Tuesday, July 14, 2009

Quintology: Trancers II

This one stands out a bit as the odd child of the series, which is saying a lot. Why? Well, this one came six years after the original. What are you- the Rush Hour series? The following films were all released in the following three years, showing that, if nothing else, the series was reliable. Of course, pushing movies out that quickly has a price. Just ask Jesus Franco, or whatever one of his 500 pseudonyms you prefer. So how does the one movie with a long release delay turn out? Find out in my review of...
The film starts out by wisely acknowledging the time gap. We don't get the 3 year plane ride from Rush Hour II or the five year flight from Rocky V. Jack and his lady have been living the good life as the former-bum's bodyguards. Through some random bit of luck, he became rich and bought a mansion for the three of them. In addition, the pair is married and happy. In the future (which is actually the present of Trancers), the remaining council wants Jack back. The only problem is that his body has calcified (don't ask) and only his descendant's body can be sent to the present. Fuck you, causality! They send Jack's friend McNulty back in his descendant's body again- only this time the girl is actually legal. Also, say good-bye to Art Fleur, since he is written out in Trancers 3.
*
The plot gets a bit more complicated before it gets silly. The Council also sends back an agent with a time machine (try not to laugh at it) to take Jack's body back to the present/future. The only problem: she got lost and the machine got mixed up in the transport. Only the door ends up on the lawn, while the rest of the machine is with our amnesiac agent. Don't ask how the door got separated in travel, BTW- it just did! Our heroine is dumped in an asylum because of the mental problems caused by her trip. Of course, the same asylum proves to be a bigger part of the plot. Basically, it is run by Whistler's brother and is another way to make trancers. As an aside, this film series wasted the opportunity to have the villain in Trancers 3 be Whistler's mother. For shame!
*
The plot gets screwy when Jack rescues the patient and realizes that it is his dead wife in a new body. The Council, you see, rescued her right before her death in battle and sent her back via the time-travel toxin (I still can't get past that). Are his feelings for her stronger than his ones for his wife? Will she get mad when she finds them making out? Will it seem creepy when Tim Thomerson makes out with a 19-year old? Fortunately, any creepiness here is outweighed by Richard Lynch as the villain (looking about 100), Jeffrey Combs as his assistant (complete with 'Mirror Mirror'-style goatee) and Barbara Crampton as the asylum's head mistress. Oh and a bunch of trancers attack Jack, giving him another excuse to use the long-second watch and kill them.
*
Now that we have all the plot out of the way, let's start shooting! Most of the latter quarter of the movie is a series of shoot-outs, fist fights and the like. Helen Hunt gets captured, only to be freed later with no ill-effects. We also get a random scene with hobos that is mostly a pretense for Charles Band (the director's father) and Gordon Hunt (Helen's father) to show-up, not to mention Lynch's son as a cameraman. The choreography is done pretty well, but it never feels like a big-budget action movie. To cut a long story short, Whistler's brother is killed with a flying pitchfork and Jack has to make a decision. He decides to give his wife another shot at life by sending her descendant to the future. You guys are so flippant with time-travel rules, huh? Jack decides to live happily ever after with his wife...at least until Trancers III.
*
This film is good, but it is a bit top-heavy with plot. They try to compensate by filling about 15 minutes straight with action, making the movie feel very strange. The lone trancers scene early on appears to be a way to appease an action-hungry audience. Let's be honest here: we should not judge this like any other movie. It has Lynch, Combs and Crampton as villainous doctors battling a former stand-up comic as a time-stranded cop who acts like a dime novel detective. No real logic is all that applicable. If you are an open-minded person who can accept that this movie cost less than 1 million dollars (if it's more, I would be surprised), you can have some fun. If nothing else, you can see what Oscar nominees do before the fact.
*
Do you like all of the characters and settings? Prepare to be a little disappointed. Stay tuned...

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