Why So Blu?

Forgotten Friday Flick – “Cherry 2000”

To celebrate the power of strong women in cinema, I thought I’d add my two cents by celebrating a reposting of an MIA past picture dissection featuring a tough lady movie character who definitely leads the way – welcome to Forgotten Friday Flick!  Today’s selection has a gutsy gal who is asked to help a man with her bounty hunting skills find the perfect woman – but she requires batteries! It’s a love story about a man, his lovely fembot and a real woman who gives him pause.  Cue the soothing music, crack open the champagne and insert your memory microchip because love is in the air courtesy of five-star 1987 sci-fi camp classic…Cherry 2000!

It’s the year 2017 and despite expert technological advances, humankind has stepped backwards, especially when it comes to male/female relationships.  In fact, gone are the days of heading to the local bar, striking up conversation and playing your cards right in the hopes of finding that special someone.  Now lawyers run the show and any encounter that includes dinner, a movie and a possible sexual encounter must be signed, sealed and notarized – no deal, no feel.  It’s a world that has become tough for business executive and all around romantic nice guy Sam Treadwell.  So much so that he has resigned to settling down with a lovely gal more tailored to his old fashioned needs, a loving and caring lady by the name of Cherry.  Only one complication, Cherry is actually a Cherry 2000 – a female android.

Unfortunately bot and water don’t mix and after a tryst of unbridled passion on the wet kitchen floor short circuits Cherry, Sam tries desperately to have her fixed.  Problem is not only is she irreparable, but she’s a limited edition model that is well out of date and hard to find.  Determined, focused and armed with the memory chip from his now deceased love, Sam heads out to find a tracker to take him into the bot graveyard to replace the love he lost.  He comes upon unconventional gal E. Johnson, a rough and tumble female tracker who offers to take the lovelorn Sam across hostile territory into Zone 7 to find the Cherry manufacturing plant.  It’s in this journey that the two not only find trouble in the form of wasteland overlord Lester and his deranged cronies, but Sam begins to notice the upside of a fetching gal who doesn’t run on batteries.

It’s a simple premise, but the material within Cherry 2000 is elevated by many five-star factors.  First off, the awesome and slick future look via Director Steve De Jarnatt is pure 80’s camp – from the neon dating clubs (a little early Laurence Fishburne as a romantic legal eagle anyone?!) to the moody bot graveyard (blue tint is so Michael Mann – love it!) everything has a glossy finish.  And of course there would also be no mood without the powerful score by Greek-American composer Basil Poledouris, which enters the Tangerine Dream realm of dramatic impact elevation.

Though as always it’s the performances, both cheesy and sincere, that give all the spice that Cherry 2000 needs.  Love David Andrews as the devoted and surly Sam, Pamela Gidley (yes, Teresa Banks in Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me!) as the bot out to please and even Tim ‘Jack Deth’ Thomerson as the over-the-top lunatic Lester.  But ultimately this one belongs to E. Johnson and she’s played here with girl power gusto by an early, sexy, smart and sassy Melanie Griffith.  As the tenacious tracker who turns Sam’s head, Griffith provides just the right amount of bold and beautiful to pull off a captivating role that flat out steals the show – it’s her finest work.

There was a lot of confusion over at the now debunked Orion Pictures about the release of Cherry 2000 back in 1985 when it was completed.  It was shelved for various reasons and put off until the video release in 1988, meaning that time for cool marketing and well-deserved attention was all but wiped out.  Seems the fools over at Orion at the time didn’t know how to handle a film that encapsulated so many wonderful genres like Cherry 2000 and as a result the film fell into movie obscurity.  Well, I’m screaming loud and proud to forget that remake talk (yes, even if it would have Melanie Griffith’s daughter Dakota in the E. Johnson role!) and go back and embrace the romance, action, sci-fi, drama, and all out cool camp that is Cherry 2000.  Savory sci-fi, robots and feisty females unafraid to kick a little ass – they truly don’t make ‘em like they used to.