| Cover Art |
 |
| Credits |
Director: Jay Woelfel
Starring: Sullivan,
Robert Donovan, Jennifer Capo, Ben Bar
Screenplay: C. Courtney
Joyner (as Gene Yarborough)
Country: USA |
The films of B-movie mogul Charles Band are always
more interesting for their ambitions rather than
their artistic achievements. High concept consistently
clashes with inadequate budget. Sure, when you've
produced over 200 films in over thirty years, the
law of averages dictates that at least some of them
will be good. Sure enough, Band has delivered the
goods occasionally with The Pit and the
Pendulum, the Subspecies films and my own personal favourite, Trancers.
But more often than not, the results have been more
along the lines of shoddy fare such as Talisman, Head of the Family and The
Alchemist. Time (and rumours of dubious
money-handling) has seen Band's output and
budgets dwindle over recent years, to the point
where many of his later films have been made non-union,
on budgets that are less than a state school teacher's
yearly salary.
This brings us, with heavy heart
and irritated colon, to Trancers 6.
For those not in the know, the Trancers (or, if you live in Australia like me, Future
Cop) films concern the adventures of
22nd century lawman Jack Deth (played with appropriately
hard-bitten style by the peerless Tim Thomerson)
who travelled through time and parallel dimensions
fighting to rid the universe of zombie-like creatures
called Trancers. Sadly, following an eight-year
hiatus, Jack Deth returns, but without the lead
actor who made up for the wobbly writing and production.
Simply put, Band couldn't afford Thomerson
this time. Or decent actors full stop.
In the year 2322, Jack Deth (represented by
badly strung together stock footage of Thomerson
on a view screen) is pressed back into service
by the ruling council of Angel City when one of
their councilmen, Jennings (James R. Hilton) witnesses
Jack's daughter, Jo Forrest (Zette Sullivan)
locked in mortal combat, somewhere around 2022.
His consciousness is sent through time into his
daughter's body to prevent her death and
investigate Trancer activity in the timeline.
Unfortunately for Jack, he now has to deal with
being in the body of a female, twenty-something,
vegan hippie.
And despite having eradicated the Trancers at
their source some twenty years earlier (and having
altered the timeline as a result) Jack/Jo learns
that a plot is afoot to convert street kids into
the mindless killers, and somehow depose the mayor
of LA in the process. Oh and there's a meteor
involved, which looks like it was the most expensive
prop in the film.
Are you following this so far?
Directed by Jay Woelfel (co-director of the convention-circuit
favourite Battlestar Galactica: The Second
Coming) Trancers 6 is,
simply put, a shoddy, misbegotten mess. Woelfel
has gone on record stating his unhappiness with
the film as released, which he claims wasn't
completely finished in terms of sound and FX.
Given the quality of Full Moon's recent
output, it's honestly doubtful that Band
could afford to make a more polished film. This
results in abysmal CGI (especially the laugh out
loud moment a Trancer falls to his death from
a high-rise window), silly sound effects and crummy
makeup. The script (by Trancers 3 helmer C Courtney Joyner, wisely hiding behind
the moniker Gene Yarborough) is awkward and confused,
further muddying up the already tangled series
continuity.
In the thankless lead role of Jo (which was originally
intended for Lost's Maggie
Grace), Zette Sullivan has to essentially channel
Thomerson's mannerisms and it simply doesn't
work. She tries valiantly, but comes off awkward,
unconvincing and occasionally embarrassed. The
rest of the cast ranges from hammy (Robert Donavan,
as Jo's scientist cohort) to wooden (Ben
Bar and Jennifer Capo) to just plain awful (virtually
all of the Trancers). Next to Thomerson's
stock shots, the most star power this film can
muster is a briefly-glimpsed photo of Helen Hunt
(co-star of films 1-3) stuck to a fridge. Sad.
Woelfel manages a couple of okay fight scenes,
but the oppressive cheapness of the film (coupled
with some of the dreariest cinematography I have
ever witnessed) drains any fun from the proceedings.
Maybe with a more sure-footed script and an adequate
budget, this may have worked, but as it is Trancers
6 is a complete waste of time, not to
mention a sad coda to an enjoyable B-movie series. |
