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.
For cyberpunk table top gaming check out the Cyberpunk 2020 RPG.
"Oogey Boogey! We ran out of money!"
Your review made me want to see it.
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