Short Circuit (a J!-ENT Blu-ray Disc Review)
November 8, 2009 by J!-ENT · Leave a Comment
Sure its an 80′s campy film and may not have the greatest HD transfer on Blu-ray but for those who grew up with the film and are fans of director John Badham, Ally Sheedy and Steve Guttenberg, for a Blu-ray that retails under $10, it’s worth giving a try.
TITLE: Short Circuit
DURATION: 99 Minutes
BLU-RAY DISC INFORMATION: 1080i High Definition (Widescreen 2:40:1), 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio, Dolby Digital 5.1, Subtitles: English SDH, Spanish
RATED: PG
COMPANY: Tri Star Pictures/Image Entertainment
Directed by John Badham
Written by S.S. Wilson, Brent Maddock
Executive Producer: Mark Damon, John W. Hyde
Producer: Gregg Champion, David Foster, Lawrence Turman
Associate Producer: Gary Foster, Dana Satler Hankins
Music by David Shire
Cinematography by Nick McLean
Edited by Frank Morriss
Casting by Jane Feinberg, Mike Fenton, Judy Taylor
Production Design by Dianne Wager
Art Direction by Dianne Wager
Set Decoration by Garrett Lewis
Starring:
Ally Sheedy as Stephanie Speck
Steve Guttenberg as Newton Crosby
Fisher Stevens as Ben Jabituya
Austin PEndleton as Howard Marner
G.W. Bailey as Skroeder
Brain McNamara as Frank
Tim Blane as the voice of Number 5
Steve Guttenberg and Ally Sheedy co-star in this high-tech comedy adventure about Number Five, a robot who escapes into the real world after he short-circuits in an electrical storm and decides that he’s human. Because he’s carrying destructive weapons, the Defense Department and his designer (Guttenberg) are desperate to find him. But Number Five is being protected by a young woman (Sheedy) who is teaching him gentler way of life.
Number 5 is alive.
In 1986, the film “Short Circuit” was released in theaters and made over $40 million domestically. The film about a US military robot gone awol after an electrical surge and eventually developing a conscience attracted moviegoers.
The film is directed by John Badham (“WarGames”, “Blue Thunder”, “Point of No Return”) and a screenplay written by S.S. Wilson (“Wild Wild West”, “Ghost Dad”, “Tremors”) and Brent Maddock (“Wild Wild West”, “Heart and Souls”, “Ghost Dad”).
The film kicks off with a military testing as NOVA Robotics is showcasing five robots developed for the Department of Defense. The military looks to use these robots against Moscow (note: This film was released during the Cold War between the US and U.S.S.R.) and we see the robots taking out tanks and vehicles with their laser beams.
Due to weather, everyone is brought inside of the laboratory to celebrate the robots and a Senator requests for the PR director of NOVA Robotics Howard Marner (played by Austin Pendleton, “Glass Houses”, “Dirty Work”, “Christmas with the Cranks”) to meet the designer Graham Crosby, Ph.D. (played by Steve Guttenberg, “Police Academy” films, “Veronica Mars”, “Three Men and a Baby” films) and his partner Ben Jabituya (played by Fisher Stevens, “Lost”, “Awake”, “Undiscovered”).
While the NOVA staff, military and politicians are admiring the robots, the five military robots are being prepared for the Department of Defense but while the robot No. 5 is still hooked up to a generator, a lightning bolt hits the generator which produces a surge affecting the robot.
Next thing you know, No. 5′s programming has been affected and he undergoes a malfunction and as he strays around inside various rooms, he is ushered into a garbage truck and taken out of the facility and is on the loose.
Because the robots are literally military weapons, NOVA Robots officer Skroeder (played by G.W. Bailey, “Mannequin”, “Police Academy” films) and other soldiers go after the robot. Skroeder has a hatred towards the robots and feels it must be destroyed but Marner and Crosby feel that the robot should be brought back in one piece.
