This is an expensive comedy that forgot to be funny and proved to be a huge flop upon release. Andy Kaufman and Bernadette Peters star as robots in a future time when domestic robotic servants are commonplace. They run away from a repair warehouse and wander the countryside, falling in love along the way. The cast includes Randy Quaid, Kenneth McMillan, Christopher Guest, Melanie Mayron, Dick Miller, Mary Woronov, Paul Bartel, and the voice of Jack Carter. The elaborate robots, a mix of costume and makeup, were made by Stan Winston. The partially electronic score is by John Williams. Despite all of that talent, it's pretty awful, with no real story, and the attempted jokes just land flatly, partially because I was expecting Kaufman's usual brand of humor and got something completely different. The failure of this ended whatever big screen chances controversial comedian Kaufman had.
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AlsExGal11 February 2017
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robot-cat17 February 2004I really wanted to like this movie, but the pacing was just way too slow.
It was a nice story, but it was really like watching a slug race.
The movie would have been better served, if it had some more action. I don't mean anything grand, but at least something in the background.
It could have also been helped by songs that set the tone/mood of the more lengthy periods that were absent of dialogue.
It's been about 10 years since I've seen it, so I may have to give it another chance.
3/10 or *1/2(out of four) -
"I presume you are here for damage to your mental circuitry." - VAL
Mike Nelson made me watch this...he mentioned it in his book, "Movie Megacheese." I asked myself, "Why would Mike Nelson steer me wrong?" I now know why the bots never trusted Mike Nelson.
The music is by John Williams, which is probably part of his payment to the Devil. In fact, I'm sure anyone who worked on this movie is probably in league with ol' Slewfoot, or is now cursed, from the Executive Director down to the guy who ran the catering truck outside the studio. Don't watch...for the love of God...don't watch!!! Not even making a copy and showing someone else will un-curse you...I'm doomed now, I understand this. I accept this. But save yourself... -
Pooua19 April 2004Before "Bicentenial Man"... there was a group of robots...
I watched this movie one time, 20 years ago, but I still remember it fondly. I have always thought of it as an allegory, centered around two robots who "grow up" through their wild, teenage years, have a child and face crises together. They finally discover the meaning of love, in a way that is deeper than just being fond of each other, as they sacrifice for each other.
I was so impressed with this movie that I can still recall much of the dialog. I remember the jokes and plot twists. The movie is light-hearted, funny and insightful and is even poignant at times. -
stonem30 April 1999If you like bad movies, this one's a real treat. Kaufman & Peters stagger around in robot costumes, escape slavery only to wander aimlessly, and find true robot love. I believe this is the first movie that ever made me consider walking out. I should note I was 12, and could be entertained by shiny objects.
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FredI-715 April 2006My wife and I saw this in the theater when it first came out.
There were only 3 couples there and we all walked out about the same time.
This is the only movie I have ever walked out on.
It was just painful to sit through.
The theater actually stopped us on the way out and asked if we wanted a refund.
Never had that happen before or since Pleae do not rent this You will really regret it I am really sureprised by the vote summary Perhaps personal tast has something to do with it -
mackdaddyspliffs27 December 2003I thought of this movie when i watched pluto nash...why..because both movies have randy quaid playing a retarded robot, this movie made years earlier but probably written by a screenplay writer that drank the same biotoxic coffee or something like that...Whoa...AVOID AT ALL COSTS even to pay tribute to the late great Andy Kaufman is hard to do here...find another film or just watch taxi reruns on latenight tv...his latka gravas character is so much more loveable...TANK YOU BERRY MUCH
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mark-44015 December 2008Little did I know that when I signed up the the "all pay channel" package with Direct TV that I would face a movie like this. It came on right after another movie we had been watching... and I was a teenager in 1981 so am not sure where I was at the time... but I missed this movie.
I also can't believe we left it on. It is kind-of funny as it takes you back in the time machine to the early 80s... but I think even then this would have been a painful movie. It was just... well... "too cute"! ET was "cute" in a way... but not obnoxiously cute... and stupid.
