Nemesis

Stars: Olivier Gruner (Angel Town), Tim Thomerson (Air America), Brion James (Blade Runner, The Player), Deborah Shelton (Body Double). Purported to be the first "full-fledged cyberpunk" feature film, Nemesis, from the director of Cyborg, has two basic modes: balls to the wall action, and deadly dull--not to mention confusing--chunks of story delivered as stand-around dialogue. Olivier Gruner (the latest hunk with a European accent) stars as LAPD detective Alex Rain, a cyborg who's more machine than man. Set in the year 2020, the story follows Rain's attempts to break up a terrorist ring (although, as he later discovers, the real problem is a high-level conspiracy to replace humans with cyborgs). Rain's travels take him from the mean streets of L.A. to the Far East which, surprisingly, looks pretty much the same: dusty and rundown. Rebecca Charles' script, which was more than a little influenced by cyberpunk author William Gibson's novels, contains some of the staple features of Gibson's futuristic landscape, but none of the insight or artistry. With a muddled story line and zippola character development, all Nemesis has to fall back on is action. And the action scenes are fairly decent, if you can ignore the fact that a quartet of cyborgs with enough firepower to provide a 4th of July celebration for all of China consistently miss one running guy at 50 yards (we've seen the future, and it can't hit the broad side of a barn). Some will like, most will laugh. Audience: Undemanding action and sci-fi fans. (R. Pitman) [Blu-ray Review—Jan. 15, 2019—MVD Visual, 96 min., R, Blu-ray/DVD Combo: $39.99—Making its first appearance on Blu-ray, 1992’s Nemesis features a fine transfer with 5.1 surround sound audio. Extras include both the director’s cut and the Japanese extended version of the film, audio commentary by director Albert Pyun, interviews with Pyun (36 min.) and producer Eric Karson (32 min.), 'making-of' featurettes (12 min.), a 'Killcount' segment (3 min.), an introduction by star Olivier Gruner (3 min.), an interview with Gruner (2 min.), an introduction by Pyun (2 min.), a brief afterword by Pyun, and photo galleries. Bottom line: a mediocre sci-fi action flick is still a mediocre sci-fi action flick on Blu-ray.]