Cyborg (1989)

Simply Perfect

A story that's too fascinating to pass by...

A great movie, one of the best of this year. There was a bit of confusion at one point in the plot, but nothing serious.

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

I first seen this back in the 90's, I also own this on VHS. This is one of my favorite Van Damme films, I also like how the film is set in a Mad Max like post apocalyptic world.Let me start by saying that Jean Claude is great in this, he's probably the best actor since most are non-actors, but I found the film impressive even back then, the fight scenes are very good and the action is spot on.Yes, the the acting isn't the greatest, but most low budget films are like this, usually if they can't afford to pay the actors they hire a lot of unknowns who are non-actors.I also like how the film was written it was very creative and interesting.This was a decent b-movie which is hard to find these days, Overall, I really enjoyed it, it's probably liked more by Van Damme fans then most, but even if your not a Van Damme fan and you just enjoy b-movies I think you'll enjoy this.I give it a 5.3/10. It's dark, moody and funny at times, you shouldn't take the movie too seriously but it is fun to watch. Yes the acting is wooden at times but give it a chance the action really makes up for it. It's fun.I recommend it to those who enjoys a good b-movie and are fans of gritty action.

Van Damme goes the Mad Max route in this unthinking, low budget rip-off of the futuristic film craze of the early '80s. However, the futuristic setting here is merely a backdrop for some ruined buildings for Van Damme to fight the baddies in, and a chance for some really odd costumes and fashions (once again, the MAD MAX films are a definite influence).Unfortunately, this turns out to be one of Van Damme's lesser '80ss films, mainly due to the simple lack of plot, special effects or stylised fight scenes. Indeed, there is still some fun to be had from watching Van Damme take on multiple opponents in a variety of settings (a marsh, a deserted building, a town square flooded with rain), but these fun fight scenes are not quite as inspired as they should be, and not nearly violent enough, bearing in mind this was heavily cut in the UK.I don't think Van Damme had really got the hang of acting this early on in his career, and his accent is very thick, and the poor sound quality merely makes it harder to hear what's going on. Not that it's very memorable. A rather dull and talentless group of performers fill out the cast, with the female lead stripping off and doing little else, the group of bad guys merely grunting and shouting incessantly, and making zero sense (also making the script writer look infantile), and the main bad guy having bright blue eyes but little acting ability.To add insult to injury, the cyborg only appears briefly in the film at the beginning, in a flurry of stop-motion animation which really deserved more screen time but comes across looking rushed and unrealistic. CYBORG is definitely uninspired, but on a plus point it is the only film where you'll see Van Damme get crucified. Oh, and watch for the incredible wounds which heal within minutes. This almost qualifies for so-bad-it's-good entertainment, with 'almost' being the operative word here.

Following his spectacular debut with Bloodsport (1988), Jean-Claude Van Damme appears in the post-apocalyptic sci-fi action thriller Cyborg. I did not enjoy Cyborg one bit. I found it to be unpleasantly violent and somewhat depressing and bleak. Cyborg was certainly one of Van Damme's movies I would rather forget.Cyborg takes place in an post-apocalyptic future where a plague has infested most of the world. Civilisation is almost on the verge of being wiped out through anarchy, genocide, and starvation. A lone mercenary named Gibson Rickenbacker (Jean-Claude Van Damme) finds himself protecting Pearl (Dayle Haddon) who is carrying information about a cure for the plague which has infected the world. Unbeknownst to Gibson, Pearl is a Cyborg. Gibson must protect Pearl on her journey from New York to Atlanta and must evade a group of sociopathic pirates led by the intimidating and sadistic Fender (Vincent Klyn) who is also sporting a pair of sunglasses and loves to wear chainmail outfits.Cyborg was very unpleasantly violent and unlike most Van Damme movies where audiences accepted that it was part and parcel of his movies, I just could not find myself comfortable watching the movie. The movie itself was also very bleak and depressing. I can understand why Cyborg encountered many censorship issues to its strong graphic violence. It just felt like it has a very sadomasochistic appeal to it.To conclude this review, Cyborg was a very unpleasant movie and not one to remember for Van Damme. Don't touch this movie with a stick.1/10.

This is probably the last true B film Jean Claude Van Damme made before he hit the big time for a brief period. However Albert Pyun is a true B movie director who has difficulty elevating any acting abilities of any of his actors.The positive aspects of this film is that the production values of this film is very high. The sets and the set dressing shows a lot of technical skill. For a post apocalypse set film there is a lot of outside location filming when these films are tend to be done on studio sets. There is also some good photography and a few decent action sequences.The downside is a poor plot, the bad guy is leaden with a horrid voice. We have JCVD doing some signature moves with his high kicks, even a splits scene but some woeful roundhouse kicks time after time very slowly, all people have to do is jump out of the way.The cyborg in question is a woman who is carrying information which she needs to take to Atlantic City as it holds a cure for a virus. This future did not have Wi-fi! Also this cyborg also did not have any kick ass moves programmed by a Series 800 Terminator robot.The film is only sporadically entertaining, lapses into silliness such as flashback sequences with Van Damme in a bad wig.