Virtual Combat

So pathetic its not even funny. From the first scene in the movie I knew I was in for a bad time. Thank goodness I only saw this movie on tv. The story line was terrible, not to mention the acting. It was horrid. Very unreal and unusual things happened in this move such as. The lady sticks a whip under the door and whips the guy a little and he just hands over the keys. I'm like, GET REAL. The creators lousy attempt to make a futuristic city even deepened my dislike for the film. To tell you the truth the only good thing in this movie at all was the fighting, which was in itself pretty lame. All I could ask myself when watching this movie was "when is it gonna go off!"

A shameless cash-in on the major studio movie VIRTUOSITY (1995), this is a rare example of a copy being better than the original. In the near-future (yes, again) Don 'The Dragon' Wilson plays a cop who - while investigating his partner's murder - stumbles upon a conspiracy to bring the impossibly-perfect women from a virtual reality sex program into the real world by re-writing synthetic DNA so it matches the coding of the girls' design, and then selling them as sex slaves to the highest bidder. An additional big problem is that an AI named 'Dante' who is the lethal & unbeatable final level boss opponent of a virtual reality combat game, has hijacked the technology to also create a body for himself, and intends to do the same for dozens of his dangerous VR brethren. I'm not usually a fan of martial art movies, and VIRTUAL COMBAT is set in an America where firearms have been banned, and so cops and criminals - even low level street punks - all rely on high-kicking chop-socky instead. But while all the fight scenes (and there are a lot) do get a bit tiring, this movie held my interest. Dante makes for a fine supervillain, and particularly welcome is the ridiculously gorgeous Athena Massey as the main VR sex siren.

Why the UK title had to be changed to Grid Runners I'll never know, unless they were trying to cash in on the Jeff Minter Vic 20 game. Anyway, it doesn't matter - the film's terrible. Funny, but terrible.

Don "The Dragon" Wilson World Kickboxing Champion (as he's referred to in the credits) has so little charisma and acting ability that he must surely be the freakish love child of Jean-Claude Van Damme and Steven Seagal, and it's not even as if the filmmakers compensate for that with any particularly dynamic action scenes - the fights are almost as rubbish as the actors. They pick up a bit after the shockingly bad opening scenes in which Don is harassed by men in pink and yellow spandex trousers, but not much.

The central story idea of AI constructs being "copied to living cells" is unoriginal but still interesting, or at least it would have been if the eventual story woven around it made the faintest bit of sense. Everything's either a cliche or happens for absolutely no reason - or both - until the film finally limps to an 'interesting' finale involving some of the worst special effects ever committed to film. Look at that helicopter go! Frame advance that little beauty! Yes please.

Ok now I'm dead serious here.When I said this movie is good for laughs I meant you'd die laughing.....ridiculing it. Of all the movies I've ever seen,this one really goes to show that there are some REALLY lame actors out there who have pathetic scripts and are cast together in one of the most despicable movie ever made.Trust me,over half the scenes in this are so superficial and cheesy that it actually makes you wonder how bad actors can really be. If given a choice between jumping off the empire state building and the movie.....JUMP(and trust me...you WOULD want to jump).

I actually liked this movie. Sure, the acting was flat, there was no plot, and the villain was the lamest that i've seen. Michael Bernardo as Dante is worth laughs in his own right, with an incredibly funny catchphrase and evil laugh. But its worth seeing, just for the WORST explosion you will ever see outside of the Power Rangers TV series. You'll know it when you see it. Honestly, this movie must have the budget of a low grade porno. I almost stopped watching after an hour, but i recommend watching through the whole thing; at the very least, there's plenty of eye candy for all to enjoy. Recommended for viewers with a high tolerance to poor movies.