The Newark Advocate from Newark, Ohio • 39

PAGE 3 THE ADVOCATE ENTERTAINER NEWARK, O. MAY 22, 1986 Film critic feels 'Short Circuit' deserves new rating category Finally, two more illustrations of what kind of movie Short Circuit is. First, there is a totally worthless scene in which an American Gothic couple, who never before land never again appear, are stopped at a roadblock and Granny says to Gramps, "I hope you took the grass out of the glove compartment." Ah, drug humor. Great stuff, especially when you can get the older generation involved. And then there is this: In the press brochure on Short Circuit are six count 'em, six pages of technical credits, ranging from the director to a note of appreciation to the Army Corps of Engineers, Bonneville Dam.

The cast list takes up a single page, a page-and-a-half counting stuntmen. A real "people" movie. Short Circuit, rated PG is showing at Newark Cinema Four, 1065 Mt. Vernon Plaza Shopping Center. Daily matinees.

spite such considerable input. Five still has great trouble speaking in complete sentences. But, then, so does the dismayed scientist's colleague, a Paskitani who has mastered fractured English. Yes, very cute and sometimes even slightly naughty. Oh, the romance.

Stephanie and Five's inventor, Newton Crosby (Steve Guttenberg), finally meet and after a proper interval of mutual antagonism wind up on the same side, trying to save Five from its merciless pursuers. Director Badham no doubt became acutely aware after "WarGames" of the almost fail-safe potential for success to be found in movies in which the real star is technology. What he's apparently forgotten is that an at least mildly credible story and a few credible human beings also help. All of the actors, including Fisher Stevens, Austin Pendleton and G.W. Bailey, in addition to Sheedy and Guttenberg, are secondary to Five.

manufacturing the robots, run, naturally, by an idiot assisted by a security chief with Gestapo-like mentality. But a Higher Authority intervenes and, during an electrical storm, Five becomes alive. A thinking, feeling thing with an insatiable hunger for knowledge. Definitely not human with all thoseattributes, but akin. To condense all this expository material.

Five gets out of the compound and winds up in the lunch wagon of Stephanie Speck (Ally Sheedy), whose idealism is exceeded only by her naivete. The rest of Short Circuit mostly deals with a cat-and-robot chase to retrieve the errant Five, which by now is doing countless cute things, such as a John Wayne imitation and cooking breakfast. It has also digested, mentally, all volumes of an encyclopedia, a dictionary, a driver's manual and other invaluable sources of enlightenment, among them television. Strangely, de Intrpducmff (ktrChmwvuea Mvsastof it you ve been looking tor a Soup Salad bar that really By BILL HAGEN Copley News Service HOLLYWOOD Short Circuit is -ghastly thought a harbinger of summer (how about a collaborative campaign among all the studios, "Summer's a one of those cloyingly cute, mindless movies in which practically all of whatever thought was expended on it went into the gimmickry, the smidgen that, remained into the story. It's the kind of movie hardly the only one that should carry a new rating category, something like "Anyone over the age of 13 not admitted unless accompanied by a child." In short, it has box-office blockbuster written all over it.

The most ringing praise I heard on leaving the movie was, "Well, it's kind of cute." Cute fits. Everything about Short Circuit is cute, from the erector-set robot hero, to the robot's best friend, a spunky, thoroughly contemporary young woman who runs a health-food lunch wagon, deplores war and pollution and stuff like that and loves animals. The screenplay by Brent Maddock and S.S. Wilson was written, according to production notes, as an assignment for a screenwriting workshop at the UCLA Extension School, which, considering what has reached the screen, is as plausible as it may be heartwarming. The pivotal figure is, of course.

Five, modestly described by director John Badham as "an ultra high-tech creation that is decades ahead of his day." Five may be brighter than the average robot, but in appearance its not terribly sophisticated. Anyhow, Five is the creation of yet another of those incredibly naive Hollywood scientists who thought it would be used mostly for serving drinks at parties, or partys, and is dismayed that has been turned into with the dismayed scientist's input, of course a formidable weapon of war. After Five and his four predecessors have put on an explosive demonstration through use of their laser eyes and such for military officials, the robots are dispatched to work as waiters at a celebratory party, host for which is the conscienceless conglomerate satisfies, you'll find itat Frisch's. stmwoffthebrouer. Our buffet includes i mi MKCWwru'Wit 2 soups, all the salad fixin's, cheese and and fresh fruit.

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