In A Nutshell
As many of you may know, the story takes place in Oregon. Guttenberg plays a genius engineer who, with the help of Fisher Stevens, has created a military focused robot, a device that can take orders remotely as well as give and take a lot of punishment in military environments. The film begins innocently enough, five units, numbered simply one through five, are brought out for a demonstration in front of the Top Brass and other notable figures whose approval means millions of dollars for the fictitious engineering and research firm. The demonstration goes well, but Number 5 is later inadvertently given a power surge to his systems, and after that, malfunctions and is no longer responsive to orders.
The bulk of the film centers on the firm trying to recapture Number 5, who accidentally falls into a garbage truck and escapes the campus undetected. Once word of his absence gets to Austin Pendleton’s character, the director of said firm, he sends out the firepower happy security chief character played by GW Bailey to recapture him. As it turns out, Number 5 ends up very quickly at the home of Ally Sheedy’s character, a free spirited, animal loving, single woman who has trouble with men. When Guttenberg and Stevens arrive the next day, having used a homing device to track Number 5, a weak romantic story begins between Sheedy and Guttenberg as well as a reluctant mutual decision to continue to run and hide Number 5 from the firm so that he doesn’t get used as a war machine.
Budget Blu-ray Price = Not So Good Quality?
Short Circuit is only about $10 on Amazon right now, and that is arguably one of the better prices you’ll find on any Blu-ray, much less a fairly new release like this one. Part of the reason could be the iffy presentation quality of Short Circuit on Blu-ray. While I would say it’s definitely better than previous releases (from what I have seen and read online), the video quality here is still noticeably less than even other 80s movies on Blu-ray, like Commando from Fox. That said, I thought that Short Circuit had plenty of good-looking moments, just know that there will be a lot of low-resolution and grainy scenes too.
In terms of audio, Short Circuit includes an impressive DTS-HD audio track. While it’s not going to blow you away, you might have expected less given the video quality and the low price of this release.
Extra Input
This release contains several extra features. First up is a commentary track featuring director John Badham and writers S.S. Wilson and Brent Maddock. There is also another audio track called the Isolated Music and Effects Track that is an interesting idea that I hadn’t seen before. Enabling this feature will play an audio track during film playback that features no dialogue. More features include sixty minutes of cast and crew interviews, as well as text biographies on some of the main cast and crew. A stills gallery, behind the scenes footage totaling around ten minutes, filmed originally during the release and creation of the film are also included for fans. I thought that “The Creation of Number 5” feature was interesting; it basically showed original footage of director Badham and his special effects crew designing and creating Johnny 5; neat stuff.