Cyberzone

After watching this film I experienced a new sensation. I had watched a film in which the lead actor had put in a performance that almost rivaled the legend Chevy Chase in 'Fletch'. This isn't to say that the performances are comparable, but both give practically flawless delivery of their lines. That actor is Marc Singer! Singer is Jack Ford, the 'Droid Gunner' of the title, grinding out a living collecting the bounty on androids.There are some mutants, topless pleasure droids(!), a Scandinavian smuggler, and possibly a half-hearted attempt to make a statement on class or maybe even globalization or......... well it doesn't really matter. What matters about this film is the dry manner in which Singer delivers his lines resulting in side-splitting humour! What matters about this film is that director Fred Olen Ray seems to realize that serious sci-fi very rarely works, and when your budget is skimpy it is best not to take yourself to seriously. Olen Ray has said that everyone involved in this film had great fun and this transfers onto the film.I dare you to criticize a film that allows itself to portray futuristic Earth as eternally dark and neon-lit and then ends in a 'pipes and valves' warehouse. Self parody is a very redeeming quality. To summarise, Fred Olen Ray is an ambassador for independent film making and Marc Singer the perfect B-movie lead.If only Olen Ray could draft in Tim Thomerson to the equation then we'd have a film on our hands.

A futuristic bounty hunter is assigned to track down four female androids smuggled to Earth for illicit purposes.

Busy director Fred Olen Ray's Cyber Zone aka Phoenix 2, Droid Gunner is as bland and heavy handed as they come. In this cheap Bladerunner and The Terminator rip-off Marc Singer is his likeable usual nonchalant self. Rochelle Swanson along with Singer know what type of film they're in but Matthias Hues (Dark Angel) looks uncomfortably duped and disappointed.

While borrowing lines and plot points from other better films, it feels DTV rather than B-movie. Some sound effects are not in sync but the score delivers. The sporadic action is clunky, the effects limited, but some miniatures, notable the underwater segments look pretty good. Ray offers a lot of nudity and soft-core moments pushing the adult rating. The locations and sets are a mixed bag, some backdrops are interesting while others look as if they were filmed in a hotel lobby or stage.

Overall, if script-less, stolen droid and cyborgs with super low budget Total Recall-like mutants is your thing, you may want to take a look. But be warned Ridley Scott, James Cameron and Paul Verhoeven maybe be disappointed with you.

I was given this film by my uncle who had got it free with a DVD magazine. Its easy to see why he was so keen to get rid of it. Now I understand that this is a B movie and that it doesn't have the same size budget as bigger films but surely they could have spent their money in a better way than making this garbage. There are some fairly good performances, namely Jack, Beth and Hawks, but others are ridiculously bad (assasin droid for example). This film also contains the worst fight scene I have ever seen. The amount of nudity in the film did make it seem more like a porn film than a Sci-Fi movie at times.

In conclusion - Awful film

Cyberzone slaps a bit of Blade Runner and a bit of Star Wars together and throws plenty of boobies into the mix. Of corse, the notorious movie crimelord Fred Olen Ray is behind the film.

The plot fits on a coaster: German powerhouse Matthias Hues steals a couple of horny brothel androids and Marc Singer is supposed to collect the Sexbots programmed for total lack of bras.

The main actors do a pretty decent job, but the lack of craftsmanship and the cheap tricks and props are once again hair-raising. Nobody can tell me that 2077 looks exactly like 1995! They've recreated a small alleyway and another wooden façade and they keep strolling past it. They blow a lot of smoke into the studio, so nobody notices that the dystopian metropolis is only 15 x15 feet in size.

The space battles aren't any better. They must have been made by a child using a vintage Atari. And why do people wear motorcycle helmets in space? Does that protect you in the event of a spaceship crash?

Oh, why do I ask such stupid questions? Anyway, the movie is definitely entertaining. Check it out!

Cyber zone, as this DVD was sold in Oz, is about the worst B-Grade junk I have seen. Apart from a restrained deadpan act from Singer, indicating he knew how bad the movie was going to be, the other actors sway about genuine attempts at line delivery (Swanson and Quarry) or absurd imitations of classic movies scenes. Mathius Hues makes the most ham-fisted portrayal of dying since Jim Carrey's Mask. All of this with no real thread to suggest an attempt at a spoof by genre, period or any common vein is plain annoying. Don't even try to join the dots with the plot. It is Blade Runner, thinly disguised with no content, actors or scenery due to a very limited budget. "You gets what you pay for" is never more apparent. There is repeatedly annoying re-use of limited sets, with no attention to set dressing and a spew of special effects that would have hit the cutting room floor for Dr Who in 1976. The Helicopter explosion is worth a rewind to demonstrate my point. Of course there are masochists that will lap up this tripe but if you are watching this movie for a bet, make sure you get more than your pay rate. At $2 this DVD will make a cheap and interesting beer coaster.