Cyber Tracker
In the near future, cybernetics have become more common, and robot trackers roam the streets in search of criminals, who they summarily execute. This causes outrage with many citizens, who feel technology is going too far and turning America into a police state. Eric Phillips is a security guard, newly assigned to Senator Dilly, supporter of the big cybernetics company. He is impressed with his new guard after foiling an attack, and tries initiating him into the fold. But once Eric sees the corruption and murder on display, he refuses to take any part. Now on the run, a tracker is assigned to follow and terminate. Will man triumph over the machine, or can nothing stop the tracker?...
Cyber Tracker isn't Don 'The Dragon' Wilson's first foray into the future, but it's certainly better than Future Kick! The film is partly a Terminator cash-in, with some hints of Robocop, while also doing its own thing, as far as DTV action goes.
Cyber Tracker is set in the late 2010s, and aside from things like holograms, the look of this world is achieved through rooms lit in dark
blue, and outdoors with an orange sky. Otherwise it just looks like downtown L.A. Although admittedly, we're now almost a decade ahead of this period, and even now our world doesn't match even the slightest futuristic flourish this movie gives. Everything still looks the same as in 94!
The story here is fairly standard stuff. A tough secret service agent is on the run, fighting off robots and an evil corporation. I'm not sure the film does a good job of showing why the computerised justice system is bad. Sure it could be
misused, but we only see actual murderers getting shot. Although I suppose the ease in which Trackers are sent after the innocent hero is a decent argument against it.
By the halfway point, the plot stalls a little and becomes
thin. Though things pick up a little by the end. It's still a bit basic, but I was having more fun after the lull in the middle. There's an enjoyable multi-stage climax, with a healthy mix of gunplay, and hand to-foot combat.
The finale got a laugh out of me, with the hero shooting a senator on live TV, revealing him to be a robot. Which makes it a-ok to shoot him to death? The film has a nice ending, with a romantic moment, followed by a fun twist of lemon for a surviving villain. There's also an Ayn Rand quotation, which I certainly hope wasn't showing the movie's politics!
Eric Phillips is a standard hero. He starts out the movie great at his job, but down in the dumps ever since his wife left him. He passes the time by downing booze, programming his AI companion to get drunk, and watching old home footage. His wife was unable to accept his job as a bodyguard, getting the hilarious line "I just can't live my life waiting for you to walk through that door, dead or alive!"
He soon becomes a wanted man, and must think fast and fight well, if he has any hopes of surviving, as well as saving the day.
TV reporter Connie starts out as a background character, before revealed to be the leader of a group devoted to fighting back against 'bad' technology. Despite her normal appearance, she kinda works as a grizzled mature revolutionary. We also meet the rest of her group at this point, who are quick to distance themselves from the opening terrorists. There's a bit of conflict with one guy Jared, whose brother was killed in that attack. We also get a hippy guy spouting technobabble in a pretty amusing way, and a cute mother.
The villains are a fun bunch. There's the mistrustful head bodyguard who has a grudge against the hero for daring to be a good kickboxer too. He makes for a good opponent, though is underused. The senator really kicks events into motion by putting Eric through a loyalty test way too early! His logic is he may as well do it now, so come on Eric, shoot this innocent woman in the head for me! It won't be a shock to learn this doesn't work.
Then there's the head of the Cybercore corporation, who's a real piece of work, openly strangling assistants in meetings just to prove a point. He's delightfully evil, and I was glad he gets a deserving comeuppance.
The main onscreen villain has gotta be the Tracker(s). A few are sent after Eric, all identical, and all hard to stop. Bullets don't hurt it, but this doesn't stop anyone from trying! It even takes a few bazooka rounds before falling down, though explosions are the way to go. Isn't it lucky that bazookas are just lying around everywhere in this world. We see a clever way of destroying the last one that uses its abilities against it.
The action in Cyber Tracker is fun, with an abundance of explosions. Cars flipping over and engulfing in flames, vehicles somehow blowing up twice, and overall we have about 4 in the first half hour!
The effects here are pretty good. While not a lot of effort is made to make things futuristic, what we get is good, from the weapons, to the robotics. The 'injuries' they sustain look neat! The pyrotechnics are great too, as well as the little holographic moments here and there.
The acting is good. Wilson is a fine lead, while Stacie Foster is a nice love interest, getting in some good action herself. Richard Norton is fun, and it's great seeing an Aussie here, actually getting to be an Aussie too! Just wish he got more screentime. Jim Maniaci gets to have fun as the motionless killer robots, getting triple duty. John Aprea is fine while Joseph Ruskin is delightfully skeezy as the CEO. Everyone else does ok, and we get a cameo from Art Camacho!
The fight choreography works, and makes ample use of Wilson's legs. Given the focus on guns and robots, there's not a lot of room for kickboxing, but there's juuust enough, with Eric's misguided attempts to punch the robots, plus his main human opponent.
The direction here gets in some neat shots here and there, and takes advantage of the locations. It also manages to films things in such a way to not make the real time period that obvious. And the score is fairly generic stuff, with an oddly operatic tune at the end!
Cyber Tracker isn't great or anything, but it's ok. At its worst its just a low-budget DTV flick, but at no point is it truly bad, and it's an enjoyable way to kill some time if you're looking for some 90s action fluff.
