Rating summary
Movie | | 3.0 |
Video | | 4.5 |
Audio | | 3.5 |
Extras | | 3.5 |
Overall | | 3.5 |
Short Circuit 2 Blu-ray Movie Review
Input! Input! Input!!!
Reviewed by Kenneth Brown December 7, 2023
No joke. For three straight years, trips to the video store ended in my renting one of six VHS movies: Return of the Jedi, The NeverEnding
Story, Flight of the Navigator Back to the Future (I, II or III honestly, I wasn't picky), Harry and the Hendersons or my
favorite robo-twosome, Short Circuit and Short Circuit 2. Viewed today, plenty of love and nostalgia remain. Does that make
Short Circuit 2 a great movie? A great sequel? No. It certainly doesn't stand very tall next to the likes of Star Wars, Story
and Back to the Future. And yet there's something about the innocence and thrill of revisiting a childhood favorite. Other people can't see
what you see. Hell, sometimes you can hardly see it. But the more you watch, the more it becomes clear: the reasons a movie connected with you at
a young age. It often doesn't connect in adulthood, but so what? Travelling back to simpler times, free of stress and strain, when you could simply
immerse yourself in the quaint misadventures of a sentient robot and his genius owner/friend/companion (in 2023 a wildly offensive portrayal
of an Indian by a white dude in, ugh, brown face). Fun? Sure, if you can tap into your inner child. Funny? Maybe, if you can regress to the days of
unrefined, easy gag humor. Full of memories? Oh yeah, and that's the sweet spot with Short Circuit 2, a fairly bad movie dripping with the
sweet, sweet nectar of '80s nostalgia.
God, I love Johnny Five...
From Casey Broadwater's 2011
Blu-ray review: My VHS
copy of the first
Short Circuit was well worn by the time I grew out of my
obsessed-with-robots phase. (Okay, alright, I’ve never
entirely grown out of it.) Johnny 5, the film’s sentient robot hero, was a childhood icon right up there with He-Man and the Mario brothers,
so
much so that I even begged my mom to buy the “Five Alive” brand of juice at the grocery store because I was convinced it had something to do
with
the film. (Obsessed, right? At least I stopped short of shouting “Input!” before guzzling it.) That fervor carried over to the sequel, which I remember
loving—and being traumatized by—precisely because of how
dark it seemed. The mohawked punks! The slimy loan shark! The car stereo-
stealing street gang, with their threatening chant: “Los Locos kick your ass, Los Locos kick your face, Los Locos kick your balls into
outer
space!” For a kid’s film,
Short Circuit 2 has an inordinate share of colorful language, including plenty of
hells, more than a few
damns, and at least one
bullshit. And then there’s
that scene—if you saw the film as a kid, you know the one—where
Johnny
5 gets brutally chopped up by two ax-toting thugs. This didn’t exactly scar me for life—like, say, watching
Salo at twelve would’ve—but I
can’t
imagine a scene with that kind of intensity making it into a children’s film today.
I caught the original
Short Circuit on cable a few years ago—and was in a nostalgic enough mood to watch it—but until last night I hadn’t
seen
Short Circuit 2 since I was maybe ten or eleven. I had a good idea what to expect, though: lots of cheesy 80s keyboard music and
slap
bass, a few
take a look at that brick of a cell phone-type moments of marveling at how far technology has come, and the inevitable sour
disappointment I always feel when revisiting something I loved as a kid, only to discover that it’s actually garbage—pop culture detritus. I imagine
this is how eight-year-olds today will feel when, in twenty year’s time, they rewatch, I dunno, whatever CGI adventure currently sits on top of
the box office charts. For the most part, I got exactly what I expected. The music in
Short Circuit 2 is indeed ridiculous, and the outdated
tech is worth a laugh, but—
but—I can’t quite bring myself to dismiss the film entirely as a junky ephemeral novelty from the 1980s. Yes,
the
Short Circuit sequel is corny and occasionally obnoxious, and no, it’s not what anyone would call a great or even
good film, but
it’s still fun and funny, even twenty-five years after its theatrical debut. While adult me may not—understandably—enjoy movies like this anymore, I
can see smart-aleck members of today’s under-10 set getting caught up in Johnny 5’s big city exploits.
