Electric Dreams (1984)

When I first watched this I was thinking like short circuit this film Would be you know a real family comedy It wasn't its can be rather dark at times yes there's some funny moments And there's the ending which I thought was funny and sweet but There was more then a few dark moments without giving anything away The way the computer tries to destroy his life how it messes with his credit cards Personal details now why it may of seen over the top in the 80s I mean a computer running ever appliance in your house and controlling Your life today it really has a creep factor to it A creep factor due to our strong dependency on computers This movie could almost be a true story lol

When viewing this film one must remember it was made in 1984. Starring Lenny von Dohlen, Virginia Madsen and a computer... it is barely palatable rainy-Saturday-afternoon fare. Its primary plus is that it was Virginia Madsen's first movie and she came across well as the central romantic interest.We can't judge this movie by today's standards. With Jurassic Park still nine years away, CGI at that time was in very primitive stages. The computer used a CRT screen and telephone modem. That gives the viewer a hint of the era. As such, the movie has fairly advanced concepts: speech recognition, artificial intelligence, computer data exchange (the World Wide Net was still some time in the future)... so in those aspects the movie was "interesting".While I can't say this movie was a "stinker" (there are certainly far worse movies out there)... it is a yawner. The somewhat predictable plot as well as the "any old ending will do" wrap-up makes this an hour and a half of time to spend cleaning one's house instead. Parents would want to be cautioned about a singular and brief repetitive line of offensive language as the computer is learning to "speak"-- as well as increased cursing near the end of the movie.Bottom line there is better fare to watch. Aside from the historical aspect (Madisen's first real role and the concept of computers in 1984)... this is one that can be skipped with no loss. The character drama was cliché and over-the-top, the script juvenile, the music seemingly thrown in just to promote the songs and sell the soundtrack (common for the 80s)... and the story not all that entertaining. Not family fare... and not really all that appealing to adults either, this flick is a "watch it once" movie-- if you must. I doubt many will watch it a second time.

A guy rivals with his beige 286 PC over a woman...Hollywood and computers...sigh. It begins when this guy buys this PC, connects it to his boss' mainframe over a 9600bps telephone line and in 2 seconds downloads well uh... everything. This causes the computer to smoke (there was no memory full error in those days apparently) so then he pours champagne over his keyboard which magically gushes into his computers case behind it and somehow fuses the circuits into an AI! Well thanks for the tip, we'll tell our scientists right away, that'll save 'em decades of R&D. To continue: all he needs to do next is connect all of his electrical appliances (blender, TV, radio, door lock) with their electrical plugs into the computer (what ports are those?) and this gives the PC control over all them. It doesn't take long before the computer learns to think, speak, compose music, make poetry - well heck it makes mankind look like a bunch of amateur hacks. Next step: love. Not being content having accomplished human evolution in a day or two the beige evildoer wants the girl this guy has an eye on for himself. The poor schmuck gets terrorized by it but even then he can't bring himself to pull the power plug of the PC (which erases the memory - so does turning of the screen in most films) or that of his demonic appliances. In the end (spoiler) the competitive box comes to it's senses and blows itself up (again by telephone line over which it now manages to pull 40000 volts) as an act of love although the schmuck was going to smash it with an axe if it didn't. Guess the computer was the better man after all. The End. So was it a good film: short answer is no. There is the likable 80s music yes, but as you can tell by my short synopsis the film is utterly ridiculous. Main actor Lenny von Dohlen has no charisma or acting talent and neither has his daft androgynous computer. Virginia Madsen is the only likable one in the whole film, but that can't save it. I'm not sorry I've seen it but there are waaay better 80s movies out there (start with Ferris Bueller's Day Off if you haven't seen any of them).

I Have just bought this on DVD, and I like it lots, One thing that Miles, or (Moles), forgot to do, is that every time you Finnish your computer sessions is to log off or shut down! The music for this film is excellent I like two tracks written by Jeff Lynne I found Madelene to be very pretty and clever with the cello, And I found the story to be funny how can a computer fall in love? it is not possible I also wondered how a geek like miles could pull a girl like her and why did he not tell Madelaine about his computer? I personally would not buy a computer like Edgar without it is checked over by a p.c. tech guy! The graphics on the film I found great. and I also am glad that I have finally bought both the DVD and the CD of the soundtrack I was surprised to find that the producer was Richard Branson and that it is released on Virgin films ltd I can watch this film without getting fed up with it as it is 95 minutes of fun and good music typically 1980's style I once borrowed it on video a long time ago that is where I first saw this brilliant film.