Cash Reese: Glass Shadow

When I heard about a sequel for Van Damme's absolute worst film "Cyborg," I rolled my eyes and thought, "Oh no....Why did they make this? To cash in on the success of a movie that WASN'T a success? There's no way this will be good...."

Well....I was eating my words about fifteen minutes into it.

"Cyborg 2: Glass Shadow" is by no means a masterpiece, nor is it an especially inspiring thriller, but I was surprised how entertaining it was. This might be due to the fact that it completely abandoned the plot of the first film and started from scratch, thus it can be viewed as a completely original motion picture. The plot is pretty standard: late into the 21st century, a company calls PINWHEEL have developed cyborgs that look and act just like real humans, even down to emotions. "If God didn't make you, we did," one of the big business men quotes.

But what if one of the cyborgs begins to recognize independence, as Cash (a beautiful Angelina Jolie) does? That's when Mercy comes in. Mercy is a freelance cyborg who, after the death of his wife, has dedicated his life to helping renegade cyborgs beat the system and flee to another country. The part is played by Jack Palance, who actually does a good job, though he spends most of the time on a computer screen with closeups of his mouth.

At any rate, Cash decides to flee, and she takes along a human to guide her (and he also happens to be in love with her...). His name is Colt, a skilled warrior (Elias Corteas, who bears a close resemblance to Robert DeNiro). Pinwheel sends two people to track them, Danny (a chilling Billy Drago) and Chan (the standard oriental-warrior-cyborg chick). So it's a desparate race for the two to survive in an odd, futuristic city.

It's pretty much a standard plot from there, which is predictable and easy to figure out. But at least it HAS a plot, something the first film can't claim. And this film has good qualities in other areas. The special effects are above average, including the awesome shots of a battery-charged city of 2170! The characters are also well drawn out and defined, with nice chemistry between the two leads and a chilling performance by Drago....That man is evil incarnate. Good score, too.... Does anyone know if the soundtrack is available? Lastly, the action is well-choreographed with some nice settings.

Summing it up, the director knows what he's doing, and he managed to make a so-so plot get lifted by an excellent cast, great, memorable characters, top-of-the-drawer dialogue, okay special effects, and good stunts. Recommended if you're like me: I hated the first film. It's worth taping if it ever comes on TV again...I know I will....

**1/2 out of ****

I caught this movie late night on TV, and was expecting a low-budget campy "masterpiece", I was surprised with a pretty decent movie. Angelina Jolie's unique acting capabilities (or should I say lack thereof?) make her perfect as an android, and the other actors, while terribly average, are at least not terrible.

There is a plot; a fairly intricate plot at that, involving conspiracies and the lengths a couple (one human, one android) will go to pursue their illegal romance, with a "big brother"-type figure and android assassin thrown in the mix. The production and sets, also, were much better than I expected. I haven't seen the original Cyborg, so I can't really compare it to much else; granted this film is no Blade Runner, but as a late-night, futuristic guilty pleasure, its worth a watch.

In year 2074, a technological, deathly planet earth, in an urban, dirty post holocaust world, Cyborgs have replaced humans and the earth is caught in the grip of high powered corporate warfare . Kobayashi Electronics (Japan) and Pinwheel (USA) struggle to control the software programming and manufacture of Cyborgs . Cyborgs have substituted humans in every respect from the soldier in the field to the prostitute in the brothel . Billions of dollars are at stake and as usual the love of money proves to be the root of all evil . A mean enterprise (ruled by Allen Garfield) which makes Cyborgs orders to get rid of his competitors by means of murdering them . They plan introduce to Cyborg ¨Cash¨ (Angelina Jolie) , a liquid explosive, a McGuffin denominated ¨The glass shadow¨ that blow up . Technology specialist (Jack Palance) clues to Cash and she flees with the help of the human ¨Colt¨ and they have converted prey for a band of nasty bounty hunters (Billy Drago and Ric Young).

It's an old fashioned B movie with lots of fights , stunts , struggles and chases among protagonists and their pursuers . The film has some visual sophistication along with a ridiculous plot and even a minor romantic subplot between machine-cyborg and man . Despite a few nice touches is average and this is strictly fodder . ¨Cyborg I¨ (Albert Pyun) was a poorly made action movie , it was only known by Jean Claude Van Damme acting , however ¨Cyborg II¨ has much better casting . It stars Angelina Jolie , she told The New York Times about this movie : "After I saw it, I went home and got sick¨ . The motion picture was regularly directed by Michael Schroeder who at least tries some spectacular scenes . He also directed ¨CyborgIII¨ with Malcolm McDowell , Zach Calligan and Richard Lynch . Rating : Mediocre but entertaining .

There are 3 different kinds of B-movies. Most of them are just bad. Horribly, painfully bad. Some are just the right kind of bad to be fun to watch. And a select few are surprisingly well done.

Cyborg 2, like the original, falls into the third category. Yes, it has uneven fight scenes and some terrible dialogue, but it also has involving moments. You probably wouldn't want to pay a lot of money to see it, but it's good to watch on TV, especially late at night.

And of course, it feature Angelina Jolie in her debut performance, not counting Looking to Get Out. She does very well with the sometimes spare material, as does Elias Koteas. Both of them always manage good performances with even the worst scripts, and this script is actually decent.

Non B-movie fans should avoid this, but the rest, and I know you're out there, might actually like it.

I read a bunch of the other reviews on this site for this film and at first I was a bit shocked that people liked this film better than the original "Cyborg". But, the more I thought about I guess I might have to agree, the special effects are better, Angelina Jolie is in this one (need I say more?), the fights scenes are about the same, the acting is about the same and the story is equally bad. So, I guess I'd agree that this film is a little better than the original, but they're both pretty bad movies.

I think it's safe to say that Sci-Fi is my favorite genre and I think this movie was just awful. It had some cool things here and there, but overall was not very good. The only reason I can see to sit through this movie is to see the beautiful Angelina Jolie (she looks incredible in this film!)!!! The rest of the cast was ok, but definitely nothing special. I did enjoy seeing Sven-Ole Thorsen in the film though (from "Gladiator" and a good amount of Arnold Schwarzenegger films).

Unless you're a die-hard sci-fi fan and/or an Angelina Jolie fan, I wouldn't recommend going out of your way to see this film. But, if you do end up seeing this movie, I hope you enjoy it. Thanks for reading,

-Chris