Cyborg 2: Glass Shadow

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source: Cyborg 2: Glass Shadow

Cyborg 2:Glass Shadow**1/2[2 1/2 Stars]- This movie turns out to be a good action movie. It has some pretty cool action but a bit of an annoying plot. This movie cannot decide whether its an action movie or a romance story. Personally I thought the whole cyborg romance story was a bit ridiculous. Another thing is that this movie is missing Van Damme. I'm sorry but I felt that a sequel to CYBORG***[3 Stars] should have him in it. This movie just doesn't work well enough without him. If your just looking for some action and don't really care about anything else than this movie is for you.

This movie is a cyborg in and of itself: half nonsense/half Lifetime Original Movie. As a cyborg, this movie has but one objective: to make you wish that you had spent the duration of the film in a dark room punching yourself in the testicles. Unlike many people, I did not rent this movie because of Angelina Jolie(I'll explain why I rented it shortly). I am not a big fan of Ms. Jolie's, though I will say that her performance was stellar! Her blank stare and robotic acting really did have me believing that she was an android hooker. If anyone has a clip of her on 'Inside the Actor's Studio' explaining how she prepared for this role, please send it my way. I'll make sure to use it when I try James Lipton for Crimes against Integrity. So what drove me to rent this movie? One would think that it was the hope of seeing Angelina Jolie's nipples, but it wasn't. No, the reason behind this rental rested solely on one of the images on the cover of the DVD; that of Jack Palance's face! HALF OF HIS FACE WAS ROBOTIC! When I saw that, I imagined legions of "Palances" slowly marching through a fiery wasteland, laying waste to any humans that were foolish enough to resist. In my mind's eye, every member of this Unholy Army of Palances had a red, glowing eye; a red, glowing eye that looked at humans and saw only "meat". They were to be the Architects of Oblivion...a cold, steely Apocalypse...a Nightmare from which Humanity would never awaken. It's a beautiful image that I will cherish till the end of my years. Like most things in my life, the actual movie did not live up to my expectations. No, there was only 'one' Jack Palance, and the only visible cybernetic enhancements that he had were located on his legs. Sadly, those enhancements didn't really "enhance" anything. That is unless, you count WALKING LIKE A POLIO VICTIM as a super power. At least their was a scene where Jack--grinning like a trigger-happy Alzheimer's patient--got to shoot the hell out of some people. I was waiting for him to yell, "I'm damn tired of paying too much for prescription medication!" Unfortunately, any outbursts of geriatric rage were few and far between. What the movie did have an abundance of was a poorly developed love story about a man(Elias Koteas, a.k.a. poor man's De Niro) and a cyborg(Angelina Jolie, a.k.a. Demon Spawn of John Voigt). Oh man, can the love between a Romeo of Flesh and a Juliet of Silicon ever be able to last?!?!?! It can if you follow Jack Palance's simple advice: "You have to TASTE each other's TIME". Yeah, I'm not sure what that means. However, I am sure that I do not want Jack Palance to be the one to explain it to me. I sure as heck don't want him to show me! As an experiment, I suggest that you ask your significant other if he/she "thinks that we have reached a level in our relationship where we can begin to TASTE each other's TIME?"

Two things are always signs that you`re going to be watching a bad movie : 1 ) If you`re instantly reminded of other movies like THE TERMINATOR, HARDWARE or BLADE RUNNER during the title sequence 2 ) If there`s a death during a sex scene straight after the title sequence There`s actually a third warning sign and that`s a caption indicating lazy exposition warning the poor ignorant naive audience of the dangers of corporate greed . Guess what ? CYBORG 2 starts with a caption warning us of corporate greed in the future , followed by a title sequence that reminded me of THE TERMINATOR , HARDWARE and BLADE RUNNER followed by a death during a sex scene ! Hey you don`t suppose I`ll be watching a bad movie by any chance ? As you can guess this is a bad movie . It`s basically a series of action scenes written around a thread bare plot of a cyborg on the run from a greedy corporate company . It`s badly written , directed and acted and most especially it`s badly lit which means it`s very difficult to see what`s happening on screen , though I`m not entirely sure this is actually a bad thing . The only interest to be had is that it`s the film debut of Angelina Jolie who plays the cyborg on the run and who says the prophetic line " They`re lovely , I wonder if they`re real ? " which is something I ask myself whenever I see one of her movies

