Cherry 2000 – 1987 – United States
In the future year 2017, after an economic collapse, Earth has become a garbage-filled wasteland (much like real life). To find replacement parts for his android wife, Sam travels to the ruins of Las Vegas with E. Johnson, a hard-boiled “tracker” babe who specializes in scavenging valuable junk. In pursuit is a gang of raiders who wear Hawaiian shirts to cosplay as 1960s suburbanites. As Sam and E. Johnson fall in love, Sam realizes that his perfect artificial wife might not compare to a highly imperfect real woman.
Cherry 2000 is a wonderfully wacky and surreal movie. The premise of a man scavenging parts for his sex android is novel. And the setting has a retro look that resembles the future as predicted by a 1960s issue of Popular Mechanics. It also somewhat resembles a Western. The whole thing is pretty original. For example, one decorative prop is a live cat somehow stuck in the tank of a water cooler.
Although it’s preoccupied with sex, Cherry 2000 isn’t very sexy. In the opening scene, Sam and his android wife bang as their dishwasher overflows and drenches them in soapy water. It’s more weird than hot. Later, Sam goes to a sex club where people negotiate sexual hook-ups through lawyer intermediaries. Despite having a love story, Cherry 2000 mostly seems to be making fun of sex and romance.
The movie has a lot action too. E. Johnson drives a cool car and shoots cool guns as she fights off raiders. Her weary, unflappable attitude it totally admirable. Her enormous red hairdo is cool too. In one scene, she is hanging from a crane as people shoot rockets at her. When she pulls herself to safety, Sam asks, “You alright?” She responds, “I swallowed my gum.”
Cherry 2000 manages to be both incredibly campy and unironically cool, which is quite a paradox. It reminds me of Hell Comes to Frogtown (1988) although that movie highly uncool (in a lovable sort of way).
Rating: 7/10 Shrunken Heads
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