Nemesis

So despite the awful acting, weirdly convoluted plot, oddball accents, and overabundance of running gunfights, this movie is charming and watchable. It takes a bit of lots of other movies, but makes something knock off Cyberpunk and fun. Not a good movie by any means, but not the worst POS on the planet either.

Albert Pyun really likes making movies about cyborgs. His entire career as director owes everything to THE TERMINATOR and ROBOCOP, as he seems obsessed by throwing in as many special effects of half-human half-robot creations as possible into his movies. This post-apocalypse action outing is no different, as it sees Olivier Gruner (the poor man's Van Damme) battling an endless succession of cyborgs who seem to have it in for him. The plot of this film is somewhat ridiculous, and the running time seems to entirely consist of robotic people being shot at or blown up.

Still, something stopped me turning it off, and towards the end I realised something odd: I was actually enjoying this movie. It may be the fast-pacing or the cheesy earnestness of the special effects, but I think this may be Pyun's best movie yet; at least it's one you can sit through without succumbing to boredom. The low rent effects are cheap and dated looking, but I got a real kick out of seeing them and especially the effort (if not originality) having gone into their creation. Take, for instance, the preposterous, ambitious climax, in which our hero battles a robotic skeleton hanging off the back of a plane. It's an obvious attempt to recreate and outdo the climax of The Terminator that fails on every level, but it's still hugely entertaining.

Although Gruner is never more than a solid block of wood as this film's hero, Pyun has assembled quite the supporting cast of B-movie players. There's Tim Thomerson, voraciously chewing the scenery as a corporate bigwig, and an oddly underused Brion James struggling with an appalling German accent. Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa is there as another sneering example of brutality and even RETURN OF THE LIVING DEAD's Thom Mathews makes a brief showing as a robotic assassin. Yes, the film may be trite, ill-conceived, ludicrous and a rip-off, but it actually has style – and I found it more entertaining than Richard Stanley's much-talked-about HARDWARE.

Oh, man. This one definitely gets me into the way back machine. It was about ten years ago and I was in college. Being a SF fan, I was told by a bud and SF mega-geek (Hey, Reuben) about this movie. So we either popped it into the VCR or saw it on cable. I think it was the VCR - and boom. Nemesis is set in a near future where humanity and machine have begun to merge. Some add on machine parts to make them stronger, faster, or capable of carrying data. And some machines have taken on human appearance, and become human-like androids - cyborgs - further blurring the line between human and machine. Olivier Gruner is Rain, an enhanced cop, watching out for all kinds of new generation criminals, and using his enhancements to try to stay ahead - or at least on par - with the shifting enemies. But then of course he stumbles on something even more sinister than the usual, and it's look out. There are mega over the top gunfights, done in more wild detail because of the low budget, and very little computer generated effects. (Except one scene that others have noted.) Most of it is squibs, sparks and good old fashioned stunt work. Once this one kicks in it ABSOLUTELY DOES NOT let up. Ever. This is one smaller-budget production where the acting, directing, script and frenetic pace combine to make a movie more entertaining and thought provoking that many mega budget SF pics. On top of the action, the script and atmosphere so perfectly evoke a dark, flawed future that other filmmakers should take note. The guy who said it evoked William Gibson's type of dark cyberpunk future was right on the money. It was darn close and had great twists and setting. One reason I took to it was that at the time I was something of a gamer - mostly the Shadowrun series of dark, cyberpunk future. This might have biased me a bit, but I believe that it increased my appreciation of the movie instead. People who dig the newer cyberpunk stuff should check this one out. It does more convincing stuff with less budget and without any obviously fakey CGI. (There is one stop motion shot some have complained about, but at least no one flies around like superman or gets digitally reproduced 1000 times) From the over the top shootouts to good acting by SF legend Tim Thomerson, the ultra cool Merle Kennedy, Deborah Shelton, Gruner himself (with an ultra cool smooth delivery) and a cast that absolutely fits perfectly into their roles and their interactions with each other. This is a movie which achieves a sum greater than the parts, and overachieves from start to finish. People have argued about the later part, but believe me the ending is so cool character wise, that makes up for any other worries. Just a non stop awesome movie that creates atmosphere, features white knuckle action sequences, and creates characters that are believable, bad ass and also people that you end up caring about. If you are a SF buff or even a good movie buff, check it out and you'll be surprised by how well this one hits on all cylinders. Oh, and if you are a cyberpunk fan and dig that stuff, prepare for an awesome depiction of an atmosphere that many other films and other works have tried and failed to capture. Two thumbs way up for this movie, which combines action and character with great settings, overachieves from the get go, and endures as one hell of a fun movie!

just caught this film again and happy it still stands up after 10 years, Albert Pyun really puts his lowbud helming abilities to great use here with post war locales and great wardrobes, the action is much higher standard than standard b movie fare of today, borrowing much from John Woo / Chow yun-Fat flicks, the story serves to give us the action and effects we want. shame Gruner never topped this and never will with movies like the Circuit and Crackerjack. action 8/10 story 5/10 chicks 8/10

"Nemesis" is a mixture of incoherent plotting (with rehashed bits from "Robocop" and "Terminator"), brainless action sequences, distracting accents and sarcastic wisecracks spouted by leading man Olivier Gruner, who comes off as a cut-rate version of Van Damme. By all means, it should be a pretty bad film, and maybe it is, but it's nevertheless always watchable and never outright boring. The pacing is continuously fast and the energy level high. (**)

Footnote: If you watch the film, look out for Merle Kennedy who plays Max, the hero's sidekick in the last 20 minutes or so. I loved the athleticism she brings into her small role. What an incredible body! Why hasn't anyone else mentioned her presence??