You know what else is weird? For a
long time—an embarrassingly long time—I thought Fisher Stevens was, in fact, ethnically Indian. He’s
not, of course, but he plays an Indian here, Benjamin Jahrvi, the engineer sidekick from the first film who takes top billing here in the sequel. (His
last name is also changed, inexplicably, from Jabituya.) Benjamin has since moved to New York, where he sells tiny replicas of Johnny 5 on the
street, hoping he can follow the rags-to-riches American Dream trajectory by getting his toys sold in chain stores across the country. He gets his big
break when department store buyer Sandy Banatoni (Cynthia Gibb)—cue love interest—sees one of the mini-Johnny 5s and orders 1,000 units.
Jahrvi has no way of manufacturing the robots in bulk, but two-bit hustler and con man Fred Ritter (Michael McKean) sees a way to make a quick
buck and, after borrowing start-up money from a loan shark, helps Jahrvi set up shop in a decrepit warehouse. (“You borrowed money from a
fish?” Jahrvi asks.) There’s one problem: the warehouse is also home to a pair of bumbling thieves who—at the bidding of Oscar (Jack
Weston), a crooked bank teller—plan to tunnel from the basement into the vault next door, which temporarily holds a collection of jewelry worth
some thirty-seven million dollars. When the stars of the first film—Steve Guttenberg and Ally Sheedy—send Johnny 5 to the warehouse to help on
Jahrvi’s assembly line, the sentient bot with a heart of gold finds himself in all kinds of urban trouble, from getting kicked out of bookstores to
inadvertently falling in league with the jewel thieves.
There’s not much of a story here—the sequel is less politically charged than its predecessor—but the film bumbles its way graciously enough
through
a series of comedic sticky situations. Johnny 5 gets graffitied by thugs—who cover him from antennae to tracks in bright neon paint—and helps
Jahvri woo Sandy like a mechanical
Cyrano de Bergerac. Meanwhile, the criminal goings-on play out with predictable, but entertaining,
certainty. First-time director Kenneth Johnson—perhaps best known for the horrible Shaquille O’Neal superhero film
Steel—works hard at
pulling our heartstrings while he tickles our funny bones. This is a kind of modern day
Pinocchio tale, after all, and we’re meant to
sympathize with the self-aware but perpetually misunderstood Johnny 5. When the charismatic robot goes to a Catholic church with questions about
his soul, an angry priest, thinking it’s a prank, chases him off. Poor Johnny just wants to fit in, and if the film has an underlying theme, it’s about
outsiders trying to be accepted. Jahvri, in a way, is Johnny’s human analogue, a gullible immigrant who wants nothing more than American
citizenship. It’s a shame a real Indian couldn’t have been cast as Jahvri—the
Short Circuit films fit in that long, slightly embarrassing
lineage
of Hollywood movies featuring white dudes in brown face—but to his credit, Fischer Stevens is quite good here, speaking in charmingly dorky
malapropisms. (“Oh, my, how time is fun when you’re having flies, huh?”) As always, Michael McKean plays a terrific sleaze. The star, though, is the
Tim Blaney-voiced Johnny 5, rockin’ a red bandana and a metal chassis adorned with Greenpeace and rainbow stickers. Try not to cry when he gets
axed.
Short Circuit 2 Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality
Short Circuit 2 was first released on Blu-ray in 2011 by Image Entertainment, and Sony's 1080p/AVC-encoded video transfer appears (to my
eyes) to be sourced from the same or a comparable master. Typically that would be a complaint, but in this case, I'm not sure the film could look much
better than it does here. I've given the transfer a 4.5 score (reasoning ahead), while Casey Broadwater gave the Image Entertainment encode a 4.
