Digital Man

On September the 10th 2001 I was recovering from a 24 hour virus whilst on holiday in Dubai. I spent the day in the hotel room and when not sleeping I solely watched CNN. I remember there being a news item about the assassination of a Northern Alliance leader by the Taliban in Afghanistan (could there be trouble brewing?). The next day I felt a lot better and planned to go out. My holiday companion wasn't very interested in watching a news channel so switched it over to watch a crappy sci-fi action movie instead. So, to reiterate - 24 hour news channel on all day September 10th, news channel switched off September 11th and crappy movie put on instead. Everyone remembers what they were doing when the Twin Towers were attacked in 2001 - I was watching Digital Man on account of my holiday friend. As it turned out we discovered the news when we were picked up by another friend to visit one of the city attractions - the Emirates Twin Towers, which at that very moment had ascended to the second highest twin towers in the world. It was a very weird day. So, yes, despite having CNN on ALL DAY the day before, I missed the biggest news event of my life in order to watch a pathetic cyborg-on-the-loose sci-fi/action toss-fest. As I watched it last night for the second time I did actually wonder if maybe something of historical importance was happening again. Nothing happened.

I've seen Digital man almost a decade ago when it came to video. My dad rented me this movie to watch over the weekend since he was leaving with my mom. I loved it so much that I've watched it five or six times in 48 hours !!!

My memories of this movie are quite vague. I can't really remember the quality of the acting and script. But I definitely remember how scary Mathias Hues was as the killer robot. A team is sent in a small community somewhere out in the desert to terminate him but soon find out some of them are robots themselves. Woon and Jackson are two bad*ss soldiers who can't match Digital Man.

I think I'll buy this movie in the near future since I can't find it at the video store anymore. I think fans of Terminator and Robocop would love this movie. It's the traditional "Shoot the bastard !!!" kind of flick with lots of action and sci-fi. I rate it 7/10. See it if you get the chance.

This is pretty horrible but there aren't many reviews and I'll add a brief summary.

There are some good things: the acting is surprisingly OK across the board from Ed Lauter and a bunch of people I've never heard of. A bit OTT at times and Ken Olandt (who?) is definitely a cut of wood below the rest. The main cyborg (Matthias Hues) does his deadpan job really well. The comedy relief is ridiculous (but then so is the whole film) and Swayze and Masterson are quite funny. The director keeps the action going - at least you don't have to wait around for the next bit of nonsense to happen.

What's bad. The FX, even for the '90s are awful - some reviewer who says they're great has to be a fake. The story makes no sense. OK, soldiers are hunting a cyborg, something to do with missile launch codes, not sure what, while other soldiers (mainly Lauter) are killing each other - no idea really. There's some big deal about some soldiers being cyborgs too, again no idea why. The action keeps going but it's stupid, stupid, stupid at all times. The cyborg wanders about, apparently at random - arriving for a fight whenever the director wants one, then wandering off again. When a soldier dies (s)he does so by walking straight at the cyborg, firing something ineffective (when all they seem to have to do to survive is run away). The soldiers carry huge guns they can barely lift (think Aliens), blast away with them non-stop and never manage to hit the cyborg standing motionless in front of them (which it does a lot of). When they run out of ammo and start with a pistol, every shot hits but has no effect. These shots are always aimed at the armour, never at the unprotected head. Great that the squad has two racial minorities, two women and only one white guy. But guess who's in charge? The ending is totally lame.

Digital Man is a very entertaining movie, with good acting, excellent photography and outstanding F/X. It does suffer from a mediocre script however. A very good, overall effort from a bunch of actors who fall into the category of "where have I seen them before?" A rating of 8 out of 10 was given.

In an era of movies like TERMINATOR: GENISYS and CHAPPIE, can a B-grade robot adventure from the mid-90s find an appreciative audience? The answer is yes, at least if it can find its way into my hands. No low-budget filmmaker loved the sci-fi genre more than Philip J. Roth ("APEX"), and this particular cyborg-themed outing highlights the best that he – or almost anyone – could bring to the table under B-movie constraints. Though not terribly original, DIGITAL MAN is engaging and action-packed enough to accommodate its target audience and perhaps win over a few new fans as well.

The story: A squad of futuristic soldiers (led by Ken Olandt) is sent to a backwater Earth settlement to neutralize a deadly combat cyborg (Matthias Hues) run amuck.

It bears emphasizing that viewers who need expensive production values and state-of-the-art special effects to enjoy sci-fi flicks will be disappointed by this one, with its outdated CGI and gooey prosthetics. Personally, I love the production design, which is so skillfully implemented that there's no stylistic discord even when the setting shifts from a high-tech space station to the dusty Earth setting. Despite a handful of esthetic lifts from ALIENS and THE TERMINATOR, DIGITAL MAN looks and feels very much like its own movie, and in the process manages to avoid the artistic pitfalls of basing a production in the desert: it's never not fun to look at, despite its limited color palette.

The action's comprised primarily of explosions and shootouts, with a smattering of kickboxing. Though bluntly effective, the firefights aren't worth the price of the picture alone, and it's disappointing that Hues' physical talents are limited to only a single, one-sided brawl. Despite looking cool in his armor, Matthias is generally the worst-utilized performer of the film, having next to no lines and virtually nothing to do other than stalking and shooting. The rest of the cast does much better, with especially the soldiers getting enough character moments so as to not feel expendable. The rest of the cast is pretty memorable, too: Don Swayze (brother of Patrick) is a decent supporting goof, Amanda Wyss does what she can in an uncredited role, and the great Susan Tyrell has two glorious cameo scenes.

Director Roth infuses the picture with the enthusiastic pacing and gusto so often missing from low-budget productions, thereby keeping the film upbeat and rolling along nicely. He might have also included a tad too much story for his own good, as the paranoia angle of squad members potentially being cyborgs themselves feels unnecessary for a movie this small. Nevertheless, the film is worth a rental, and potentially even a purchase if you still own a VCR.