Earth, 2074. The field of cybernetics is dominated by two corporations – Kobayashi Electronics & Pinwheel Robotics. The execs over at Pinwheel plan to destroy Kobayashi by sending in Casella 'Cash' Reese, a female cyborg containing 'Glass Shadow' (a powerful plastic explosive), to a conference & detonating her. With the help of Mercy, a mysterious cyborg who projects himself onto TV screens, Cash & her human combat trainer Colton Ricks escape the compound & flee across the city. With Pinwheel troopers & a psychotic bounty hunter after them, they attempt to make it to freedom. CYBORG was a low-budget, mindless post-apocalyptic martial-arts flick that featured Jean-Claude Van Damme taking on numerous thugs & trying to rescue a female cyborg. It became a cult film & inspired two sequels. While the first film was nothing more than a series of watered-down heroics that had almost no plot, "Cyborg 2: Glass Shadow" is the complete opposite, a futuristic sci-fi film with an intelligent storyline & a Cyberpunk atmosphere. It is also the rare occasion where a sequel proves to be better than the original. "Glass Shadow" is set sometime after the events of the first film, although the continuity is somewhat screwed up (society had collapsed in the original & a nasty plague had swept through the world). The society here is akin to a corporate-run city, nothing like the original (there are a few clips taken from the original shown on TV screens). The storyline is quite simple – female cyborg is created as a walking bomb, said cyborg tries to flee her fate, her creators send in bounty hunters to catch her – but done in an intelligent manner. The acting is superb, with due credit given to Jack Palance, who gives one of his best performances, as the cyborg warrior / poet who appears on TV screens like a ghost; Elias Koteas, who plays his role in deadpan fashion & Tracy Walter shines in a cameo as a doctor. Angelina Jolie, in the days before she became a superstar, gives a robotic performance as the cyborg Cash, although this fits in with the rest of the film. The visual effects in this film are excellent, most notably the opening scene with a cyborg being built, some prosthetics work & an exquisite model city.

When I heard about a sequel for Van Damme's absolute worst film "Cyborg," I rolled my eyes and thought, "Oh no....Why did they make this? To cash in on the success of a movie that WASN'T a success? There's no way this will be good...." Well....I was eating my words about fifteen minutes into it. "Cyborg 2: Glass Shadow" is by no means a masterpiece, nor is it an especially inspiring thriller, but I was surprised how entertaining it was. This might be due to the fact that it completely abandoned the plot of the first film and started from scratch, thus it can be viewed as a completely original motion picture. The plot is pretty standard: late into the 21st century, a company calls PINWHEEL have developed cyborgs that look and act just like real humans, even down to emotions. "If God didn't make you, we did," one of the big business men quotes. But what if one of the cyborgs begins to recognize independence, as Cash (a beautiful Angelina Jolie) does? That's when Mercy comes in. Mercy is a freelance cyborg who, after the death of his wife, has dedicated his life to helping renegade cyborgs beat the system and flee to another country. The part is played by Jack Palance, who actually does a good job, though he spends most of the time on a computer screen with closeups of his mouth. At any rate, Cash decides to flee, and she takes along a human to guide her (and he also happens to be in love with her...). His name is Colt, a skilled warrior (Elias Corteas, who bears a close resemblance to Robert DeNiro). Pinwheel sends two people to track them, Danny (a chilling Billy Drago) and Chan (the standard oriental-warrior-cyborg chick). So it's a desparate race for the two to survive in an odd, futuristic city. It's pretty much a standard plot from there, which is predictable and easy to figure out. But at least it HAS a plot, something the first film can't claim. And this film has good qualities in other areas. The special effects are above average, including the awesome shots of a battery-charged city of 2170! The characters are also well drawn out and defined, with nice chemistry between the two leads and a chilling performance by Drago....That man is evil incarnate. Good score, too.... Does anyone know if the soundtrack is available? Lastly, the action is well-choreographed with some nice settings. Summing it up, the director knows what he's doing, and he managed to make a so-so plot get lifted by an excellent cast, great, memorable characters, top-of-the-drawer dialogue, okay special effects, and good stunts. Recommended if you're like me: I hated the first film. It's worth taping if it ever comes on TV again...I know I will.... **1/2 out of ****

