Did you ever wonder what a low budget mash-up of Predator and Robocop starring Reb (Space Mutiny) Brown, written by Claudio (Troll 2) Fragasso, and directed by Bruno (Night of the Zombies) Mattei would look like? Wonder no more!
Reb is the leader of a team of soldiers sent to a jungle island on a top-secret mission. There, they find an unstoppable cyborg on the loose in the forest. The robo-soldier soon picks off the members of the team one by one before finally going mano y mano with Brown.
Scenes closely copy Predator, like when the grunts fire endlessly at an enemy they can’t see, the sequence where the soldiers raid a compound (right down to the part where Brown tosses a knife into a guy), and there are also lots of POV shots of the killer (except instead of infrared, it’s seen on a heavily pixelated computer screen). There are so many other moments here that closely resemble Predator that it’s a wonder John McTiernan’s lawyers didn’t get involved.
Oh, and the lone African American of the squadron looks and sounds like he might’ve been the inspiration for Robert Downey Jr.’s character in Tropic Thunder.
Reb screams and hollers and tells everyone to “Move! Move! Move!”, like only he can. His over-the-top theatrics help carry the movie whenever it threatens to bog down. It’s admittedly a pretty dumb hodgepodge, but for every misstep, there’s something that works... And by “works”, I mean it’s either unintentionally funny, downright cheesy, or (occasionally) kind of cool.
The stammering robot voice, which sounds like Robo-Porky Pig is annoying though. You keep expecting him to say, “That’s All, Folks!”, after he blows somebody up. The film is also padded with long scenes of the troops wandering aimlessly around in the jungle. On the plus side, lots of bamboo huts explode, and the close-ups of the skinned corpses are effective. As far as Mattei/Brown collabs go, I think Strike Commando is still my favorite, but this one certainly has its share of nutty moments.
AKA: Robo Man. AKA: Cyber Robo.
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