The Nemesis-Quadrilogy -Albert Pyun (1992 -1996)

NEMESIS- PART ONE

 

Cast

• Olivier Gruner as Alex
• Tim Thomerson as Farnsworth
• Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa as Angie-Liv
• Yuji Okumoto as Yoshiro Han
• Marjorie Monaghan as Jared
• Nicholas Guest as Germaine
• Vincent Klyn as Michelle
• Thom Mathews as Marion
• Marjean Holden as Pam
• Brion James as Maritz
• Deborah Shelton as Julian
• Jennifer Gatti as Rosaria
• Thomas Jane as Billy
• Jackie Earle Haley as Einstein
• Borovnisa Blervaque as Morico
• Merle Kennedy as Max Impact
• Adrianna Miles as German National
• Rob Carlton as Waiter
• Branscombe Richmond as Mexican Man

Any names sound familiar? Yeah, this features an early role for Thomas Jane, and also the now famous Jackie Earle Haley.

In the future, chaos is rampant as ‘information terrorists’ threaten to destroy order in society. Alex is a part-man-part-machine LAPD cop who is the best at what he does. When one of the terrorists calls him a machine, Alex questions his humanity and decides to leave the force. His final assignment is to apprehend an old colleague who has stolen some data. However, there is more than meets the eye and Alex must question his allegiance.

So far an imdb –sourced synopsis.

I am too lazy to write the intro myself, sorry.

But a slight correction I might add: Before he leaves the force , he gets shot to pieces pretty much, and just then, after he gets even more Cyborg parts, leaves the force.

This movie stars Olivier Gruner, a then hopeful newcomer, who impressed in Angel Town with great straight-forward martial arts.

His  skills as a former middleweight Kickboxing-World-Champion aren’t used as much here as they were in ANGEL TOWN, here its mostly guns that do the talking.

The film features a lot of the usual suspects of Pyuns movies. Also we get to see at least one very well-build woman , which Pyun may just have a fetish for. This gets taken to the extreme in the following Nemesis outings 2 to 4 in the form of  Sue Price, some massive Bodybuilder chick.

Vincent Klyn of CYBORG fame is also in this, if only  for a few.

This movie has its weaknesses, mainly the script and of course the sometimes pretty cheap effects.

But what it lacks in these departments is made up by some great action.

Lots of guns, nude flesh and  action scenes that Hollywood copied later on. (UNDERWORLD)

I like O.Gruner a lot in this, as I do I most of his other movies, he`s made.

This is a movie I can watch again and again, it is so much fun.

The  feeling I get watching this is “escapism”, meaning I dive into this crazy world, get entertained and am able to forgive the few flaws, this movie surely inherits.

But this world  Albert Pyun created here I like for sure…he uses filters very often, giving a lot of the film a orange-to-red-tone..The heat, the sweat, the gunpowder…this all together makes for a wild trip into cyber-punk-land. The story, as noted before, has its flaws, but also had potential for a decent sequel. Sadly, this opportunity was wasted. I know that there exists an alternate ending, I forgot where this can be found exactly, if it was on the Laserdisc or a foreign VHS  or what..i don`t remember. The dear reader may forgive me, as I won`t research that just now.

Also should be noted, that this was another movie, Pyun didn`t  finish himself…he wasn`t part of post-production on this one…but hey-Nemesis 2.0 is said to be on it`s way.!!!!

                                                                            We`re sooo fucked!!!

This is a must-see for any Action.Sci-Fi-Cyberpunk –Fan out there. If you haven`t yet-ewwww, just hurry down to your DVD store and hope you find it there.Or, maybe see if you find it in an online store.

I know that its sold for a high price, at least the region-free NTSC DVD, European releases are cheaper to get a hold of. And if you want widescreen, you have to pay a nice amount for the Japan Laserdisc, if you even find it.

Nemesis-Nebula –part 2 of the Quadrilogy

 

Nemesis 2: Nebula Directed by Albert Pyun Written by Rebecca Charles
Albert Pyun Starring Sue Price
Chad Stahelski
Tina Cote
Earl White Release date(s) 1995 Running time 83 minutes

Country United States

Language English language

Alex Rain tried to stop the Cyborgs. He failed…

That is the connection to the first Nemesis, nothing else.

After Olivier Gruner wasn`t gonna do a sequel, all the chances of the second part of Nemesis to be any good, went down the toilet.

