Customer Reviews

Nemesis [VHS]

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(10)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

An Albert Pyun production can threaten the mental stability of even the most diehard B movie fan. This director is a master of cheesy, low budget films loaded with hammy acting, molasses like pacing, and terrible scripts. As far as I know, there are only two Pyun films really worth watching: the early 1980s sword and sandal picture "The Sword and The Sorcerer" and this movie, the 1993 science fiction thriller "Nemesis." Two good movies out of a slew of stinkers doesn't mean I wouldn't watch any of his clunkers, though. If anything, a bad movie always promises to deliver a few laughs. Anyway, Pyun's name is synonymous with junk in B movie circles. Just scan some of the movie review sites on the Internet and laugh out loud at the abrasive comments aimed in Al's direction. The success of "Nemesis" eventually led to several sequels, each a victim of diminishing returns. The first one is a winner worth watching, but still contains plenty of plot holes for the discerning viewer to giggle over.

Los Angeles cop Alex Rain works hard to break up crime rings and terrorist groups. It's the year 2027, and humanity has changed quite a bit in the near future. It appears that technology dominates, with doctors capable of implanting robotic machinery directly into the human body. In 2027, you've got millions of people ambling around the country with implants, many of them more machine than human. The growing numbers and strength of these cyborgs is starting to become a real problem for the rest of humanity. Eventually, some people fed up with the increasingly metallic composition of the population form resistance groups to fight the growing cyborgs. It is Alex Rain's job to help keep the peace, and to bring in these people when they break the law. After all, killing a cyborg is still a crime since most of these creatures still possess a significant percentage of human parts. Many of Alex Rain's fellow police officers have machine implants. Actually, Rain himself has a few parts in him, too. In the future, it is just too difficult to discern who is completely human and who isn't, and it's about to get much harder. After a lengthy opening sequence that shows us how Alex ends up in retirement, the movie starts in earnest.

Rain's old boss, Farnsworth, approaches him about a new mission. The United States and Japan have decided to merge into one country (a process not unusual in the near future, according to the movie). A cyborg that worked with the police rebelled against the system and took some important information about the merger with her to Java, where she is presently hiding out while attempting to contact a terrorist organization named the Hammerheads. Rain, who has a contentious history with this sexy cyborg, must go to Java and kill her in order to retrieve this critical information. Rain reluctantly goes for reasons made obvious in the film, and soon discovers that things are not quite what they seem. It turns out that the mission Farnsworth sent Rain on is merely a cover for a much more important mission involving the fate of the planet, humanity, and the cyborgs. We don't find this out for some time, and until we do, the movie does tend to confuse the viewer. Not to worry, though, as you can content yourself with the bevy of beautiful women wearing tight skirts, some nudity, massive amounts of gunfire, and a healthy dose of bloody special effects. "Nemesis" may well rank as one of the most violent shoot 'em ups made in the last few years. The movie contains elements that reminded me of both "The Terminator" and "The Matrix," although I wouldn't go so far as to say that "Nemesis" serves a bridge between those two movies. I will say that if you love films overflowing with huge guns and a super high body count, you will love this Pyun picture.

The plot zips along at mach speed, but the acting often fails to engage. Lead star Oliver Gruner, a French actor who must have once been on the same "up and coming action star" list as Jean Claude Van Damme, tanks as the tough yet caring cop Alex Rain. I suspect Gruner graduated from the Joe Dallesandro School of acting because his wooden expressions to some extent resemble those of the co-star of "Blood for Dracula" and "Flesh for Frankenstein." The female stars take second fiddle, and are usually on screen to serve as eye candy for the mostly young male audience that would watch a film like this one. At least "Nemesis" gives us the ever reliable Tim Thomerson in the role of Farnsworth, along with late B movie star Brion James as one of Farnsworth's sidekicks. James's pseudo German accent alone makes this movie worth watching. In fact, I doubt I would have even watched this movie if I hadn't known beforehand that Thomerson and James appeared in it.

The DVD gives us several extras, including a trailer and some behind the scenes action about the film. The extras list said there were a few television spots, but when I selected that option, I got more behind the scenes footage. At least the transfer is decent, although it isn't as good as it should be. Colors occasionally look washed out, and there are a few rips on the print. Overall, I give a hearty round of applause to Albert Pyun. It is going to be tougher for me to criticize this guy after watching "Nemesis." The movie not only entertains, it is entertaining enough to watch again. This picture just goes to show that even a hack filmmaker can turn out a great treat every now and again.

Low-budget action doesn't get much better than this. NEMESIS is a good-looking, hard-fighting SF adventure that delivers on every level, from character development to plot. Considering that the film had no theatrical run, it's really solid stuff that will not disappoint.

The DVD release of NEMESIS is surprisingly good, considering the direct-to-video origins of this, writer/director Albert Pyun's finest film. A crisp transfer with a nice (though small) collection of extras, including a making-of promotional reel reminiscent of the "VideoZone" features once included on Full Moon Pictures' DTV releases. Cast and crew bios, plus television and "theatrical" trailers round out the package, and one comes away from the DVD feeling as if it was definitely worth the money.

This is a great action film. I don't know if it borrowed from what had been done before but it was exciting. It was the first time I saw a hero slide backwards, on his back, down a hill, and shoot at the persuers as they came over the hill after him.
Olivier Gruner's performance has been criticized for lacking range. I thought his deadpan, stoic emphasis was JUST RIGHT for this role: a cyborg.
Merle Kennedy was a delight. This was the first time I had seen this actress, and she is marvellous as "Max Impact." She knows how to act. Her only other BIG roles are in Night of the Demons 2 and Perry Mason The case of the Heartbroken(?) Bride. She also played a drug addict in one of the best early episodes of E. R. (tv series).

