Человек против киборга (1995) Online

After spending a long time searching for this movie, I finally found a store that had it on VHS for less than $1, and I immediately popped it in my VCR when I got home.

After reading about the plot I was hooked right away: In the future, kick-boxing has been overtaken by cryogenically enhanced fighters, only one man is still 100% human, but when he refuses to fight in the ultimate lethal tournament, the arrangers kidnap his girlfriend/manager and force him to compete!

The movie did not disappoint me at all, but that might be because I saw so many familiar faces in it, being an avid Albert Pyun-fan, he used the same set of actors he always does: Jahi J. J. Zuri is making his film-debut as one of the fighters, and Thom Mathews is also playing a sympathetic fighter in the tournament, being forced to fight in the competition by the evil mastermind Tung. Tung is played by Pyun's most frequent collaborator, the flamboyant Norbert Weisser, who is aided by always entertaining Tim Thomerson, who here plays the synthetic red-headed leader of corporate scumbags. Earl White and Chad Stahelski are also two guys Pyun uses often, and they're in the movie as Budokam fighters, of which there are plenty.

Although the star of the movie is not one of his regulars, Keith H. Cooke, known from "China O'Brien", here plays the last 100% human kick boxer in the world, Chance O'Brien (co-incidence? I think not), and he actually does quite a good job. The martial arts-superstar Gary Daniels (from "Fist of the North Star") is a great bad guy, with his icy-blue eyes and nonchalant attitude, and the woman both men love is also a Pyun-regular, Tina Coté, who hasn't done many movies yet, but always gives her best performances in Pyun's movies (like "Nemesis 2", "Mean Guns", and "Omega Doom"). This was actually the first movie I've seen where she did not play an obnoxious b*tch, so that was a new experience.

The fight-sequences in the movie are interesting, but after a while it does tend to be a bit tedious to watch, and at times fast-forwarding is probably a good idea to keep interest. If you like both cyborgs and kick-boxing this is definitely a movie you should watch, but if either turns you off, you should probably stay away, as that is pretty much all there is going on in this movie.

Highlight: Keith Cooke running around naked in the Phillipines. The abundance of man-ass is hilarious, but if you're homophobic, this might at first turn you off, but later we get to see Tina Coté's nipples, so there's something for both men and women in this movie, cyborgs or not.

After bypassing this for a couple of months I finally decided to rent it, thanks to the cool-looking video box cover (check out the IMDb for a picture). What I was expecting was some cheesy, science fiction TERMINATOR rip-off. What I got was some cheesy, low-budget rip-off of all those Van Damme kickboxing vehicles like BLOODSPORT. Albert Pyun, who also directed CYBORG, seems to be directing in his sleep here as he fails to shoot anything impressive or exciting, despite the copious amounts of violence on display.

This film actually looks like it's going to be pretty funny and different at the beginning, in scenes which have our hero running naked through a market after being attacked by bad guys and stripped by a gang of street urchins. Sadly, though, as soon as the martial arts tournament begins, we are subjected to repeated scenes of people kicking and fighting each other to the death. These fights are shot through some smoky haze (an old trick used to disguise low budgets) and lack even the minimal excitement that Van Damme offered in his heyday. The silly science fiction plot seems to have been grafted on to this film as an excuse to have the losers of the fights display some sub-imitation TERMINATOR wounds, i.e. to show bits of metal sticking out of their faces, legs, hands, you name it. The first time we see this, it's cool, but the fifth or sixth time is just silly. These moments come complete with a crackling noise supposedly meant to signify electronics inside the cyborgs exploding.

I'd give the scriptwriter credit, as at least he does try to add some actual "plot" to the film to keep it moving and give it suspense, but all he does is steal a plot twist from KICKBOXER instead (hero must lose final round or his brother/lover will be killed) and use that. The cast list is a veritable who's who of cheesy sci-fi/horror movies. Appearing are Tim Thomerson in a cameo role (complete with dyed bright red hair) as a sponsor, an aged RETURN OF THE LIVING DEAD's Thom Mathews as a corrupted fighter whose physique just doesn't cut it, genre staple Gary Daniels as the mean, muscular bad dude, old-timer Norbert Weisser (complete with yellow contact lenses, why?) as the chief baddie and no-name Tina Cote as the love interest with a short haircut. The hero is played by Keith Cooke, who on inspection turns out to be a stuntman as well as a fighter, so that gives you some idea of his acting skills.