However, I really think that comes down to our subjectivity rather than the suggestion that Sony's encode is noticeably superior. All that said, wow! I
thoroughly enjoyed my revisit with Johnny Five, especially since Sony's video presentation left me with little to nitpick. Colors are bright and vivid,
skintones are largely natural (albeit a bit hot and oversaturated on a few occasions), and black levels are nice and deep without sullying the image's
shadow delineation. Edges are crisp and clean too, though a scant few shots border on exposing too much of the remaster's post-sharpening, and
textures are surprisingly well resolved, particularly in regards to close-ups. There are plenty of scenes that struggle with softness but it all traces back
to the original photography. And the grain field, faint and consistent, doesn't draw attention to itself. Moreover, banding, blocking and other anomalies
are absent, leaving Short Circuit 2 to stand on its own two treads. I was pleased from beginning to end.
Short Circuit 2 Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality
Sony's DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 stereo track is also quite similar, if not identical, to Image Entertainment's 2011 LPCM 2.0 mix. From Casey
Broadwater's review: While it's unfortunate that the film couldn't have been given a full 5.1 presentation—there are, after all, sequences in Short
Circuit 2 that practically call out for city street ambience and swooshing cross-channel effects—I have no real qualms with this disc's stereo track.
Sure, some of the effects lack punch and there's little separation between the left and right channels, but there's really nothing wrong with this
capable, if understated mix. The most prevalent element is probably David Shire's bouncy, stereotypically 1980s score, complete with popping slap bass
straight out of the Seinfeld theme, and the music sounds as clear and dynamic as can be expected. Likewise, the front-anchored mix does what
it can with the film's action scenes, and while there's little low-end presence, I can at least say the mix doesn't sound tinny, mid-heavy, muffled, or
clipped. Throughout the film, dialogue is always well-balanced and easy to understand.
Short Circuit 2 Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras
Holy crap (he says with full 1988 inflection). Short Circuit 2 actually earns a full supplemental suite that's as impressive as those produced
for far more beloved classic films. In his 2011 review of Image Entertainment's barebones Blu-ray, Casey Broadwater doubted -- as did I -- that any
special features for Short Circuit 2 even existed. But lo and behold, extras! Sony's new Blu-ray edition offers a nice package of content that
adds value to what could be an otherwise average release.
- Audio Commentary - Director Kenneth Johnson's audio commentary is a fun listen. He even sounds a bit surprised to be chatting
about the film. Production details, on-set anecdotes, stories of various challenges overcome (often in regards to the practical robotics) and more are
discussed at length.
- Here's Johnny Five: Making Short Circuit 2 (HD, 16 minutes) - A newly produced behind-the-scenes featurette rife with
retrospective interviews and vintage photos and production footage.
- Nuts & Bolts: Writing Short Circuit 2 (HD, 12 minutes) - Dreaming up the sequel and putting it to paper.
- Storyboard Sequences (HD, 11 minutes) - With non-optional director's commentary.
- Rehearsal Videos (HD/SD, 27 minutes minutes) - Another surprise comes with this lengthy rehearsals reel.
- Actor Profile: Fisher Stevens (SD, 3 minutes) - Danger, danger! You're going the wrong way! Look, I get it. In 1988, Stevens'
return as then fan-favorite Benjamin was problem free. And this is the only archive featurette on the disc. But today his performance can be so
problematic. All the same, here it is, circa 1988.
- Behind-the-Scenes Still Gallery (HD, 15 minutes) - An array of still photos.
Short Circuit 2 Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation
Johnny Five will live forever in my heart. Is Short Circuit 2 a great flick? No. A good movie? Maybe, if you have plenty of nostalgia and can
overlook its... um, outdated qualities (looking at you, Fishie). But as a Blu-ray release? Sony delivers a strong video presentation, solid lossless stereo
mix and -- shock of all shocks -- quite a full little supplemental package, with newly produced features and everything. Fans won't be disappointed.
Newcomers? Well, hope you love 1988. Like, a lot.