Trancers 6

I'm a huge Full Moon Video fan, which includes the Trancers series. Trancers 6 did not have any appealing qualities at all. The first Trancer films were classics, and 1-5 were well done and well acted. Trancers 6 looked like it had a budget of about 20 bucks. Tim Thomerson needs to come back for one more Trancer film, just so Band won't end the series on a low note. Like many others, I wish Full Moon Video could go back 10 years to what it used to be. The Subspecies series, Puppet Master series, and many other films were well done, well acted, and the effects were head and shoulders above Trancers 6. I think I'll go back and watch the first Trancers movies to wash the could taste of Trancers 6 out of my mouth.

Trancers 6 (2002) is a movie I recently watched on Tubi. The storyline takes place in the future when a new version of the Trancers are emerging. Jack is sent by his agency to stop them and arrives on Earth in his daughter's body. Can Jack save the world and his daughter's life from the new Trancers? This movie is directed by Jay Woelfel (Closed for the Season) and stars Zette Sullivan (Sexual Intrigue), Robert Donavan (Art of the Dead), Timothy Prindle (Shades of Darkness) and Jennifer Cantrell (Lingerie Bowl). This movie is pretty awful. The storyline is atrocious, as is the CGI, fight scenes, choreography, running or any other action related sequence. There are some entertaining elements like a woman pretending to be Jack, the Trancers makeup and some pretty good one-liners but not enough to salvage the bad. This is a below average addition to the genre and was a good place to end the series. I'd score this a 3.5-4/10 and recommend skipping it.

Jack Deth this time (played by archive footage of Tim Thomerson) takes the form of his daughter to take on those pesky Trancers who have regrouped since part III (4 and 5 we're about alternate universes) The Trancers series we're necessarily great movies, but they we're great for the time, by that I mean the first 3 movies we're a lot of fun. Sure only the first one really holds up still, but nostalgia goes along way with 2 and 3. Trancers 4 was mediocre, Trancers 5 was pushing it, and Trancers 6 is very bad. There's literally nothing to see here. Trancers 6 is far too low budget to make any ambitious ideas work, the movie is horrendously made and without Thomerson to hold it together the film merely plumbs to asinine depths. Zette Sullivan tries hard, but this sequel is utterly hopeless. All in all, it's a shame the series went out with such a whimper and whimper is something you will do if you sit through this dud.

* Out Of 4 (Bad)

I have to say, I was glad to see this film return to the original theme after that side trip they took in 4 and 5, but even though the basic story was good, there was so much of it that was painful to watch. First, yes, it was low budget. But by 2002 standards, with computer editing and special effects, it was about as low budget as what some college film students could do - it actually reminded me more of a sci-fi TV show than a feature film. As for Zette Sullivan's performance, maybe this was because the low budget also meant less rehearsal time, but her macho-ness was overdone - she played Jack Deth as more macho than Tim Thomerson did in the first five films (and that doesn't even take into account the assumption that someone who's gone down the line as much as he has should have at least some training in "blending in"). Although it was kind of a good start what they did in showing her out of sorts in her female body (failing miserably to put on pantyhose, feeling awkward in a skirt) they could have done more with that than they did.

On the whole, they get an A for effort in trying to bring the Trancers saga back to what it originally was. And yes, the cheap effects and staging can clearly be blamed on the budget. But oh, how I wish the director had had Zette Sullivan turn her 'maleness' down a notch!

Is 'Trancers 6' good? Not specifically. Is it altogether bad? No. Make no mistake, it's certainly a bit of a mess. But very importantly, it's emphatically better than 'Jack of swords' and 'Sudden Deth,' arguably better than 'Deth Lives,' and more mildly enjoyable than not.

This last entry in the 'Trancers' franchise feels like a mash-up of the sci-fi flick the first three films represented, a self-parody, a teen comedy - and a fan film. These flavorings are accentuated by the supporting cast that includes no small number of extraordinarily young and fresh-faced nobodies, and the fact that aside from one-liners, most of the comedy relies on the simple incongruity of seeing the tough-talking attitude of trancer hunter Jack Deth coming from a pretty, idealistic young woman. The dialogue is only slightly less blunt than the original music of Jon Greathouse, and the camerawork, acting, and overall narrative writing all but totally lack any subtlety or dexterity.

Makeup, effects, and even sound are somewhat dubious; rarely has gunfire looked or sounded less convincing. I can only imagine that the budget for 'Trancers 6' was at rock bottom. Scenes are orchestrated with such a straightforward and direct heavy hand that filmmaker Jay Woelfel seems to be operating on a level of B-movie only marginally more sophisticated than "first student film." Most of the cast gives off an air of similar inexperience, as though the casting director mostly just pulled people off the streets. Only Robert Donavan, as prominent supporting character Dr. Malvern, and - surprisingly - star Zette Sullivan, as protagonist Jo, demonstrate any small measure of nuance in their performances. Though to be fair, that's not necessarily saying much; who wouldn't be a shining beacon when compared against the astoundingly ham-handed acting of Jennifer Capo, or the wholly flat portrayals of unnamed characters?

Despite all these notable flaws, faults, and imperfections - against all odds, 'Trancers 6' is kind of fun. At no point is it outright funny, nor thrilling, but it carries a very basic sort of entertainment factor. It's the kind of movie you can watch without being actively engaged, and walk away saying "That was pretty okay." That may not be much, but it's safe to say there are a lot worse ways one could spend their time (including this feature's two immediate antecedents). Granted, this assumes one takes the premise at face value. Don't try for one moment to think about the intricacies of the concept, the plot, or how this film could tie into the "timeline" established by its predecessors, because doing so will result in a big headache and no clarity.

Tim Thomerson didn't contribute much to the series past the second film, so I can't rightly say he's missed here. The return to the core notion of the franchise is welcome, and it's somewhat refreshing to see a wholly new cast in a saga that was growing stale, even if the execution leaves a bit to be desired. It's also gratifying that beyond the very beginning, this feature refrained from the lazy, cheap jokes that have historically followed when a movie has explored gender-bending as a root idea.

This is definitely a very mixed bag. Whatever one's broad outlook where cinema is concerned, or experience with this series, I begrudge no one their opinion on the final outcome. Yet regardless of its deficiencies, without any glaring blemish to hold it back, to me it seems to get along just fine. In a checkered franchise that only ever aimed for fun, 'Trancers 6' manages to regain that focus, however modestly, and that perhaps sums up the film best of all.