Coeur circuit 2

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!

Number Five is back! This time he goes to New York City to help his co-creator Ben Jahrvi (Fisher Stevens) making toys-tiny robots that look just like Five. And he has named himself "Johnny Five"! Can you imagine what will happen when Johnny realizes that he's in a big city (No one has told that to him...he was put in a box to be transferred from Montana to where Ben is located...because they know how curious and crazy for input he is) and then goes out exploring just about everywhere?

Johnny talks a lot more like a human than he used to, but people still treat him like a ridiculous-looking machine, they don't know he is alive, and they are not willing to believe it. As Johnny Five helps Ben and his partner Fred Ritter (Michael McKean), we can see Johnny is very intelligent, cheerful, full of life and loves to help. And then, Oscar Baldwin (Jack Weston), a man who's about to steal some really valuable jewelry, notices Johnny's being naive, enthusiastic about helping people and his abilities. He and two other thieves proceed to cheat and use Johnny Five. But Johnny will go chasing them soon after he's aware of what has happened. The movie is dramatic, breath-taking, dynamic and heart-warming.

Interestingly, the endings of the original and of the sequel are quite opposite in some way, but they are both happy ones. Tim Blaney, as the voice of Johnny Five, successfully brought the character to life. Michael McKean as Fred, a smart, a little bit greedy salesman, who basically is not a bad guy. He played so beautifully that he made Fred become a very charming guy!

I want to thank the creators, the entire cast and the crew for this extraordinary work. Also, the soundtrack is great. Johnny Five is so charismatic, When you watch this film you will fall in love with this remarkable life form immediately!

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.

This movie takes the robot Johnny 5 on a magical whirlwind tour of New York. He meets up with his friend and creator Ben Jahrvi they have fun, and Ben falls for an uptown girl. Johnny 5 comes to the aide of his friend and rescues the bank from a heist that he helped! Sounds like a lot to pack into the film but Steve does a great job of getting everything it needs to be into the small amount of time that this film takes up in our small meaningless lives. If you haven't seen this movie, I suggest you rent it. Forget the blockbuster's and just rent this down to home comical romp through the lives or Ben and Johnny 5, I guarantee you will not regret it.

Since Number 5 vanished into hiding with Newton and Stephanie in Montana, Ben Jahrvi has gone to New York to continue his career in robotic engineering. His options however, are limited and his new job sees him building toy Number 5's in the back of his van (which is also his home and office) and selling them on the street. A chance encounter with toy buyer Sandy Banatoni nets him an order for 1000 in only a month or two. Street hustler Fred helps him get premises for a factory (albeit a condemned one) in Midtown Manhattan. However unbeknownst to any of them the factory is already populated by bank thieves looking to tunnel into the bank across the road and steal a stock of diamonds. Their plans are greatly helped by the real Number 5 arriving on the scene but how will he react when he learns that outside the factory doors is a city full of input.

Following on from the guilty pleasure of the original film, Short Circuit 2 brings Johnny 5 to a city that looks like New York in the same way as a goldfish looks like a shark. The narrative itself is a mixed bag as it runs together plots about toy manufacture, jewel heists, a romance and 5's ongoing struggle to fit in and be accepted as a living being rather than a machine. The majority of it is very basic stuff and just produces noisy stuff that kids will enjoy but will do little for many others. The romance aspect is forced and unconvincing and is the one part of the film that should have been totally dropped. The strength of the film is 5's attempts to fit in and his internal struggle with the desire to be accepted by others. The few scenes that have this theme at its heart are the stronger parts of the film and it is a shame that they are few and far between.

Johnny 5 is perhaps a bit too wacky and comic to endear himself to adults but children (and people my age who were children back in the 80's) will love him. Blaney's voice work is a bit grating at times and is not helped by some of his dialogue but he is assured in the more touching moments while the robot itself has a surprising good use of body language to convey emotion considering it is just a big special effect. The irony of having white Stevens playing an Indian cliché in a film that has themes of acceptance and being yourself may have been lost on the writers but it did amuse me – which is more than I can say for Stevens himself. He tries hard to make the material work for him but his performance seems more and more in bad taste as time goes on. McKean is amusing in a fairly obvious character while Gibb can do little with the side of the script she is handed.

Overall then a solid children's film that could have done more but too often settles for simple comic antics. Children of the 80's will probably enjoy it since it is part of cultural knowledge and experience but just don't expect it to be as good as your rose tinted reminiscing would have you remember it.