Atomic Cyborg

I actually saw this movie many years ago. I was a kid when I saw it. The thing is, the movie never left my memory. Unlike so many other low budget action flicks, this one still has a spot in my memory. That is why it is great. I remember the awesome stereotype bounty hunter character (long white hair, long white beard, black leather trenchcoat, sawed off shotgun), I remember the arm wrestling match where the loser gets his wrist pinned in a shackle to be bitten by a poisonous snake, and how the cyborg beat the former champ (who had much bigger arms, by the way), but then saved him from his own snake, I remember the acid rain scene where the cyborg must quickly drive through the acid rain road section, and how you see the hood of the car start to dissolve, and more. For some reason, this movie just was pretty good. It is very low budget looking, but don't let the looks fool you. I have been wanting to see this again for a long time now but I haven't been able to find it anymore. Well, if you find it, consider yourself lucky and watch it. I don't remember much more about it, so, that's all, folks.

Not only is this Italian flick a ripoff of THE TERMINATOR, but it predated the arm wrestling cinema classic OVER THE TOP. In an undisclosed future, cyborg Paco (David Steele) is sent to assassinate a blind environmentalist (whose slogan is "You have no future!"). But he doesn't finish the job when a bit of his human heart takes over. Paco heads to the Nevada desert to hide out and, while at a cheapo motel, becomes the region's champion arm wrestler. Because we all know arm wrestling is the sport of the future. I laughed out loud when they showed their wall of arm wrestling champs that included wrestlers Bruno Sammartino, Hillbilly Jim, Magnum TA and Dory Funk, Jr. Lead Greene looked so familiar but I couldn't place him. Checking here at the IMDb, he played the Dad in KINGPIN and the meathead in ELVIRA, MISTRESS OF THE DARK. So there is life after Sergio Martino movies. Janet Agren, John Saxon, George Eastman and Donald O'Brien show up for support and are all fine. Sadly, I also read here that Italian character actor Claudio Cassinelli, who plays Saxon's hired hit-man, was killed in a helicopter crash while filming that. I guess that is why Saxon's men off him quickly at the end and you just see him lying face down. That is really too bad.

Oh, man. If you haven't seen HANDS OF STEEL, you are doing yourself a great disservice. This movie is amazing. You'll laugh. You'll scratch your head in confusion. You'll laugh some more. It's a science fiction/action film from director Sergio Martino, released in 1986. I'm assuming it was straight-to-video but I would totally pay to watch it on a big screen with an audience. This movie starts off nuts and only gets crazier from there. Our hero in this near future is Paco Queruak (Daniel Greene), a cybernetic assassin with a heart of gold. We meet him at the start of the film as he's about to complete an assignment; he's been ordered to murder an old, blind politician/environmentalist. Paco appears to complete his mission and goes on the run. Why go rogue? Because he had a change of heart and left the old man alive, and now Paco is the target of both the authorities and the organization who hired him. He leaves town, braving the acid rain (because it's the future and the environment, while appearing absolutely normal at a glance, has fallen on hard times) to hide out in the Arizona desert. He finds shelter with innkeeper Linda (Janet Agren) at her little highway outpost, a quiet place with the exception of the constant prostitute traffic and nightly truck driver arm-wrestling competitions. Paco seems hopeful to start a new, nonviolent life in the desert, but if the organization he betrayed doesn't get to him his new arm-wrestling nemesis Raul Morales (George Eastman) will.

HANDS OF STEEL has everything you could want: cyborgs, future stuff, strippers, violence, unintentional comedy, and loads of arm wrestling. Still not convinced you need to watch it? How about this: at one point, Paco karate chops the head off a snake. If you're not the least bit curious yet, you've got less humanity than Paco's forearms. Paco Queruak is an unsung hero of the action-packed '80s. HANDS OF STEEL is a faded jewel buried beneath a decade of low-budget genre films just waiting to be discovered. What are Paco's intentions? Who is this mysterious (and obviously well-funded) organization behind his enhancements and what did they have against the old, blind environmentalist? Why does Raul insist on tormenting a man who has proved he could twist him into a man-pretzel without breaking a sweat? Does anyone else think that one guy chasing Paco throughout the movie with the sunglasses looked like the butler from "The Nanny" with a beard? To the point of distraction? Prepare for none of these questions to be answered. They keep the premise simple. Paco was supposed to kill a man. He didn't. He's gone off the grid and the organization needs to kill him before the government gets ahold of him and realizes they've created a cybernetic assassin. Then Linda enters the picture and shows Paco friendship or love or something and gives him a reason to fight. Also arm wrestling. This movie has an obsession with arm wrestling.