Meanwhile, No. 5 manages to sneak into a food truck driven by Stephanie Speck (played by Ally Sheedy, “St. Elmo’s Fire”, “The Breakfast Club”, “WarGames”). Stephanie is an animal lover and when she discovers No. 5, she automatically assumes that he is an alien from outerspace. She eventually communicates with No. 5 and tries to help him understand the world around him. Providing him books and access to television.
She eventually finds out through a mishap that No. 5 belongs to Nova Robotics and contacts them to pick up their robot but while she is with him, No. 5 accidentally jumps on a grasshopper and asks for Stephanie to reassemble it and she tells him that the insect is dead. When No. 5 figures out that disassemble means “dead”, he panics and he takes Stephanie in a joyride to escape from Nova Robotics.
Meanwhile, Crosby and Jabituya managed to find Stephanie and No. 5 and Stephanie tries to explain to Crosby that the robot has a conscience but Crosby who developed the robot doesn’t believe its possible since robots run via software. Skroeder and Nova Robotics manage to reclaim No. 5.
While in captivity, No. 5 (who’s body is shut down) which is still awake (the head portion) manages to find a way to activate the whole body and commandeer the van and kicking out the passengers. No. 5 returns to Stephanie’s home but now Stephanie must find a way to protect him. But can she trust Crosby into helping protect No. 5 from Nova Robotics?
VIDEO & AUDIO:
Surprisingly “Short Circuit” is presented in 1080i High-Definition Widescreen (2:40:1) instead of 1080p. The film has scenes that are quite vibrant and look great for a film that is 23 years old but then some parts seem a bit off at times. The good news is that there is grain present in the film but there is also dust present as well (although not that bad). The bad news is that certain indoor scenes look a bit darker. Even certain outdoor scenes seem to be dark (as if there was an overcast of clouds that came and disappeared). But overall, picture quality is a bit inconsistent at times.
As for the audio quality, the film is presented in DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 (and also Dolby Digital 5.1). The film is primarily front and center channel driven. Dialogue is clear and for the most part, El DeBarge’s “Who’s Johnny” theme song seems to be the only scene where hear a lot of bass. But there is surround channel usage during the actions sequences and the thunderstorm but I was hoping for a more immersive lossless soundtrack but overall, the soundtrack was satisfactory.
Subtitles are in English SDH and Spanish.
SPECIAL FEATURES:
“Short Circuit” special features are in 480i Standard Definition and in Dolby Digital 2.0. Included are:
- Audio Commentary by Director John Badham and writers S.S. Wilson and Brent Maddock – The three discuss the making of the film and the storyline. Badham is very detailed in his commentary about certain scenes and bringing the script to life.
- The Creation of Number 5 – (6:46) An old school featurette featuring director John Badham and the effects crew and the making of Number 5.
- Cast and Crew Interviews – Featuring interviews from 1986 with Ally Sheedy (2:18), Steve Guttenberg (2:24), John Badham (2:06), Syd Mead – Talking about the production end and going to Japan to look at robots and how to make No. 5 a genuine character for the film (17:36) and Eric Allard – Discussing the special effects for the film (35:02).
- Behind-the-Scenes Footage – (3:48) Behind-the-scenes clips of the making of the film and Director John Badham and crew recording certain scenes from the film.
- Isolated Music and Effects Track – Watch the film with only the music and special effects.
- Biographies – Text based biographies that you can view via your remote.
- Production Notes – Production Notes from the original 1986 press kit. You can view and turn pages of the production notes via your remote.
- Robot and Production Design Still Gallery - View the robot and production design gallery via your remote.
- Original Theatrical Trailer – (1:50) The original theatrical trailer in its old school glory.
I grew up watching “Short Circuit” and watched it in the theaters and watched it countless times on cable but part of the reason why I wanted to watch this film was that it was directed by John Badham, which I loved his movies “WarGames” and “Blue Thunder” and the fact that he is reunited with Ally Sheedy who was also on “WarGames” and one of my favorite actresses from the 80′s.
And the fact that she and Steve Guttenberg (another favorite from the 80′s) were together, let’s say I was feeling nostalgic and I wanted to see “Short Circuit” again. The first thing my toddler asks me if this is a new “Wall-E” film and to tell you the truth, I never thought for once that the two look similar (but looking on Google, it seems that many have).
