That's how it happens. You're 40. You're a childless bachelor watching a trans movie. Is that what you've been striving for all your life? Is that what you wanted to achieve? Questions, questions. But it's not really that bad.
In the distant future, Los Angeles flooded after the earthquake, there are no natural products, and some bandit learned to enter into trance people with weak will and make them transists - zombie killers. Police officer Tim Tomerson almost killed the villain, but he managed to escape into the past, in 1984. Yes, in the future, they learned to travel into the past, but in an original way. You can send things to the past, but living citizens can not. You can only live in your ancestor for a while. Remember when I swelled and fell out of my memory for three days in college? Maybe it wasn’t you, but your ancestor.
In 1984, the villain began killing the descendants of the greatest leaders of the future. That's why Officer Tomerson is sent back in time. The trouble is that the descendant of Tomerson worked as a journalist, and the descendant of the villain opposite the police. Plus, Tomerson doesn’t know anything about 1984, but here he will help a young, pretty Helen Hunt.
An ordinary action movie, nothing bad or good to say about it. Standard 80s action movie. Hunt's pretty. The film is dynamic. But rather, it is a kind of parasitism on the topic of the Terminator with its references of citizens to the past to change the future.
After the release of 'Star Wars' Lucas in the late 70s, which became a real box office hit and fell in love with millions of viewers around the world, a new wave of films of a fantastic direction was born in cinema. The first companies specializing in the development of special effects began to appear in the industry and the emerging technologies began to be actively used not only by beginner directors, who always waited for the appearance of special technical capabilities to implement their own ideas in the field of genre cinema, but also by seasoned filmmakers, also impressed with the latest methods and with great enthusiasm ready to take on large-scale film canvases, deploying them in the pavilions of large companies. Being more than once shot for various studios successful hits, famous filmmakers began to safely receive decent budgets from them, which allowed to create on the screens whole fantastic worlds filled with the most daring and creative visual solutions. In Hollywood began to pull up authors from all over the world and it was then that American cinema began to stylistically mix with European. In the early 80’s, sequels of the same “Star Wars” began to appear, visually even more impressive, as well as such immortal hits as “Alien” & #39; and “Blade Runner” & #39”. The first at the time of release became the highest-grossing film project in history, conquering and appeasing millions of viewers' hearts, and the second gave the genre a cyberpunk direction, which will make it possible in the future to appear such masterpieces as the Matrix & #39. In addition to Spielberg and Scott, John Carpenter, James Cameron, Paul Verhoeven, Robert Zemeckis made a huge contribution to science fiction, and this is only a small part of the authors whose creations in this field, at least many of them, have become truly cult.
What happened to low-budget movies, often produced by independent studios? And there were very popular various tailoring 'post-apocalypse', neo-noir paintings and all sorts of other mixed stylistic projects created on the wave of success of the same 'Blade Runner' and 'Terminator'. So was born and the film 'Transers' telling the story of Jack Dett, working in the police of the future. In the film, he preys on zombified people whose minds have captured a criminal genius from 2247, Martin Whistler. Whistler once killed the wife of our hero and the main purpose of this hunt is to capture him. The problem is that the villain with the help of cunning technologies moved into the past by implanting in the body of his descendant. In the same way, detective Jack is assigned to travel to 1985 to arrest the criminal, as well as to clean his tails, destroying the transceivers he created. The task is not easy, and time is not enough. Will our policeman from the past have time to carry out the mission, while remaining alive, because Whistler is a very cunning and dangerous criminal genius?
'Transers' are simply an incredibly atmospheric spectacle. The neon visual structure of the picture shines not only with its general entourage, but also with many individual details. For some insignificant, by cinematic standards, 400 thousand dollars, the authors were able to build a piece of the post-apocalyptic world of the future, in which Dett lives, with his submerged Los Angeles, as well as create several interesting futuristic scenery and a good way to work on makeup. And despite the fact that much on the screen does not look as impressive as it once did, the film still did not lose its atmospheric charm. We came up with several interesting gadgets with curious properties for the project, and the costumes of the hero were chosen with a pleasant look at the characters of more popular genre works of that time. References and elements formed under the inspiration are enough in the tape. 'Transers' look like such a cute hybrid from 'Terminator' and 'Blade Runner', as well as some other popular science fiction films. And, by the way, they do not hide this at all, approaching both the form and the content, not without a shadow of irony and even a little in a parody vein.
