Trancers 5: Sudden Deth

During this period, Full Moon took to making films back-to-back: Subspecies II & III, Trancers IV & V, etc. Some reviewers think that these paired-off entries are ultimately too similar to one another to count as separate movies. And they complain. Bitterly. But hey, major studios have started using the same technique - "Kill Bill" has been bisected, and "Lord of the Rings," which was filmed all in one go, was subsequently turned into three very similar movies (Here come the Orcs - run! Wait...here come our guys! ATTACK!).

So, I don't mind that this film is, in some ways, a retread of its predecessor. In fact, the effects and acting are significantly better than they were in Trancers IV - maybe it took a while for all concerned to find their stride - and so it has a different feel to it. There's also a more focused, quest-style plot, as Jack Deth toddles off to the Castle of Unrelenting Terror to obtain a jewel called the Tiamond ("sounds like Diamond" - oh Peter David, your dialogue is just too much!).

Bizarrely, several plot elements are plundered from "The Twelve Tasks of Asterix," including a siren-like seduction scene (in both cases, the spell is broken because the hero becomes hungry) and a scene in which ghosts are dispelled simply by being yelled at. Ah Peter David, I know where you get your ideas! I don't mind, though - a good sequence is worth repeating.

All this praise aside, Trancers V does not stand up terribly well on its own, and the ending feels rushed and cliffhanger-like. Jack Deth impregnated someone? He's dying? He's going back to his own time? Wha??? Since the series never continued...not with this actor, or in this vein anyway...the final feeling is one of acute disappointment.

So ends Jack Deth's final, oddball adventure in sword-and-sorcery land. Shame that he didn't get to appear in one more detective-style movie, but I still like the fish-out-of-water quality of his final battle against the nefarious Trancers.

Unfortunately, a step down from the fourth part here as we see the vampire trancers are now on the run since Jack Deth (Tim Thomerson) and the Tunnel Rats have run them out in this direct sequel to TRANCERS 4. Deth is now looking for a rock within the Castle of Unrelenting Terror that can take him back home to his own universe.

If you really enjoyed part 4 this might be for you, just so you can see how it turns out, but subtracting the credits and the recap I think they totally could have combined the two scripts into one movie that may have ran an hour and 45 minutes or so. They really kind of dragged this one out so they could make another movie. This one is missing that good old Trancers feel that did exist in the first 3 movies I would say. Both Alan Oppenheimer and Stephen Macht return as well. Same writer (Peter David) and director (David Nutter, who went on to direct some popular TV shows like X-FILES, ER and GAME OF THRONES to name a few) as Part 4.

Seeing that "Trancers 5: Sudden Deth" is a direct continuation of "Trancers 4: Jack of Swords" and thus carrying on in the medieval setting, I have to say that the movie wasn't off to a great start for me. I preferred the three first movies more than the fourth, so this fifth movie is most likely not going to impress me.

And that is odd, because I do enjoy medieval fantasy more than sci-fi, usually. But the medieval fantasy setting just didn't do it for me in the fourth movie.

Well, I will say that the storyline in this fifth movie was better than the previous movie. And I suppose that because Charles Band returned to the writing tasks. Writers Charles Band, Danny Bilson, Peter David and Paul De Meo put together a fair enough script. But I have to admit that the fantasy setting for the "Trancers" movie just still didn't win me over.

The acting performances in the movie were fair. And something that spoke well in favor of the movie was the fact that cast members from the previous movie returned to reprise their characters in this fifth movie, so that gave something in sense of continuity.

Visually then "Trancers 5: Sudden Deth" was okay. The effects were fair.

Watchable for what it was, but "Trancers 5: Sudden Deth" was hardly an outstanding movie in the franchise. They sort of derailed the franchise after the third movie.

My rating of director David Nutter's 1994 movie "Trancers 5: Sudden Deth" lands on a four out of ten stars.

David Nutter directs this TV style fifth movie directly after his own fourth instalment. Seems Charles Band and Full Moon handed over the responsibility to a load of people unfamiliar with the series and told them to make a movie (well, two actually). Cast try their best, script is lifeless and the wooden, dull and additive Deth is here simply too drained to really work. Like the fourth movie this is a strange hybrid of Robin Hood (seems to be set in Sherwood Forest at times), Shakespeare plays and The Three Musketeers (though of course this is The One Musketeer!). This (and Trancers 4) were filmed at Charles Band's family castle in Romania and though an exceptionally striking place and one used to fabulous results in other films, here is is merely an option for cheapness. Unbelievably Trancers 6 (made several years later and virtually unrelated - something about a daughter) is even more obscure than the fourth and fifth instalments combined - and, Yes, they probably should be.

Filmed back-to-back with the equally bad "Trancers 4: Jack of Sword" on cheap Romanic filming locations, this final entry in the Trancers series (unless you count a cameo by Thomerson in Evil Bong) is more than a disappointment. Tim Thomerson once again plays Jack Deth and this time has to find some mythical MacGuffin to stop an evil Trancer king. Chases through castles and forests ensue. The original film was a lot of fun because it was as if someone from the Blade Runner universe stepped into modern day Los Angeles. I'm not sure seeing Rick Deckard in a Romanian castle nearly as interesting. Stick with the first film to leave on a high note and maybe part 2 and 3 if you're in a forgiving mood, but skip part 4 and 5. Dullsville.