Overall, the film is campy but “Short Circuit” has that 80′s charm. Yeah, it’s campy but it’s “fun campy”. A robot developing a conscience and next thing you know he’s dancing to El DeBarge’s “Who’s Johnny” and John Travolta on “Saturday Night Fever” and repeating things he sees on television. But it has its share of action as well with soldiers and an ex-boyfriend wanting to take on No. 5.
Sure, for today’s audience it may not attract them but having grown up with this film, I enjoyed the film when it came out and watched it again and still enjoyed it today.
Granted, I wish I could tell parents that you can show this film to your young “Wall-E” loving toddlers but the film has its share of profanity. I actually made the mistake in thinking this was a children’s film and had my son watching the film along with me. (note: Although it says PG, there is no description of why it’s PG. I figured it was for the more action-based sequences).
As for the Blu-ray, it’s one of the cheaper Blu-rays available to find online (usually under $10) and it’s a release that is not in 1080p but 1080i. There are a good number of special features but nothing new added and for the most part, picture quality is not spectacular and the lossless soundtrack is average at best.
Overall, “Short Circuit” is fun, campy 80′s film. Granted, with today’s audience, “Wall-E” seems to have won the hearts of many viewers and No. 5 has been forgotten. But with a remake of “Short Circuit” being developed, for those who want to go down that nostalgic road like I did (and the fact that you can find it for under $10 which is not bad), then you may want to give this Blu-ray a try.
St. Elmo’s Fire (a J!-ENT Blu-ray Disc Review)
July 28, 2009 by Dennis Amith · Leave a Comment
“The film that started the ‘Brat Pack’ gets its High Definition treatment nearly 25-years later. With new Blu-ray exclusives and watching it now, compared to back then, I found myself enjoying this film even more. For fans of 80′s films or ‘Brat Pack’ films, definitely a film on Blu-ray worth having in your collection!”
TITLE: St. Elmo’s Fire
DURATION: 108 minutes
BLU-RAY DISC INFORMATION: 1080p High Definition (2:40:1), English/French/Portuguese Dolby TrueHD 5.1, Spanish 5.1 Dolby Digital, Subtitles: English, English SDH, French, Spanish and Portuguese
COMPANY: Columbia Pictures/Sony Pictures Home Entertainment
RATED: R
Release Date: August 11, 2009
Directed by Joel Schumacher
Written by Joel Schumacher and Carl Kurlander
Executive Produced by Bernard Schwartz and Ned Tanen
Produced by Lauren Shuler Donner
Music by David Foster
Director of Photography: Stephen H. Burm
Edited by Richard Marks
Casting by Marci Liroff, Jennifer Shull
Art Direction by William Sandell
Set Decoration by Robert Gould and Charles Graffeo
Costume Design by Susan Becker
Starring:
Emilio Estevez as Kirby Keger
Rob Lowe as Billy Hicks
Andrew McCarthy as Kevin Dolenz
Demi Moore as Jules
Judd Nelson as Alec Newbary
Mare Winningham as Wendy Beamish
Martin Balsam as Mr. Beamish
Andie MacDowell as Dale Biberman
Jenny Wright as Felicia
Jon Cutler as Howie Krantz
The mid-80′s was about conservatism, Reaganomics, Miami Vice and a time where people were not fully aware about AIDS and were thinking more about working together to bring food to Africa. This was the sign of the times and for director Joel Schumacher (“The Lost Boys”, “Flatliners”, “Batman Forever”, “8MM”, etc.), while he was working on his second film “D.C. Cab”, during a short stay at Georgetown, he observed graduating college students at Georgetown University and wondered how miserable some of them maybe, of having to graduate but now become adults.
