lovable robot before they blow him up into scrap metal.

Short Circuit is a family friendly adventure movie that plays it safe in every way. Unfortunately it’s so safe that it locks itself into the 80’s and can’t get out. It may be hard for most of today’s kids to sit through this, because your basic videogame looks so much better. The jokes are lame, the special effects are laughable, and lets not even go into the hairstyles and wardrobe. This movie didn’t age well, but its concept can be recycled and used in many ways, which is why there are a rumors of another Short Circuit film in the works.

This film was believe it or not, directed by John Badham, who directed Saturday Night Fever and War Games, two films that made John Travolta and Mathew Broderick major stars. He’s sort of an odd choice for a cute children’s film, but this movie was a big hit when it was released in 1986, and did spawn a sequel.

Number five’s main problem as character is that he has an identity crises, trying to use so many elements of the other cute movie characters from that decade, such as E.T., the Gremlins, R2D2, and even Yoda. If number five were fleshed out more, he would be just as memorable as those characters, and just as cool toady. But as is, he just like the stars of the film Guttenberg and Sheedy, who never successfully make it out of the 80’s, and fall into the “whatever happened to?” box.

VIDEO

Unfortunately there’s nothing about the image quality that falls into the category of high definition. With only 1080i resolution and a 2.40:1 aspect ratio, Short Circuit looks no better than a DVD. It’s a sharp image, but the colors look faded and the grain is popping in darker scenes so bad that it looks like ants are running across your screen. Skin tones also fall flat; making the actors faces look putty in various scenes. Number five, being metallic and shiny should have really stood out in HD, but he doesn’t, which is a huge disappointment. If Image Entertainment put more care into the transfer of this film, it would have helped with the nostalgia of seeing it again as an adult. For those of you who wanted to see Steve Guttenberg is glorious HD, you’ll need to wait around for Cocoon to be released on Blu-ray.

AUDIO

Being that the real star of the film is a robot, sound is an important selling point for this movie; unfortunately even here the outcome is disappointed, falling in the average box. Short Circuit offers a DTS HD Master 5.1 sound mix, but it was not utilized to the fullest. It’s acceptable, but that it’s, nothing more. And during big actions scenes with heavy music and sound effects, the dialogue gets lost, because it wasn’t separated properly to stand out like you’re used to hearing in current movies. You don’t even need to crank up your surround sound with this one, the TV’s built in speakers will be enough.

EXTRAS

All of the extras have been ported over from the standard DVD, so don’t expect anything to be new and in high-definition. The bonus material literally looks like they found it all in a vault, and was used as an 80’s promotional material.

At least there is an audio commentary featuring director John Badham, and the movie’s writers S.S. Wilson and Brent Maddock. It’s your basic “this is how we did it” watch-and-talk stuff, but the funny thing is these guys sound like they just made The Godfather, instead of some 80’s silly children’s film.

‘Creating Number Five’ is a seven minute featurette on how the initial look for the robot came to be, showing pre-production drawings as well as what went into building it.

There are a serious interviews that all together are an hour long with stars Ally Sheedy and Steve Guttenberg, director John Badham, and the effects/design crew who brought number five to life.

A three minute behind the scenes spot shows a look at how a couple of scenes were filmed, and wow, it looks so dated. Just look at all those giant computers and floppy disks. But at least you’ll get to see Steve Guttenberg raw and in action.

There’s a page-by-page text press kit that with a click a button allows you to read…yes read production notes about the film. Some pictures are also included, so that should make it easier.

BOTTOM LINE

Short Circuit is aimed at a bargain target price of $19.95, which explains the lack of care that went into it. If you have the DVD there is no reason at all to upgrade to this Blu-ray, because the mediocre image and sound quality don’t even merit the purchase. This film is only for people who loved it in their youth; and it would be hard to imagine a kid today sitting through it because it lacks the classic appeal that a film like E.T. has. Proceed with caution on this one.

SCORES (Out of 5):

The Movie: 2.5

Video: 2.5

Sound: 2.0

Extras: 2.0

Bottom Line: 2.5