Trancers II

Writers Jack Canson and Charles Band did a fair job in continuing the storyline from the 1984 first movie "Trancers". I have to say that I was definitely as entertained in this 1991 sequel titled "Trancers II" as I was in the first movie. So thumbs up to the writers for that accomplishment.

It was nice to see returning actors and actresses from the first movie return to reprise their characters for this 1991 sequel, such as Tim Thomerson, Helen Hunt, Telma Hopkins and Art LaFleur. And the sequel brought in some familiar faces with the likes of Jeffrey Combs, Barbara Crampton and Richard Lynch. For me, it was a blast to see Combs and Crampton in the movie, I have to admit that.

Visually then "Trancers II" was okay. It wasn't a movie that used as many special effects as in the previous movie, oddly enough. But it still worked out fair enough.

An okay movie, for sure, though I doubt that I will ever return to watch it a second time however.

My rating of director Charles Band's 1991 sequel "Trancers II" lands on a five out of ten stars.

I'm extremely wary of sequels as they invariably disappoint. (okay there are a handful of exceptions: e.g. Mad Max, The Godfather, Cleopatra Jones). 'Trancers 2' (known as 'Future Cop 2' here in Australia) follows this trend - it's a pretty lame follow up to the silly but fun original. The one thing that saves it from complete dismissal is the outstanding supporting cast which includes Martine Beswick ('One Million Years BC'), b-grade horror legend Jeffrey Combs ('Re-Animator'), Combs' occasional co-star Barbara Crampton ('Space Truckers'), and the hugely underrated Richard Lynch ('Open Season', 'God Told Me To', 'Scanner Cop'). The extremely likable Tim Thomerson returns as Jack Deth and he is always good no matter how weak the material he has to work with. Thomerson is joined by several faces from the original movie, such as Helen Hunt, and his comedian buddies Biff Manard and Art LeFleur. The plot this time concerns the brother of Whistler (the baddie from the first movie), played by Lynch, who using the cover of an environmental group tries to take over with his "trancer" army. Jack Deth must stop his evil plans while trying to rescue his resurrected first wife (cutie Megan Ward - 'Joe's Apartment'), stop his jealous current wife (Hunt) from leaving, and make sure former ball star and future of the world Hap Ashby (Manard) doesn't a)get drunk, and b)get murdered. Yes, it's a hard job being a time traveling cop, but it's nothing some hair gel and a few wise-cracks can't help you deal with. There's no way I can disguise the overall naffness of this movie, but it's some dumb fun for a boring afternoon at least. Check out the original 'Trancers' though, it's much better than this.

The original Trancers is not by any means a great movie. It had massive plot holes and very little in the way of internal logic. However, it was entertaining, better done than most low-budget B-movies, and could be surprisingly witty. Unfortunately, Trancers II is none of these.

Trancers II suffers from many of the same problems of most flop sequels. The plot is thin enough to see through and the writing is insipid. It seems that the people behind this movie felt that bringing the familiar faces of the first movie back would be enough, and didn't bother with anything else. Not even veteran B-grade actors like Tim Thomerson and Jeffery Combs were able to drag this film out of the muck.

A brief plot overview: Jack Deth (Thomerson) is a cop from the future who was sent to 1985 to save the ancestors of members of his government. Trancers II takes place six years after the events of the first Trancers. Jack Deth is married to Lena (Helen Hunt), the woman he met in the first movie, and both live with Hap Ashby, the man Deth was sent into the past to protect. It is discovered that the brother of Whistler (the bad guy from the first movie) has traveled back in time to create an army of Trancers, people turned into mindless killing zombies, to kill Ashby. Complicating Jack's mission is the fact that his first wife, who had died long before Jack traveled to the past, was also sent back to stop Whistler's brother, and now Jack finds himself working with her.

I have two real problems with this movie. One is that the method of creating Trancers in this movie is radically different from the methods used in the first movie. What makes it annoying is that, in a rather poor example of Soviet Revisionism, they act like it was always the technique.

The other thing that annoys me is that the love triangle between Deth, Lena, and Alice Stilwell (Jack's first wife) is given very little screen time. This bothered me particularly because it was much more interesting than the actual plot of the movie. It felt like it was just something that was thrown in to fill space in the movie. Alice's character in particular seems very unconcerned with the fact that she is reunited with her husband only to find he's re-married, making her either very shallow or very poorly written.

The only reason I can think of for watching this movie is if you're interested in watching the entire Trancers series (currently totaling six movies). Otherwise, even if you're a fan of the original Trancers, stay away from this tepid sequel.

Needlessly convoluted plot that has a HUGE hole in it ie) if you send Jack back to the future then he never has the babies that are his own ancestors... so he wouldn't exist in the first place! Also the tight close ups of actors looking at the camera are super off putting and the constant fade outs get annoying fast. Big let down after the first one.

"Trancers II" is pretty good for a sequel but lacks creativity that the low budget "Trancers" did. It has all the original characters from part one but is basically a retread. Check out the sequel "Trancers III: Deth Lives", it's much better.