Trancers 6

I've been a fan of Charles Band and Full Moon since the beginning. But, the films released by Full Moon over the last few years have fully disappointed me. I really can't stand the "Urban" dribble they've been dishing out. To my surprise though, Trancers 6 reminds me of the good old Full Moon films before they started to go downhill. It's low budget of course, but the acting, plot, makeup, specil effects are all excellent. I hope this may indeed be the beginning of a new age for Full Moon Pictures. But please, drop the lame rapper/urban films that couldn't scare a flea.

Lacking even the mediocre production values of its predecessors, including Tim Thomerson as the arrogant Dirty Harry inspired hero of the franchise, Trancers 6 adds a gender-swap twist to the overextended franchise.

In an early trick that sets the low-budget tone of the film, series star Thomerson appears to hold a conversation with another character through use of clips from the previous films. Thomerson, who is thanked in the closing credits, is a spectral presence in the film; appearing in flesh only courtesy of a body double.

In typical "Quantum Leap" style, this latest adventure puts hero Jack Deth into the body of his own daughter as he tries to preserve the integrity of the timeline and stop an alien invasion. The paradoxical novelty of this idea enables the filmmakers to essentially remake the first film to lead the series in a new direction. In fact the closing scenes make it quite apparent that this is the intent.

B-movie sci-fi flicks from the 1960s and 1980s were characterised by representations of the future which were essentially cheap display of props and flashing lights and Trancers 6 continues this tradition.

The majority of the film is set in Los Angeles in 2022 but there is nothing despite a title card to suggest this fact. Everything looks the same as now! Shot mainly in fairly ordinary looking rooms and old industrial locations, this form of production design is present throughout the film. In true Ed Wood tradition, offices are identified by maps pinned to walls and laboratories are endearingly characterised by fluorescent liquids in smoking test tubes. As if this wasn't enough to evoke those late night movies of old, the main prop is a ray gun.

The great thing is that it isn't laughable. You actually find these aspects comfortably familiar and they help draw you into the B-movie world. Trancer 6 doesn't take itself too seriously, but it isn't unintentionally funny either. The direction and the performances of the largely inexperienced cast make this fun for all the right reasons.

What is interesting is the treatment of the theme of male/female relations. There are a lot of dated, chauvinistic clichés which seem vaguely offensive. Jack's sexist words coming out of a young woman's mouth is an attempt to undermine his macho persona.

The idea of a female hero is a popular one, but even now all are essentially male fantasies. In this case the integrity of its female heroine is undermined by giving her the mind of the male hero of the franchise. But there is no effort to concentrate on the complex differences between the sexes, which are laughably reduced to a single scene in which Jack/Jo attempts to put on tights.

If one were to give the film a look over from a "Newsnight Review" perspective, one could say that Trancers 6 comments on the very manner in which female protagonists remain essentially controlled by male ideals. This would certainly give a greater significance to the other dated aspects of the film which I have already mentioned.

This film is filled with female stereotypes, each worthy of consideration. The heroine is, prior to transformation, a shy scientist, while Deth's supervisor appears to him in the body of a prostitute. There is an instant contrast. Jo Deth is petite and fragile looking, which obviously adds to the novelty value of her suddenly acting macho, but this is the very form which audiences seem to appreciate most. It's a valid point to consider that if the roles were reversed, that the buxom actress was in the lead, it would undermine the integrity of the film.

Highlighting female sexuality degrades a film. Trancers 6 parodies the Hollywood casting of such sexless, nonthreatening heroines. As is usually the case in films like this there is a similarly sexed antagonist. Again her sexuality is seen as negative. She's a man-eater, a manipulator using her body to control weaker men. A Lady Macbeth figure, she is very definitely representative of the 'woman-behind-the-man' mode of thinking. In many ways she may be superior to her employer, but she embraces the mainstream acceptance of a male-dominated society.

Reviving the franchise 8 years after Trancers 5: Sudden Deth (1994) was always going to be an interesting proposition. The sex change novelty has breathed new life into the series. The opportunities for intelligent discussion are merely a bonus.

I have to say, I was glad to see this film return to the original theme after that side trip they took in 4 and 5, but even though the basic story was good, there was so much of it that was painful to watch. First, yes, it was low budget. But by 2002 standards, with computer editing and special effects, it was about as low budget as what some college film students could do - it actually reminded me more of a sci-fi TV show than a feature film. As for Zette Sullivan's performance, maybe this was because the low budget also meant less rehearsal time, but her macho-ness was overdone - she played Jack Deth as more macho than Tim Thomerson did in the first five films (and that doesn't even take into account the assumption that someone who's gone down the line as much as he has should have at least some training in "blending in"). Although it was kind of a good start what they did in showing her out of sorts in her female body (failing miserably to put on pantyhose, feeling awkward in a skirt) they could have done more with that than they did.

On the whole, they get an A for effort in trying to bring the Trancers saga back to what it originally was. And yes, the cheap effects and staging can clearly be blamed on the budget. But oh, how I wish the director had had Zette Sullivan turn her 'maleness' down a notch!

Trancers 6 (2002) is a movie I recently watched on Tubi. The storyline takes place in the future when a new version of the Trancers are emerging. Jack is sent by his agency to stop them and arrives on Earth in his daughter's body. Can Jack save the world and his daughter's life from the new Trancers? This movie is directed by Jay Woelfel (Closed for the Season) and stars Zette Sullivan (Sexual Intrigue), Robert Donavan (Art of the Dead), Timothy Prindle (Shades of Darkness) and Jennifer Cantrell (Lingerie Bowl). This movie is pretty awful. The storyline is atrocious, as is the CGI, fight scenes, choreography, running or any other action related sequence. There are some entertaining elements like a woman pretending to be Jack, the Trancers makeup and some pretty good one-liners but not enough to salvage the bad. This is a below average addition to the genre and was a good place to end the series. I'd score this a 3.5-4/10 and recommend skipping it.

Just when you thought that the "Trancers" franchise couldn't go lower, after the abysmal fourth and fifth movies, then there was "Trancers 6". Yup, this movie was bad, phenomenally bad.

I have to admit that I was expecting it to be a step up from the previous two horrible movies in the franchise. Why? Well, because of the movie's synopsis. I genuinely believed that writers Danny Bilson, Paul De Meo and C. Courtney Joyner would bring the franchise back on track with this 2002 movie.

But that is not what they did. Instead they spawned an abysmal movie that was brought to life by director Jay Woelfel.

The storyline in "Trancers 6" was pretty straightforward. I will say that much, sure. But it wasn't good and it just fell short of entertaining me.

And it didn't help that the acting performances were atrocious. Especially leading actress Zette Sullivan, whom was just fumbling through the movie. And it was so difficult to take her serious in the movie, given the dialogue that she had to deliver.

Visually "Trancers 6" wasn't a good movie either. So it didn't even have that working in favor of it.

My rating of "Trancers 6" lands on a three out of ten stars.