When I see a movie like this... I come on onto IMDb to see what others say. I am blown away that this thing was nominated! Wow... the movie industry has come a long way since the 80s! Oh well... it did show some old actors... btw that is the other thing I was surprised about... the lineup... not a bunch of no-names... but some real actors/actresses. Must have been in their drug days! Anyways... odd, interesting, bizarre, and makes one happy they grew up! -
fbingram23 February 2011When we entered the theater, there was only one other person. He left about 15 minutes into it, and we left about 30 minutes or so.
What a monumental waste of time. The theater actually refunded our ticket price.
When we bought the tickets, the person selling them looked at us strangely. That should have been a huge tip-off.
I always thought that Andy Kaufman intentionally tried to make the worst movie ever, as that type of thing was his bag (think him as a wrestler)
If you spend money to rent this, you would be better to just flush the money down a toilet
It is not even campy - it is just terrible -
matrix2927 March 2011HEARTBEEPS is a movie about a pair of malfunctioning companion androids returned to the factory for repairs. A simple conversation about mutual shared functions progresses to a trip to the woods with a 'Catskill' comedy unit (that has a vocal patterned after Rodney Dangerfield). They determine that stealing a UPS P-600 type truck. They assemble another small child-minded robot 'child' to tote spare parts and begin to slowly treat it as their son. Meanwhile the inventory staff notice the robots were missing and begin a search, however, the overheard conversation with the factory boss unknowingly gives a malfunctioning 'Crimebuster Deluxe' robot the purpose to hunt down and return the 3 missing robots. The factory inventory employees are also now tasked with locating and retrieving the missing androids, but their paths do not cross with the overactive Crimebuster unit. During the story, both androids slowly discover their love for each other and the desire to make the best life possible for the child they built together. When the android duo deduce that their child will need to have some sort of purpose or it will be discarded or destroyed by the humans, the kindly scrapyard owners note that they should take their child to the factory to give the child a purpose. The android family now begins slow walk back to the robot factory, but their power packs are now running very low.
The plot itself is fairly charming if you are not too impatient about the slow pace or the overly redundant dialog. This isn't an action movie or even a sexy romance flick, but just a simple lightly romantic science-fiction movie with rather good makeup and nice special effects (but the effects are not plot-mover item for the story as is common with the movies these days). It aims for a charming fanciful mindset and achieves it, but the pacing is too slow and the story dialog so thin that it really does not have enough "oomph" to give an emotional investment from the audience. HEARTBEEPS is a slow yet charming movie with sadly not enough script or philosophy to fill out the movie runtime. I find I rather like it for what it wanted to be, but many people will not appreciate that and be disappointed. I think this could be remade today (now that audiences are more accepting of science fiction in general) with a similar budget and a complex conceptually expanded script and succeed as a charming sci-fi family movie. -
josh-9881926 February 2017I absolutely loved this movie. Let me explain: I was 6 at the time ('81), and much of the production technology we have today didn't exist. Therefore my willingness to suspend disbelief was far greater. I was also not yet wise to such formulaic Hollywood devices as pointless chase scenes and badly scripted romances. I guess I would recommend watching this movie high on enough drugs to reduce you to the mindset of a 6 year old, and then you should be fine.
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suzy q12315 May 2001And that's saying a lot. Rent this if you want to be staggered by oddness, blown away by one of the most bizarre scripts, direction, and casting in the history of films. I'm staggered. I can't believe I watched it. I'm a big Bernadette Peters fan, normally- but this tested my resolve. Don't read any more reviews here, it's best if you know nothing about the plot. Just rent it. You won't believe what you're seeing.......
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Hey_Sweden23 September 2017Andy Kaufman and Bernadette Peters star in this slightly futuristic romantic comedy, playing Val and Aqua. They're robots who meet while put into storage, and make a connection. They also make a break for it, escaping from a factory on a "data finding" mission. They are hunted down not only by factory employees Charlie (Randy Quaid) & Max (Kenneth McMillan), but also by an out of control police robot called The Crimebuster. Val & Aqua are joined by a comedian robot named "Catskil" (voice of Jack Carter) and a cute little thing dubbed "Phil".
