Sci-fighters (1996)

Wonderful Movie

Simply A Masterpiece

It's complicated... I really like the directing, acting and writing but, there are issues with the way it's shot that I just can't deny. As much as I love the storytelling and the fantastic performance but, there are also certain scenes that didn't need to exist.

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

This movie spent a lot of time trying to explain an incomprehensible plot. They try to just have a bunch of stuff happening instead of having an interesting story. There's at least 35 minutes with no dialogue and trust me, those minutes don't have any action either. The editing was terrible too. In one scene Piper and the woman are walking down the street talking and they go past the same neon sign a dozen times. When they stop, the camera keeps switching angles and that sign is always in the shot. Their vision of what 2009 would be like was very bizarre. There was technology that could literally do anything but America was a 3rd world mess that was mainly populated by fans of The Exploited. To top it off, they couldn't have had a less attractive female lead. This for fans of Piper and bad movies only.

Sci-fighters (1996) is a low-budget Sci-fi that doesn't go anywhere. It borrows heavily from Blade Runner (1982), Runaway (1984), The Hidden (1987), and I Come in Peace (1990). It has a nice feeling to it with the low-budget attempts at a futuristic world, but the problem is the horrible acting of Roddy Piper and a baffling performance by Billy Drago.Roddy Piper was okay in John Carpenter's They Live (1988) but he is just unlikeable here. Billy Drago is like a drug addict here, messy and annoying. In The Untouchables (1987) he was fine, but he is a weak bad guy here, invaded by a parasite and stumbles along. Neither Roddy Piper or Billy Drago can carry a film, even a low-budget Sci-fi one.The plot is ludicrous as well.Recommended: Prison Planet (1992) Also Known As "Badlanders" Alienator (1990) Yor, the Hunter from the Future (1983)

Yeah, pretty much the same plot we've seen in a dozen other such films in the past ten years; but if we know those films, it's because we watched them and enjoyed them; perhaps with some sense of guilt, like there ought to be something better to with our lives, but let's admit we were entertained.Certainly this film is not among the worst of its ilk. In fact, it is generally well made, with sharp performances from all the actors, including the Rowdy One; and the script doesn't rub our noses in sci-fi-techno-babble, it just gets on with the story.The big disappointment is the ending; it is rushed, badly directed, badly edited. It feels like it comes looping out of another film, there's no build-up to it at all.Too bad; if the ending had been as impressive as the rest of the film, I would have given this 8 stars, if only for effort; now it has to live with 6.That makes it a time waster, like most of the other films of its type - not bad, just not good enough to be memorable.

I have always been a big fan of Roddy Piper so it was my pleasure to watch this movie.Roddy Piper is convincing in his role as Detective Cameron Grayson and does a good job of proving that he can act.I was pleased to see Billy Drago as Adrian Dunn, the perverted and sicko heavy of the movie who gets his kicks by raping women and then infecting them with a hideous organism he is carrying. You can never go wrong with Billy Drago as the heavy in any movie.The acting of everyone else is tolerable but thankfully the movie centers around Cameron and Adrian who as old friends turned rivals take up the entire story.The action isn't bad, but Sci-Fighters is a typical cop versus bad guy story. However, I would recommend this movie for anyone who likes either Roddy Piper or Billy Drago. They made what little there was of the movie.