Time Burst: The Final Alliance

My review was written in August 1989 after watching the film on AIP video cassette.

A modest made-for-video sci-fi feature, "Time Burst" lacks the special effects and straightforward storytelling needed to attract a following.

Filmmaker Peter Yuval's previous genre effort, "Dead End City" was a crisp B picture, while "Time Burst" is awkwardly constructed. Nutty opening has hero Scott David King walking away from a Cesna plane crash after he's kidnapped an antiquity dealer (Richard Rogers killed in the plane mishap. Vintage Japanese samurai are battling in the California forest nearby for no reason.

King has amnesia but is soon chasing hither and yon with pretty (and violent) teammate Michiko, a CIA operative. Snippets of exposition finally reveal that everyone after a set of ancient Japanese tablets held by Gerald Okamua, that offer the key to immortality, King turns out to be 350 years old and impervious to bullets and such, making for some cute though silly plot twists during shootouts.

King, a handsome young thesp vaguely resembling Stephen Collins, delivers a straightforward performance in a confusing role, while Michiko adds a distinctive, offbeat beauty to the pic.

Not a bad concept and I have little doubt that this looked a lot better on paper than the final product, which is kind of a mess. I spent close to half the movie getting a clear picture of what the heck I was supposed to be watching with a poorly constructed, convoluted preface combining two different stories that would have made Godfrey Ho proud. Once you get past that, you are watching somewhat lack-luster action with a nonsensical romance that, not only shouldn't be happening in the first place, but wavers on this crazy, bipolar jag of the two main characters getting all mushy with each other one minute and then trying to kill each other in the next scene. At any rate, I'm pretty sure there is a more straight-forward way to show a guy is 350 years old and immortal than how these guys chose to roll it out.

The film is not quite the bottom of the barrel but getting there and not really so-bad-it's-good, either, but I'm kind of a masochist when it comes to bad action flicks, so I'm giving it four. Overall, this is kind of a boring flick and, as a side note, the female protagonist is in another, even more craptacular and boring flick called "The Lost Platoon", that could also suffice as a sleep aid if your doctor won't give you a prescription for the real thing.

This unjustly obscure relic from the late, but ever-great 80s VHS-era certainly starts enigmatically enough in a distinctly thrilling cross-cultured manner, perhaps referencing 'Ghost Warrior', as we see a Samurai Warrior in a deadly battle with a no less skilled Caucasian man in an especially bellicose-looking duel! as the film moves on with pleasing alacrity, gradually revealing that the American combatant is not only a bit nifty with the cutlery, he is also an immortal, apparently becoming deathless by appropriating ancient magic his master strictly forbade him to make use of, thereby dishonouring his sensei so egregiously he is promptly banished to wend his aimless way through myriads of time like some shiftless Californian Ronin.

The Master (Gerald Okamura) has long been a person of interest to a shady, black-hatted group of pseudo feds calling themselves 'The Agency', cheap-suited, pistol-happy nerks who mostly race around town in a grubby van hoping to bundle their quarry into the back of it. This isn't exactly top ten material, but it certainly isn't without some degree of modest intrigue; throw in some kooky magic tablet razzamajazz pizazz, deadly ninjas, the not infrequent gunfights and the entirely beautiful and exquisitely exotic-looking presence of agent Jane (Michico) this mos def has goodly stuff going on, and by adding a zestfully fragrant dash of 'Highlander' outlandishness 'Time Burst' proves itself to be a briskly entertaining, time-warping adventure, long trapped in video rental history, perhaps one day to be unearthed and lovingly upscaled to digital versatile disc or beyond!!!!!

The film has additional cult movie kudos by having Jay Richardson as the slimy agent man, who plays it a little more low key than his terrifically unsubtle turn in Fred Olen Ray's iconic 'Hollywood Chainsaw Hookers' and Gerald 'Samurai Cop' Okamura is a legitimate Kung Fu treasure, while 'Time Burst: The Final Alliance' isn't quite on the same giddy level as 'Trancers' it can't be faulted by that fact since all too few sf actioners reach such an elevated state of B-Movie majesty!