Short Circuit Movie Review

Advanced robot designed for the military is hit by lightning and begins to think for itself. The vaguely humanoid tin man is taken in by a spacey animal lover (who initially mistakes her visitor for an alien first contact and exults “I always knew They would pick me!”), then hides from meanies at the weapons lab who want their hardware back. Somewhere in here are Asimovian themes about the nature and rights of artificial sentient life forms, but such deep thoughts are buried under tons of slapstick gags and chase scenes apparently designed for short attention spans. A joke reference to the Three Stooges is no accident; everything happens at hyperspeed, and characters are needlessly obnoxious.

1986 (PG) 98m/C Steve Guttenberg, Ally Sheedy, Austin Pendleton, Fisher Stevens, Brian McNamara, G.W. Bailey; D: John Badham; W: S.S. Wilson, Brent Maddock; C: Nick McClean; M: David Shire; V: Tim Blaney. VHS, Beta, LV FOX