Cyborg 3: The Recycler

STAR RATING:*****Unmissable****Very Good***Okay**You Could Go Out For A Meal Instead*Avoid At All Costs

In the future,civility between man and machine has deceased and war wages.'Recycler' Llewyllyn (Richard Lynch,coming across as a poor mans Rutger Hauer! (yikes)) and his sidekick Jocko (Andrew Bryniarski,who weirdly resembles a beefier,blanker version of Vincent Klyn from the original film) hunt cyborgs across the desert,hoping to catch them and sell their scrap parts to the highest bidder.Cyborg Cash (Khrystyne Haje,in a role originally played by a young Angelina Jolie in the previous film) is the first cyborg to become pregnant and becomes their primary target.The story also features a character called Evans (an older Zach Galligan from the Gremlins films) as one of Cash's old flames and a walk-on part (despite being headbilled on the front cover) from Malcolm 'will-work-for-food' McDowell as Lord Talon,one of Llewellyn's main buyers.

The director of the last film,Michael Schroeder,returns to helming duties here,the first in the series to feature no martial artists in the leading roles.

The,erm,shall we say,less than oscar worthy production values,screenplay and acting aside,this plotless rubbish is totally far away from the essence of the original film,which,lets face it,was quite an uninspired mess to begin with and should really say it all.It's also appropriately titled,in the way it seems to 'recycle' ideas from many other movies of much superior quality made before it.This is aside from a nauseating soundtrack which grates on the nerves throughout the film.

Worth watching only for the unimaginable hilarity of a woman giving birth to a baby in the shape of a grey tin can with wires dangling off the edge of it.*

I've read some other comments about this film and most of them said that this is a low budget film. Maybe it's true, but that didn't seem to me when i watch this film. The special effects were quite good for a movie made in 90's and also there were some good action sequences. What else did i liked about this film were colorful characters and pretty weird music. I've seen the first two Cyborg films and i think this is worth watching sequel. Like the first two films this one also has a good plot(maybe even better than in the first film) and lots of action(this time there is more shootouts and car chases). One of the cyborgs is played by Evan Lurie who is known for some roles in martial arts films so in the end there are some good martial arts scenes.

Years after the fall of the last of the great corporations, the world has fallen into a new dark age where cyborgs are harvested for their parts. Cash, a female cyborg, travels to a wasteland doctor to receive news that she is pregnant. On the run from Recyclers (bounty hunters who hunt cyborgs), Cash tries to find her way to Cytown, the mythical refuge for cyborgs.

"Cyborg 3: The Recycler" is the third (& last so far) entry in the CYBORG trilogy. The first film was originally planned to be a sequel to MASTERS OF THE UNIVERSE, but was quickly rewritten into a standard post-apocalyptic martial-arts fest that became something of a cult classic due to its cheesy action scenes. CYBORG 2: GLASS SHADOW was a sequel that actually improved upon its predecessor but was not widely seen (& was dismissed by those few who saw it as cheap fodder).

This film, for one thing, tries to be a meld of the first two films (the first was a cheesy action film while the second was a smart Cyberpunk story) but unfortunately falls short on both counts. The budget was obviously lower than CYBORG 2, with the film being set in the desert wastelands (like so many post-apocalyptic action films of the 90s were), shot around old industrial buildings to conserve costs.

The film's story centres on a plot device, that of a pregnant cyborg, that is as interesting as it is absurd (this film is not the first to try that idea; the anime OVA series ARMITAGE III uses it to a greater extent). But the film falls into the same trap that so many low-budget sci-fi action films fall victim to, in the fact that the snags (synthetic organisms) featured are nothing more than androids. The visual effects amount to nothing more than prosthetic arms & makeup effects.

The acting is pretty standard for this kind of film, with the lead actress (Khrystyne Haje) being the single worst performer on display. Instead of being joyed at the news she is pregnant, she acts all whiny & sullen. Her co-stars are much better, Malcolm McDowell being the usual gangster type who enlivens the scenes he appears in & Richard Lynch has a lot of fun as the chief villain. Of particular note is Andrew Byniarski, playing Lynch's right hand man, who would later appear in THE Texas CHAINSAW MASSACRE remake & its prequel.

Cash (Now played by Khrystyne Haje in for Angelina Jolie) has wandered to a post apocalypse wasteland (after her protector has died from old age, said protector was played by Elias Koteas, an actual decent actor) and now she finds that people wander through the rubble looking for cyborgs to trade for scrap metal and cash. She leads a group of burned out cyborgs (That includes William Katt, Evan Lurie and a human scientist played by Zach Galligan) against bounty hunter Richard Lynch. Malcolm McDowell has two minutes of screen time as Lynch's employer. Cyborg 3 does manage to be better than the other two entries but it still is a largely dull feature. The problem this time is that the ideas with potential are never used well, the action sequences are routine and the name cast such as McDowell, Katt and Galligan are given little to do. Haje is indeed a whiny heroine and Lynch is too over the top(as usual) and the film lacks the inspiration or ambition to be as fun-bad as it's hilarious predecessor. (The one with Van Damme, the second one is just dull.) Also disappointing is the science fiction angle which almost aggressively resists any good idea it has. As an action flick this is routine and by the numbers B-movie stuff and it is competently made, that's the only thing positive I can say about it.

*1/2 out of 4-(Poor)

This is, at least in name, the third part of the Cyborg trilogy started by the 1989 Albert Pyun-Van Damme violent post apocalyptic epic, and followed by the sequel in title only with a very young Angelina Jolie. This movie is more of a sequel of the second part, both part 2 and 3 are not really related to Cyborg. Albert Pyun movie was great. Great action, great music, fast paced and violent. This movie is boring as hell, and its not violent. The music is not that good and it have a lots of dialogs, very poor ones for instance. Its not recommended, just to watch if its aired on TV a Sunday 4 PM and you don't have nothing else to do. A generous 5/10 only because i love post apocalyptic and cyborg movies.