Cyborg
Cyborg (from Weird and Wonderful II: Fifty More Cult Films by George Hughes, available from freefall-productions.com on 02/11/20)
1989 / US / 86 minutes
“They need us out there…”
Director: Albert Pyun / Screenplay: Albert Pyun / Director of Photography: Philip Alan Waters / Music: Kevin Bassinson / Production: Yoram Globus and Menahem Golan for Cannon Films / Cast: Jean- Claude Van Damme (Gibson Rickenbacker), Deborah Richter (Nady Simmons), Vincent Klyn (Fender Tremolo), Alex Daniels (Marshall Strat), Dayle Haddon (Pearl Prophet), Blaise Loong (Furman Vux), Ralf Moeller (Brick Bardo), Haley Peterson (Haley), Terry Batson (Mary), Jackson “Rock” Pinckney (Tytus).
Throughout the ’80’s, Cannon Films had been churning out micro- budget action B movies at a rate of dozens a year. The notoriously low end outfit was run by dodgy Israeli businessmen Yoram Globus and Menahem Golan and specialised in buying screenplays nobody else wanted then filming them as cheaply as possible. As M. Emmet Walsh once commented, “If things got too expensive the solution was usually to just rip a few pages out of the script”!
But Cannon had occasionally- and pretty much accidentally- made some films that were actually quite good and their brilliantly entertaining 1987 live action adaptation of the Masters of the Universe comic books and cartoon series was one of their best. Unfortunately, it was also one of their most expensive and wasn’t released until after the popularity of the property had already peaked so didn’t make much of a profit.
But, in addition to beginning pre- production on a Spiderman film that never happened, Cannon had been so confident about Masters of the Universe that they’d already started constructing sets and costumes for the sequel. Now on the verge of bankruptcy, Golan and Globus remembered their most profitable releases had been ninja films and turned to veteran martial arts director Albert Pyun to do something with everything that had been built so they could get another film out.
According to legend, Pyun smashed out a script over a weekend (under the pseudonym “Kitty Chalmers” and initially titled Slinger), deliberately written to incorporate all of the Masters of the Universe II gear Cannon had laying around. Whilst still a martial arts movie, it would be set in a post apocalyptic future and follow a Western- style lone antihero battling marauding satanic pirates.
Jean- Claude Van Damme was still a relative newcomer to the movie business at the time but was at the top of his kickboxing game and in his physical prime so was immediately cast as the mercenary “Slinger” hero, Gibson Rickenbacker (amusingly, Pyun had named all the characters after musical instruments- it’s still not known if these were temporary names from his lightning fast writing or if they were always meant to be used).
After cutting down the pirates’ satanism and cannibalism and adding the cybernetic character Pearl Prophet as well as a (sadly now also prophetic) deadly plague to his dystopia to make it more Sci- Fi, Pyun (who had once worked with Kurosawa in Japan) almost immediately started filming at the De Laurentiis Studios in Wilmington, North Carolina.
The result ended up being Cannon’s last film but- through no fault of Golan and Globus- ironically turned out one of their best efforts. Made at the height of the late ’80’s / early ’90’s trend for fast- paced, casually brutal actioners, Cyborg (the re- titling makes little sense as Pearl is a relatively minor character and, along with the plague, she’s pretty much forgotten about) does everything you’d want from a such a film.
Van Damme’s acting would improve in later efforts like Double Impact (1991) and Hard Target (1993) but he’s wooden as you like here. It doesn’t matter though because his looks and moves do all the work and the film features some impressive fight sequences. He’s also got a great adversary in the shape of Vincent Klyn’s (later one of the “Surf Nazi” gang members in Point Break) Fender Tremolo- who would win the best / funniest name prize if not for the inclusion of a character called “Roland Pick”.
Cyborg also has a pretty unique look (it was a visual reference when we were shooting Remnants, although obviously we kept that quiet and talked about Sergio Leone and Terrence Malick instead). Once the film gets out of the studio (it’s pretty clear from the sets that even if this had been Masters II, it was already going to have been a much lower budget affair than it’s predecessor) and into the location stuff, Pyun fashions quite an original end of the world landscape out of what happened to be nearby.
