Monday, July 14, 2014

Cyborg 2087 (1966)

Director: Franklin Adreon

Writer: Arthur C. Pierce

Composer: Paul Dunlap

Starring: Michael Rennie, Karen Steele, Wendell Corey, Warren Stevens, Eduard Franz, Harry Carey Jr., Adam Rourke, Chubby Johnson, Tyler MacDuff, Dale Van Sickel, Troy Melton, Jimmy Hibbard, Sherry Alberoni, Betty Jane Royale, John Beck, George Fisher

More info: IMDb

Tagline: His Mission... Stop the Invasion of the Cyborgs!

Plot: In the future world of the year 2087, freedom of thought is illegal and the thoughts of the world's populations are controlled by the government. A small band of "free thinkers" send a cyborg back in time to the year 1966 to prevent a scientist from making the breakthrough that will eventually lead to the mass thought control of the future. Our time traveler soon discovers he is not alone when government agents from the future try to prevent him from carrying out his mission.



My rating: 4/10

Will I watch it again? No.

Does it sound like THE TERMINATOR (1984)?  It sure does not that James Cameron would ever admit it.  His movie is far superior to this one but I really like the idea of CYBORG despite a few plot holes (try not to think too much).  The problem is in its execution.  It feels like it would be better suited to a half hour TWILIGHT ZONE episode or even a one hour film and not 86 very long minutes.  The chases are dull and drawn out, there's a lot of filler and the main theme is used over and over and over until it becomes a joke whenever it's played.  There is some entertainment besides seeing this as an early inspiration for THE TERMINATOR.  The four kids dancing like crazy at the house are awesome.  The sheriff's delivery is hilarious as he semi-slurs his words like he's been drinking (I'd love that to be true), the sounds of Garth's ray gun is hilarious (although I LOVED how the beam was invisible) and the technology is really dated especially when you consider the time travelers were using future tech.  Besides the pacing and that it looks like a TV movie, the budget really hurts it.  I would like to have seen what they could have done with more money but that can't help sub-par filmmaking skills.  It's kind of worth checking out because of the Cameron connection but it fails be much more than an interesting idea not living up to its full potential (or anywhere close to it).

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