Cyber Tracker 2
Special agent Eric Phillips is living a relatively peaceful life with his new wife and home. This calm is shattered when Connie seems to assassinate a senator on live TV. Now wanted for questioning himself, Eric must find his wife before the lethal Cyber Trackers do, and uncover the truth of a sinister conspiracy...
Cyber Tracker 2 is a real pleasant surprise after its middling predecessor! While
the first film wasn't exactly A-list, the sequel has more of a
Direct-to-video feel. Far from being a bad thing, I quite liked this,
and thought it brought a fun quality. There's more of an effort to make things look futuristic here. From the costumes, to weaponry, even the
trackers themselves look more like robots
There's a genuine progression here, both as characters and as a world. The continuity does feel slightly reset, with a couple of minor differences. But not in a bad way. There are still trackers, despite the events of the last film, which was a bit confusing. And one of them even has a friendly rapport with Eric, including a running exchange that you can predict from a mile away.
The story here is decent enough, following a similar template to the first, but with enough new or different details to shakes things up a little. And any similarities shouldn't be a bother anyway, if you see this as like a better redo of the first film
Cyber Tracker 2 definitely pleases on the action front. It's both plentiful and good, and also very cheesy! The film opens with a bang, with 8 police officers killed! The hero and police chief hold casual conversations afterward too, as if there hasn't just been the greatest police massacre of the year.
This isn't the last time the film's like this either. The bad guys send a robot double of Eric to the police station, massacring literally everyone there just to kill one man who might know to much! This bit goes way too far, straight into ridiculous territory. It's hilariously unsubtle, and hinges entirely on Eric not already being there, as well as no-one asking obvious questions like "Hang on, how did this guy survive countless gunshots?". And it also goes without saying that this whole scene is 'inspired' by The Terminator.
Onto the characters, Eric starts off this sequel in a much improved place compared to the last. He's even grown his hair out! He soon finds himself in another tricky situation, but shoots and kicks his way through.
Connie gets moments of being a damsel, and of kicking ass in equal measure. She's in a pickle though! Ordinarily it'd be really sus if a news anchor suddenly murdered a
senator, on air no less. Unfortunately it's really not a good look for
Connie when she was the head of an anti-government terror cell, and is
married to a man who shot a previous senator to death, also on air!
Also returning is Jared, now Eric's buddy. It's
nice seeing their hostility from the last movie change to genuine
friendship. It's also nice seeing him settle down from his terrorist days into
being a cameraman...Ummm, just one thing though. I watched the last
film, and I couldn't help but notice...Jared kinda sorta died. He was fatally
shot, then used his final moments to blow up a killer robot! I was half expecting him to die here, only to return in a theoretical Cyber Tracker 3!
While most of the Trackers here are bad, we get the heroic No. 9, who has a fun rapport and is a real badass! He's got a good return in the last act, and kicks serious ass. I was worried about him when he seemed to die (in a fistfight with a random human??), but he made it out ok.
The police commissioner is a smart guy, and quickly figures out what's what, being quite proactive. He's got a cute niece to, who has some nice scenes. We also have a return of an upgraded Aggie, Eric's home AI. Her presence felt like a nice link between movies.
The villains get the job done, and have good interplay, with the senator growing increasingly afraid of his corporate partner, with good reason. Main baddie Morgan gets one particularly great villainous moment.
The climax is plenty of fun. We've got gunplay, kickboxing, shirts being undone for no reason, girl-on-girl action, bad one liners and freezing people solid, the works. There's one femme fatale who actually dies when shot, which was a surprise. No dragging things out for her. Eric must go up against Morgan's 'masterpiece'-The ultimate robot. It's featured too little and is destroyed too quickly, though in a satisfyingly different way (a giant laser rather than yet more gunfire and explosions). There's a little confrontation with Morgan after, which is alright.
The ending is light and cheesy, especially with the culmination of the 'Eric' exchanges. Sadly we never see Aggie or the commissioner's niece again, but ah well, still a good wrap-up, with no loose ends.
As low budget as it is, Cyber Tracker 2 manages to look good. The near-future setting does ask a bit, but the 'near' part smooths over a lot. The weapons, computers, and other little touches give off a decently high-tech vibe. The film goes overboard with the pyrotechnics, even more than the previous film. It has more than enough explosions, yet someone behind the scenes must have thought otherwise, because some stock footage from the previous entry is spliced into one scene. It's really clumsy, almost surreal!
The action is all filmed well for the most part, minus some scenes being lit a bit too dark. There's not a huge amount of hand-to-hand combat, but what there is looks alright. That's the overall problem though in a movie about bulletproof robots. Not many opportunities for kickboxing!
The cast here do a decent job. Wilson is a reliable action hero, and gets to go bad as the robot double, complete with a black turtleneck of evil. A surprisingly clean-shaven Anthony de Longis is a good villain! Stacie Foster is fine again, Steve Burton is alright as the sidekick, and Tony Burton is good as the grizzled older black chief. Peggy McIntaggart and Eboni Adams are fun in their small roles, and John Kassir (the Cryptkeeper himself) has a supporting part, and will either entertain or annoy with his distinct voice. The villains are amusingly evil, and Jim Maniaci gets a meatier part as the trackers this time, particularly as No. 9.
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