Short Circuit 2 (1988) Reviews

• A Very Touching Movie

  Gloucester Man2002-06-11

  I thought this was a very touching movie. Johnny 5 is a very sympathetic character with real human-like qualities. I enjoyed the romantic angle and I could identify with all the characters. I bought this video for my Mother and she loved it. Overall, I think this is a very underrated movie and I think this is an instance where the sequel is better than the original. Remember, it's a fantasy - it's good escapism.

• The first movie I ever taped from TV!

  peanutismint2004-10-09

  I have just finished re-watching this pillar of my youth, and was reminded of what a family classic this really is! The sequel to Short Circuit is an improvement on the first film, if only for the inclusion of the then beautiful Cynthia Gibb as Sandy Banatoni (whom I had a HUGE crush on when I first saw the film at the age of around 8). But there are hundreds more memorable moments from the film which came flooding back to me as I watched, much to the annoyance of my housemates. Great film, maybe not in a 'Pulp Fiction/Donnie Darko' sort of way, but great in a 'Bill & Ted/Flight of the Navigator' way, that it's a testament of my youth and will be shown to my kids when I eventually have some! p.s. anyone notice a small similarity between Cynthia Gibb in this film and young Potter star Emma Watson? Weird...

• One Of The Best!!!!!!

  The__Watcher2001-02-02

  This brings back memories from my childhood. I used to watch this movie when I was a little kid and I loved it. Johnny 5 is so kool and Ben is funny. This is a great movie for the family , especially for kids. Probably the best family movie out there and probably better than the first Short Circuit.

• Johnny 5 alive?You'd better believe it!

  slapmonkeyfilms2001-03-05

  An entertaining film,equal in standard to the first offering involving the loveable robot Johnny 5.We see him travelling to the big city where he meets up with his creator Ben.Johnny turns into a more streetwise robot throughout the film culminating in a thrilling and tearjerking climax.Also the use of telephone dialing tones to reveal Johnny's location was a surprisingly clever touch.Fun for all the family.No dissasemble Jonny 5 never!

• Still makes me cry... heh

  DoctorMuffins2007-08-06

  Short Circuit 2, for all its inherent '80s cheese, is a genuinely touching film. Through very well-worn staples of robots-with-emotions stories, it explores the nature of personality and what it really means to be alive. However, it avoids total redundancy by pairing Johnny Five, a brainy, kindly robot with retro pop culture references just popping out of his head, with Benjamin, a nerdy, overzealous soon-to-be citizen played with equal silliness and empathy by Fisher Stevens. Two scenes in particular truly stand out: one, when Johnny Five has been arrested, he sits chained to a wall contemplatively reading Pinocchio and Frankenstein. In another, after Five has been mercilessly beaten (as an adult, it still makes me cry), he meets up with Fred, played by Michael McKean. Too injured to speak and running on a stolen car battery, Johnny Five desperately (yet painfully slowly) scrawls his pleas for help on an alley wall with a rock. This film has many flaws from both technical and aesthetic viewpoints, but I still just can't divorce myself from how moving it is to watch a robot genuinely struggle to be alive in both a physical and metaphysical sense.