In itself, the story of the film is also interesting, but unfortunately, the implementation is somewhat superficial. Yes, you can blame everything on the conceived not quite serious tone of the story, but still humor, and the concept should also be strengthened. And here, alas, such a slightly infantile approach to the development of the plot is very prominent, in which there are too many conventions, the narrative is crumpled, especially at the end, and the lack of a certain linearity of the events taking place. From here, the tape looks somewhat confused. But thanks to the gods, thanks to Tim Tommerson and Helen Hunt, very interestingly reincarnated in the main screen pair, many shortcomings here pass by the eyes and ears. Tommerson is an insanely charismatic actor. Type, texture, charm - everything in it, in a good way, hypertrophied. He has a great energy, and I’m really sorry that he’s used his talent mainly in low-budget projects and on television. Hunt is pretty. Here she is cute in literally every scene. And even those lines and actions of her heroine, which struck with semantic absurdity, she carried out so casually that it seemed - OK, normal, so it should be! And the chemistry between Tommerson and Hunt appeared quite pleasant, so you get used to the characters at the end, which, alas, comes very quickly due to short timekeeping.
P.S. 'Transers' - this is a small piece of fantastic 80s, which collected a little from neo-noir, a little from cyberpunk and with the world on the thread from other futuristic thrillers about time travel. Visually, we have such a movie clip, illuminated by neon, served a little in a buffoonish manner and populated, in addition to the main screen pair, with interesting images - from colorful punks with impressive Iroquois to bloodthirsty zombies with blue muzzles. And all this flows under a chic electronic soundtrack. However, conceptually, unfortunately, the film looks very crumpled, sometimes turning into porridge, which is why there is no such holistic wow effect that occurs when viewing its older brothers in the genre. But it still does not change the fact that we have a very bright and exciting adventure story, which one day will want to return.
Fantastic film from the real 80s in the neon aesthetic of retrowave
I used to think that the acclaimed short 'Kung Fury' mostly a collective squeeze of 80s pop culture, which is taken from a couple of motifs from different films of those years. But no, there were paintings with similar concentrated visuals and attributes in the real 80s.
For example, 'Transers' 1984.
This not-so-famous film is one of the few authentic pictures of the 80s, fully embodying the visual aesthetics of retrowave, synthwave, vaporwave, which are now so loved to be exploited in cinema and graphics for the purpose of nostalgia for the same 80s. Moreover, the musical accompaniment of the film is also designed exclusively in the genre of synthwave.
The plot also corresponds to all the necessary genre stamps. I’m not going to retell it, but just list the main components: there is a police detective from the distant cyberpunk future. And this cop is incredibly cool and unfazed. He wears a gray cloak - where would a detective go without it? By fate, he will have to go back in time. In the American city of the 80s, the realm of night neon and palm trees. The vicissitudes of the stress-acid plot will bring him together with a pretty girl. He’s going to have to protect this girl, be sure. Look for temporal criminals, distracted by a light romantic, and only the light of neon lights will help them see the way through the fog. They will face traps and dangers, thugs, including not quite human-like. Of course there will be a villain!
Naturally, there are daytime scenes in the film, but nevertheless, this picture contains the most concentrated amount of all the audio and visual style that we saw in the hit 'Kung Fury'.
The only thing is that you will not find here the neon console grid that is so often used in modern nostalgic art. And the sun will not be chopped with stripes of blinds. But cinema is sure to appeal to those who want to take the concentrated 80s with all the charm and schizophrenia of fiction of that time.
7 out of 10 for nostalgia.
The far future. The earth is enslaved by people whose minds are in a state of trance and are controlled by a common enemy, the trans. The main character - professional trans hunter Jack Dett - assigned a particularly important task - will go into the distant past and find and destroy the leader of the transes who moved to the past and intends to kill the ancestors of members of the government of the future.
This film is the brainchild of the low-budget studio Full Moon, specializing in creating cheap science fiction films. Because this movie, having a meager design, went straight to the video. However, "Transers" is one example of how for less money you can shoot a rather interesting fantastic, which has not only a charismatic protagonist, but also a lot of original ideas.
For example, this is almost the first case in cinema where the original concept of time travel is used: the hero travels to the past by moving the mind into the body of his ancestor. It looks quite original, and with such a budget is quite tolerable (maybe they did not want to spend on all sorts of whistles and explosions when moving through time). The very idea of zombie people, although old in cinema, but here acquires a rather interesting concept: a person is still alive, but his mind is controlled by someone who wants to gain power.
Yes, the film has a rather poor design, but the creators had an idea, and in my opinion, it was pretty well implemented, and it is understandable that the lack of money, but the desire to create something original and fantastic led to the idea of time travel. The plot is interesting, and develops quickly, although it has sagging moments, like the hero’s visit to the camp of vagrants. Perhaps they are connected with the fact that the film, in addition to being fiction, tries to act out a bit of drama, humor and even noir. The latter is especially true of the rather charismatic protagonist, who has never been reached by the hands of Hollywood - forever with frowning eyebrows that look a bit comical, hum, purposeful, but bloody marks and lucky. His image somewhat resembles the image of James Bond, if crossed with the character of the noir detective.
