CHERRY 2000 (1987)

CHERRY 2000 (1987)

Tagline: In the year 2017, a good woman is hard to find. A Cherry 2000 is even harder.

(Action, Adventure, Radar Love) [PG-13]

You're a dreamer. You got something you believe in - and that's a rare thing these days. But, there's a lot more to love than hot wiring.

In this one, we are taken to the distant year of 2017 (sarcasm) where the world is basically a LOT of wasteland in between giant cities. Relationships seem to either be hard to come by or non-existent and Sam Treadwell has got himself a Cherry 2000 animatronic wife. It doesn't take long before Cherry gets short-circuited and cannot be repaired with a new robot body. Sam is so attached to the machine that he hires a female tracker named E. Johnson to take him into Zone 7 where a sinister man has taken over to get the robot body Cherry needs. On the perilous journey, Sam must decide if the woman he’s hired is the woman of his future, or if his real desire is still CHERRY 2000. 

First off, this movie reminds me a lot of the part of SERENITY where Mr. Universe and Lenore are a couple and no one really seems to think much of it, Lenore being a robot of course. I even wonder if they got the idea for that scene from CHERRY 2000. In spite of the very weird premise of being in love with a robot, this movie actually punches a lot of heart into the layers of the inevitable battle between the pro-bots and the robophobes. 

Apparently, this was Melanie Griffith’s least favorite movie that she was in. I am not sure if that was because she thought it sucked playing E. Johnson or because she had just had a baby as production was getting underway. She is probably most famous for the movie WORKING GIRL and is still acting to this day. Pamela Gidley doesn’t get a ton of lines in this but does a pretty solid job playing Cherry 2000. Yeah, I know, every poster makes you think that Melanie Griffith is Cherry 2000, but she’s not. Pamela is best known for her role on the TV show Twin Peaks. David Andrews is okay as Sam Treadwell, but he’s far from great. Andrews might be best known for WORLD WAR Z. We also get brief appearances from several other well-known actors like Brion James (THE FIFTH ELEMENT), Laurence Fishburne (THE MATRIX), and Robert Z'Dar (MANIAC COP). 

When we start getting into the things that were good about this movie, I have to go to the practical effects. There is a cool car in this and some decent explosions. They also made both the main characters likable even if I really couldn’t get my head wrapped around Sam loving a robot. Lester is a pretty decent bad guy and Tim Thomerson does a good job in the role giving us a solid duplicitous character. The storyline does move slowly in some parts and feels like it’s getting off track in others, but overall the story and especially the ending work really well. 

What I didn’t like about this movie was a LOT of the acting and how weird the story of Lester and his crew was. It really didn’t make any sense at all. It was also weird that they kind of threw Sam’s old girlfriend in the movie. She really didn’t seem to serve a purpose at all. There were a lot of wasted opportunities as well even with just the money they had to get a better film here. This thing ended up bombing hard only making $14,000 at the box office. In spite of that, it is essentially a cult hit in some circles. 

Overall this one gets a 3 out of 7. Some might be ready for robot weirdness when it comes to relationships. I am not. Secondly, there is just too much downtime in this movie to hold it together even with the amount of emotion and heart it surprisingly has. 

GRAPHICS ARE THE PROPERTY OF ORION PICTURES AND ARE USED FOR REVIEW PURPOSES ONLY. 

Please check out the link below by clicking on the picture. Purchases made at Indy Planet for any issue of DARK 30 will go towards funding the next issue.