It might be just me, but personally I found this dopey movie rather endearing. It's not the debacle one might assume it to be (Kaufman DID apologize for it during an appearance on David Lettermans' late night show), although it clearly won't be for all tastes. Some viewers find it too slow, but I thought the pacing was adequate enough; the harmless little movie only runs an hour and 18 minutes anyway. It's not particularly witty, although the dialogue is good for some chuckles. Catskils' dialogue largely consists of one-liners concocted by Henny Youngman, although Carter did come up with some of his own material. Lovely widescreen photography is an asset, as is the appealing soundtrack composed by John Williams. The undeniable standout is the makeup created by Stan Winston.
The cast is all likable enough. The only thing this viewer didn't like was the fact that Christopher Guest and Melanie Mayron were wasted in minor roles. It's nice to see a variety of familiar faces in supporting parts and bits: Richard B. Shull, Dick Miller, Kathleen Freeman, Mary Woronov, and Paul Bartel. The great trailer announcer Ron Gans is a hoot as the voice of the Crimebuster. Director Allan Arkush is one of many filmmakers who came out of the Roger Corman school, and his other credits include things like "Rock 'n' Roll High School" and "Get Crazy".
"Heartbeeps" doesn't add up to much when it's all over, but it's still a pleasant enough diversion.
Six out of 10. -
Perhaps, and I mean just perhaps, "Heartbeeps" might hold your attention as a ten minute "Saturday Night Live" skit, but as a feature film it is excruciatingly awful. Quite a number of very interesting character actors are totally wasted, including Mary Woronov, Paul Bartel, Dick Miller, and Christopher Guest. Listening to the wise cracking robot "Catskill" tell terminally unfunny jokes makes the worst Jackie Mason movie seem like "Oscar" material. Even as a curiosity piece, "Heartbeeps" is to be avoided. I'm certain there are more than a few members of the cast who would like to bury all memories of this dismal failure. ................... MERK
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Wizard-824 October 2009If you have witnessed Andy Kaufman's slant on comedy, you may understand why I avoided this movie of his for years. Actually, for most of that time, I couldn't see it even if I wanted to - video stores in my area didn't stock it, and it never appeared on TV. I had to rent it online when recently I finally got the courage to give it a try.
My heart sank during the first few seconds of the movie. The comedy in this opening is both very familiar and unfunny, and the movie manages to sink further and further as it goes on. There's barely a story here, with the bulk of the movie consisting of the robots wandering around... and around... and around until you want to scream. It doesn't help that the robot characters are a turn-off. They don't have much of a personality (they seem very stupid - why should we care about stupid characters?), and their voices are very annoying to the ear.
The makeup is good, I'll admit. But it seems odd that they spent time for the makeup when not bothering to present the rest of this world as a futuristic world (the vehicles of this world, for one thing, are present-day gas-powered vehicles.) It's even more odd to consider that no one involved with this movie realized along the way that this project was a train wreck. -
SnoopyStyle2 August 2015Val (Andy Kaufman) is a high class robot damaged in an industrial accident. He's put in storage next to Aqua (Bernadette Peters). He's a business robot and she's given more charm. They are joined by comedian robot Catskill. They leave the warehouse to gather input and are pursued by the Crimebuster robot. Robot mechanics Charlie (Randy Quaid) and Max (Kenneth McMillan) are sent to retrieve the robots. Val and Aqua build Phil out of spare parts.
It's not cute enough to be adorable. The robotic acting forced on Andy and Bernadette leaves out the humor. Catskill's bad jokes only deaden the comedy. There is 1 or 2 touching moments if the audience can stay awake. -
matt-0110011 March 2023I challenged myself to make it to the end. And my conclusion is that there is nothing at all good about this movie, and probably the reason Randy Quaid has lost his marbles. Being part of this movie took his sanity.
This is not even the sort of dumb sci fy that MDT3K could enjoy ripping on. I gave it an extra star for the makeup and the fact that Jerry Garcia plays the baby robot.
