Customer Reviews

Tc 2000 [VHS]

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

 

 

I'll go out on a limb and give this one a 4 stars. Though it feels like your basic average martial arts flick (and unfortunately, another lame movie taking place in the run-down future), the martial arts cast and amount of fight action make up for it. Though the fights aren't overly impressive, and some of these guys are used to giving a stronger performance, it seems there are fights every 5 minutes throughout the film. And I have seen plenty of worse fights in other films too. If it weren't for the action and cast, this movie would flop.

Billy Blanks. Jala Mehri. Bobbie Phillips. Matthias Hues. Bolo Yeung. All 5 star in this film, and all 5 are impressive martial artists. While the first 2 guys I mentioned (Blanks and Mehri) are not the most popular among fans, and are lousy actors, they still deliver solid action. The last 2 on the list (Hues and Yeung) are easily everyone's favorite B-movie action villains. Even better, they fight each other in this movie - a dream match come true. Its amazing how quickly Bolo is dwarfed by the mighty Hues. Bolo is actually a good guy in this film, but its not his only movie in doing so. Hues is always the bad guy 99% of the time.

While the movie's title (Tc 2000) refers to improved human beings, created into life-like cyborgs after death (just like Universal Soldier) , only one charcater becomes a unit in the movie - Zoey, played by Bobbie Phillips. The movie focuses mainly around her. She is killed in front of her partner (Billy Blanks), recreated into a TC-2000 unit, and lured by the bad guys. She's pretty tough and gives the Billy Blanks character a good beat down at one point in the film.

Overall, the movie pretty much stinks. But there aren't many martial art films that contain quite as much fighting as this one. There are very few with this kind of martial arts cast. And this is the only one where Bolo Yeung fights Matthias Hues.

Funny how I can smack this flick for stealing precious minutes of my life that I'll never get back yet here am devoting more time to it. Father forgive me for I have sinned -I have this viewed this movie more than once.

With Billy, Bolo, Matthius and Jalal this is like the "Super Mario All-Stars" of B-Movie kung-fu action. Essentially the future sucks and everyone fights 24/7. Want to buy a bag of water? Well put that money away son 'cause fighting is the currency of the land. Dialogue only exists here to build laughable excuses for more fight scenes. Oh look its been about a minute and 36 seconds since the last jump kick, I think we're overdue for another fight scene.

I can honestly, unequivocally say that this film has the most fighting I've ever seen. Even movies like Bloodsport that are solely about nothing but fighting, don't come close. Marvel at Billy as he stumbles to complete full sentences. Scratch your head at the inane and unnecessary plot twists. Laugh at the strikes and mis-timed reactions (notably at the end with Matthius and some random good guy, just watch, believe me you'll see). And finally, drink plenty of water, from a bag if you must 'cause once this bad boy's over you'll feel hung over.

In the world of DTV science-fiction flicks, "TC 2000" doesn't really stand out much. Laden with a generic storyline and looking more or less like any of a hundred similar titles you pulled off the rental shelf during the golden age of home video, the only person who'd seek this one out nowadays is a fan of the stars involved...like me. Future fitness guru Billy Blanks, premiere Cantonese muscleman Bolo Yeung, B-movie chameleon Bobbie Phillips, "Beirut's Steven Seagal" Jalal Merhi, and champion of all evil henchmen Matthias Hues come together for this one - not a bad draw, right? Perhaps, but as I said before, they're literally the only points of interest in this otherwise bland little adventure that never made it to DVD for us.

The story: in a dystopian future of environmental overkill, Jason Storm (Blanks, Tough and Deadly) is a member of an elite police force protecting the wealthy citizens of Underworld from the gangs of Surface World. When his partner (Phillips, Carnival of Souls) is killed in a shootout and turned into a cyborg controlled by the underground's ambitious overlord, he's saddled with the blame and flees aboveground, where he aligns himself with a virtuous martial artist (Yeung, Bloodsport) in an attempt to survive the world's most notorious gang (led by Merhi, Tiger Claws) which eventually leads them both into righteous conflict with the Under World.

At the risk of overgeneralizing some of the better ones out there, a lot of these low-budget post-apocalyptic sci-fi flicks look alike, with consistently dark sets made entirely out of metal and plastic, prehistoric CGI inserts, and - if you're lucky - a couple of big, painted backdrops for use in key scenes like the Death Star-inspired "kill room". Most of this movie looks like it was shot on an enclosed soundstage consistently flooded in blue light; this look gets old quickly, to the point that it's actually a refreshing change of scenery when Bolo and Billy start crawling around the mud-colored surface with the blank white sky. True to the stereotype, the backstory of how earth got so screwed up is more interesting than anything the characters talk about...but then again, seeing as Bobbie Phillips is the only real thespian of the bunch, the likes of Bolo and Billy could say anything they'd want and it still wouldn't capture my interest. Blanks even outdoes Jean-Claude Van Damme for the most unconvincing exclamation of "Nooo!", so you ought to be able to figure what level of acting you've got on your hands, here.

A lot of reviewers have pointed to the quality of the abundant fight scenes as a plus point, but even as a lover of B-grade martial arts action, I wasn't really impressed. Sure, Billy and Matthias Hues (I Come in Peace) save their reputations from their atrocious first encounter in Talons of the Eagle with a pretty good match and the Bolo/Matthias finale is good for the sake of being their first fight, but the rest of the action is mainly made up of unspectacular gang/group battles. Sure, the choreography is decent and Jalal Merhi has only limited participation in these (a good thing, considering he actually trips while taking down an opponent near the end), but these showcase a complete lack of ebb & flow, are set to the tune of unfitting music, and have a general throwaway feeling of unimportance to them. On the bright side, Bobbie Phillips does a good job of pretending she knows how to fight and Bolo makes a watermelon explode using chi power, which is good for something...right?

In retrospect, it's always cool to see what these early-'90s films and their stars brought to the table back in the day, but you really can do better than this for everybody involved. If you really must have it to complete a collection, save it for last.

I think that this is one of the best Billy Blanks movies that I have seen,that is in my own opion. It had a new age world type of setting and the action was good enough for me.However for the price I would keep looking,only because I would never spend alot of money for just one movie.

This movie is not good. This movie is a martial arts flick without the benefit of descent fight scenes. I know the cast is capable of more. This movie is about a cop trying to free his precint from corruption. Much of his rage comes from the fact that his partner Zoey was killed by chriminals who were fed thier location. Zoey is then turned into a cyborg milatry soldier whos uniform is a diamond studded leather teddy. Dispite having no emotions she trys to be sensual she smiles and laughs and has technical difficulties when people say her name.

The only redeeming factors are the training scenes where Bolo Yeung performs kata with Billy Blanks. I loved seeing them move the way that fighters do. It's better than trying to make Zoey the swimsuit cyborg do funky backflips without showing any angles to verify her identity.

I give this movie three stars for great training scenes and -1 star for embarrassing themselves for the rest of the movie

I received product very promptly! Product was hard to find and in excellent condition!