Customer Reviews

Sci Fighters

5 star:		(0)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

If anyone is swayed by the almost funny title of "Sci-Fighters," then they are wrong in not seeing this film. Former WCW World Heavyweight Champion "Rowdy" Roddy Piper plays a very good part in Cameron, a part not unlike his character in "They Live", another cult favorite of mine.

This film is for anyone who likes futuristic adventures like "Screamers", "Blade Runner," or "RoboCop". It has some of the best visual effects in a film with the backgrounds and the fight scenes. Although you can see where they dubbed some of the foul language in the establishing scenes, it is a good film for the cult film arcives.

I've seen hundreds of Sci Fi/Horror movies over the years. This is one of those you'll wonder whether you've watched it or not a few years down the road. You just can't remember.

All in all, I figure it's still better to watch a so-so Sci Fi/Horror movie than "Dances With Wolves" or "Evita". This movie will end up being non-memorable, but it's preferable to being in a coma.

My friend and I like to browse the video rental stores for movies that we think would be excellent targets to poke fun at.

Sci Fighters.

What a stupid name for a movie! We just had to try this one out.

Unfortunately for us this movie wasn't all that bad. The beginning was very weird, though. Prisoners are placed on the moon in a Lunar prison. The movie shows two prisoners standing at a table with power tools--apparently prisoners do labor of some sort--when suddenly they start attacking each other with saws. Prisoner A--Adriann Dunn (why does he have a girl's name?) kills prisoner B and then tries to make it look like an accident. Then, for some stupid, unknown reason he takes a screwdriver and stabs himself in the arm. But oh, apparently prisoner B isn't dead yet and some weird tentacle thing springs out and attacks Dunn's arm.

Watch out for this scene where the detective is asking this nurse where someone is. The nurse says "BEHIND you." But then the detective turns to his RIGHT, because that's where the guy is.

And I can't believe that it takes the good guys forever to realize that all it takes is a Bic lighter to destroy the methane-breathing menace. There are so many ways that they could have made this movie funnier.

"Mommy, that man has a potty mouth." or they could have tried to thwart the methane menace with air freshener. So many possibilities.

But like I say, the movie's not that bad. Worth a rental, no more.

Veteran character actor Billy Drago (Delta Force 2) gives one of his most frightening lead performances in "Sci-Fighters". He plays Adrian Dunn, a convict infected with an alien virus. His character has the usual psychotic behavior that Mr. Drago has perfected in past portrayals. But he also has a mutating virus that adds even more menace to his character. Roddy Piper (Jungleground) is good as the "regular guy" detective on Dunn's trail. Jane Heitmeyer (Face the Evil) plays the doctor trying to cure the virus and gets caught up in Dunn's sexual fantasies. The movie has a good storyline and acting, lots of action, special effects and wastes no time getting into the story. Though low-budget, it delivers more than most. This is a must have for Mr. Drago fans and those loving sci-fi.

"Sci-Fighters" is a dark little morsel of post-apocalyptic Canadian sci-fi cheese. The movie begins in a prison on the moon where Adrian Dunn (career evildoer Billy Drago) gets the bad end of the deal in a circular saw fight (how long are those cords, anyway?) In the process he gets infected with an alien virus that his corpse brings back to Earth. The virus enables Dunn to come back to life, which results in no end of difficulty in Boston. Not that there aren't enough problems; after all in the "future" of 2009 (!) the Earth is enveloped in darkness 24 hours a day, a phenomena called "Econight." After an homage to "Alien" with a gratuitous "squids-from-the-torso" scene, it is revealed that Drago, an insane killer even before the death defying viral assault on his senses, is killing and infecting people. Worse, the virus is unknown and makes people start producing methane to "terraform" Earth, thereby ruining its atmosphere for current terrestrial life, but enabling a methane-breathing race of aliens to take over the planet.

