Cherry 2000 is a fantastic cinematic explosion of ideas, genres, tones, and possibilities. In other words – it’s a Steve De Jarnatt picture, ahead of its time during initial release, and so ready for rediscovery by modern audiences it’s almost a joke.
Feeling like an acid-tinged riff on the post-apocalyptic action narrative with shades of Mad Max all throughout, I can’t help but feel that this film set the stage for properties like Demolition Man and Tank Girl and possibly even something like The Fifth Element and Ex-Machina.
It’s wild, it’s outlandish, it’s audacious, and there’s not much else I can think of that even remotely comes close to the fantasia that this off the wall effort represents and creates. In the future, 2017 to be exact(!), Sam Treadwell (David Andrews) is a recycling plant manager.
He goes home every night to his beautiful wife, played by the beyond sexy Pamela Gidley, who just so happens to be a lifelike robot with the titular name of Cherry 2000. She’s ready for her man at any point, always smiling, always there to pleasure and reassure.
Originally completed in 1985, the film was set to be released in August of 1986 by Orion Pictures, who then delayed it until March of 1987, then September of 1987, before deciding on a straight to VHS release in the fall of 1988.
Cherry 2000 was likely too much of a good thing for people to understand it at the time, likely vexing marketing departments and studio heads; those days of pushing creative and unique gems like this one through some sort of studio funded pipeline seem long gone.
The Kino-Lorber Blu-ray is sharp as a tack, with great color saturation and excellent sound quality.
Review by Nick Clement
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Cherry 2000
Summary
It’s wild, it’s outlandish, it’s audacious and way ahead of it’s time.
