Shadowchaser - Progettato per uccidere

So you take a slice of "Die Hard" and mix it with "Blade Runner", add a dash of "Demolition Man" and "The Terminator" and stir. Since all of the above movies did decently at the box office one can only expect that a combination of those movies can only create a mega-awesome, super-movie that surpasses all of them in every possible way, right? Well, no. It's an OK time-waster, though, and a fair enough effort overall. Actually, it does a pretty good job in the first part but gets increasingly stupid towards the end. At one point the evil cyborg is chasing the good guys and it is just blazing away with his fully automatic assault rifle, shooting at NOTHING. How many rounds fit on one of those clips? You think the robot's actually dead after falling down the elevator shaft? Hyuk, hyuk, gosh, no, he's still movin'! And you don't suppose he's gonna jump out again for one last grab at the good guys after he's been set on fire? No way, man! Same slop, different movie, but the budget is OK for something of this caliber and I've seen worse.

In Project: Shadowchaser, we find ourselves in a rather brazen Die Hard rip-off with accidental hero Martin Kove (Cobra Kai).

Everything takes place almost originally in the Naka... ok, some skyscraper. Odd terrorists who just want to extort money take hostages. But that's not all, there's also a good pinch of Terminator and Escape from L. A., because a runaway killer android as the villain and a president's daughter among the hostages are also included in the script.

The ludicrous plan to rescue the First Daughter and neutralize the cyborg: get the architect of the skyscraper out of jail and send him in. Huh? And the government even fails and sends the wrong guy in. Oops.

The "hero" doesn't do a bad job at all and climbs dutifully through umpteen John McClane memorial ventilation shafts. Sigh. But even he can't save the bad script and formulaic production.

I tried watching this hideous movie dubbed in French one night, but even then it was so awful. The plot so muddled, the acting so botched that I had to turn it off.

Appearing at the height of the director's popularity, thanks to the inescapable, if short-lived, "surrealist action" phenomenon, Project: Shadowcaster (also know as Shadowcaster) is also the most stereotypically Eyres-ish of John Eyres's films, filled with state of the art special effects, surreal environments, complex characters, and oblique commentary on American life (we wouldn't expect any less!). As such, it will leave some viewers raving, others scratching their noodle in frustration. Staring the Martin Kove as Desilva a thawed out football player in an Orwellian American future should be enough to buy ten copies of this rare piece of art history. If Kove and Eyres isn't enough, keep in mind that Kove experimented with sensory deprivation meditations and self-controlled brainwashing techniques pioneered by the church of Scientology in addition to spending weeks along side Dan Marino to prepare for the role of Desilva. Shadowcaster takes "surreal action" to the next level and redefines the word "touchdown!"

This movie is so much fun. A straight-to-video action movie that borrows plot elements from other films but adds charms all its own. You can criticize the script for not being terribly original but it's filled with memorable lines delivered with gusto by a good cast. The plot is brilliant so prepare yourself. A group of terrorists, headed by a Lundgrenesque android named Romulus, take over a hospital. Among the hostages is the daughter of the President (played by 44 year-old Meg Foster). The FBI is helpless to do anything so they decide to unfreeze the architect of the building. You see, the architect committed a crime and in this world criminals are cryogenically frozen. Well, somehow they goof up and unfreeze the wrong guy. Instead of the architect they get former pro-football player Martin Kove! He plays along so he doesn't have to be frozen again. Basically, the rest of the film is Kove "yippee-ki-yay"-ing his way through the hospital to rescue the hostages and inevitably fight the android. Look, I think we all know this isn't The English Patient. It's not even Die Hard. But for fans of popcorn action movies, this is a real treat. It's a movie full of quotable dialogue, fun clichés, and mindless action. It's a damn good time if you can relax and enjoy movies that aren't meant to be art.