It was right there and then that Schumacher wanted to make a film based on these type of college graduates who face problems of transitioning to adulthood. In order to capture the life of a young adults graduating college, Schumacher tapped into recent college graduate, Karl Kurlander (“Saved by the Bell: The New Class” and “Malibu, CA”) and together they began working on “St. Elmo’s Fire”. Schumacher had renown musician and producer David Foster (who wrote major hit songs for “Karate Kid, Part II”, “Sleepless in Seattle”, “The Bodyguard”, etc.) working on his first film as a composer and cinematographer Stephn H. Burm (“The Untouchables”, “Snake Eyes”, “Mystery Men”, etc.).
But what the film would be known for is the cast in which David Blum of New Yorker Magazine would dub as “The Brat Pack”, a title that would be synonymous with Hollywood’s popular young talents: Emilio Estevez (“Breakfast Club”, “The Mighty Ducks” films and “Young Guns” films), Rob Lowe (“The West Wing”, “Brothers & Sisters”, “About Last Night…”, etc.), Andrew McCarthy (“Lipstick Jungle”, “Weekend at Bernies” and “The Joy Luck Club”), Demi Moore (“Indecent Proposal”, “G.I. Jane”, “Ghost”, etc.), Judd Nelson (“Breakfast Club”, “Airheads”, “Suddenly Susan”, etc.), Ally Sheedy (“Kyle XY”, “The Breakfast Club”, “Oxford Blues”, “WarGames”, etc.) and Mare Winningham (“Clubhouse”, “Grey’s Anatomy”, “Wyatt Earp”, etc.).
The film revolves around seven college graduates of Georgetown University who are starting off on their own careers or trying to find a job.
Kirby Keger (Emilio Estevez) – Studying to become a lawyer and works as a waiter at St. Elmo’s Bar. He is obsessed with Dale Biberman (Andie McDowell) and will do what it takes to go out on a date with her or to at least be acknowledged by her.
Billy Hicks (Rob Lowe) – A father who is trying to find ways to support his girlfriend and child. But at the same time, he’s a playboy that likes to have fun, likes to drink and be with many women. He tries to have a fling with the group’s virgin Wendy Beamish (Mare Winningham). A musician who plays the saxophone, he is unable to hold onto a job and is looked as a hero at his college (because of his ability to find drugs and sell them to the students). Tends to think with his penis than his head most of the time.
Kevin Dolenz (Andrew McCarthy) – Lives with Kirby, a writer, always smoking and the quiet one of the group. Tend to be seen as a homosexual because he doesn’t go after women publicly and even looked by his own friends as possibly a gay man who hasn’t come out of the closet. Kevin is in love with someone but isn’t telling. His friend Jules thinks Kevin is in love with Alec.
Jules (Demi Moore) – The socialite sporting the latest fashions and always partying. The carefree friend but behind-the-scenes, things are not as rosy with her life as it would it seem.
Alec Newbary (Judd Nelson) – The future politician who ran the Young Democrats in college and now works for a Republican. Dates Leslie and wants her to marry him in order for him to end his desires of sleeping with other women. The friend that others looked up to for leadership.
Leslie Hunter (Ally Sheedy) – The architect who is dating Alec. The friend that is level headed but is not sure she wants to get married just yet and wants to establish her own career.
Wendy Beamish (Mare Winningham) – The wealthy daughter and the virgin. She is attracted to Billy but gets upset when he keeps asking her if she’s still a virgin. Her father pressures her on how to live her life and that she should marry a guy from a wealthy family for the purpose of a family/business transaction.
The film focuses on these seven friends and how they thought that after graduating college, their friendship would continue to be strong and they would be together. But all learn that as they grow older and focus on their careers, their life as a group and as friends will start to change.
VIDEO & AUDIO:
“St. Elmo’s Fire” gets its HD treatment via 1080p High Definition. For the most part, the positive is that the film looks much better than many 80′s films that tend to receive a lot of DNR and overall look too soft and are devoid of colors. With “St. Elmo’s Fire”, there are lot of colors and scenes such as Jules pink and red apartment that look vibrant but at the same time, there was noticeable banding that can be seen prominently in Jules apartment (towards the end of the film when Billy is talking to her) and some darker scenes with light emitting. Granted, if you are sitting far from your television, this won’t be as noticeable. In fact, I didn’t catch these until I rewatched certain scenes during my testing and saw the artifacts when I was 3-4 ft. away. But for the most part, the picture quality was satisfactory, considering this film didn’t have much of a budget.
