Death Machine

Got a $1 videotape of this at a thrift store because it was a video shop screener, which usually means not viewed much and still in good shape. This was, and it was a nice surprise for a dollar, and it was what "Hardware" should have been.

Without giving away too much of the story, it is about a war weapons development corporation that has a renegade inventor who builds a killer robot called the Warbeast. The renegade inventor, Brad Dourif recreating his Wise Blood character in part, is also insane and eventually the Warbeast is let loose. There's also a neat sequence where the Warbeast battles a human cyborg reminiscent of Alien 2, seems to be intentional. The Warbeast resembles a mechanical Alien, and "Scott Ridley" is a character. Many other characters named from film personalities as well.

A little sluggish at first, but really makes up for that later in the film. Also, probably not enough of the Warbeast slaughtering folks visible for some gore-hounds, but what there is, is well done. Seems like they were about two characters short to really create a good rampage by the Warbeast, but budget constraints notwithstanding, they did a very good job overall.

One of the characters yells at his friend: "You just knew Ho-Ho was going to turn out to be the fat, sweaty, desperate psycho!" And of course, we all did too...

There is no question what this movie was. There are even characters named Scott Ridley, Sam Raimi, and John Carpenter. While the surface of the film is a long-corridor (Aliens) horror movie, what lies beneath is sort of a manic, director-oriented comedy that reminds me more of Evil Dead 2 than anything else. The hyper sound to dead silence, the overly dramatic lighting, the first-person Missile Cam, the cool line followed by backlit explosion... it all leans towards a wild but fun ride through all of the most common camp in these types of movies. It's a satire subtle enough to pass as just another bad horror movie, if you're not paying attention.

Brad Dourif (who was B-B-B-B-Billy Buh-Bibbit, a long time ago, and the voice of Chucky-- and might become a little more prevalent in film after being in the upcoming Lord Of The Rings trilogy) is the great shining spot in this film, and alternates from acting well (check out his outpouring at the end) to completely terrible (awful references to hacking... "Molebdenic composite"?). And all of the best subtle jokes are bad guy parodies-- my favorite example is his inability to get his threat right over the monitors: "Turning me off won't turn you off. No. Wait. Turning you off--" click.

But the real flair here is in the direction. None of this would work if it wasn't played half serious with the sights and sounds. As the climax builds, the ambient noise cuts out completely for the doors to chime "Welcome!" cheerily. The HUD from the machine's point of view displays 1P and Hi Score. The Robocop-style machine whirring in the Hardman gear as Raimi actually gets into a fistfight (!) with the machine... there is never any "set 'em up, knock 'em down" standard cue that *these* are the jokes... but there they are. Dig in.

Quirky little sci-fi flick that has its share of goofy charms. Unfortunately, though, Death Machine goes too far in a few categories, resulting in an eye-rolling-groan instead of the genuine amused chuckle. It doesn't quite nail the blending of two genres appropriately nor is it entirely effective, but it does an okay job. The movie does wear out its welcome by the time the final act starts.

The Death Machine, aka the WarBeast, didn't set well with me. Kind of a mechanical, terminator-ish Alien with autism-inspired hyper-twitches with its claws (reminding me of the guy from Cube for some reason). It's not that the thing looked unrealistic, it's the fact that it moved like a chihuahua on a coffee high.

Also the character suited up in the super soldier gear went a bit too far over the top with his Unisol-from-hell impression. Every now and then I found myself chuckling at him or his comments, but for the most part I think he should've pulled back just a tad.

There's a few others, but I'll just comment on one more that bugged me. The all-too-blunt reference to famous directors, giving characters the same first and last name (or in a 'clever twist' swapping 'em around) . . . I really think references are more effective when they're subtle and not glaring at you from the screen with a big red blinking light.

The tongue-in-cheek approach, and goofy nature and the fact they walked a thin line of parody/seriousness didn't bother me . . . I just felt they didn't do too hot a job of walking that line and frequently went overboard on the parody side.

On the plus side, everyone feels right in their appointed roles and the production value/effects are, for the most part, appropriate. Ely Pouget and Brad Dourif are the stars here; they play off each other nicely. The Dante character would've come across as incredibly lame in the hands of a lesser actor, but Dourif gives Dante a very unique aura of childish menace and pulls off one one the performances and creating probably the best character in the film.

Pouget is fun as Cale, constantly bouncing her chivarlous and noble comments off the demented Dante. The humor in Pouget and Dourif's performance comes about from their serious/straight forward delivery. Despite the wackiness surrounding them, these two characters are probably the most grounded in reality . . . which is weird, sad, and entertaining at the same time and well, you have to see the film to understand.

If material has to be 100% believable for you to like a movie . . . why do you still watch movies? Death Machine is a movie where you suspend your belief just to sit back and embrace the corniness as it pokes fun at its big cinematic brethren . . . I just wish it did a little better job of it throughout the whole movie. Oh well, it was worth the rental price.

Everyone is trying to say this is suppose to be a comedy. I have a collection of around 300 movies and alot of them are funny as hell but not classified as comedy. Lethal Weapon 4 for example had more humor in it than Death Machine. This is a great movie with a strong resemblance to Aliens, not Alien despite public opinion. The costume design on the Hardman suit was very good for a low budget film. The camera work was really good especially in certain scenes where several emotions are caught in them. The movie features a good plot and believable tech for the year it takes place in. It does feature some cheesy lines in a couple of parts but other than that its dialogue is strong. Our tree hugging heros are very likable too. In my own humble opinion which of course is the only one that matters, if this were re-released as a theatrical motion picture, it'd be the action flick of the summer next year! This one gets a 9!

The point is: This movie is a blatant *tribute* to Aliens, Die Hard, Evil Dead, Terminator, Predator, Rocky, and numerous other action/horror movies. The characters are even named after famous action/horror directors (see trivia). The plot is a brilliant rehash of nearly every great action/horror movie ever made! It's meant to be funny! People get so caught up in the details that they miss the big picture.