This movie is so bad that it makes me questionif Andy Kaufman was actually a comic genius, or and idiot who fooled the world into thinking he was smart. I think if you consider AK as some sort of "brilliant, misunderstood comic genius ". Force yourself to watch this film. The entire thing. Then ask yourself if anyone with a brain was involved in this pile of cinematic s***. Anyone involved in the making of this film should be put in jail. -
docrotwang22 February 2023"Heartbeeps" is a 1981 crime against the viewer, misdirected by Allan Arkush. I'm sorry, but the following is all true:
Set in an ill-defined future (maybe?) but mostly in a forest, it stars Andy Kaufman and Bernadette Peters as a pair of malfunctioning robots who fall in love for no damn reason, escape their factory, and go for a walk in the woods. They are pursued by a pair of incompetent mechanics (one of them being Randy Quaid) and a boastful, violent robotic police vehicle gone rogue.
None of that is what makes it strange. No.
God, no.
What makes "Heartbeeps" strange is that while it looks like a movie, it plays like a series of deleted scenes from another, but also very stupid, movie. It bumbles from vignette to pointless and unfunny vignette, developing no plot, building no characters, and generally doing nothing more than simply existing. The effect is hypnotic, but not in a good way; calling it "dreamlike" would suggest some kind of intent or theme, but..
...no. There's nothing there. This movie is empty. Have you ever seen an empty movie? "Heartbeeps" is emptier still.
There's some real talent on both sides of the camera (it has a musical score from Star Wars/Raiders/ET-era JOHN WILLIAMS FOR SOME REASON), but it's ultimately just - just - I - I can't - flames...
If you run into this movie, please stop, back up, and run into it again. Or, you know, watch it, and see just how weird a movie can be when it has nothing, absolutely NOTHING, to say. -
MogwaiMovieReviews28 May 2023What a weird thing to just now discover: an Andy Kaufman-starring comedy about two robots falling in love and going on the run. I never even knew it existed until today.
Now, I must stress, this is not a good film at all: awful dialogue, slow pacing and practically no story at the center of it. The machines inexplicably behave like people, when there is no reason for them to do so, and the people characters may as well be machines. The movie fails entirely at making you care for any of them or buy into any of the nonsense taking place. But it's also one of the quirkiest films you'll see, with striking visuals all the way through, and technical excellence in all the other departments.
If I was to try sum it up in words, I guess I would have to say it was a cobbled-together hodgepodge of Tron, Sleeper, Short Circuit, A. I. and Batman Returns, filmed by Wes Anderson from a script by an 11-year-old written on a Speak N Spell.
So no, it's not a good film, but it is sort of charming, in an 80s time capsule kind of way, and a pretty thing for your eyes to look at the once. -
bobc-51 July 2022Buried somewhere underneath this disaster is an intelligent and well-written movie about two broken robots developing self-awareness and wandering off to form a family of sorts. The retro-futuristic styling, placement of vintage cars, and so-bad-they're-funny jokes of a Borscht Belt robot comedian all add to the good-natured appeal of a movie which doesn't take itself too seriously. There are, however, too many fatal flaws for this to work. Instead of having the actors act like robots, they're almost completely encased in a robot suit of armor which makes any actual acting impossible. Even some of the actors playing humans portray them in a robotic manner. Much of the movie consists of the robots wandering aimlessly through scenes that seem to have no thought put into them. As a final nail in the coffin, Andy Kaufman inexplicably chooses to use an annoying cartoon voice that falls somewhere between Leo Gorcey and Latka Gravas. The quirky nature of the film makes it worth watching as a curiosity piece, but only for film buffs willing to sit through just about anything.
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editor-187-9809184 January 2014First of all, consider that this was the only motion picture Andy Kaufman made before he died. He was quite sick when he made it and he never defined himself as a comedian; he always defined himself as a "song and dance man." It was the rest of the world who kept trying to shove him into the comedy can. Andy was perhaps the most misunderstood performer of all time and undoubtedly a genius. At the time this movie was made, Kaufman's break-out TV series, Taxi, had just been cancelled and he had just been diagnosed with a rare large cell carcinoma in his lungs. He wanted to get away from the disastrous "Inter-Gender Wrestling" gig he started that caused his popularity to fall flat and got him banned from Saturday Night Live. Bernadette Peters had just come off playing a cupie-doll airhead against Steve Martin's moron in "The Jerk" and Heartbeeps seemed like a good follow-up role. It's nuances you need to watch for in this film. The unlikely allies of the robots, Val, Aqua and the Catskill Performer, while being pursued by a crazed police robot, makes for a simplistic, yet classic tale of good vs. evil and good wins (spoiler alert!). Much of Kaufman's performance reminds me of the innocent, yet poignant Latka from Taxi. Thank you very much!