The good guys are Detective Cameron Grayson (former wrestling champion "Rowdy" Roddy Piper) and Doctor Kirbie Younger (Jayne Heitmeyer,) a virologist assigned to the case. Piper, known for his wild antics and Scottish trappings in the ring is actually quite good in the film. Drago has fallen a few notches down the career ladder since his ultimately convincing performance as Frank Nitti in "The Untouchables," but he is still ultra-creepy here. The rest of the cast, and particularly Heitmeyer, are not up to the standards of Piper and Drago. The other problem is that the film is very plodding in places, and suffers from a worse than normal batch of plot contrivances that take forever to unfold and are wholly unbelievable. The worst example of this is in Grayson's past. We know that Grayson wears a wedding ring, but seems single; we also know that he is obsessed with Dunn. It's obvious that something is lurking there. At about 75 minutes into the picture we finally get the backstory we need: Grayson and Dunn were police academy graduates and best friends. Grayson then went off and married Dunn's ex-girlfriend, Katie, with whom Dunn was still obsessed. Two days after their wedding Dunn killed Katie while Grayson was at work. Oh, and did I mention that Dr. Younger looks like Katie, complicating the manhunt when the movie gets around to it.

After chasing Drago around the darkened streets of Boston, the film comes to a close in a warehouse with Grayson, Dunn, and Younger all doing their predictable parts. Dunn keeps calling Younger "Katie" and over-emoting in general as he attempts to have his way with her. Of course Grayson intervenes, and a three-way brawl erupts in, on, and around the warehouse, using heavy munitions and a forklift in exciting ways. Grayson wants to shoot Dunn, but Younger says that he'll explode due to all the methane he's holding inside him, so Younger ends up solving the problem in a more enlightened way. I was personally hoping that Grayson would simply pin Dunn with his signature figure four leglock after an inverted atomic drop! There is obvious chemistry between Grayson and Younger, but I have to give the filmmakers kudos for making the romance angle work out differently than expected. What I don't give them kudos for was Younger's outfit at the end of the movie: she's going to accept a prestigious job as the head of virology at the biggest institute in the country and she's wearing a ridiculous outfit consisting of a bulky pink turtleneck and a miniskirt. What? What temperature is it supposed to be? How old is she supposed to be?

I debated on the rating for this film, finally settling on two stars. Some of the acting is better than expected from Canadian films of this budget and genre (especially from Piper,) but some other the performances were pretty off key as well. The script was generally predictable, and I never need to hear Billy Drago say "Katie" ever again. Sets and locations were generally good, but the action scenes were tepid (although Piper on the scaffolding was tense.) The entire vision of the future was not dissimilar from many other (better) post-apocalyptic movies, but I have to wonder for a film made in 1996, why did the filmmakers only pick a future thirteen years ahead, knowing full well that it would be quickly obsolete? In the end I considered how entertaining was the film for its genre. Despite the relatively strong lead actors, the film was slow, burdened with unnecessary and distracting plot elements (the Econight, for instance,) middling effects and action sequences, and ultimately was not that absorbing of a story. Two stars for Piper and Drago. The rest smells like methane.

...this is simply a movie with an illogical premise, a poor story, some weak acting, and predictability at every turn. Yes, it's a low-budget flick that features actors who are not big names in Hollywood, but the problem is the writing (flunk!), the special effects (errrr...), and the lack of any characters to really care about. Oh, the lead actress is hot. Not hot enough that one would care if she lives or dies; looks alone do not make a good actress.

Had this big a big-budget picture, THEN it would have been a bad movie with well-known actors and cool special effects. That is, nothing could save this one from being lousy: they made the Titanic of all films, and down she went...

Use your money wisely: buy SOME OTHER low budget bad movie.

"Sci-Fighters" provides plenty of action with Billy Drago (The Untouchables) giving one of his best "creepy" performances. Co-star Roddy Piper (They Live) is at his best as a detective hunting down a virus-infected alien mutant (Drago). Though low-budget, it is fast moving, has a good storyline and good special effects. And Mr.Drago, giving his character an obsessive, psychotic-style behavior combined with an alien deformity, gives you the creeps. Jane Heitmeyer (Earth:Final Conflict) plays the doctor trying to stop the virus and end's up finding herself pursued by the alien. This is a must have for all fans of Mr. Drago and lovers of sci-fi.

My dad loves this movie but I dunno. Good action, reasonable acting and a great plot makes this worth checking out.

This movie has some interesting technology in it (the little Pippin is probably the coolest) but the story line is pretty weak. You will be left with more questions than answers when the credits start rolling.

Instead of focusing on the virus, which is what this movie is really about, story development focuses on a sort of warped love triangle which the movie would have been much better with out.

Also, the performace by Roddy is very sedated and comes across as unnatural and stiff. He's not the best actor so at least when he's animated like in They Live or Jungleground he makes things interesting and entertaining.

The quality of the sound and video of this DVD is good.