Friday, January 25, 2019

Hardware (1990)



Hardware (1990) released as “Mark 13” in some areas.

 

Based off of a 2000 A.D. story titled 'Shok!' although it wasn't until video release that it was actually given credit. This low budget scifi/horror movie brings out some excessive violence, language and sexual content to a wonderful cyberpunk background. Something you really don't see often enough.


An early role for Dylan McDermott, and one that is often forgotten, but not due to his acting ability as he pulls off a solid performance. Surprises are a voice over from a radio station from time to time by rock n' roll icon Iggy Pop, Carl McCoy from Fields of Nephilim as a masked nomad and Lemmy from Motorhead as a taxi driver.


The basic premise is pretty straight forward, Mo (McDermott) returns home and brings his girlfriend Jill (Stacy Travis) the head of a destroyed Mark 13 robot to use in her industrial style artwork she creates. However the head is far from dead and rebuilds itself to wreak havoc. Causing even more trouble on top of that is the perverted sexual predator neighbor Lincoln (William Hootkins) stalking Jill as well. Mo has to attempt to save his girlfriend with the help of his friend Shades (John Lynch) and the security detail of the apartment complex.


Due to the amount of graphic violence, language and some pretty openly sexual explicit scenes the studio had to do cuts in order to receive a rating low enough to get into most theater markets. Even yet a great deal of gore still manages to make it to the final cut.


For a low budget film they really manage to pull out some impressive work on this. Capturing a lot of trashed cyberpunkish scenery and feel throughout the entire movie. From the parts shop Mo finds the head in to his taxi ride home, the apartment complex and surrounding buildings. Even the costuming folks made everything look good. More impressive they managed to evade one of the most common problems I have with scifi movies, they managed to make it all 'lived in'. It's grimy, dirty and things are piled around, you get the overall general feel that people actually live there. There are no new shiny apartments that we are expected to believe somebody has been there for years. It all feels somewhat real.


This is long before the CGI time of movie making so we get all practical effects. Most of the time these are also done well but during the final few fights with the Mark 13 robot. Then it begins to fall apart bit by bit, some shots look like a puppet robot a little to much, others we can see the legs of a person under the body for a quick second or two and then some scenes even come across as laughable.


Other plot holes are never explained. Such as one of the Mark 13 weapons of choice is an injected toxin that can cause a persons mind to trip out and eventually kill them. Where the self rebuilt bot managed to come across more of it, since there was only a head at the apartment, is rather questionable. Hell just the rebuilding of itself leaves a lot to the suspension of disbelief. But then again this movie isn't trying to be a perfectly sealed script.


There is, of course, a body count in this movie. Sometimes rather unexpected. But they are all memorable and usually leaving us with an “Oh Shit” reaction when watching them happen.


In the end if you like your scifi to be a dark and bloody cyberpunk vision then you will probably enjoy this movie. It's not for everyone and you have to be forgiving at moments for the low budget. I do think it is a 'must see' for scifi folks who aren't squeamish or easily offended by sexual language or themes.

 
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"Oogey Boogey! We ran out of money!"

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