Johnny Mnemonic (1995)

Screened at Luna Cinemas Leederville as part of the Trash Classics season programmed by VHS Tracking.

“The dolphin will take you to the data.”

I remember seeing Johnny Mnemonic when it first came out. I was a kid and thought any movie that I saw at the Greater Union cinemas in the Westfield shopping mall was a good movie. After Johnny Mnemonic, I was unsure: “I think it was good?” Like I was convincing myself. Now having seen it a dozen times in the intervening decades, I do love it, even as it remains imperfect and not good to some degree. Existing as a first draft to what the Wachowskis would later perfect at the end of the 1990s with Keanu Reeves in The Matrix, which is more entertaining and satisfying in every way: better action and special effects, more philosophical, more iconic.

Still, I appreciate the junky and janky quality of Johnny Mnemonic. When I saw the henchman “Baldy,” with his big trench-coat and dark shades, holding a huge machine gun, as if he stepped out of a cheap cyberpunk paperback cover, I was delighted. The crisp dated computer graphics as we enter the pulsating electronic vistas of cyberspace on a big cinema screen was overwhelming. The parade of supporting actors, all bringing their unique and diverse energy to the sprawl: Udo Kier, Henry Rollins, Ice-T (king of the reaction shots in the movie’s last thirds, and giving video game style narration in the hacker climax). The movie throwing weirdness at you, like a woman’s face on a computer screen resembling a new age album cover shouting at an impassive Takeshi Kitano. And the absolute MVP, the reveal of super-hacker Jones as a psychic dolphin strapped into the internet, every close up and cut away and dolphin cry making me laugh with joy.

Thank you to everyone who attended the Trash Classics screening and made it such a fun night, particularly the winners of the Keanu Reeves impression. The performance of “I want room service!” really set the audience up for when that scene happened. Much gratitude to Umbrella Entertainment for providing the giveaway of a Lord Of Illusions blu-ray, and to the Luna staff for all of their help, especially those filming the doco Starring Luna.

And it turned out to be a perfect movie for Good Friday with Dolph Lundgren’s Christ-styled cyber-assassin and his one-liner before attacking Johnny Mnemonic, “It’s Jesus time!”

Automatic (1995)

“This guy is cool!” – security guard under his breath, watching a cyborg on a monitor wipe the floor with a crack team of mercenaries.

Automatic (1995) is a sci-fi action flick Die Hard knock-off which is mostly shot in the shadowy interiors of a corporate building, the HQ for robot/manufacturing company RobGen. Some movies are “warehouse action flicks”, this one is mostly a “conference room action flick”! Watching a DVD upload onto YouTube meant that the film was mostly swimming in darkness, as if you were watching a LaserQuest match from the sidelines with a florescent bar for lighting.

French martial artist Oliver Gruner (from Nemesis) is once again playing an emotionless cyborg, thankfully wearing a buttoned-up white shirt, so you can actually see him. When the sleazy boss of secretary Daphne Ashbrook attempts to sexually assault her after hours in his spacious office, the cyborg steps in and terminates him. This concerns John Glover – back playing a chipper yuppie CEO after Gremlins 2 but this time more evil – who wants to ensure his series of “Automatics” – his production line of buff-male cyborg security systems – won’t grow hearts and malfunction en masse. Sleazy Jeff Kober and his team of mercs are sent to “retire” these employees, and cover up the situation. What follows moves at a quick pace, an on-going chase through corridors, elevator shafts, ventilator ducts, and giving plenty of opportunities for Gruner to do a roundhouse kick or two, and fire off a bulky futuristic machine gun.

Clocking in at 90 minutes, Automatic is enjoyable straight-to-video cyberpunk trash with enough action and John Glover chewing the scenery to keep your attention. Bonus points for including character actor Troy Evans (you won’t know the name but you’ll recognise him) as that schlub security guard and Penny Johnson from The Larry Sanders Show as comic relief. Obviously echoes Robocop, Total Recall and Terminator, and has enough flashes of old-school computer graphics and fleshy mechanical props to appeal to any cyber-head. On YouTube. Recommended.

Fortress (1992)

Fortress (1992) is one of those movies from my youth that I never sat through from start to finish, but feel like I absorbed through osmosis. It was always on TV, and flipping between channels, I usually caught key scenes. Much like Escape From Absolom and Wedlock, Fortress feels like the moderately budgeted children of Total Recall’s smash success as a sci-fi quasi-cyberpunk action flick, reiterating the Verhoevian mix of gratuitous violence and a hint of kinked up sexuality, enough to implant itself upon a generation of teenage boy memory banks. Like I always remember in Fortress that people’s guts explode due to the intestinal device they implant in the prisoners, or the “enhanced” warden (Kurtwood Smith) spying on the prisoner’s sex dreams.

