CYBORG (1989)


CYBORG (1989)

Tagline: He's the First Hero of the 21st Century...And He's Our Only Hope.

(Sci-Fi, Action, Human Toasters) [R]

Originally scripted to be MASTERS OF THE UNIVERSE 2: CYBORG, stars Jean-Claude Van Damme and the versatile (at the time) Deborah Richter. Of course, because this freakin thing was filmed in Tucson, AZ it can only be about one of three things… a car race, cowboys, or the end of the world. Cannon Entertainment of course picked “end of the world” and probably less intently “end of the studio”.

Anyway, there is a plague that is wiping everyone out and a cure is near but information needs to get to Atlanta to develop it. Damn, Atlanta is a long damn way away, so of course Jean-Claude has to get involved. Jean who plays Gibson, Nady (Debrah Richter), and Pearl (Dayle Haddon) have a run-in with pirates who want information on the cure, power, and death. One of the more convincing things about this movie is the bad guy (who also narrates the opening). 

I know this movie has a cult following and that a lot of people loved it and it’s pretty easy to spot why. This movie doesn’t care. It was designed to be filmed for a minimal budget after MASTERS OF THE UNIVERSE 2: CYBORG never got off the ground but had a lot of budget eaten up in costumes. The least credible sequences in this come from Jean-Claude himself. His character comes back from near death at the urging of some memories? To me, you take everything you have into the fight, to begin with. Then again…this was the ’80s when "love" paid the rent, and flashbacks almost always meant you were going to kick someone’s head in. 

Overall this is a fun Friday night movie night type of flick. I would recommend watching it on Netflix while it’s still out if you like this sort of 80s action with bad acting and terrible special effects type of movies. Apparently, there is a prequel CYBORG: NEMESIS coming out, but it’s been in post-production for seemingly a couple years now. For Van Damme fans this is like the holy grail of cinema. 


GRAPHICS ARE THE PROPERTY OF CANNON ENTERTAINMENT AND ARE USED FOR REVIEW PURPOSES ONLY.





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