An abandoned cement factory perfectly- and cheaply- illustrates the decaying world of the film and provides the stage for one of the best action sequences. The place would actually become quite a popular filming location and was later utilised to impressive effect as the Shredder’s lair in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (1990) and the Pit club in The Crow (1994), although both of those films had more money to work with and used it for night shoots with hundreds of extras.
The beach fight in which Van Damme takes on several of Fender’s pirates at once leading to Gibson’s first defeat is brilliantly tense and it’s choreographed and edited far better than such a film usually would be. In fact, Cyborg is just much better than it needs to be in general. The villains are genuinely nasty (like Dafoe’s gang in Streets of Fire, they’re just up to sadistic evil for a laugh) and much more effort goes into the cinematography and editing than the company would have asked for.
Of course, being a Cannon film, it’s far from perfect- Kevin Bassinson’s standard issue synth score is dated even for the time (Pyun had wanted a guitar- based soundtrack which was recorded by Jim Saad and Tony Riparetti but left unused) and the real female lead, Deborah Richter’s Nady, is so completely unceremoniously sacrificed the character’s death hardly even seems to register with the hero.
There were also the usual on- set dramas inevitable for such a rush job. The actors playing the pirates were mostly stuntmen because of all the physical combat (they all move like they’re taking or waiting for direction) and some of them clearly play multiple different characters. Then Van Damme ended up having to spend his entire fee on damages for actor / stuntman Jackson “Rock” Pinckney who he accidentally blinded in one eye with a rubber prop knife (the actual moment is even said to be in the final film).
Long after Cannon went down the proverbial drain, other dubious companies got their hands on the rights to Cyborg and the tenuously related Cyborg 2 (with a pre- stardom Angelina Jolie) and Cyborg 3 (with a slumming it Malcolm McDowell) went straight to video in 1993 and 1995. While neither of them are worth bothering with, this original (if it can be called that) is refreshingly decent for what it is.
1989 / US / 86 minutes
“They need us out there…”
Director: Albert Pyun / Screenplay: Albert Pyun / Director of Photography: Philip Alan Waters / Music: Kevin Bassinson / Production: Yoram Globus and Menahem Golan for Cannon Films / Cast: Jean- Claude Van Damme (Gibson Rickenbacker), Deborah Richter (Nady Simmons), Vincent Klyn (Fender Tremolo), Alex Daniels (Marshall Strat), Dayle Haddon (Pearl Prophet), Blaise Loong (Furman Vux), Ralf Moeller (Brick Bardo), Haley Peterson (Haley), Terry Batson (Mary), Jackson “Rock” Pinckney (Tytus).
Throughout the ’80’s, Cannon Films had been churning out micro- budget action B movies at a rate of dozens a year. The notoriously low end outfit was run by dodgy Israeli businessmen Yoram Globus and Menahem Golan and specialised in buying screenplays nobody else wanted then filming them as cheaply as possible. As M. Emmet Walsh once commented, “If things got too expensive the solution was usually to just rip a few pages out of the script”!
But Cannon had occasionally- and pretty much accidentally- made some films that were actually quite good and their brilliantly entertaining 1987 live action adaptation of the Masters of the Universe comic books and cartoon series was one of their best. Unfortunately, it was also one of their most expensive and wasn’t released until after the popularity of the property had already peaked so didn’t make much of a profit.
But, in addition to beginning pre- production on a Spiderman film that never happened, Cannon had been so confident about Masters of the Universe that they’d already started constructing sets and costumes for the sequel. Now on the verge of bankruptcy, Golan and Globus remembered their most profitable releases had been ninja films and turned to veteran martial arts director Albert Pyun to do something with everything that had been built so they could get another film out.