You see, Linda's inn has competitions between the local truck drivers every night where they compete for who has the strongest forearms. The reigning champion is a beast named Anatolo Blanco but that doesn't stop Raul from running his mouth because he's second-best. He's loud, obnoxious, and a little too handsy with Linda for Paco's tastes. So there's some animosity between the two men right away and Raul, lacking the sense of self-preservation shared by everyone else in the bar, makes it his life mission to harass Paco. There is a fantastic sequence in the second half of the film where Raul organizes a trap that involves a bunch of locals, a car, a tape recorder, and feigned child endangerment to lure Paco out into the open. Dude, Raul is a drunken halfwit. Where did he find the competence to put this scheme together? Neither HANDS OF STEEL nor I know or care. You question every miraculous judgment call that leads to plot advancement and you'll miss out on all the fun. And a lot of the fun is in the details. I love how this movie is set in a near distant future where it's advanced nature manifests as a (single) futuristic car, a laser cannon, and a pair of cyborgs while literally everything else is so very '80s. I love how the baddies have shotguns that double as rocket launchers; seriously, you just shove the mini- rocket into the end of the barrel and pull the trigger (future magic!). I loved the fight between Paco and Suzie, the even cooler cyborg assassin disguised as a prostitute. I love Daniel Greene's wooden performance as Paco set against George Eastman's manic Raul.

But what I love most of all is that HANDS OF STEEL, like many Z-grade action films I've watched, set itself up for a sequel. At the very end right before the end credits roll, we get a final title card that warns us the movie served as the start of the cyborg era. That's right, Paco was only the first. And we'll never know how it went down from there. But at least we have HANDS OF STEEL, the tale of Paco Queruak and his battle against that jerk at the truck stop in which he karate chops the head off a snake.

The year 1997 : the guardian of the future is much more than a human being... There an evil international industrialist , the arrogant Francis Turner (John Saxon) is determined to terminate the interference of a world-leading ecological scientist (Franco Fantasia) , so he assigns the ace hit killer-cyborg Paco Queruak (Daniel Greene) to murder him . However, things go wrong . As Paco is 30% human, 70% robot, 100% lethal , but then the human side takes over and he refuses to execute his mission. Paco flees to Arizona where he has to take on his opponents ; and ultimately choose between his humanity and robotic natures .

Thrilling , stirring and exciting Cyborg movie with unstopped action , snappy pace , top-rate fights , shootouts , fierce combats and breathtakingly spectacular scenes . It contains traditional and abundant FX perfectly adapted to the noisy action , adding appropriate make-up by specialist Sergio Stivaletti . Vendetta dal futuro (1986) is derivative and rip-offs other American film as Terminator and Over The Top , these were Sergio Martino's influences for the film. Expert filmmaker Sergio Martino relates the uneven , but attractive story at a quick pace by staging compellingly some rousing set pieces , showing breathtaking Arizona desert locations , and he maintains intrigue and surprises throughout, resulting in a dynamic and twisted final . There's a charming cast of familiar Italian B-pic veterans and packing a good support that helps a lot : as a passable acting by the beefy American Daniel Greene as the resourceful cyborg who has been programmed to eliminate the leader of an ecological faction that stands in the way of the dystopian country in which the story is set. Along with the tall George Eastman or Luigi Montefiori in smoothly nasty form excels as an obnoxious wrestling trucker , the lovely Janet Agren as likable motel owner Linda, Donald O'Brien has a swift bit as bitter crippled scientist and unfortunately co-star Claudio Cassinelli died in a helicopter crash on July 12, 1985, during shooting in Arizona .

