[7]

Cherry 2000 is good corny fun. It takes place in a somewhat post-apocalyptic 2017 (almost there!) where gender dynamics and sex politics have gotten so complicated, that many men prefer to bond with robots rather than flesh-and-blood women. That’s the part of the movie that genuinely fascinates me — but these ideas are dealt with pretty early on, with the rest of the film adhering to the classic adventure formula. Not that that’s a bad thing.

David Andrews stars as a man who’s robotic female companion short-circuits in the opening scene, leading him to try and find a replacement model. Trouble is, his beloved Cherry 2000 model is now a rare find, and he’ll have to recruit a ‘tracker’ to help him venture into the government-free sort of ‘forbidden zone’ to claim a new body for his girlfriend’s memory chip. The tracker is played by Melanie Griffith, whose character resents the whole idea of robot women, and sort of has a thing for Andrews. And gosh-darn-it if Andrews doesn’t start to have a thing for Griffith, too. Will the lonely man choose the woman or the robot? That’s Cherry 2000. It’s every bit as silly as it sounds — and it knows it. Maybe it’s a guilty pleasure, but I dig it — beautiful cast, fast paced adventure, whacky humor, and a great Basil Poledouris score.

With Ben Johnson, Tim Thomerson, Harry Carey Jr, Marshall Bell, Brion James, Robert Z’Dar, and Laurence Fishburne.