According to legend, Pyun smashed out a script over a weekend (under the pseudonym “Kitty Chalmers” and initially titled Slinger), deliberately written to incorporate all of the Masters of the Universe II gear Cannon had laying around. Whilst still a martial arts movie, it would be set in a post apocalyptic future and follow a Western- style lone antihero battling marauding satanic pirates.
Jean- Claude Van Damme was still a relative newcomer to the movie business at the time but was at the top of his kickboxing game and in his physical prime so was immediately cast as the mercenary “Slinger” hero, Gibson Rickenbacker (amusingly, Pyun had named all the characters after musical instruments- it’s still not known if these were temporary names from his lightning fast writing or if they were always meant to be used).
After cutting down the pirates’ satanism and cannibalism and adding the cybernetic character Pearl Prophet as well as a (sadly now also prophetic) deadly plague to his dystopia to make it more Sci- Fi, Pyun (who had once worked with Kurosawa in Japan) almost immediately started filming at the De Laurentiis Studios in Wilmington, North Carolina.
The result ended up being Cannon’s last film but- through no fault of Golan and Globus- ironically turned out one of their best efforts. Made at the height of the late ’80’s / early ’90’s trend for fast- paced, casually brutal actioners, Cyborg (the re- titling makes little sense as Pearl is a relatively minor character and, along with the plague, she’s pretty much forgotten about) does everything you’d want from a such a film.
Van Damme’s acting would improve in later efforts like Double Impact (1991) and Hard Target (1993) but he’s wooden as you like here. It doesn’t matter though because his looks and moves do all the work and the film features some impressive fight sequences. He’s also got a great adversary in the shape of Vincent Klyn’s (later one of the “Surf Nazi” gang members in Point Break) Fender Tremolo- who would win the best / funniest name prize if not for the inclusion of a character called “Roland Pick”.
Cyborg also has a pretty unique look (it was a visual reference when we were shooting Remnants, although obviously we kept that quiet and talked about Sergio Leone and Terrence Malick instead). Once the film gets out of the studio (it’s pretty clear from the sets that even if this had been Masters II, it was already going to have been a much lower budget affair than it’s predecessor) and into the location stuff, Pyun fashions quite an original end of the world landscape out of what happened to be nearby.
An abandoned cement factory perfectly- and cheaply- illustrates the decaying world of the film and provides the stage for one of the best action sequences. The place would actually become quite a popular filming location and was later utilised to impressive effect as the Shredder’s lair in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (1990) and the Pit club in The Crow (1994), although both of those films had more money to work with and used it for night shoots with hundreds of extras.
The beach fight in which Van Damme takes on several of Fender’s pirates at once leading to Gibson’s first defeat is brilliantly tense and it’s choreographed and edited far better than such a film usually would be. In fact, Cyborg is just much better than it needs to be in general. The villains are genuinely nasty (like Dafoe’s gang in Streets of Fire, they’re just up to sadistic evil for a laugh) and much more effort goes into the cinematography and editing than the company would have asked for.
Of course, being a Cannon film, it’s far from perfect- Kevin Bassinson’s standard issue synth score is dated even for the time (Pyun had wanted a guitar- based soundtrack which was recorded by Jim Saad and Tony Riparetti but left unused) and the real female lead, Deborah Richter’s Nady, is so completely unceremoniously sacrificed the character’s death hardly even seems to register with the hero.
There were also the usual on- set dramas inevitable for such a rush job. The actors playing the pirates were mostly stuntmen because of all the physical combat (they all move like they’re taking or waiting for direction) and some of them clearly play multiple different characters. Then Van Damme ended up having to spend his entire fee on damages for actor / stuntman Jackson “Rock” Pinckney who he accidentally blinded in one eye with a rubber prop knife (the actual moment is even said to be in the final film).
Long after Cannon went down the proverbial drain, other dubious companies got their hands on the rights to Cyborg and the tenuously related Cyborg 2 (with a pre- stardom Angelina Jolie) and Cyborg 3 (with a slumming it Malcolm McDowell) went straight to video in 1993 and 1995. While neither of them are worth bothering with, this original (if it can be called that) is refreshingly decent for what it is.
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