This is one of those sci-fi movies that is so bad you'll fall in love with it; (Blade Runner is deeply maligned when this film is compared to it.) Sometimes on your days off from work you just wanna see a good shoot'em up movie with lots of Cyborg bad-guys and slapstick dialogue and beefcake/cheesecake heroes. If you're looking for approximately 90 minutes of pure escapist trashy fun, here's your answer.

Albert Pyun's movies usually aren't worth more than half a glance. Though he's directed some of the more creative of celluloid premises, his films tend to be underdone action C-titles featuring poor casting, even worse acting, bare-bones production values, and a consistently bland color scheme that makes the movies boring even to look at. Though he never really outdid his breakout attempt (The Sword and the Sorcerer) and lost just about all of his Tinseltown value after 1993, he just managed to squeeze out one more good hunkajunk before going off of the cinematic deep end when he made "Nemesis": a sci-fi shoot-'em-up combination of The Terminator and John Woo's Hard Boiled, and the launchpad of Olivier Gruner's career as an action hero.

The story: in the year 2027 - when America and Japan have merged into a single entity and robotic implants are commonplace - Alex the cyborg cop (Olivier Gruner, Angel Town) is strong-armed into accepting a final mission from his superior (Tim Thomerson, Iron Eagle): stop his ex-partner (Marjorie Monaghan, Space Rangers) from smuggling data to the Red Army Hammerhead terrorist organization. However, even with a security bomb attached to his heart, Alex begins to question his assignment when it becomes clear that the sides of good and evil and man and machine are not as clear as they seemed...

At the time, Olivier Gruner was fresh out of his kickboxing career as France's first-ever national champion, so go into this movie expecting a dramatic performance akin to those of Jean-Claude Van Damme. I was a bit disappointed that there weren't a lot of martial arts to be seen, but the film more than makes up for the sheer amount of bullets it blows through the sets. While there isn't quite as much shooting as in the aforementioned John Woo film, "Nemesis" really was the only respectable challenger to that one at the time. I wouldn't be surprised if an entire fifth of the movie focused solely on Gruner and company waging a machinegun war on eachother. There's loads more interesting gunplay than was the timely norm, as well: prepare to see a lot of two-handed gunslinging, mid-air and on-the-slide firing (including a neat instance wherein Gruner bulls-eyes an enemy while performing a backflip), and general ingenuity to spell out a perfect guilty pleasure for action fans.

Pyun's more competent in his directing here than usual, as well. Though it looks like most of the sets were there to begin with (i.e. they look cheap), he makes good use of them, presents a surprisingly wide scope of environments, and leaves his usual technical snafus at home. Alas, the movie's special effects are well behind-the-times, even when the film was released: keep in mind that Terminator 2 - Judgment Day had come out two years prior, and the questionable robotics and stop-motion climax will look fairly disappointing. The same can be said for the acting: since this is an action film and Olivier Gruner is an action hero, his performance can be excused, but with the exception of Thomerson, the rest of the cast is in need of help: campy Marjorie Monaghan, Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa (Mortal Kombat), Merle Kennedy (May), and Nicholas Guest (Kickboxer 4: The Aggressor) needed to be hit with the script a few more times before they attempted their scenes.

As anything other than an action movie, "Nemesis" deserves a lower rating, but if you know what to expect when going in, you'll be setting yourself up for an enjoyable 95 minutes. If you're new to Pyun's work, either get out while you can or watch this film. Just know that, with very few exceptions, you won't be finding anything better than this in the man's portfolio.

It's not a great movie, but it's great fun, especially after a few beers. It's basically on the same level of the 80s film Hardware, though Nemesis has more action and a better ending.

If your looking for something fresh give this one a try, just try not to think too much while watching it.

Well now, where do we start? The dialogue is awesome, its so messed up its like at some points, you can't figure out what he's saying. Thats crazy as hell! The violence and cheapness make this one a hilarious treat to true action fans that other reviewer watched this one too early :) Ya gotta be a little clouded when viewing this jem. Olivier Gruner is the best action hero hell yea!

Robots are trying to take over man kind to turn man into robots, marking the end of man kind. A cop half man half machine finds his humanity and protects the humans and fights against the machines. Sounds like a interesting premise for a movie, for a low budget movie its loaded with action and some decent special effects towards the end of the film. Problem with the rest of the movie is the storyline drags on, theres not much charector development as they are not interesting, the acting isn't good, the pacing at the times is slow and the dialogue is just filler with no substance. Its fun to watch the action scenes and the robot at the end but thats about it.

The world has changed. 2027 Los Angeles, Alex (Olivier Gruner) battles for the future of humankind, but who is the real enemy? The machine-gunning is heavy-duty! Tactical weapons buffs will enjoy seeing the serious hardware. Also satisfying is how well the ladies handle their guns. Cyborgs vs. humans, who will win? A total classic from Director Albert Pyun. The "Java" scenes filmed in Hawaii feature some beautiful landscapes and waterwalls. A clip of Rio de Janeiro and the "Cristo Redentor" statue prefigures a scene where Alex looks like Christ after his flogging. Can the world be saved?

Last time I saw this was when I was little. Good times then. Anyways, it was a good one. Not much to say about it. All I can say is that I remember this. It's pretty awesome.