Short Circuit / YMMV

Awesome Music: David Shire's music for the movie is delightful.
Common Knowledge: There is a common misconception that one of the main characters drops an f-bomb. The scene where Benny gets mad at Fred for letting Johnny Five out has him saying "Now you stop backing up, you untrustworthy person", but "backing" sounds more like "fucking up". Though because Benny has a thick accent and an earlier scene had a magician saying "motherfucker", you really can't blame it.
Demographically Inappropriate Humour: Quite a bit for what is a fairly family-friendly movie. Upon entering Stephanie's home while she's taking a bath, Number 5 has this to say...
Number 5: Niiiiice software.
Fair for Its Day: A white man playing an Indian character is undoubtedly dated and problematic, but the character of Ben is still shown in a positive light, and in the sequel he gets to become much more developed.
Hilarious in Hindsight:
- In the Parental Bonus, the old couple worries about the "grass" they might have left in the glovebox. The state of Oregon has now legalized recreational marijuana as of 2015.
- Another one is Stephanie's "roach coach" all-natural food truck being treated as something a bit silly. Today, Portland, Oregon is world-famous for its wide variety of food trucks and the stiff competition among them.
- Michael McKean probably shouldn't be hanging around with a robot, especially fixing it in a Radio Shack, all things considered. For that matter, Chuck McGill once acted more like his "Slippin' Jimmy" brother hustling in the city.
Memetic Mutation: "Number Five alive!" and "Need input!" most famously.
No disassemble, nooo disassemble, nooo-o-o disassemble Number five!...
Moe: To make a not-quite-humanoid robot moe is an achievement, but Johnny Five is just that for fans. The robot's deep respect for life, loyalty to his friends, and fondness for movie quotes all make him pretty lovable.
Narm Charm: No one's ever gonna put this movie or the sequel on the same level as ET or anything, but despite a lot of corny humor and questionable casting, the films remain popular guilty pleasures and beloved nostalgia pieces.
Questionable Casting: Both Austin Pendleton (Howard) and Fisher Stevens (Ben) have gone on record as saying that while they enjoyed working with him, they thought Steve Guttenberg was miscast as Newton Crosby; in the script, the character was written as an awkward introvert who is more comfortable around machines than people, but the amiable and outgoing Guttenberg simply didn't match this description.
Special Effect Failure: You can see the rods of Johnny's puppet arms in a few shots. These same arm rods can also be seen when the trio of NOVA robots do their Three Stooges routine.
Spiritual Adaptation: The movies give out a vibe that they were either produced by Steven Spielberg or distributed by Disney (WALL•E would later take inspiration from the films' character Number Five for the main character of the Pixar film), even though they weren't.
Spiritual Successor: To WarGames, also directly by John Badham and starring Ally Sheedy. In both films, Ally Sheedy's character comes across a military AI that learns the value of life.
Values Dissonance: Fisher Stevens — a white actor — is playing Ben, an Indian character. Not much thought would be given to that in the 80s, of course, but try making that casting choice in the 2010s (and onward). Aziz Ansari pointed this out on his show Master of None, and then had an amicable talk with Stevens on the subject for the New York Times.
Visual Effects of Awesome: The animatronics used for Johnny Five are still quite impressive, and they reportedly took up nearly all of the film's special effects budget on their own, in large part due to how many they built for the film (around 15 to use for Johnny, the other drones and as backups, plus many standalone props including arms and a head).
The Woobie: Johnny 5, at times, particularly the scenes following him making the connection between "disassemble" and "dead".

YMMV / Short Circuit

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