There's a lot of build up to the final fight between Daniels and Cooke here, but the last scenes are so pathetic that they'll leave you feeling cheated. The guys battle for a while, Daniels gets quickly beaten, and then in a flash of quick editing, all of the bad guys are either killed or knocked unconscious. This scene happens so quickly that it's impossible to work out what's going on unless you play it in slow motion - I hate it when that happens. HEATSEEKER is a typical piece of martial arts nonsense packed with all the violence that the sub-genre brings, but offering up nothing in the way of originality or excitement. Worth watching only for the amusingly cheesy TERMINATOR rip-off make up.

In the future scientifically enhanced fighters do battle at a tournament arranged by the Corporations who developed the technology.

With a bigger budget, a better cast and a more capable director, Heatseeker actually had some potential. Unfortunately, it is poorly acted, badly photographed, and there is a dreadful music score. The sets could also have been much better. The only thing going for it is some halfway decent fight sequences. But this isn't enough to warrant even one star.

No budget, no actors, and a plot that has been used so many times that it is threadbare. Red-and-blue oozing neons tries to hide the fact that this is all done in cheap sets, as most video fodders. Avoir this.

Keith Cooke plays the last human kickboxer who competes in a tournament where men with cybernetic replacements, (Or are they cyborgs, whatever the case my braincells were lost during the transition) of course he is forced to fight because his girlfriend (Tina Cote) has been abducted and is being forced to train Xao (Gary Daniels) who is a cyborg. Also aboard is Thom Mathews who looks to redeem himself and his father. The only good thing I can say about Heatseeker is that I didn't have to pay to see it, since I caught it on the Sci-Fi channel. Unfortunately that is all it has going for it. Heatseeker also ranks as one of the dullest features from Albert Pyun. His best efforts being the Kickboxer series (So far what I have seen) have been works of mediocrity but Heatseeker comes from a curse that no good movie has ever been made by Pyun, that involves cyborgs, robots or machines.) His best to date was the confusing and sub par Nemesis. However with Heatseeker, Pyun is desperately out of ideas and imagination, so he simply turns this into a robot jox of the fighting circuit. Also of note is that none of the fight sequences evoke excitement and overall we are left to watch a movie that is hideously dull in it's uninspired tone.

* out of 4-(Bad)

Keith Cooke, the cult superkicker who many people would have loved to see in more movies, achieves something of a career pinnacle with HEATSEEKER – the only starring vehicle he's had as of this writing. Disappointingly, this high point does not exactly constitute a highlight: consistently flawed despite a decent premise and an explosion of physical talent, the film just barely manages to scrape a decent rating through sheer sweat and grit. I don't recommend it, but the B-movie aficionado in me won't allow a lower ranking.

The story: In a future when organized combat is waged by technology-enhanced cyborgs, the single 100% human fighter (Cooke) is forced to enter a deadly tournament by a ruthless corporate agent (Norbert Weisser).

Cooke is in great shape and shows off all his best taekwondo moves, but his character is bland beyond all likability. He and the rest of the performers are at the mercy of a script that directs its energy into unwanted venues. The crux of the story is the kidnapping of the lead's manager/fiancé: Tina Cote was one of the movie's few opportunities for some dramatic worth, but her character spends most of the feature being mind-controlled and molested by the villain in a far-fetched plan to get bad guy fighter Gary Daniels to fall in love with her and be a better competitor. Cooke's character is left almost completely in the background. It's an oddly joyless story, plagued by an epidemic of white characters with Asian names: Daniels is called Xao, fighter Chad Stahelski is called Chung, and in what I assume to be a purposely ironic liberty, Norbert Weisser's character is called Tung and spends the movie adorned in teashade sunglasses.