It displays colorful and adequate cinematography by the good professional cameraman Giancarlo Ferrando , shot on location in Arcosanti , Navajo Generating Station, Page, Lake Powell, Vermilion Cliffs National Monument, Arizona, The Domes, Casa Grande,Arizona, USA and studios from Incir De Paolis Studios, Rome, Lazio, Italy . Moving and moody score by Claudio Simonetti in his habitual funky style, including ordinary leit motif , composed by means of synthesizer . The motion picture was professionally directed by Sergio Martino who delivers the goods with skillness and aplomb enough . Competently directed by the prolific filmmaker Sergio Martino who usually uses pseudonym as Martin Dolman . Talented and versatile writer/director Sergio Martino has made a vast array of often solid and entertaining films in all kind of genres as horror , Giallo , comedy , Western , and science fiction in a career that spans over 40 years . He was especially expert on Western as proved in ¨Mannaja¨ and this ¨Arizona returns¨ , Giallo such as ¨The case of scorpion's tail ¨ , ¨Torso¨ ,¨the scorpion with two tails¨ , ¨The strange vice of Mrs Ward¨ , Cannibal movies such as "Mountain of the Cannibal God", Italian crime thrillers as "Violent Professionals" and ¨Sci-Fi as ¨Destroyer¨ , "2019: After the Fall of New York" . Rating: 6/10 , acceptable and passable , this is a great Sci-Fi Ravioli in which the camera stalks in adequate style throughout a story with decent visual skills . This is a bewildering story , enjoyable as well as violent , and it will appeal to Italian hardcore fans . A hugely amusing flick.

Thank you, Claudio Simonetti. This was neither the first nor the last time in your career that the flavorful original music you provided for a film was one of its top highlights, if not the only highlight. Here, your contribution is not necessarily the only highlight, but it's certainly the most reliable one.

It's not that 'Hands of steel,' initially released as 'Vendetta dal futuro,' is absolutely rotten. The script is a weird hodgepodge, but there are some genuinely good ideas here amidst the more dubious ones, and those plainly borrowed from existing properties. At least a few of the actors on hand seem to be making an effort. The filming locations are terrific, and I think the crew operating behind the scenes turned in some good work including sets, lighting, costume design, and even the cinematography. The stunts and practical effects look pretty good, and the action sequences at large, especially as they populate the back end. The thing is, I can't bring myself to offer more substantial or enthusiastic praise.

Sergio Martino's direction and Aldo Devgen's editing are both rather curt and brusque at points, doing the whole no favors, and there are times when the editing is kind of just sloppy. For every actor seemingly making an effort, there is at least one who is chewing scenery, including star Daniel Greene and Italian B-movie regular George Eastman; elsewhere the performances are direly limp and unconvincing. Even if we make allowances for dubbing the dialogue is mostly terrible, and the dubbing is less than great. The plot development relies in no small part on "Just So" Movie Magic, especially as the government investigates the attempted assassination, and feels coarse and unpolished broadly, and maybe rushed. The picture overflows with tiresome, frankly repulsive machismo, and do note some gratuitous nudity and an obligatory romantic element that is likewise not fully convincing.

I don't mind that 'Hands of steel' lifts some ideas directly from other sci-fi flicks. We get tastes of 'The Terminator' as "Paco" is a cyborg like Arnold, but he is also a hero like Michael Biehn, as paired with "Linda," standing in for, well, Linda Hamilton. Heading into the last third we get a character based on Pris in 'Blade Runner,' and so on. It's fine; these are thoughts I could work with. What I do mind is that the construction here seems a little careless in too many ways. I see fantastic potential in what the feature could have been if the screenplay had been approached more mindfully, if the direction were stronger, if the acting was more consistent, and if the editing didn't questionably chop up the proceedings. Through to the ending, abrupt though it may be, there are smart notions that could have been exercised to meaningful effect. We do get glimmers throughout of that more significant, more lasting value. It's too bad that such glimmers are dragged down by the more tawdry facets.

I don't dislike this title; there are much worse ways to spend your time. For everything else that we could be watching instead, however, there's also not much reason to sit with it unless one is extra keen on B-movies of this nature. Don't go out of your way for 'Hands of steel'; if you're going to check it out then save it for a lazy day, and be well aware of the flaws throughout. Maybe we should just leave it at that.