Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Bad in an interesting way, February 14, 2005
The first Cyborg film was an early entry in Jean-Claude Van Damme's filmography. Directed by one of the great hacks in the industry, Albert Pyun, "Cyborg" told the harrowing story of a world decimated by a devastating plague. Only a few shreds of civilization remain in this blasted world, a world largely populated by ragtag bands of survivors and packs of murderous cyborgs. A few of the more enlightened types at the Center for Disease Control in Atlanta send out a female cyborg with instructions to recover a cure for this horrific plague. Problems quickly ensue, particularly once a band of especially heinous cyborgs learn of this mission and attempt to capture the Disease Control's operative; they believe doing so will allow them to return to Atlanta and find a wealth of weapons and other valuables. In order to avoid these murderous goons, the female cyborg hooks up with Jean-Claude, who plays some sort of protector/tracker for hire. Of course, Van Damme's character has a tragic past that ties in with the very same goons involved in tracking down the female cyborg. Lots of action sequences, most of which aren't that bad, follow. "Cyborg" is actually an entertaining science fiction film.
What does the above description have to do with "Cyborg 2"? Nothing, actually, since the second film has zero connection with the original. In this outing, the movie introduces us to an unpleasant future world in which two megacorporations vie with each other for supremacy of the world cyborg market. One of these companies, Pinwheel, hatches a plot to sabotage its competitor by rigging up a female cyborg named Cash (Angelina Jolie) with a special explosive called Glass Shadow that will detonate at an important conference. The resulting explosion, hopefully, will obliterate the upper echelon of this competing corporation and thus make them vulnerable to a hostile takeover. Obviously, Cash has no idea about these plans. Nor does her martial arts trainer Colton Ricks (Elias Koteas). But when the two fall in love and flee from the Pinwheel compound, all of these plans eventually come out into the open. The director of the operation, Martin Dunn (Allen Garfield), brings in a couple of bounty hunters to capture the valuable Cash. One of them is Chen (Karen Sheperd) and the other one is far, far worse. This interesting figure is Danny Bench (Billy Drago), a man whose face suffered grievous injury in a prior operation. The injury has, shall we say, unbalanced the poor guy in the worst possible way.
Cash and Ricks thus face formidable obstacles if they wish to get away. Every authority figure in the city is after them since relationships between cyborgs and human beings violate some sort of corporate criminal code. Fortunately, an enigmatic figure by the name of Mercy (Jack Palance) pops up from time to time with advice and helpful hints on where to go and what to do. In the beginning we only see Mercy talking to the characters via video screen, but we soon learn he's an important ex-military figure, part cyborg himself, and heads up some sort of underground movement fighting against the scurrilous activities of Pinwheel. He helps out Cash and Ricks because he once had a wife he loved too. Awwwwww, ain't that sweet! Why can't cyborgs and humans just love one another? Anyway, Mercy can't step in and do everything for our two lovebirds. Colton Ricks must battle the insane Danny Bench in a sort of gladiatorial fight down at the shipyards in order to win enough money to buy passage out of the country. Throughout all of this action, Martin Dunn is scheming away back at Pinwheel without any inkling that he and Mercy are about to have a most informative showdown.
I'm likely making "Cyborg 2" sound much, much better than it actually is. If not for the presence of Jolie, Koteas, and Palance, this movie would likely sink into utter obscurity. I'm not entirely sure it shouldn't anyway. I'm betting the three principals wish they could forget about it, especially Jolie. She's only nineteen years old in this one and her acting skills leave a lot to be desired. Prepare to cringe when checking out the scene where Pinwheel activates the explosives in Cash's body. Jolie jerks and spasms around like a fish out of water in a hilariously bad piece of acting that evokes recollections of Elizabeth Berkeley's pool maneuvers in "Showgirls." She's just dreadful in "Cyborg 2" despite the lips and long hair. Koteas is slightly better, but the script doesn't give him much to do other than run around with Jolie and look perplexed. Much better is Billy Drago, a man B-movie fanatics will instantly recognize as one of the silver screen's most lovable psychotics. His performance here is so over the top that it nearly saves the film. The biggest problem with "Cyborg 2" isn't the uneven performances but the low budget. The set pieces are cheap, the action scenes aren't that great, and the dialogue is largely laughable.
Extras on the disc begin and end with trailers for "Leprechaun," "The Colony," and "Blood and Sand." As much I disliked certain aspects of the film, it's still worth watching for a number of reasons. Angelina Jolie fans will want to tune in to see what she looked like back in the day, Jack Palance fans will enjoy some of his lines, Billy Drago fans will get a kick out of yet another one of his turns as a bad guy, and B-movie aficionados will chuckle over the cheapness of the whole thing. I think three stars is a fair assessment of the movie on the whole; it's bad, but it's bad in a sort of drive by a traffic accident and stop and look sort of way.
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9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
surprisingly good, June 18, 2001
I brought this film ONLY because Angelina Jolie is a lead character. I'd read the reviews, and I knew it was a science fiction film (not my favorite genre), but I brought it anyway.I was pleasently surprised. This is a good film! The lead characters do a great job with the material, and the special effects are immpressive for a early 90's film. If I, a person who avoids science fiction like a plague can enjoy this, there's hope for everyone! If you're a Jolie fan, don't miss out on this film! If you want to see a science fiction sleeper, give this film a try!
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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Not the "Cyborg" I was expecting...., January 16, 2005
I have come to the conclusion that the writter of "Cyborg 2" wrote a script called "Cyborg" until he found out there was already a movie called that. He went "Oh Hell!", rewrote the script by slapping in a few "references" to the original film and slapped a "2" in the title and called it good. As you can tell this film has little to no connection to the original Van Damne actionier. Its basically a totally different film thats only connection is that they both have a "cyborg". Say what you will, but I enjoyed the original Cyborg for what it was. It was a no brain karate flick with some sci fi undertones that took place in a post apocalyptic "Road Warrior" like future. This sequel however has the action take a back seat as the as the sci fi/love story takes over in a post apocalyptic "Blade Runner" like future. This could be a good or bad thing in some peoples eyes. I was expecting something along the lines of the first film and I did not get that. Apparently the director/writer of Cyborg 2 thought it necessary to make another sequel, a sequel I will not bother to watch.
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