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BandSAboutMovies30 November 2023As they await repairs, Val Com 17485 (Andy Kaufman), a robot valet with a specialty in lumber commodities, falls in love with Aqua Com 89045 (Bernadette Peters), a hostess companion robot who is made for poolside parties. They assemble a robot named Phil (Jerry Garcia) who they treat as their child and take with them a comedian robot, Catskil-55602 (Jack Carter).
They are pursued by Crimebuster (Ron Gans), a broken police drone that wants to bring them into to be erased. They are and yet they keep reverting back to their new programing as the love between them has become too strong.
The story sounds good but the actual movie, well...
In his book Andy Kaufman: Revealed, Bob Zmuda wrote that Kaufman and Zmuda had "pitched" the The Tony Clifton Story to Universal Studios. They were concerned that Kaufman had not acted in films except for a small role in God Told Me To, so they arranged for him to star in this movie as a test. It was a disaster and Kaufman even apologized on Late Night With David Letterman for making it.
When I spoke with director Alan Arkush about this movie, he was very honest about it.
B&S: Can you tell me about Heartbeeps?
ALLAN: I got offered this big studio movie. And I really have to say that I totally misread the situation. I didn't really understand the script or maybe it didn't indicate that it could be a wacky comedy. I seized on the idea that it could be this big story about robots falling in love and making it a Frank Borzage movie (a bizarre idea and nothing like what the studio wanted). He was big on love conquers death, love is a spiritual thing and I thought that's what the situation was with these robots. Maybe that's an intellectually good solution but it's not the movie they wanted.
I made so many bad choices like a pace that was WAY too slow for comedy. I should have just turned Andy Kaufman loose, used many many more special effects and taken more advantage of the genius of my FX team Stan Winston and Albert Whitlock. We recently did a commentary for the Kino Lorber rerelease and that was both eye opening and painful, but useful to me as an artist, not unlike when I critique a film at the AFI.
B&S: But you had a great cast! I mean, Jerry Garcia is in it.
ALLAN: Yes, Jerry was someone I knew really well. And I asked him to do one of the robot voices on the guitar. I was trying to borrow stuff from other parts of my life to shoehorn in. The studio cut ALL of Jerry's work out.
At least Arkush was able to get Paul Bartel, Mary Woronov and Dick Miller in the movie, as well as Kenneth McMillan and Randy Quaid as repairmen. But otherwise, this movie seems like it's going somewhere at first and then just sits there forever, despite being only around 75 minutes. I've put off watching it for years because I've heard just how bad it is and I'd hoped that it would surprise me.
It was written by John Hill, who also wrote Quigley Down Under, Little Nikita and episodes of Quantum Leap and L. A. Law. He also scripted Steel Justice, a TV movie in which monster truck robot Robosaurus teams with a police officer. Do you think he told people, "I did Heartbeeps so I am a natural to write this movie about a child who brings back his dead cop dad as a fire-breathing transforming dinosaur?"
What is great is the makeup by Stan Winston.
The artist had been sought after he created the makeup for the Tin Man in The Wiz. Winston said, "I hadn't been all that happy with the final results of the Tin Man makeup, which was made up of foam rubber appliances, painted to look like metal. I wanted to see if I could come up with something better for Heartbeeps, appliances that would have an intrinsic metallic quality, rather than one that was just painted on."
He used gelatin appliances that were painted with metallic colors. However, the heat of shooting meant that the makeup needed near-constant touch-ups. This almost ruined Winston's sanity.
"I had created the look I wanted and I had done something that no one had ever seen before. The downside was that, on a daily basis, I didn't know whether or not we were going to get through the shoot! These were very difficult makeups to maintain, very labor-intensive. Every day at lunch we had to replace the lip appliances, for example, because they were starting to melt on us. Vince Prentice and Zoltan Elek, the makeup artists who actually applied the prosthetics, constantly had to stay on top of the problems with the gelatin. I was a wreck through the entire shoot."
