Cherry 2000 (1988)

To me, nothing is perfect so it's a 9 instead of 10 rating. The story is creative and acting quite solid. David Andrews gave a pretty average (and wooden) performance while Melanie Griffith shone in the film. Pamela Gidley proved to be quite convincing as a robot with a pretty face though she had limited screen time by appearing at the beginning and end of the movie.This movie is a classic. It is a little weird to read the tag line of the movie "In the year 2017, a good woman is hard to find. A Cherry 2000 is even harder". Ironically it's now 2017 as the movie was set 30 years ago in 1987. The director had the vision of men having difficulty of finding a good woman in the future which is the current moment, after 30 years! Fortunately the vision did not quite materialise as people can still find true love at this time and age. On top of that, we do not have an advanced robot like Cherry 2000 that looks and behaves (almost) exactly like a human. All we have in reality are sex dolls with limited functions and features at the moment. It would be interesting to see if a Cherry 2000 prototype will be successfully developed in say 20 years from now, that is 2037.

I've watched plenty of bad movies in my day, but I never, ever felt they were a waste of time. I might've rolled my eyes at how poorly executed they were, laughed derisively at the ineptitude or even fallen asleep. But I never felt, "Wow. I wasted two hours of my life watching this."Well, as they say, there's a first time for everything, and Cherry 2000 is officially the first film that made me feel as if I completely wasted my time. I should've immediately bailed; the only reason why I stuck with it is that whenever I see a movie that's obviously going to be a stinking pile, I try to see it through to the end because you never know. Sometimes a movie that starts out really bad lands a surprising payoff that makes sitting through it worthwhile. Sometimes a movie that seems like it's going nowhere actually shows that it has a point. But Cherry 2000 is pure garbage from beginning to end. It has no point. It has no payoff. And the worst part of it is that it's predictable as hell got out. As soon as the two main characters meet, you know exactly what will happen. You might as well just shut off the movie at that point; that's how predictable it is. The only unpredictable thing about the rest of the movie is how surprisingly predictable it is; even the worst movies try to change things up a little. Cherry 2000 is as paint by numbers as you can get.What a shame, too, because the movie had potential. In case you don't know, it's about a Yuppie who has a sex robot as a girlfriend named "Cherry". She breaks down. Problem is, they don't make her model anymore. His only option is to go out to some extremely dangerous area to a robot graveyard to get another one. Because the area is so dangerous, he has to hire a "tracker" to get him one. So far, so good, right? Melanie Griffith, who plays the Tracker, is an interesting character and very likable. Too bad Sam Treadwell (played by David Andrews) is as wooden as two by four and everyone and everything in this movie boring and pointless. Too bad nothing in the movie makes sense. For example, the reason why Cherry malfunctions is that Sam decides to have sex with her as a nearby laundry machine overflows and floods the floor with soap and water. You'd think someone who's been around electronics and bought something as expensive and rare as Cherry would've been smart enough to realize that water and electronics don't mix. Other things don't make sense. Why would a robot graveyard that has so many priceless models be out in the middle of a no man's land wasteland full of bandits? Or not have been looted if they were so valuable? Why has a handsome, young Yuppie turned to a sex robot when he's not only successful in life and seems socially well adjusted but has had normal relationships with real women in the past?Everything else is bad in this movie, too. The editing is atrocious, lots of weird jump cuts and shots. The action scenes are terrible; the first major action scene when E and Sam leave town looks like a staged pyrotechnics show, so fake. Other action scenes are pointless and drawn out. The villain in the movie has no point other than to add some fake tension to an otherwise threadbare script with no real plot. The soundtrack is lame and forgettable. And there's no real chemistry between the two leads or any real buildup to when the inevitable happens. I've seen more chemistry between cubes of ice.The only positive thing I can say for the movie is that the cinematography and costume is great, very Miami Vice. Too bad it didn't fit the post-apocalyptic theme of the movie whatsoever.All in all, a terrible film from start to finish. Don't waste your time like I did or listen to the reviewers "gushing" about it. It's bad. I'd rate it even lower than Battlefield Earth.

Sure it's all too obviously influenced by "Mad Max" and "The Road Warrior", but it's still consistently engaging entertainment for cult film enthusiasts. Credit has to go to production designer John Jay Moore and cinematographer Jacques Haitkin for giving it just the right slightly futuristic look, and it's got some gorgeous rural vistas to take in. It's a little episodic, but it's also got some energy, and some nifty moments.Melanie Griffith offers a delightful performance as female "tracker" E. Johnson (the E stands for Edith), hired by lonely man Sam Treadwell (a fairly stiff David Andrews) to take him to a dangerous area where he can find a replacement for his robot wife Cherry (Pamela Gidley). On their journey they run into colourful characters played by such wonderful acting veterans as Ben Johnson, who's endearing as Six Fingered Jake, and Harry Carey Jr., as Snappy Tom.You know you'll be in for a good time when you look over that supporting cast: Marshall Bell, Laurence Fishburne, Michael C. Gwynne, Brion James, Jack Thibeau, and Robert Z'Dar. The always welcome Tim Thomerson has a particularly amusing role as an unconventional desert dwelling despot, whose followers have it in for people such as Edith. Overall the movie isn't overly flashy, but it's pretty exciting at times, especially the entire sequence with the crane and the water pipe. The soaring score composed by Basil Poledouris ("Conan the Barbarian", "RoboCop", etc.) is fine accompaniment.Although Thomerson as Lester shows himself to be a serious psycho, this never gets too, too unpleasant, with director Steve De Jarnatt keeping the action moving and having fun with the offbeat little details provided by screenwriter Michael Almereyda (story credit goes to executive producer Lloyd Fonvielle). "Cherry 2000" does know how to send you away with a smile on your face. It may have gotten a limited release in theatres in the 1980s, but 26 years later it proves enjoyable enough to deserve a rediscovery.Seven out of 10.

When successful businessman Sam Treadwell finds that his android wife, Cherry model 2000 has blown a fuse, he hires renegade tracker E. Johnson to find her exact duplicate. As their journey to replace his perfect mate leads them into the treacherous and lawless region of zone seven, Treadwell learns the hard way that the perfect woman is made not of computer chips and diodes, but of real flesh and blood......It's a really hard film to describe. It's not exactly an action movie, but a sort of apocalyptic Sci-fi campa-thon.Its Waterworld on dry land, Mad Maxine, and Tim Burton meets Joel Schumacher, in the desert.It's as bonkers as it sounds, and despite its a load of old cobblers, its quite fun to watch while it lasts. Griffith proves she's as versatile as a wet cloth, but its not about her or the dad from Terminator 3, with these apocalyptic movies, its the wealth of bizarre support that the ill has to offer.From Brion James, right up to a film stealing Tim Thomerson, its a film that's not going to break any genre boundaries, but if you a fan of those cheap films made in the eighties like Spacehunter, Land of Doom, or World Gone Wild, this is definitely for you....