Shadowchaser

I tried watching this hideous movie dubbed in French one night, but even then it was so awful. The plot so muddled, the acting so botched that I had to turn it off.

So you take a slice of "Die Hard" and mix it with "Blade Runner", add a dash of "Demolition Man" and "The Terminator" and stir. Since all of the above movies did decently at the box office one can only expect that a combination of those movies can only create a mega-awesome, super-movie that surpasses all of them in every possible way, right? Well, no. It's an OK time-waster, though, and a fair enough effort overall. Actually, it does a pretty good job in the first part but gets increasingly stupid towards the end. At one point the evil cyborg is chasing the good guys and it is just blazing away with his fully automatic assault rifle, shooting at NOTHING. How many rounds fit on one of those clips? You think the robot's actually dead after falling down the elevator shaft? Hyuk, hyuk, gosh, no, he's still movin'! And you don't suppose he's gonna jump out again for one last grab at the good guys after he's been set on fire? No way, man! Same slop, different movie, but the budget is OK for something of this caliber and I've seen worse.

In the near future, a top secret project named Shadowchaser is started to develop a robotic killing machine, named Romulus after the mythical founder of Rome. What the scientists forgot when they activate the robot was that it had no sense of loyalty and it killed them and escaped. A little later a terrorist group storms a city hospital and holds the upper floors hostage. One of these hostages includes the President's daughter. The FBI come in but realise that they need some help so they bring the architect, Dickson, out of deep freeze to help them storm the building. The only problem is that they defrost the wrong person, namely a football player name DeSilva.

This movie is a good action packed movie in the same style as Die Hard. The difference is that Die Hard was full of huge explosions while this movie is just one huge machine gun fight through a hospital. Don't expect much character development in this movie, but I don't think there is anything wrong with running machine gun fights. This movie never made the cinemas in Australia (and it looks like it is a straight to video release in the states), but that doesn't mean that the movie is bad. I quite enjoyed this movie, though the acting is bad in parts and the actors are unknown (not that there is anything wrong with that). This movie is not even mentioned in the Microsoft Cinemania 97, but I think it is a little gem.

The ideas in the movie are seen elsewhere but they seem to emphasise the point rather than to be a blatant cliché. The prison of the future being a deep freeze is seen in Demolition Man but the movie looks more at its merits rather than attacking it as Demolition Man does. The only comment that DeSilva makes is "when you are facing years in deep freeze and somebody releases you and asks you if you are such and such, what are you going to do, say 'sorry, you have the wrong guy, I'll just go back into deep freeze." He really does have a point there. He is looking out for number one, and honestly, I don't know anybody who would not do the same. He has been given a chance of redemption and he takes it.

The human desire for power coming back at them is another idea that comes out. Like Aliens and Terminator II, and other movies, Project Shadowchaser has humanity creating a devastating weapon only to have it turn on them. When it does they are absolutely helpless. Romulus shows us what we are really like inside and can be seen as a caricature of humanity. He was created and turned on his creators. Same with us. God created us and we turned on him, and like Romulus, our Creator is not too happy about this. Romulus says that he wants freedom, and we claim the same thing, but what is freedom and does it really exist? Romulus is a logical robot who probably does not understand what freedom really is, and even if he escapes his creators, who would have provided for him, he is still a slave to his logic, just as well are slaves to our sin.

Redemption also comes through this movie. DeSilva has committed a crime and is sentenced for this crime, but he sees a chance of redemption and seizes it. Not only does he seize his redemption, but he makes friends with the president's daughter and by saving her he is pardoned by the president. This is so much like God. He has given us an opportunity for redemption and he sacrificed his son for us, and we have the opportunity of befriending him as DeSilva befriends the President's daughter. Like her, Jesus will intercede on our behalf.

I like this movie. It is full of action and all you action freaks will probably like it as well. The villain is tough and comes out as a mixture of Die Hard and Terminator and I think it comes out quite well.

As someone else has stated, this is a low budget cross between Terminator and Die Hard only without the massive appeal of either.

Its hard to believe the motive for hijacking a hospital in order to kidnap the president's daughter. Especially in one part where there is an opportunity to kidnap the president himself, the terrorists prefer to continue using the daughter instead.... yeah, she'll be worth more...

Martin Kove is cheesy but okay. Meg Foster's part seems like it was originally written with a teenage girl in mind. Frank Zagarino is amusing as the robot. And the rest of the cast go through the motions.

Another thing, this movie probably has the worst example of movie editing I've ever seen. In one scene, the cyborg seemingly has the two main characters trapped in the overhead vents, the next, the two leads are running away, without any explanation on how they escaped! There's other confusing scenes but if you watch the movie you'll see for yourself.

One of Kove's last lines in the picture reminds me of Eddie Murphy's character in Bowfinger when he yells out 'Got you, suckers!' I got a laugh out of that.

It kills some time but don't expect to get anything out of it.

A diabolical mashup of the above films, almost totally without merit. Meg Foster and Joss Ackland do their best with the clichéd script, but even they can't save this movie. Kove is not much cop as a leading man, and Frank Zag makes for a lousy Arnie impersonator.