Future Force

My review was written in November 1989 after watching the movie on AIP video cassette.

This straight-to-video feature offers some offbeat social commentary in its sci-fi approach to the future of law enforcement.

David Carradine toplines as an elite bounty hunter in 1991, working for the Civilian Operated Police Systems (COPS), a result of turning law enforcement over to the private sector. Film gets under way with a bang as Carradine reads a parody of Miranda rights in a suspect & blows him away.

Soon the shoe is on the other foot as COPS' head honcho WIlliam Zipp puts a $100,000 bounty on Carradine's head when our hero sides with Anna Rapagna, a tv news reporter who's got the goods on the out-of-control civilian police.

Pi climaxes in an interesting mixture of cynicism and hope for reform following Carradine's showdown with Zipp's chief henchman (Robert Tessier), as well as Zipp's ironic comeuppance.

With a nod to "Robocop", Carradine wields a high-tech "arm" that fits over his real one (or works via remote control) and operates like a cannon. Otherwise, "Future Force" is low-tech but scores high in imagination.

The taciturn Carradine is appealing as the good-bad guy and already has filmed a sequel. Supporting cast is effective, notably Dawn Wildsmith who essayed a similar tough gal role opposite Carradine in "Warlords".

Full disclosure: I watched this with the Rifftrax commentary.

After this watching this movie, I had to really think about the plot because I had no idea. It's only about 80 minutes long and it felt like they were padding for time. There is some silly action scenes that can be good for a laugh, but I don't know how someone saw this and said "yes, we do need another movie in this universe. The people need more."

This is the kind of movie that is best watched with friends who are recovering from hangovers. That is how i was introduced to it, and it definitely helped my condition. This film is completely and totally hilarious. I love it. From the extremely cheesy dialogue to the sleazy porno looking police chief to the magical robot glove, this movie rules. In fact, I'm hungover right now. In fact, I'm going to watch it again right now. Yes.

David Carradine plays John Tucker, a futuristic cop who uses a robotic glove to combat a corrupt totalitarian government in this cheap action flick which has Carradine in okay form, despite being too cheap to work at being the type of action flick it tries to be. David Carradine is an actor who's career went straight through the crapper, after some promising movies in the 70's. After a failed attempt to bring Kung Fu to the 80's, he ended up making sub-par cheapies like this to stretch out his prolific filmography. Future Force walks the fine line between just plain terrible and amusingly awful. The production values themselves rival ROTOR and it becomes quite obvious that Carradine's pay cut consisted of at least 70% of the budget. What is somehow even goofier about the movie are the action sequences in which Carradine actually manages to use a remote control glove to fly and zap people. This of course adds to the fun of watching what could quite possibly be one of the most low grade science fiction movies ever made. Still you have to love Carradine's macho tough guy role who is so laid back that he seems more at home smoking pot then actually saving the day. David Carradine though has always seemed like a stoner (Well actually he is) and that is why we love him.

* 1/2 out of 4-(Poor)

See it for the fight in the junkyard between Carradine and Tessier. Both appear so out of shape that the huffing and puffing could blow a house down. "Future Force" is a film that makes no sense, yet has moments of weirdness that keeps things going. The remote controlled glove is certainly a highlight. The zero budget shows through in almost every spartan scene. Product placements for whiskey, beer, and mixers appear throughout. Think of this as sort of a "spaghetti western" taking place in 1991, only following a standard exploitation formula with a mandatory strip bar, nonsensical explosions, and gun play that misses at point blank range. Truly this is good "bad" cinema. - MERK