Cyberzone Reviews

Take elements from BLADE RUNNER, STAR WARS, and THE TERMINATOR, subtract any potent action and drama, and you've got CYBERZONE. If you've seen those first three films, you can safely avoid this one. In Phoenix in the year 2077, bounty hunter Jack Ford (Marc Singer) has just dispatched a violent android. The scene quickly shifts to Jupiter where Hawks (Matthias Hues), a smuggler, steals four female "pleasure droids" and heads for Earth. Back on Earth, Ford is hired to locate the missing androids and is assigned a businesslike technician, Beth Enright (Rochelle Swanson), to help shut down their circuitry. The strings in this society are pulled by Humberstone (Robin Clarke), a religious and political leader who has hired Hawks to steal the droids, Ford to find them, and assassins to kill Ford when he digs too deeply. Things start to turn against Humberstone after he cheats Hawks for losing one of the androids. Hawks, Ford, and Beth join forces to get the androids and the money. With Beth posing as the missing party-girl android, they break into Humberstone's compound. Once Humberstone realizes that she's human, Beth kills him. Meanwhile, Hawks is killed in a shootout with the security chief. Ford and Beth get the money and escape together. The film ends with the missing droid propositioning a homeless man. Seeing CYBERZONE's low-budget special effects, it's hard to believe that decades have gone by since the original "Star Trek" series in the 1960s. Unlike BLADE RUNNER, the film's darkness is not evocative, but merely used to disguise the cheap sets. Sometimes the film looks like a "Batman" episode with nudity. Of the actors, only Swanson shows any charisma. Singer is wooden throughout, and Hues looks and sounds as if he stepped down from a wrestling ring. Ultimately, it's the borrowed elements from better films that sink CYBERZONE. At one point, an assassin droid is sent to "terminate" Ford. As if this wasn't enough, the actor bears a strong resemblance to Arnold Schwarzenegger and has a thick European accent. Also, the fact that the movie's hero is named Ford can only be a reference to BLADE RUNNER's star. A recommendation: Stick to the originals.(Violence, extensive nudity, sexual situations.)