Tag: Don The Dragon Wilson

Future Kick (1991)

H Y P E R D R E A M

Objectively, Future Kick (1991) is one star direct-to-video trash. Yet this is right in the pocket of a low-rent cyberpunk vibe that I’m very much into. I love The Terminator, Robocop and Total Recall so much, that to see a cheap knock-off from the 1990s is a joy, for how they replicate moments on a lower budget. Usually there are practical sets and special effects, and if there’s any CGI, it’s going to be on the level of a CD-ROM video game.

In the “future” of Future Kick, wealthy people live on the moon while the Earth has become a Blade Runner type ruined metropolis, all overcrowded police stations, streets with fire drums, and illicit night clubs always cutting away to a stripper performing a dance. Meg Foster (They Live, Masters Of The Universe) is searching for her missing VRS programmer husband (VRS is “Virtual Reality Systems” as he helpfully explains to her) in the sprawl. Eventually she teams up with a sunglasses-at-night bounty-hunter cyborg played by Don “The Dragon” Wilson (his championship titles as a martial artist are given underneath his name in the opening credits). I loved how his opening narration explains that a new line of cyborgs were created to crack down on corporate crime, but they found out the corporations were responsible for too much crime, and a special task force of corporate police were created to hunt down and terminate the cyborgs (info given in the space of two minutes). There’s also a serial killer (who has a pouty Chris Sarandon Fright Night aura) with a three blade knife who rips out people’s hearts and sells them to a New Body rejuvenation corporate business on the body organ black market. And there’s also Chris Penn as a robot who does kickboxing, no doubt waiting for Reservoir Dogs to shift him out of the Best Of The Best era.

The great thing about Future Kick is that its 76 minutes long and moves at a clip, with ADR exposition papered over edits between scenes, and producer Roger Corman recycling sets and stars from other films, even footage (the space scenes I believe are from Battle Beyond The Stars) to make it to the finish line as a releasable movie. It still has enough William Gibson rip-off shit (there’s even an underground death game called Laser Blade) to make me love it, alongside other VHS cyberpunk knock-offs like Mutant Hunt, Cyber Tracker and Virtual Assassin.

Available to stream on Tubi (of course). Recommended (if you like your direct-to-video detritus).

Cyber Tracker (1994)

Don ‘The Dragon’ Wilson is a name I know from the video store shelves, a direct-to-video action star on the lower circle of action heroes. Like Jeff Speakman or Olivier Gruner, these were recognisable names but I never saw any of their flicks. Until now. Cyber Tracker (1994) is a sci-fi martial arts thriller that is a lower budget copy of Terminator and Terminator 2. Instead of Terminators, these indestructible assassins are called Cybertackers, and instead of being controlled by futuristic AI, they’re basically robocops authorised to go all Judge Dredd on any convicted felon punched into the database. When I started watching this VHS rip off uploaded onto YouTube, I’ll be honest, there’s a voice in the back of my head going, “Why, you could be watching something good?!” But then, you get a lo-fi version of a high-tech special effect – like a gun emerging from a robotic thigh through some basic graphic effects – and the entertainment value kicks in. Wilson plays a secret service agent wearing a suit and shades who protects a Senator (John Aprea, great to see members of the On Cinema universe represented) keen to adopt more technological enhancement in society. Yet, there’s a sinister plot underfoot and Wilson is double-crossed and on the run, hunted by a Cybertracker (Jim Maniaci – who looks like a huge, bald middle-aged ex-football player, which I assumed he was). Inevitably Wilson has to team up with those he thought were terrorists, the anti-tech freedom fighters, the UHR, which stands for the Union of Human Rights – probably my favourite detail in this near-future society. This is brain-dead knock-off stuff but I was entertained. I think I was mostly impressed that this low-budget direct-to-video number could still pull off throwing multiple cars off ramps and having them explode on the streets of LA. Wilson is a better fighter than an actor, so thankfully there’s plenty of martial arts fights amongst all the car explosions and shoot-outs in abandoned warehouses. Thankfully also in the mix is long-time stunt-man and martial artist, Richard Norton, an Australian guy who’s been in cult classics like Gymkata and Alien From LA; he plays the formidable henchman after Wilson, and it’s just great to see a nemesis who looks a bit like Richard Wilkins and sounds like a Bondi life-guard in this low budget sci fi schlock. Available to watch on YouTube.