Cyborg (1989)

Directed by: Albert Pyun
Produced by: Yoram Globus and Menahem Golan
Starring: Jean Claude Van Damme, Deborah Richter, and Ralf Moeller.
Cinematography by: Phillip Alan Waters




(By Guest Critic/Twin Brother to Nick, A.J. Detisch)

I asked Scott, the guy I rent movies from, what the best Van Damme movie is. Without any hesitation he said Cyborg so I went over to his sci-fi section and picked it up . He said it would be a lot better than the crap I usually rent and after watching the movie with my brother, I could see what he meant. At the time of writing this review, I admit I am not very familiar with Jean Claude's work, but I found Cyborg lacking in storytelling but superfluous with quality action.

I'm a fan of the film's director Albert Pyun (Mean Guns, Nemesis, Captain America). A student of Akira Kurosawa, he incorporated a zen style into his filmmaking in the B-Action genre. He does not storyboard and shoots with a wide array of unpredictable angles and camera maneuvers, which make most of his films very visually stimulating. If Goddard had an influence on action film aesthetics, it is evident through Pyun. This movie incorporates steadicam, good intraframe slow-motion shots, and lots of good kicks and knife throwing by J.C. himself.

As much as I hate to criticize Pyun in such a general way, his films all get pretty scatterbrained at times (see Nick's review for Ticker). The plot is simple enough: Gibson Rickenbacker (Jean Claude) must stop a team of post-apocalyptic cyborg rogues from destroying a team of scientists who may have a cure for a deadly virus. But Pyun has no unity in production design or costumes, which make certain aspects of the film generic. It seems like he's trying to create a backwoods Mad Max without the cars (Van Damme's character's name is Gibson after all), but he undermines the effort by too much genre bending. He tries to incorporate Western, Pirate, Post-Apocalyptic, and Sci-Fi elements into one story that has not the depth to justify it.

However, Pyun creates a very hilarious scene in which he envisions an action-movie alternative to getting crucified. Gibson gets crucified and left on a T-shaped cross for a whole night and instead of shouting "Why have you forsaken me?!" he kicks his way off the cross! What would J.C. do?

The movie is a lot of fun, but I'd like to think Van Damme's glossier work (Time Cop, The Quest) would offer better production values and characters. I'll have to take it up with Scott. Fun fact: Jean Claude Van Damme did some ghost editing on the film.