Nemesis (1992)
Before I begin I will say that I do love the cover image for this movie. It captures that cyberpunk aesthetic so well and is one of my favorites, hell I want a poster of it on my wall. To bad the movie doesn't live up to this.
It seems anytime you bring up cyberpunk
themed movies that someone will always bring up this one. Which it is
certainly a film fitting into that category but... it's probably also
the most generic film to fall in there as well. Which is very
appropriate since I remember the early nineties as a time when so
much of the cyberpunk stories being pushed out in paperback were very
generic. Pumped out rather quickly in an attempt to get in on some of
the cash that was pushing that newest sub-genre of science fiction
into the mainstream.
Directed by Albert Pyun, who seems to
be a master of making very limited theatrical release quick to video
scifi films. The writer is listed as Rebecca Charles who only has two
other movies in her credits; Nemesis two and three so I'm thinking
that name is a pseudonym. Most likely for Albert Pyun himself since
he has also gone by Hannah Blue and Kitty Chalmers in some of his
works. Casting includes Olivier Gruner who goes on to become a
regular in the direct to video scifi market, Tim Thomerson film
veteran and scifi legend, many other direct to video scifi folks who
you will recognize when you see them and a young Thomas Jane who was
still going by Tom Janes even shows up. So honestly not a bad round
up.
Our main character Alex Rain is a LAPD
cop who starts off our film as mostly human and in short order
becomes mostly machine after a run in with the Red Army Hammerhead
terrorist group. After extracting some vengeance on those who caused
his grievous injuries he decides to leave the force but ends up being
blackmailed into doing one final assignment for his former employers.
Tracking down a former colleague of his and recover what she has
stolen. Leading him to a jungle town where he once again confronts
the Red Army Hammerheads and discovers their true motives which
leaves him questioning his allegiances on which side he should stand
on.
Now the actual great thing about this
movie is the amount of practical effects pushed into it. This is
before the age of using CGI in low budget films, after all Terminator2 just came out the year before and the effects is had were very
costly and experimental. We get to see faces open up, eyes being
pulled out, lots of gunplay and all the things you would want to see
in a film like this. Their budget is pretty low and near the end we
are subjected to some really subpar stop motion shots that are really
groan inducing.
So visually, this is a fun movie. Just
be prepared to turn your brain off.
Because the writing itself is just
barely passable, as is the plot, so be prepared. This is a movie full
of ideas borrowed from other movies and books, which is obvious
throughout the entire span of the film. We even get the 'bomb in the
head' from Escape from New York tossed in there. Sometimes what
little story there is feels like nothing more than quick inserts to
move you from one action scene to the next. Try not to listen to the
dialogue to closely either, much of it is a failed attempt at gritty
tough guy banter or information dumps to let you know why people are
killing each other.
In the end I will put this movie into
the category of “You need to see it once” if you are a science
fiction fan. If you are trying to put together a cyberpunk film
collection this does warrant a spot somewhere near the bottom of the
stack but be sure to find it at a discount price.
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"What the hell did we just watch boss?"
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I probably need to watch this again. I don't remember much about it except that it was kind of garbled and the monster made no sense to me.
ReplyDeleteWe probably watched in a blitz of other crappy scifi movies and they all blended together in my head.
Well there were also two sequels that were absolutely terrible. But this one is forgettable through most of it so getting it mixed in with memories of other movies is understandable.
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