As a story, Electric Dreams isn't particularly interesting. I mean, there's a certain innocence to the movie that's kinda sweet, and I guess the A.I. stuff has held up pretty well, but I didn't really care about the two protagonists, nor their relationship, nor the fact that this self-aware computer was constantly trying to thwart them. It's all oddly lackluster given the subject matter, which isn't helped by the soft direction, weak comedy, and obvious ADR work.
But, man, those brief musical interludes come oh so close to making the whole thing worth it to me. There's a healthy portion of them, usually set to the two leads going on dates or whatever, and they really capture that charming, MTV-style '80s aesthetic that we all love so much. These scenes aren't anywhere near as deep as all the attempts at technological commentary, but they're the only moments where the movie actually springs to life.
Frankly, if the whole thing came at all close to capturing the pure bliss of that ending montage, where everyone dances to "Together in Electric Dreams" by Phil Oakey and Georgio Moroder (fantastic song, by the way), we almost certainly would've had a winner here.
Grade: B-
P.S. Lenny Von Dohlen will always be Jernigan from Home Alone 3 to me, so seeing a remote control car in the opening scene made me laugh.
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