The fight content becomes the picture's last opportunity for entertainment value, and overall, it succeeds (though to what degree diminishes as viewers' expectations rise). A whopping 20 full-length fight scenes almost guarantee that there will be at least some matches for anyone to enjoy, and the cast includes a nice selection of on screen fighters like Thom Matthews, Burton Richardson, Jahi Zuri, John Machado, and Richard Cetrone. I was pleased to see that significantly less slow motion and obstructive editing has been utilized than the norm for director Albert Pyun's movies, though the choreography tends to be bland and the pacing of the matches is far from dynamic. While not nearly matching my hopes, the Cooke/Daniels dream matchup is decent, though my favorite fight of the feature is a winning effort for Pyun regular Earl White .

There's a bit of B-movie abandon to just keep things entertaining enough throughout, including an odd scene in which Cooke is beaten unconscious by some thugs for no reason before having his clothes stolen by children, leaving him to run naked through Manila. Maybe experiences like that limited the man's willingness to submit himself to the whims of a director, but whatever the reason why ol' Keith never received top billing afterwards, you can be assured that the ranking of his credit does not indicate the quality of this movie. I better post this before I rethink my generosity…

Heatseeker is a movie which is definitely not my favourite action movie. The director Albert Pyun has wasted his talent on this sop-chocky pile of a film.

The whole thing dosen't make sense and I think the actor's were paid a dime to play on this one.

I would've thought that the title "Heatseeker" could've been for a sci-fi movie. But this is half sci-fi and half martial arts.

Well, as for this, this is a thumbs down for this one. I'm not going to see it again!

I have often found myself defending Albert Pyun for some of his films that few other people like (like "Nemesis"), but "Heatseeker", a pretentious mix of pseudo-sci-fi and martial arts action, really is one of his worst films. Keith Cooke (whom I first spotted in "China O'Brien 2", where he stole the show from Cynthia Rothrock and Richard Norton), is an impressive kicker; Gary Daniels is an excellent opponent; and the cast is obviously full of real fighters. If Pyun had cut out all the crap about cyber enhancement and rival bio-engineering companies, we would probably have about 30 minutes of straight fighting. In other words, the movie is watchable, but only if you know how to use your fast-forward button. (*)

this could've been a martial arts B movie classic. But if I didn't know better, I'd swear this was made from a video game. Sadly it's that bad. That said, I've studied martial arts a long time and the choreography was interesting enough to keep me watching. That and Keith Cooke is no joke. He's the real deal and he's been around a long time though he never had a big enough vehicle to really exploit his talent.

I give it a 5 because I'm a martial arts junkie and a huge fan of cyberpunk. Even sucky cyberpunk like Johnny Mneumonic. However the movie was a letdown in that it really didn't establish the cyberpunk theme. Too bad because the premise is great. A totally human fighter enters a tournament of cyber enhanced fighters. But in fact they could've taken the cyber stuff out, and you'd have the same exact movie pretty much. Oh well, for a late night movie on Sci Fi I can't really complain I suppose. :D

"Heatseeker" is an entertaining little cyborg kickboxing flick from cyborg kickboxing master Albert Pyun. Utilizing the tried and true trope of a worldwide freestyle fighting tournament, the movie stays in familiar territory while adding it's own fairly unique details. The cyber-enchanced competitors are varied and skilled enough in martial arts to keep things fun, and things move along quickly without much unnecessary hold up. I say "much" because of the completely out of left field and sudden molestation of the main character's fiancé by the main villain, and an extended nude male romp through a city.

Aforementioned villain, Mr. Tung, is actually excellent, completely nailing the slightly deranged, business douchebag, money grubbing schemer character. Keith Cooke (David Schwimmer lookalike main character) does a good job of remaining sympathetic, somehow overcoming the odds and remaining human, literally and figuratively. The end is somewhat sudden, and leaves me wondering how the relationship between Chance and Jo would be after she was basically enslaved, shock-raped, exploited and forced to "love" another man mere hours before their quick reunion. Probably gonna have some issues there.

Overall this film was entertaining from start to finish. Nothing had me absolutely engaged or particularly wowed, but there was not much that had me shaking my head in frustration either. Fans of late 80s/early 90s kickboxing movies would do well to at least give this one a shot.