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.

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!

I've been a fan of Charles Band and Full Moon since the beginning. But, the films released by Full Moon over the last few years have fully disappointed me. I really can't stand the "Urban" dribble they've been dishing out. To my surprise though, Trancers 6 reminds me of the good old Full Moon films before they started to go downhill. It's low budget of course, but the acting, plot, makeup, specil effects are all excellent. I hope this may indeed be the beginning of a new age for Full Moon Pictures. But please, drop the lame rapper/urban films that couldn't scare a flea.

Full Moon's budget just keep getting lower, so it's kind of sad to see one of their best series being continued on a budget lower than what Nicole Kidman spends a year on sun block. The TRANCERS films involve Jack Deth, a Bogart-ish cop from the future who keeps getting sent back in time to deal with Trancers, zombie-like former humans, whose actions virtually destroyed the time-line Deth originates from. To time travel, Deth must inhabit the body of one of his ancestors all of whom, at least until this entry, look just like actor Tim Thomerson.

This time around, Full Moon couldn't afford Thomerson, so they open with some stock footage of him, from previous films in the series, and then send him back in time to inhabit the body of the daughter he never knew he had fathered during one of his visits to the 80s. If you're a follower of the TRANCERS series, this all makes pretty good sense, as the third film did introduce just such a child.

Anyway, entry #6 takes place in a low rent version of the present and Deth's daughter is played by diminuitive (5 ft tall) Zette Sullivan, a serious little cutie who does a nice job of playing a tough "guy" in a girl's body. Sullivan is much of the show here as she effectively mimics Thomerson's style and earns a few smiles by playing the uncomfortable macho male in a woman's body role.

There's a couple of nice action sequences and some OK, bargain basement special effects and makeup. Most of the cast is fine and it all flies by enjoyably, if forgettably, enough. If Full Moon ever gets a decent budget again, they could do a lot worse than to continue this series with spunky Sullivan, maybe even team her up with Thomerson, and let this film's director, Jay Woelfel, take a shot at it. If he can do this well with next-to-no-money, I'm guessing he could make a pretty good film with a budget featuring more numbers than a zip code.

DVD owners can see this on a double-feature disc with the first TRANCERS film, which features a young Helen Hunt (who was in entries 1-3) as the woman who will eventually be the mother of Deth's daughter in this entry. Jeez, this is getting confusing.

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)