Unfortunately, due to the low-budget nature of the film, few people know, but this does not mean that it should be missed. The movie is quite interesting, and if you delve into the events that are happening, you can remain under a good impression, unless, of course, you do not care about the special effects, which are almost not there. But there is a harsh hero, transers and original finds, and more for this film and nothing is needed.
7 out of 10
The film, which grew into a decent franchise, was shot by Empire Pictures, then moved to the productive Full Moon, and the directors listed its ideological engine - Charles Band (Charles Band). All this immediately determines many aspects of the production. First, in front of the viewer candid American b-movie, and secondly, action-oriented. For many – a sentence, for amateurs – a collectible.
We enter the world of the future, where Los Angeles is flooded with water and is now called Lost Angeles, and residents are worried about trans. These creatures seem to be simple people of all ages and positions, who routinely inhabit the city, but by the power of thought, the head of the sinister sect enters a trance in a couple of seconds, turning into zombie tools of his will. In such an uncomfortable place, a cool burned cop - Jack Det, whose surname in English is unequivocally associatively consonant with the word "Death" works in the field of catching criminals.
For obvious reasons, the studio with restrained funding, not even up to half a million, could not afford to shoot a movie in the permanent surroundings of the future, so we will be able to grab only a small piece of the prologue with quite diligent attempts to convey the gloomy atmosphere in small strokes of the panorama of drowned skyscrapers and small futuristic details of the interior with equipment. In the deft course of another science fiction, telling about the Terminator War, which has become much more successful a thousand times, the authors of the current tape similarly change the background to a more convenient state, moving the decisive battle of the center hero to the past of the mid-80s (at the time of the picture’s release – modernity), where the villain disappeared, plunging people into a trance, turning them into bloodthirsty zombies.
Being a representative of a low budget, the film does not hide this, focusing on visualization only on the presence of make-up actors. For everything else, a cleverly captured rhythm is responsible. The action-packed canvas of the narrative is carried from the beginning to the final without stopping, drawing in the combination of several genre features. There's a little bit from a police detective with an investigation, a whisper of horror from the attacks of aggressive trans, science fiction about time travel, an action movie at a brutal cop, a couple of jokes - an annoying boss from the future will appear in the body of a little girl, complaining about the unsuccessful transportation, and jewelry with a romantic line. In general, this complements a string of chases and shootouts, of course, shot without a claim on a scale, but sweeping aside unnecessary scenes, fitting into a restrained timekeeping a little more than an hour. What is happening, not having time to get bored or delayed, sweeps through in one breath.
As a result, of course, the absence of an expensive sham narrows the scope of the narrative, showing gunfights in the alleys among the homeless or fights in bars, and the slippery futurism in the small incarnation will disappoint any modern viewer, not as exciting as it happened in the years of my childhood before the included VCR, when the transponders seemed more terrible and the plot twists did not give cliché. But in any case, the recognizable actor from the films of the second category Tim Thomerson (Tim Thomerson), pleasantly gets used to the role of a cool policeman, besides remembering his adjacent profession of a comedian of the colloquial genre, he is played by the still completely unknown Helen Hunt, and the characteristic tools of the thriller with catch-up shootouts set an acute tone for the story, which is not abstruse and does not count, designed only to brighten the evening with a fantastic action movie.
7 out of 10
In the near future, humanity is experiencing not the best days. Acute shortage of normal food, earthquakes and floods make the planet not the most cozy habitat. There is a sect whose leader controls the mind of his parishioners. They appear to be ordinary people, but as soon as they or their leader are threatened, they turn into weak-willed zombies. With them, and with their leader, and fights our hero Jack, whose mind is sent to the past to capture the leader – Whistler.
The plot in the picture develops quite quickly, the viewer does not have time to get bored. From fiction, the film abruptly turns into an inexpensive action chase, with interesting ideas. The creators clearly understood that they had no experience or budget, but there was a great idea that they really wanted to implement. At the time of filming, the actors were not known to the viewer. Tim Tomerson, who starred in class B films (Cherry 2000 and the cult vampire horror film "Almost Stemnelo"), coped perfectly with the role of Detective Jack. He does not understand the rules and laws of the 20th century, can be harsh and rude, but still gets used to a new life and falls in love with the heroine Helen Hunt. The future Oscar winner plays here a young rebel who works in a supermarket and goes to punk concerts. It is interesting to see how the actress began her career.
It is worth noting that the creators deliberately did not make the film too serious. The film has a short time, a lot of jokes and funny moments. There are very few special effects, except for the first 10 minutes of the film and the slow-motion bullet effect (which was shown here 15 years before the release of the matrix), there is nothing else. But this only goes to the plus of the film, as the viewer is not loaded with unnecessary information, trying to jump over his head.
7 out of 10