In the dystopian future, America has a one child policy and abortion is outlawed. Ex-soldiers Christopher Lambert and Loryn Locklin are captured trying to smuggle across the Canadian border with their second child to be (their first died). Lambert is sentenced to the “Fortress”, an underground, multi-level corporately-run prison that institutes control through intestinal devices that are remotely controlled and can inflict intense pain or can be set to explode. And there are floating robot cameras that can even intrude upon the prisoner’s mind. Despite being a corporate drone cyborg, Kurtwood Smith has eyes for Lambert’s wife, to the point of offering her a deal as a live-in “companion”. It’s up to Lambert and his motley crew of cellmates to bust out, including Clifton Collins Jnr, Tom Towles and the Re-Animator himself, Jeffrey Combs, stealing scenes as a tripped-out hippie hacker nerd with glasses that make his eyes bug out. Also stars Vernon Wells from Mad Max 2 and Commando as a thug prisoner with “187” tattooed on his forehead.

Directed by Stuart Gordon (Re-Animator), he demonstrates his skill with orchestrating impactful violence and dramatic stakes. The middle of the movie is actually more of a drama as Lambert is broken by being mind-wiped (in a spinning contraption), and the disparate prisoners begin to work together when the prospect of escape is possible. It does feel like a cyber update of a WW2 prison break flick and even the villain is given some shading by struggling with romantic feelings as a cyborg and also just being a cog in the bigger corporate machine (helped by the strong acting of Kurtwood Smith). Lambert is a good lead with his intense stare and Tarzanesque bouts of pain and yelling, particularly when strapping on a boxy machine gun arm and plugging away at cyborg soldiers.

A solid sci-flick from the 1990s era that incorporates some dramatic stakes before its climatic rush towards a non-stop death-count throughout the escape. Also has the distinction of being shot at Warner Brothers Movie World on the Gold Coast, and in further proof that it was filmed in Australia, there’s rumours of a cameo by notorious AFL player Warwick Capper in the supporting cast (I didn’t catch his appearance and cannot confirm). Recommended.

Hologram Man (1995)

Slash Gallagher. That’s the name of the bad guy in Hologram Man (1995), a sci-fi action techno-thriller from PM Entertainment Group. No doubt direct-to-video upon its release, watching it on a YouTube rip now, the film looks like television, yet has enough budget for multiple explosions and equipment to launch stunt people into the air against a wall of flames in the background. Now Slash Gallagher (played by Evan Lurie who also cowrote the movie) is a dreadlocked megalomaniac (resembling a buff Jonathan Davis from Korn) who in the opening of the movie takes his army of goons to assassinate a US senator as part of his “revolution.” In Slash’s way are by-the-book cop named Decoda (Joe Lara) and his partner (John Amos). After one action sequence that smashes up and detonates multiple cars on an inner-city main road, there’s now a vendetta relationship between Decoda and Slash, particularly when Slash is captured and sent to hologram prison. Flash forward five years, and now LA is even more futuristic with space-ship cars and eco-domes. Decoda is no longer by-the-book but a long-haired, rule-breaking maverick and Slash has broken out of the matrix and turned into a powerful electron based force… a Hologram Man if you will.

Demolition Man is a clear influence here (and the film’s title is even name-dropped by a character) along with action sequences that recall moments from Robocop and Terminator 2 (the cocaine factory shoot-out and the truck freeway chase respectively). This is fun cyberpunk video trash that has it all: a VR training sequence that feels like a demo for a PC simulator, a corrupt corporation called CalCorp (short for “California Corporation”), character actors like William Sanderson and Tiny Lister as Slash’s henchmen, Michael Nouri from The Hidden as the power hungry governor, and Tron level effects that turn our muscular stars into video-effect body-suit wearing pixelated “holograms.” Lara resembles Nic Cage in Con Air but if he traded the white singlet for a yuppie suit, and Lurie has a haughty, over-the-top energy that is memorable. Directed by the king of PM cyber-action flicks, Richard Pepin (Cyber Tracker and T-Force) Recommended.

T-Force (1994)

T-Force (1994) is right in the pocket of 1990s VHS-era sci-fi action movie trash that I’m into, particularly anything with a cyberpunk element. PM Entertainment productions seem to have a lot of video covers where the hero – in this case Jack Scalia as a cop named Jack Floyd – holds up a gun as big as their head. It’s a true blessing how many of these flicks have been uploaded onto YouTube to watch for free.

The first 20 minutes of T-Force is another Die Hard rip-off where Vernon Wells (Mad Max 2, Commando) leads a gang of armed terrorists into a Los Angeles corporate building and says stuff like “Good to see you, Mr. Ambassador.” Then our hero cop Scalia rolls up in an open-top cool-guy vintage convertible, and assists a team of government approved Universal Soldier type “cybernauts” called “Terminal Force” who sweep in to save the day. Unfortunately when a few hostages are taken out in the crossfire, the cyborgs are set for “retirement.” Except they decide to turn rogue, talking about “self-preservation” and that the “law is corrupt.” Scalia is given the Blade Runner assignment to hunt them down, and also overcomes his Alien Nation style prejudice against robots by being partnered with the one cyborg – Cain (Bobby Johnston) – who upholds the law (and can rock some faded denim jeans).

A grab-bag of popular sci-fi action movie clichés with enough explosions, 90s ponytails, and Terminator-style cyborg-claw SFX to make it a fun time. Also, contains wacky bits of business such as an exotic dancer needing a battery recharged in the middle of their act, or the hunted cyborgs finding a porno mag in the deserted factory they’re hiding out in and decide to give “procreating” a try (cue sax solo). Recommended, if you’re into VHS action movie trash.