Trancers 6

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)

Trancers 6 (2002) is a movie I recently watched on Tubi. The storyline takes place in the future when a new version of the Trancers are emerging. Jack is sent by his agency to stop them and arrives on Earth in his daughter's body. Can Jack save the world and his daughter's life from the new Trancers? This movie is directed by Jay Woelfel (Closed for the Season) and stars Zette Sullivan (Sexual Intrigue), Robert Donavan (Art of the Dead), Timothy Prindle (Shades of Darkness) and Jennifer Cantrell (Lingerie Bowl). This movie is pretty awful. The storyline is atrocious, as is the CGI, fight scenes, choreography, running or any other action related sequence. There are some entertaining elements like a woman pretending to be Jack, the Trancers makeup and some pretty good one-liners but not enough to salvage the bad. This is a below average addition to the genre and was a good place to end the series. I'd score this a 3.5-4/10 and recommend skipping it.

Is 'Trancers 6' good? Not specifically. Is it altogether bad? No. Make no mistake, it's certainly a bit of a mess. But very importantly, it's emphatically better than 'Jack of swords' and 'Sudden Deth,' arguably better than 'Deth Lives,' and more mildly enjoyable than not.

This last entry in the 'Trancers' franchise feels like a mash-up of the sci-fi flick the first three films represented, a self-parody, a teen comedy - and a fan film. These flavorings are accentuated by the supporting cast that includes no small number of extraordinarily young and fresh-faced nobodies, and the fact that aside from one-liners, most of the comedy relies on the simple incongruity of seeing the tough-talking attitude of trancer hunter Jack Deth coming from a pretty, idealistic young woman. The dialogue is only slightly less blunt than the original music of Jon Greathouse, and the camerawork, acting, and overall narrative writing all but totally lack any subtlety or dexterity.

Makeup, effects, and even sound are somewhat dubious; rarely has gunfire looked or sounded less convincing. I can only imagine that the budget for 'Trancers 6' was at rock bottom. Scenes are orchestrated with such a straightforward and direct heavy hand that filmmaker Jay Woelfel seems to be operating on a level of B-movie only marginally more sophisticated than "first student film." Most of the cast gives off an air of similar inexperience, as though the casting director mostly just pulled people off the streets. Only Robert Donavan, as prominent supporting character Dr. Malvern, and - surprisingly - star Zette Sullivan, as protagonist Jo, demonstrate any small measure of nuance in their performances. Though to be fair, that's not necessarily saying much; who wouldn't be a shining beacon when compared against the astoundingly ham-handed acting of Jennifer Capo, or the wholly flat portrayals of unnamed characters?

Despite all these notable flaws, faults, and imperfections - against all odds, 'Trancers 6' is kind of fun. At no point is it outright funny, nor thrilling, but it carries a very basic sort of entertainment factor. It's the kind of movie you can watch without being actively engaged, and walk away saying "That was pretty okay." That may not be much, but it's safe to say there are a lot worse ways one could spend their time (including this feature's two immediate antecedents). Granted, this assumes one takes the premise at face value. Don't try for one moment to think about the intricacies of the concept, the plot, or how this film could tie into the "timeline" established by its predecessors, because doing so will result in a big headache and no clarity.

Tim Thomerson didn't contribute much to the series past the second film, so I can't rightly say he's missed here. The return to the core notion of the franchise is welcome, and it's somewhat refreshing to see a wholly new cast in a saga that was growing stale, even if the execution leaves a bit to be desired. It's also gratifying that beyond the very beginning, this feature refrained from the lazy, cheap jokes that have historically followed when a movie has explored gender-bending as a root idea.

This is definitely a very mixed bag. Whatever one's broad outlook where cinema is concerned, or experience with this series, I begrudge no one their opinion on the final outcome. Yet regardless of its deficiencies, without any glaring blemish to hold it back, to me it seems to get along just fine. In a checkered franchise that only ever aimed for fun, 'Trancers 6' manages to regain that focus, however modestly, and that perhaps sums up the film best of all.

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.

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.