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Regular
Price $9.98
Starring:
David Andrews,
Jennifer Balgobin,
Marshall Bell,
Harry Carey Jr.,
Laurence Fishburne,
Directed By:
Steve De Jarnatt,
Rated: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Release Date: 1988-02-05
Studio: MGM (Video & DVD)
Format:
Anamorphic,
Closed-captioned,
Color,
DVD-Video,
Widescreen,
NTSC,
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Customer Reviews for
Cherry 2000
More entertaining than I thought it was going to be
This is a moderately entertaining eighties SF film. It actually is a mixed genre film, being a combo of a Western and a romantic comedy interlaced with a host of SF elements. The central plot involves the efforts of Sam Treadwell to find a replacement chassis for his Cherry 2000 love robot. The setting is 2017 in a United States that has undergone complete economic collapse. Much of the national infrastructure has collapsed, leaving various cities as isolated enclaves. The only remaining Cherry 2000 chasses exist only in a robot graveyard in Sector 7, someplace well west of Anaheim, where Sam lives. To get to Sector 7 Sam hires a tracker by the name of Edith Johnson, played by the little-girl-voiced Melanie Griffith. This was immediately before the beginning of Griffith's newly won respect as an actress in WORKING GIRL. Not that she hadn't already enjoyed success as an actress, having turned in a fine performance in SOMETHING WILD and before that in BODY DOUBLE. But WORKING GIRL put her in a different category entirely, despite her little girl voice and moderate abilities as an actress.
Much of the plot is predictable. Sam and Edith have a number of adventures throughout their quest for a Cherry 2000. The only real question becomes whether Sam will in fact want his robot in the end, or whether he will want to stay with the real live girl. Why Edith would be interested in Sam is never really explained. It is merely posited as a fact during the course of the story.
One of the purposes to which robotic characters are put in movies and television is to explore what it means to be human. This film surprisingly barely does that, except to imply that an artificial relationship cannot replace a real one. Of course, this is made possible by the limitations in Cherry herself. But imagine if instead she had had the consciousness and capacity for self-reflection of the replicants in BLADE RUNNER or Sharon on BATTLESTAR GALACTICA. The film, therefore, does not manage to become a serious participant in the string of important films about robots and artificial people.
If you pay attention you will see Laurence Fishburne in a very small role as a lawyer in a bar early in the film. Also, when Sam is led through the robot repair shop after being told that Cherry was irreparably damaged, he and the mechanic pass by copies of Robbie the Robot and Gort from THE DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL, the two most famous of all fifties robots.Cherry 2000
She says she can find
A Cherry 2000 is a very special kind of robot, and she going to find one. She Says.Cherry 2000
Love the red hair!
Let me be upfront: Melanie Griffith is my favorite actress. There is a naivete about her that is both endearing and attractive. There are actresses who always exhibit certain traits no matter what role they play or how well they play it: Diane Keaton, Jessica Lange, and Goldie Hawn. Add Melanie to the list. She speaks slowly and softly in a measured sort of way. These traits are used to perfection in "Born Yesterday" and "Paradise" where they are key to the character.
So, it is bizarre and simultaneously perfect casting to hire Melanie as an action hero. Only a vulnerable woman could portray a supposedly hardboiled tracker who serendipitously falls in love with her client. Lovesick and distraught over the loss of his Cherry 2000 bot, Sam reluctantly hires Melanie, a mere woman, to fetch a replacement bot stored in the badlands of a post-apocalyptic West. Why she falls in love with him is anyone's guess. Here's mine. Considering the men she sees on a daily basis--psychos, wackos, and dirty, unattractive edge dwellers--Sam looks like every woman's dream man. Although he is physically attractive, a man whose dream woman is a bot is seriously lacking essential brain matter. However, if I were to acquire a bot that looked like Gerard Butler, who adored me and wanted to please me and only me, well, ok, I get it now. A perfect bot as the dream woman. Sam, go get your bot.
Now to the nitty-gritty: Their first obstacle is the barricade just outside the edge of town, designed to destroy a vehicle, but this vehicle--a muscled Ford Mustang-- bulls itself through without serious damage. Then E positions her car j-u-u-u-st right for the Great Magnet. When she climbs out and hangs off the car, to tie the rope on, I really want to laugh. Then the Uzis fire bullets all around but ne'er hitting them yet their guns hit the bad guys. Oh, the dead driver of the magnet keeps falling just right to shift the right gear to move the car right along into perfect position. Then get that car into the drainage ditch. Say wha? And she says it was easy this time.
Oh, let's visit Uncle Jake, the famous retired tracker, who taught E everything he knows, for food and a safe place to sleep. How convenient!
Let's repair an ancient airplane, get it off the ground amidst a hail of unfriendly bullets. Run into Ginger, the old girlfriend--ok, I see why he went to a bot--Ginger is another wacko, especially after Len is killed and she is concerned about those sandwiches. Of course, this strange behavior could be a cover for her disorientation now that her meal ticket is dead.
And, oh, Sam learns that bots cannot truly replace a living, functioning human woman with a mind of her own to challenge, to admire, to love in unpredictable ways. In the final analysis, bots are predictable. One of the most deadly killers in a relationship is the same ol, same ol--predictability.
Overall, this is a fun movie. Yes, it has silliness, but that is part of its fun. Seeing tiny, dainty Melanie Griffith as an action hero shooting bazookas is the best fun of all. But the very best part is the wild red hair!Cherry 2000
Seriously, Don't Get Serious Over This.... Just Enjoy the Ride!
Wonderful cult flick. Now every time I go to Vegas or Hoover Dam I think of the futuristic depiction this movie has of both. Just have to laugh. Watch it and enjoy.... the less thought you put into it the more enjoyable it is... it is... it is. Darn memory chip, skipping again... again.Cherry 2000
The Best and Cheesiest Movie EVER!
This movie is an all time cult classic B movie. What a hoot!!!Cherry 2000
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