A.P.E.X.

In the year 2072, a top secret, military-funded experiment dedicated to exploring time sends an APEX (Advanced Prototype Explorer) robot 100 years back in time. Technician Nicholas Sinclair is accidentally thrown back in time after the robot self-destructs. When he returns to the future, he finds himself in a timeline alien to him where mankind is fighting an army of APEX robot soldiers as well as a killer virus caused by time travel.

At first glance, this direct-to-video clone of The Terminator is clearly a B-grade low budget effort, as evidenced by cheap special effects (although the robots are very convincing). However, the film has something which sets it apart from the rest of the killer robot films around – a dose of imagination. The time-travel plot is very well conducted & plausible, although there is a plot hole – where are the robots coming from? With this in mind, the story is well written. The acting is extremely effective, with the actors giving a fair go as far as performances are concerned. Director Roth, known for his slick B-grade action films, conducts the film with a flair for realistic action scenarios.

Grade: B

Review by M. K. Geist.

Time travel usually goes wrong. I think all machines designed for that purpose are legally required to have something like that written on a sticker on it. Someone certainly should have told the people of 2072. They decided to mess around with it to... "check out time". With their Advanced Prototype EXploration units(yeah, that *is* a pretty dumb abbreviation), they... well, do so. Apparently. And one of the trips have Nicholas Sinclair going back, because, uhm, something didn't go as planned(...who'da thunk?). He's recently been having nightmares about his wife disappearing by way of a cheap editing trick. This gives him a nasty case of Must Narrate Everything, in spite of the fact that, with two exceptions, what he says, *we already know*. Anyway, he ends up in an alternate time-line where the robots(and yes, there is a nice amount of sequences of humans fighting them in this... and the suits aren't bad, nor is the weaponry on them, with rockets and machineguns) they would send back(to combat the virus that going back in time would create... and they've been programmed to destroy all biological life, I guess... that was good thinking guys, honestly... how could *anyone* think that would backfire?), as these have been constantly been sent back(... automatically? And they keep being made... by who or what?) for 100 years(...wait, we've survived a century of this war?). Don't worry, the people there have figured out how to smash those metal mf-ers into... oh, wait... plus, he meets up with Duke Nukem. Perhaps you've already realized that this script wasn't authored by someone holding a Ph.d. It's pretty straightforward, and the paradoxes don't hold up to scrutiny. Yes, the AI's aim sucks when it needs to. No, the characters are stereotypical. Yes, the lead being in love with this "universe's" version of his spouse(who resembles her by appearance *only*) means he's really superficial. However, if you watched The Terminator and spent the whole time wishing the entire thing was set in the future... well, this is a fix for you. This is 96 minutes sans credits, and most of it is in a post apocalyptic, dystopian future with plenty of explosions, shooting and... well, attempts at tension. The acting is decent. There is lot of bloody violence and disturbing content and a sex scene(not graphic) in this. I recommend this to those that just want to unwind with something like this. 5/10

An interesting premise, where scientists send time-traveling robots to do research with the caveat that they must not leave any traces of their presence in the past, including witnesses. An accident involving the elimination of said witnesses causes a paradox where one of the scientists in charge of the time-travel experiment finds himself in a parallel post-apocalyptic world where soldiers constantly battle a seemingly never-ending supply of time-traveling robots. The low budget shows and the tactics employed to eliminate the robots (gunfire at close quarters for the most part) seem silly, but the movie's an entertaining weekend time-filler.

This is billed as a time travel paradox movie - it's really a poorly thought out cardboard shoot-em up. It's full of inconsistencies and even the supposed paradox is flimsy at best.

Berserk robo fans might [at 2am on a stormy night] see something in it but science/sci-fi it ain't.

Nicolas Sinclair is one of the team operating the time travelling APEX (Advanced Prototype EXploration unit) in the year 2073. When one of the APEX probes is accidentally sent back to an area containing a family in 1973, a sterilisation probe is launched to destroy any chance of a time paradox. However Sinclair himself goes back to 1973 to stop the unit – but in doing so he creates a paradox and unleashes a virus. When he returns to 2073 he finds the paradox has created a new timeline where the humans are in a war with APEX units sent from hi timeline to destroy the paradox.

Have you seen Terminator – you bet your ass that Phillip J. Roth has! He certainly drew a lot of inspiration from it when he wrote this. Having said that, the story is actually alright – the whole time travel, killer robots thing has been done before, but that doesn't make it less interesting. It doesn't go anywhere unexpected but it is not as bad as you suspect it might be.

What does let the story down a little is the rest of the production. Produced by Talaat Captan (strangely no Oscar nominations yet!) it seems his biggest input was to get his son cast in one of the roles. The whole thing has a TVM feel – despite the swearing and violence. The special effects are cheap and very reminiscent of a straight to video sci-fi, the locations are good if basic – only the occasional interior shot looks like cardboard. But really you can see the budget constraints up there on screen.

The tight budget goes through to the cast – they aren't great and aren't helped by some poor dialogue. Keats, Cox, Russell etc are all TVM actors but they do actually do alright considering. The APEX units themselves are mixed – they look cheap at first, but then you forget that they look cheap. But then after a while you realise that they're rubbish – they can't shoot straight at all while the humans just need one powerful hit to get them (or even a music CD!). This takes away from the tension of the film – at least with Arnie you knew without a doubt that he was one mean mother who wasn't going to miss!

Overall this has some entertaining moments but is really a TVM with attitude – catch it now on the bottom shelf of your video store….