Forgotten Favorites - Circuitry Man
Circuitry Man
The early 90’s, what an age—many a child was feeding at cable’s teat and for those of us with no life, Momma was good company. Weird semi-independent films would show up late at night on HBO and Joe Bob Briggs would be coming to The Movie Channel to bring us all a taste of the Drive In. It was in this golden time that Circuitry Man reared its shiny head. It’s a bizarre film and hard to categorize, but to be safe let’s call it Sci-Fi.
Starring Jim Metzler, who would later on be more happily remembered for L.A. Confidential, Circuitry Man tells the story of an Earth gone wrong. We’ve depleted our atmosphere to where the air is un-breathable and everyone has gone underground. Since we’ve got really nothing to do but stare at one another, people now “plug in” to a virtual experience through an outlet in the back of their necks. Sound familiar?
Enter into this future a reluctant bodyguard named Lori who’s had it with the tough life and just wants to design lingerie. When a deal goes wrong she decides to go on the run from the baddie of the film, Plug Head (played with insane glee by Vernon Wells, who you might remember from The Road Warrior, he was the crazy mohawk dude). She needs to get out of town, and the only chance she has comes in the form of a pleasure droid named Danner (Metzler).
Danner is suicidal thanks to a complicated back story concerning a lost love. He makes a deal with Lori to drive her through the maze of tunnels that will get her out of town. In the process they meet all sorts of crazy characters (including a freaky guy named Leech, played by a nearly unrecognizable Dennis Christopher), avoid the ex-psychiatrist now psycho Plughead, avoid klutzy FBI agents, and fall in love.
Sound insane? Yep, it is…but it still manages to be entertaining on that Grade A Monterey Jack cheese level. Metzler does a great job overacting as needed with Danner’s flair for the dramatic and Dennis Christopher is sleazy as hell as Leech. Wells is also at his wide eyed best.
The film has hardly any budget, which is sort of a given. It also steals quite a bit from Tanith Lee’s The Silver Metal Lover (not the least of which is Danner’s clothing, hair color, and function). But it also makes no qualms about what it is, which is a goofy sci-fi flick that never takes itself seriously.
But you have to give them props for doing the whole Matrix thing before the Matrix. It has a pretty decent soundtrack too. And for teenage sci-fi fangirls, Danner is pretty dreamy. But keep in mind I didn’t get out much back then…and plus I’m weird.
It even spawned a sequel called “Plughead Rewired”. You can get both on a double feature DVD, but you have to hunt for it.
—Jessica Dwyer