It did teach him an essential lesson.
"I was in a stressed-out state, which was fairly typical of me at that time, and Bernadette Peters said to me, "Relax, Stan. It's just a movie." Here she was, going through this grueling process of having these prosthetics applied to her, and she had to calm me down. It should have been just the opposite. To this day, I thank Bernadette Peters for putting my attitude in perspective. In this work, there are always going to be very real responsibilities and pressures - but it's just a movie, and there's nothing to be gained by being a walking stress factory. Ever since that time, I've tried to bring positive energy and lightheartedness to the set." -
danarose_crystal30 December 2004The film had NO help at all, promotion-wise: if there was an advertising promo on TV or radio, I didn't see/hear it. The only newspaper ad I saw was on it's opening weekend: a dingy, sludgy B & W head-shot photo of Andy as Val-Com, behind jail bars, with headline: "WANTED! Runaway Robot!" ( which was also the poster in front of the 3 movie theaters I saw it at --NOT the nice little color poster on this site, with headshots of all the cast, and cartoon of Crimebuster --which really wasn't THAT good--they OUGHT to have used an action scene from the film itself--didn't they have an onset photographer? A poster is supposed to HELP a prospective audience decide if they want to SEE the movie--there were SO many people who couldn't get into their sold-out choice, and wanted to know WHAT Heartbeeps was about--and that poster didn't help! That dingy pic, and the only other photos supplied to papers were so indistinguishable in B & W that they were worthless. ) There was NO trailer for the film: only a slide at one theater, consisting of the word "Heartbeeps" inside a heart-shape, with a Cupid's arrow through it, and one that was a totally black picture: just Andy and Bernadette's voices saying "Val-Com! My pleasure center is malfunctioning!" "So is mine; do you think we ought to tell our owners?" THAT is no help to people who hadn't been aware of the movie.
During the filming, Andy told reporters that he couldn't eat, once his plastic lips were applied, so he would "load up on breakfast, and fast" during the day's shoot. I don't know WHAT Bernadette did: but at the time, I'd wondered why they didn't just sip protein drinks through long straws, or eat astronaut-style puréed food via tubes?
Phil-Co, the baby robot, seemed to have been the pre-curser to Short Circuit's Johnny-Five, with the same eyes, similar face. I've been trying to find if they had the same designer, but no help. I have vintage magazine articles about the film, and the design team was immensely proud of their work, and were going for a special award for their innovative device to create stenchless "smoke" for Catskill's cigars. Just shortly thereafter, LucasFilm did NOT use that device, though they OUGHT to have, for Return of the Jedi's scenes with Jabba the Hut: a man created "steam" around Jabba, by blowing cigar smoke into a tube, joking that all he needed was a glass of brandy, and he'd be a happy man. I thought that LucasFilm's using of real tobacco products was insensitive to people who were upset by smoke.
John Williams, who had then recently succeeded the late, great Arthur Fielder as the maestro of the Boston Pops ( which was THEN a ratings hit--but it never recovered from Fielder's death, and is now a shadow of it's former glory ), was using the show to promote films with which he supplied the music. He'd premiered "The Empire Strikes Back" score there; and you would think he'd have helped Heartbeeps along, by playing a few numbers there? The one thing that critics had liked of this film was Williams' score--yet it was NOT available for purchase! I saw one vinyl album, in 1982, with half Heartbeeps, half another film--but it disappeared. I only just tonight saw the CD listed on THIS site, and have ordered it. If I can ever get a scanner, and time to type out the articles, I'd like to create a Heartbeeps tribute site. I liked the movie, and don't care what dissenters say!
