Replikator

There's almost no reason to write comments for this title beyond saying that this film is bad, very bad. It's Michael Pare's first film with Producers Network Associates (PNA)/Greystone Entertainment, marking the beginning of the actor's steep fall into bad, B-movie oblivion.

This is the good side of B movies. Someone didn't think the audience is total dumb. Some neat ideas, and although the special FX are not expensive looking some have a lot of humor (See the Justice Channel bit)and neat graphic looks. Dialogue runs with the confidence that we humble viewers might get more than the B movie plot, (film it and they will see!) and the film is layered and feels like a different, interesting world.

I like Ned Beaty here. Brigit Bako is cool too. I want to see more with her.

This film takes place in a futuristic environment with a brilliant computer scientist named "Ludo Ludovic" (Michael St. Gerard) having recently been paroled from prison for counterfeiting and remanded to a firm named Biodesign Technologies who hope to use his genius to develop a device which can replicate other objects. As it so happens, another nearby firm named Zyklor Future Technologies is also working on this project and they have Ludovic's former girlfriend "Kathy Moskow" (Brigitte Bako) working on it. Needless to say, both firms want to be the first to complete their projects but the problem is that the man in charge of Zyklor Future Technologies named "Byron Scott" (Ron Lea) has absolutely no scruples in the process-and he has high-powered friends who are equally sinister. Now rather than reveal any more I will just say that, although it had a modest budget, this cyberpunk science-fiction film wasn't too bad, all things considered. Admittedly, the graphics weren't exactly state-of-the-art and it could have used a bit more suspense here and there, but even so I thought this movie was good enough for the time spent and I have rated it accordingly. Average.

When did the future become so bleak? I seem to remember growing up in the late fifties and early sixties, that the future was going to be a great place. Robots and other machines doing all the work, the future was going to be paradise for the human race! Then it suddenly went dark, grim and gritty. Can't place the exact time or film when it happened, although, Bladerunner comes to mind. And this film is in a similar vein, all slightly out of focus shots and raining a lot.

Unlike the aforementioned, Bladerunner, this doesn't have a coherent plot or story and just meanders along till the conclusion. One of those films that seem to go on far longer than the actual running time. After a while, your mind just switches off trying to follow the story and you're just waiting for it to end.

There were a lot of low-budget SF films made around this period and all I assume went straight to video and then straight to the bargain bins. Low grade cash-ins to better movies. Watch Bladerunner or the Terminator films instead.

This movie is a real piece of cybertrash, being so badly put together it is more like a comedy. Its also filled with some bizarre props and settings... there is one bit in a futuristic video game arcade which advertises the latest reality game titled "Tank Commander in Tienanmen Square..." !!!

1/10