The only thing more 80s than the 1980s is the future after the 80s… as depicted in movies made in the 80s. In this neon-lit nonsense, 2017 looks a lot like 1987, just more bright and plastic. Kiddie-voiced Melanie Griffith is miscast as a Mad Max-style badass in a lawless post-apocalyptic wasteland, but the whole film is pure camp so it’s no big deal. She’s hired by David Andrews, who doesn’t have a drop of screen charisma in him (he’d later become a busy character-actor), to help him find a new robot wife after his old one conked out. He’s in love with an ultra-rare model of robot girl that’s only findable way out in the dangerous desert. High jinks follow. A few moments are likably weird while the rest amounts to either limp action scenes or attempts to force a romance between the chemistry-free couple of Griffith and Andrews. Tim Thomerson, always subtly funny even in a straight part, provides some fun as a vicious crimelord.
This is a cult film, but strictly for those with a severe case of 80s nostalgia. It was a time of sci-fi and action comedies that happily made no sense and looked to coast by on charm. This one achieves the goal of making no sense, but has some trouble with the charm part.
It was barely released in its day. Filming completed in 1985 and then the movie sat on the Orion Pictures shelf for two years until it came out in Europe in 1987. Its US debut didn’t happen until 1988 when it went straight to video to capitalize on Melanie Griffith’s rising star. Director Steve De Jarnatt would later make a much better 80s oddball film with Miracle Mile and screenwriter Michael Almereyda would go on to direct some memorably stranges ones himself, such as the black and white vampire art film, Nadja and the modernization of Hamlet with Ethan Hawke.