Eraser: Reborn

I just rewatched the first Eraser movie to get in the mood for this. And as I imagined, this actually is not a sequel but rather a remake. Or a reboot ... or a well "reborn" as they call the movie. Now if you have seen the original you may ask: do I need to watch this? It depends - if you have the other one fresh in memory and you remember it fondly, it is better to avoid this.

For some reason the german distribution thought this would make a good theatrical release movie. And I guess it is nice to see any movie on the big screen. The main actor is not worse compared to Arnold when it comes to acting - which is not me being mean to any or both of them. He actually has some charisma too - not as much as Arnold has though. The main point is that the bad guy is way better in the original. If you know who I am talking about, you can figure out who it'll be here.

All that aside: there is some good decent action in the movie and I've seen worse movies. The CGI is not good though and it almost completely destroys the enviromental message it is trying to deliver. Especially the last bit (he went for a ride is replacing the caught a train one liner - which you may find funny or not).

Overall there are some tweaks to certain plot points but you will see the changes and can guess them or where the movie is going. The new Vanessa Williams is also really good looking ... and she knows what she wants too ... I also saw that she and the main actor did a tv show together. At least a few episodes I reckon. But they know each other, which I think is something that helped their on screen energy and chemistry. This is a direct to dvd/streaming title - expect to get that.

The movie is a total rip-off of Eraser starring Arnold Schwarzenegger and Vanessa Williams. The script writers and director is so stupid, they took every scene from Eraser and tried to remake it. This movie as trashy and a poor excuse for a movie as it is , this is proof positive, you should never try and remake a movie by scene stealing and altering them to suit your needs, when you have no idea what your needs are. This is one of those film you put on as background noise while you do something else. If you wanna watch this movie as it was meant to be, watch ERASER! It's a much better movie, even if it were produced in 1996.

... we would not need professional chefs. Same for movies. Here the smartest thing the producers did was to take the money saved by casting relative unknowns, and putting it into the cinematography, sound track, fight scenes, and SFX. Only one problem. Unlike the original (which I saw in a theater), there was no point in this film where I actually CARED what might happen next to any of these characters. Not even a little. ((Designated "IMDb Top Reviewer." Please check out my list "167+ Nearly-Perfect Movies (with the occasional Anime or TV miniseries) you can/should see again and again (1932 to the present))

I enjoyed to original and wanted to enjoy this but at no point during the film did I feel engaged in it.

The film has a TV show vibe about it, they've transformed the hero into a ninja for some reason and the film overall lacks the jokey charm of Schwarzenegger.

Watch the original again, you'll have more fun.

As far as B films go, I'll say this is one of the better ones out there. It was well acted, especially an outstanding and convincing performance by Jacky Lai. The story was a little dragged out and felt longer than the 102 min runtime from all the filler with little substance. The location and sets were excellent and the score surprisingly fitting for a B film. Cinematography was great, and the action choreography was decent. It's a fun one time watch, especially if you're a fan of the genre.