The only trouble with the film, was, that near the end, it was messed up, logic-wise: the robots ran away from the factory to have the freedom to decide their own fate, make their own choices; yet, when the junkyard owners tell them that Phil needs to go TO the factory, to have a "purpose" programmed into him, they don't even question it; they just glance meaningfully at each other, and they go. Along the way, each of the adults lose battery power, and "die." They aren't REALLY dead, as they are robots, and only need new batteries, yet it is treated as "death," with little Phil crying over them, and rolling away. So, what was the POINT of this? Phil never gets back to the factory, and gets "a purpose!" AND of course, the junkyard owners COULD'VE driven them, or given them all battery recharges, with back-up batteries; but the real point was to have this poignant scene, where the robots all wore down, and Phil is left to cry.
At the end, Val-Com is a golf instructor, and Aqua-Com is --I'm not sure what. Catskill is an ENTERTAINER--what ELSE is HE supposed to be? I'm not sure that they made it clear. The junkyard owners seem to be taking it easy, lying on chaise lounges, drinking lemonade from Phil, their "bartender." Val's and Aqua's new "daughter," Philsia--I think the name is--maybe it's Sylvania--doesn't seem to be much more than a table lamp.
There is missing footage, which is sad--from photos I surmise that the stuff missing includes a sweet scene, where Phil is having a Christmas, with Val gifting him with a car's steering wheel; Aqua is supplying a horn; Catskill has taken the firefighter helmet to give to Phil, as we saw; and they have Christmas trees. I don't know if any missing footage supplies better logic, or if the writers just couldn't think of a better crisis/resolution. The film was trimmed to 72-75 minutes, to pair it with other failing films. No other reason than that. For a DVD, I would LOVE to be in on creating, as I want to see interviews with the cast/crew and John Williams, and the Merv Griffin interview. The making-of footage; and reediting and restoring the missing footage to make it better. -
jclhats28 May 2002I haven't seen this movie in years. I couldn't remember the title of the movie. Now I can't wait to see it again, and hoping it is as cute as I remember. I read some of the comments and a lot of the viewers didn't care for the movie. It doesn't have to be rocket science to be a cute movie. But it had one important factor (LOVE)
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DarthVoorhees26 September 2012'Heartbeeps' is a very stupid idea for a movie. It has a great theme ,the line between love and artificial and human life, but you really can't execute any of it for any dramatic value in a film as goofy as this. The problem with 'Heartbeeps' is that the script is so incredibly boring. Val and Aqua, our robot heroes, have dialogue written entirely in programing speak. The dialogue combined with Stan Winston's repulsive make-up is a disjointing and often very awkward experience. A lot is working against 'Heartbeeps' and yet the film is saved from the bomb rating it probably deserves. Andy Kaufman is absolutely brilliant in it. Appropriately enough with the make-up and the dialogue everything seems artificial in 'Heartbeeps', Kaufman is able to take the material to a very emotional and human level.
I am a fan of Andy Kaufman. He was a true American original and I don't think you'll ever see any one quite like him ever again. Kaufman made a career defying the theatrical conventions we have been ingrained to follow. He was far too unconventional I think to find success as a film actor in the Hollywood system. With 'Heartbeeps' though Kaufman uses his strengths as a master of defying expectations to his advantage. Behind Kaufman's work there was always a strong sense of some hyper superficial emotion being relayed (often it was bizarre anger). No one ever really got to know the true Andy because he hid it so well in a persona. I think this trait works very well with Val. Val does not experience emotion and so when he starts to it is awkward and choppy and hidden behind so much of a shell that was put before him. This concept of freeing one self from these shells and experiencing something new is what defines Kaufman and his audience. I can't think of a better actor than Andy Kaufman to tackle this kind of role.
The rest of the film is pretty boring and underdeveloped. As a comedy it is pretty painfully unfunny (Although I will say I love the unflattering caricature of Rodney Dangerfield called Catskill). The film's greatest flaw is that there is no real impetus for the adventure these robots undertake and thus their discovery of a kind of humanity does not really have an impact because we don't really see a before and after. I would have liked to have seen them drop some of the robot mannerisms as they become human because what makes these Pinocchio stories interesting is the sense of transformation.
Kaufman is what makes this film worth a view because otherwise it is pretty bad. 'Heartbeeps' really serves as a reminder of the fact that we lost Andy Kaufman far too soon. I'd like to think that with better roles tailored to his strengths he could have reached great heights as an actor.