As for audio, the film is featured in English, French and Portuguese Dolby TrueHD 5.1 (and Spanish 5.1 Dolby Digital) and the film is primarily a dialogue driven film. Dialogue is understandable and clear. And of course, David Foster’s “Love Theme from St. Elmo’s Fire” and the other 80′s music featured on the soundtrack comes alive during the film. There are some scenes especially at the bar that utilize the ambiance of a crowded room and is heard through the surrounds but for the most part, this film is driven by its characters and its soundtrack.
As for subtitles, English, English SDH, French, Spanish and Portuguese are included.
SPECIAL FEATURES:
St. Elmo’s Fire comes with the following special features:
“St. Elmo’s Fire” was a film not exactly well respected by critics when it first came out. But the film was part of a string of “Brat Pack” related films that would star these talents along with Molly Ringwald and Anthony Michael Hall and would define high school and young adult films in the 1980′s.
The film was not well-respected because of the times. These were young adults that were quite liberal during a conservative era and most of them were not being shown in the positive light. These young adults were not perfect and they had their own personal flaws that critics saw as vane and shallow but for audiences, they saw something quite different.
For me, to have all these talents together in one film was just awesome. Ally Sheedy and Judd Nelson were just awesome in “Breakfast Club”, Rob Lowe in “Oxford Blues”, Emilio Estevez in “Repo Man” and “The Outsiders”, Mare Winningham appeared on many shows including afterschool specials and Demi Moore was a popular soap star on “General Hospital” years earlier. And of course, for Andrew McCarthy and Andie McDowell, this film would also help put ignite their careers.
And in the 80′s, who could not love David Foster’s “Love Theme from St. Elmo’s Fire” or John Parr’s “Man in Motion”. These were overplayed on the radio and MTV that “St. Elmo’s Fire” was literally ingrained into pop culture. And of course, the term “Brat Pack” (as many of them despised the name), for audiences… being part of that group was just the epitome of “cool”.
Watching this film nearly 25 years later, it’s hard to believe that so much time has passed and how different high school and young adult films are today. Director Joel Schumacher said that he wanted to create a film with young talent but make it an “A film”. These issues that the seven go through, this stress and anguish of starting a career and also suffering setbacks after graduation is real. Not everyone who graduates college, is able to have a successful life, and this even rings true so much now especially during our poor economy.
For the Blu-ray release, it’s great to watch this film on High Definition but it’s also great to have the Blu-ray exclusive features with Joel Schumacher remembering St. Elmo’s Fire and seeing the deleted scenes for the first time. Although this film is not called a “25th Anniversary” edition of the film, it’s pretty close. The only thing one could hope for is a reunion of these talents to discuss the film or even if it was a few of them, to interview them today about “St. Elmo’s Fire” (note: For the Blu-ray release of the 1986 film “About Last Night…”, the director and Rob Lowe are brought back 23 years later to discuss their experiences on the film).
Nevertheless, I have more appreciation of “St. Elmo’s Fire” as an adult compared to when I was a teenager in high school and catching the film on HBO. I can now understand the wide range of emotions that these characters are going through after graduating from college. Granted, some situations are a bit extreme but the feelings of friendship drifting part are so real.
I also realized of how well this group of talent worked together and found the group to be well-cast. This “Brat Pack” or individual talents went on to become big stars on their own but even back in 1985, it was still a remarkable feat. to have each of these seven individuals together in one film. It’s not something that can be easily duplicated today, especially knowing that this film was created on a tight budget and short schedule.
I would imagine that “St. Elmo’s Fire” is one of those films that people who grew up during that time will gravitate to, partly for nostalgia reasons. But watching it nearly 25-years-later, outside of nostalgia, I found that watching this film much more enjoyable now and quite entertaining! For 80′s film fans or “Brat Pack” film fans, “St. Elmo’s Fire” is definitely worth picking up on Blu-ray!