Starting with a voice-over, we get introduced to the new story-line, which goes like this….the war humans vs. cyborgs  got won by the cyborgs. 70 years after Alex Rain, the last hope is a genetically enhanced child that would be powerful enough to bring down the Cyborgs —-hmm, `kay, sure…

So, the mother flees with her child back in time to something like 1980ish, I cannot be arsed to watch it for the exact year,lol.

Of course time machines are no problem, they just have that.Why it has to shoot down from the sky like a falling star, I dunno.

Plus, the landing cannot have been very soft…well, minor aspects, nobody seems to care about. The script must have been written on the toilet , during an epic dump.

They land in some African desert wasteland , pretty smart choice, eh?

Not long before they get attacked by some rebels or thieves or whatever…mother gets killed, but not before she hides the child behind some rock,,,

She, (it`s actually a girl) gets picked up by some african tribe, where she gets raised to be a warrior….a beefy one at that…

She then , at a certain age, wants to be accepted into the tribe for real, which requires a test.

Some warriors are upset , that this white woman should even get a shot at this. But she gets to fight and prove her qualities….

About that time, the Nebula, some Cyborg-Predator.Spaceman-looking something is about to find her…He followed her in just the same kind of time-machine.Why there is a time difference of 20 years is beyond me.The whole film is filled with mind-bending stupidity and laughable effects.

Well, what follows is an epic? battle …watch it yourself, if you have the nerves for it.

It can be enjoyable, but only when you admit, you´re watching a bad movie.

Something that always annoyed me with Albert Pyun , is the inconsistent quality of his movies.

Now, I know , a lot of the times he has a small budget, but when you have seen some of his better works, its really sad to see garbage like this.

I know, a lot of his films are filmed within a few weeks or days even, something you can find fascinating or shake your head at.

Honestly, when  I rented it back in the day, I wished I could`ve gotten my money back. This doesn’t even have the “so bad –its good” quality about it.

I am not one of those, who gets a boner , looking at a body-builder chick. If you do, this might just be your cup of tea.

To me, it`s a double disappointment: Has nothing to do with the first part, and its way worse in terms of quality and story.

Skip it, if you`re not extremely curious.

Nemesis 3:

Prey Harder (1996)

Cast:

Alex – Sue Price

Farnsworth 2 – Tim Thomerson

Edson – Norbert Weisser

Johnny – Xavier Declie

Lock – Sharon Bruneau

Ditko – Debbie Muggli

Rane – Ursula Sarcev

Brick Bardo/Juma – Earl White

Michael – Jon H. Epstein

Nebula – Chad Nahelski

Ok, this piece of crap isnt worth my time, so i`ll keep it short.

It´s ten times worse than part 2, and that wasn’t a revelation(read above).

It consists of mostly leftovers from the part 2 shoot, plus a lot of backflashes and reusing of material. It is by far the worst of Pyun´s movies I have seen so far( and I have seen quite a bit.

If I felt  betrayed watching part 2, then with this I felt Fxxxed up the rear .You have to watch this , if you wanna die from laughing.

The “special effects” are laughable, for lack of a better word. How this ended up being distributed is beyond me.

I just read a german review-a veery long one, damn how did he do that?! I laughed the whole time while reading, great work there, badmovies.de.

Nemesis 4:

Death Angel(1996)

Cast: Sue Price and some other ppl,lol.

Running time: about 65 minutes

Not this again, huh? (quote from Universal Soldier)

This is yet another awful outing in the Nemesis series,

This time it plays in some eastern European city or town, again something Pyun shot in just a few days time.

The relation to part 2 and 3 seems gone, its like some killers met to discuss life and death in an amateur poetry class or something. Sue Price is naked for most of the running time, and the only scene worth watching maybe , is a weird scene featuring some sort of cyborg sex…

In case you would sit through all of the Nemesis movies in a row, by now, you`d wanna challenge Albert Pyun to a death match.

I mean-how low can you go? Very low, apparently.

To think that he walked away with a good chunk of money  for making these crap movies, kinda hurts. (I`m talking mainly about 3 and 4 here…)

If you have no money, don`t try making a sci-fi flick that needs special effects, and low budget doesn`t necessarily have to mean god-awful dialogue, either.

There are no excuses for the crap that are part 3 and 4 of the Nemesis series.

Over and out.Thank god i`m done with this..moving on to films actually worth commenting on.

If you wann see some of that stuff-go here…i didnt find a video to the cyborg sex scene, but this shows it in all its glory.

http://www.schnittberichte.com/schnittbericht.php?ID=5617773

Hellford667 (2011)