Cyborg II, sounds like some 2nd-rate movie. Is not. Not at all! I was surprised the very, very nice 'ambiance' this movie has. Good looking, convincing effects and surroundings, very good sound. It has even a nice (though somewhat unsurprising) story with nice characters. For me, 'Blade Runner' sets the standard for this kind of movies. But in some aspects, most notably the overall ambiance and 'sadness' this movie comes close. Let's call this movie very, very acceptable...

The fact that Cyborg 2: Glass Shadow has almost nothing to do with the first Cyborg is probably a good thing. I've seen both, and the first one is an ugly, grimy early starring vehicle for Jean Claude Van Damme that plays like an episode of American Gladiators on PCP. This sequel, however, is a scrappy little sci fi delight. It takes plays in a futuristic B- Movie realm where maniacal corporations wage war on each other for the control of lucrative artificial intelligence, cyborgs who can be programmed to be slaves, soldiers or whatever you want. Angelina Jolie is Casella 'Cash' Reese, a gorgeous warrior Cyborg held under the watchful eye of the Pinwheel corporation, ruled by a hammy Allen Garfield. Her trainer, a mercenary named Colton Hicks (Elias Koteas) starts to fall in love with her. In this particular B movie universe, it's implied that there are fragments of what may resemble a soul that begin to grow inside the cyborgs, and gradually Cash falls for him as well. They plan their escape, and embark into a delightfully cheap looking metropolis of the future, seeking an oasis far away that's basically a non extradition zone for robots. Pinwheel sends some dangerous bounty hunters after them. There's fighting. And running. And shooting. And Cyborg sex including a 17 year old Angelina going fully topless, which makes me wonder how the filmmakers ducked the authorities on that one. Not that I'm complaining. Aside from baring her chesticles, she makes a pretty solid action heroine at that age, and even before making a name for herself she carries the film pretty well. Koteas is pretty much capable of anything as far as acting goes, breezing through this one in his sleep whilst still keeping one eye open to give Hicks a vulnerability and desperation that the film hardly deserves. Character actor Billy Drago gives a scene stealing performance of sheer unbridled lunacy as Danny Bench, a terrifyingly unhinged contract killer who pursues the pair and has an absolute smackdown of a fight sequence with Koteas. That old salty dog Jack Palance even shows up for an amusing, warmhearted supporting role as a mysterious hacker who helps the duo out and in turn gets his own retribution. Get one thing straight right now: this a B movie. If you go into one of these with your critic's brain shovelling coal into the fires of cynicism, you're gonna have a bad time. These films are overtly cheap, chock full of deliberate plot holes and speckled with acting that could wilt flowers. But I love them anyway. I grew up watching an endless stream of direct to video horror, sci fi and thriller flicks that maybe ten people on planet earth besides me have seen. I love them, they are amazing and they exist in a realm far, far outside film 'criticism'. It's best to gear your brain into fun mode before hitting play, then just relax and enjoy. If you're the type of person that can do that, you'll love this kind of stuff. If not, steer well clear. Cyborg 2 is the perfect example of a B movie done right, and I'll be the first to admit that there's plenty that are made with the kind of lifeless ineptitude that doesn't even deserve a place in the genre. This one's cheaply made, doesn't have much of a budget to its name, yet admirably creates it's own little world with what it has, spinning a story of action, romance, robots and Angelina Jolie. Honestly, who can say no to those things? You, that's who.

i love sci-fi but this is totally ridiculous! the movie was predictable and bo-ring to the max! if it wasn't for Angelina Jolie and her martial-arts-superb-action sequences, i would have slept throughout the movie. if you just want to see a young Angelina, this is it. forget about the story line. two thumbs down! =o(