A.P.E.X.

I Bought APEX for three Reasons 1)It was Sci fi 2)It was Cheap 3)My friend Recommened it to me

And for £4 english quid ($6 american dollars ) i was not disapointed i liked the voice over it gave a good touch and i liked the story ,the marines wasnt much of marines though (mixture of aliens and The Terminator 1 flash back scenes) the costume was ok but the plastic looking rocket launcher thing was dodgy , and i wont mention the extraordinary square stomachs when they get shot . The robots were really dodgy they looked camp and stiff and laughable but they do the job because when you see them all togrther at the end (predator 2)you think damn ! i wouldnt want to be in the marines boots (well i would) i guess it would be better if it was not set in the desert as much instead in a crumbled city at night where its raining ! well done though to Phillip J Roth both he and Albert Pyun are making a lot of films im liking.

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.

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.

STAR RATING:*****Unmissable****Very Good***Okay**You Could Go Out For A Meal Instead*Avoid At All Costs

In the year 2073,Nicholas Sinclair (Richard Keats) is a scientist working at a time travelling research facility.He has a wife,the beautiful Natasha (Lisa Ann Russell) and works under the command of Dr Elgin (David Jean Thomas).One day,they send a probe 100 years in to the past and completely change the course of history.While attempting to sort out the peoblem,Sinclair finds himself convulted to a present where he finds himself a member of an elite squadron of soldiers,including pent-up muscle man Shepherd (Mitchell Cox),volatile macho man Taylor (Marcus Aurelis) and reserved background man Rasheed (Adam Lawson),not to mention Natasha,who in the present he could remember was his sweet,humble wife but who here is a 'hardened combat soldier',battling an army of robots who can't shoot straight.Sinclair must survive in this hostile environment long enough to find a way back to the present he remembers and stop the accident from ever happening.

The plot is as blatant a rip off of T2 as you could hope to find without the producers being sued for copyright theft,right down to the grey robots causing lots of death and destruction.Said robots are actually really cool,though rather clunky in both their appearance and movement,cruelly exposing the production values of a film that must have had a pretty high budget for a film of it's made-for-video magnitude.

They're not the only problems the film must contend with,however.It must also reckon with a dodgy,confused storyline that never seems to move from one sequence to the next with much in the way of coherence and one or two characters who are just that little bit too contrived in the mould in which they were sculpted to be taken that seriously.There is,however,some good,involving acting on display,not to mention some enjoyable action and one inventive sequence involving a music CD being inserted in to one of the robots when it really shouldn't.You didn't get a scene like that in T2,did you?

Speaking of which,both films are enjoyable enough on their own seperate levels.It's just,I dunno.T2 is Alton Towers,this is the mop fair.Y' know what I'm sayin'?***

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….