Young leads Lenny von Dohlen and Virginia Madsen, an appealing '80s soundtrack and a decorative direction from Steve Barron are almost enough to make computerized fairy tale worth watching. Nebbish architect in San Francisco, admonished by his superior for failing to keep a tight schedule, buys his first home computer to help straighten out his life. While working on a gizmo that will keep buildings safe during earthquakes, this not-nutty professor accidentally douses his new PC with champagne, which has the opposite effect of a malfunction: the computer is reborn with its own personality. Meanwhile, a pretty concert cellist has just moved in upstairs... Boy-girl meet-cute (with the computer playing both cupid and romantic adversary) inches itself along, engaging but in fits and starts, buoyed by Barron's music montages and Madsen's sunny smile. Rusty Lemorande's mercurial screenplay is a liability; the computer's impertinent nature coupled with the architect's bursts of irritability are off-putting ingredients in a featherweight doodle like this. The supporting characters never emerge, and Bud Cort's voice as Edgar the computer is a gimmick that doesn't come off. ** from ****
Review of Electric Dreams
