Nemesis

just caught this film again and happy it still stands up after 10 years, Albert Pyun really puts his lowbud helming abilities to great use here with post war locales and great wardrobes, the action is much higher standard than standard b movie fare of today, borrowing much from John Woo / Chow yun-Fat flicks, the story serves to give us the action and effects we want. shame Gruner never topped this and never will with movies like the Circuit and Crackerjack. action 8/10 story 5/10 chicks 8/10

Albert Pyun's stylish direction and excellent use of dilapidated locales make this B-grade sci-fi actioner entertaining throughout (reminiscent of his earlier Van Damme vehicle, "Cyborg"). Although lead actor Olivier Gruner's wooden acting is often unintentionally funny, he has the look, physique, and physical grace to fit the role and to pull off the various kinetic action pieces that highlight the film. An adequate script and competent special effects also help to make this an above average cyborg adventure film.

Albert Pyun really likes making movies about cyborgs. His entire career as director owes everything to THE TERMINATOR and ROBOCOP, as he seems obsessed by throwing in as many special effects of half-human half-robot creations as possible into his movies. This post-apocalypse action outing is no different, as it sees Olivier Gruner (the poor man's Van Damme) battling an endless succession of cyborgs who seem to have it in for him. The plot of this film is somewhat ridiculous, and the running time seems to entirely consist of robotic people being shot at or blown up.

Still, something stopped me turning it off, and towards the end I realised something odd: I was actually enjoying this movie. It may be the fast-pacing or the cheesy earnestness of the special effects, but I think this may be Pyun's best movie yet; at least it's one you can sit through without succumbing to boredom. The low rent effects are cheap and dated looking, but I got a real kick out of seeing them and especially the effort (if not originality) having gone into their creation. Take, for instance, the preposterous, ambitious climax, in which our hero battles a robotic skeleton hanging off the back of a plane. It's an obvious attempt to recreate and outdo the climax of The Terminator that fails on every level, but it's still hugely entertaining.

Although Gruner is never more than a solid block of wood as this film's hero, Pyun has assembled quite the supporting cast of B-movie players. There's Tim Thomerson, voraciously chewing the scenery as a corporate bigwig, and an oddly underused Brion James struggling with an appalling German accent. Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa is there as another sneering example of brutality and even RETURN OF THE LIVING DEAD's Thom Mathews makes a brief showing as a robotic assassin. Yes, the film may be trite, ill-conceived, ludicrous and a rip-off, but it actually has style – and I found it more entertaining than Richard Stanley's much-talked-about HARDWARE.

"Nemesis" is a mixture of incoherent plotting (with rehashed bits from "Robocop" and "Terminator"), brainless action sequences, distracting accents and sarcastic wisecracks spouted by leading man Olivier Gruner, who comes off as a cut-rate version of Van Damme. By all means, it should be a pretty bad film, and maybe it is, but it's nevertheless always watchable and never outright boring. The pacing is continuously fast and the energy level high. (**)

Footnote: If you watch the film, look out for Merle Kennedy who plays Max, the hero's sidekick in the last 20 minutes or so. I loved the athleticism she brings into her small role. What an incredible body! Why hasn't anyone else mentioned her presence??

So despite the awful acting, weirdly convoluted plot, oddball accents, and overabundance of running gunfights, this movie is charming and watchable. It takes a bit of lots of other movies, but makes something knock off Cyberpunk and fun. Not a good movie by any means, but not the worst POS on the planet either.