Cherry 2000

until I saw this film. It's absolutely hilarious. And Ben Johnson was just a treat. Melanie was never so pouty and sexy, but that Mustang she drove steals the show. A really underrated film with lots of very wicked things to say. This relates to Mad Max about like 007 related to spies or (Chief) Inspector Clousseau related to detectives. Well, it's not in the same class, but it takes a stab at camping the Road Warrior.

It is the future on earth where anything is possible: even robots that look, act and perform like humans and can do almost any task. High powered businessman Sam Treadwell (David Andrews) has a problem: his android model Cherry 2000 short circuited during some heavier than expected foreplay. After a brief trip to the repair shop; seeing some newer models he doesn't like and realizing that there is no hope of fixing his current model, he embarks on a treacherous trip into 'The Zone' to find an identical model. He hires the tough, very pretty and VERY heavily armed E. Johnson (Melanie Griffith) as his guide. She along with her trusty modified Ford Mustang adapt themselves to the task. Tim Thomerson absolutely STEALS the show as the criminally insane, antagonistic, would-be crazy gang leader of the future who leads a rag-tag group of Rambo wannabees in various acts of military mayhem in his pursuit of these two protagonists. This one is not to be missed and should be added to everyone's library of classic B movies in DVD or video tape format!!!!

This is the kind of film that gets under your skin. One of a small subgenre of Sci-Fi Westerns, its small flashes of inspired writing make it worth watching some night when there's nothing else to do. Cameron Milzer is particularly notable as a blackly comedic psycho-girlfriend, but Tim Thomerson and Melanie Griffith are no slouches themselves. Pleasant bleak visuals and an interesting score from Basil Poledouris (Robocop, Hunt For Red October, & the Conan films, as well as 60 other movies) make for a modest repeat viewability factor. Fun and stupid!

Okay, "Cherry 2000" has finally achieved "cult film" status. But unlike many other cult movies, it actually deserves the title.

There are many things to like about this flick. The nuanced, likeable Ben Johnson has a good role that even delivers some tragedy (how often do you get that in a b-movie?). The charismatic Griffith is alternately contemplative and kick-ass. Of course, Tim Thomerson as Lester nearly steals the show, providing a truly strange, ruthless villain.

The effects are cheesy, sure, but they never look fake, unlike a lot of the CGI films coming out today. When you see E. Johnson's Ford being dangled over the Hoover Dam, that is an ACTUAL car, not some stupid digital effect.

The movie does lay its message on thick, but considering the obvious budget constraints they were working with, that's a perfectly excuseable flaw. The satire is at times hilarious (watch for Larry Fishburne's turn as a lawyer with Morpheus-esque reflecting sunglasses, and the final exit of the villain is truly visually ironic). I bought this on DVD (having never seen it on TV) and really liked it...maybe you will, too.

I can't fathom it.

I don't like either lead actor. The effects are cheesy and below "The A Team." The film doesn't paint in broad strokes; its message is slopped on with push brooms.

But doggone, I get a kick out of this thing everytime it airs.

Maybe it's the handful of stars and almost stars and the games of "Holy Cow! That's where they were then." Marshall Bell, Pamela Gidley, Griffith herself.

Maybe it's the camp, as if the producers knew that a Bruckheimeran picture was beyond them, so they reveled in their low budget and milked everything to the point that teenage boys (my age when I first saw it) can't quite be sure if this is straight or tongue-in-cheek. (The Self-Actualized Nazis of Zone 7, with their proto-New Age totalitarianism are a hoot. Give them more lines!)

It defies explanation, and I suppose it's the mystery that keeps me tuning in.