Cyborg Cop 'whoo - two'
Perhaps the masterwork of undervalued and underappreciated auteur Sam Firstenberg. This film truly manages to highlight the question of whether or not Jack Ryan (David Bradley) is the 'Cyborg Cop' of the title, as it is his ritualistic approach to justice and revenge which makes him so complex and involving a character. His bumbag also helps.
A blistering opening sequence sets the tone for what will surely go down as one of the greatest action spectacles of our time, probably in the history of cinema. Actual people were killed, making this not only visceral, but also morbidly curious and emotionally draining. This is emphasised subtly when Firstenberg has a split second shot of a man dropping a knife whilst attempting to murder one of the marauders (the one who shouts *beep* in close up, a family friend of Michael Ball). This was a deliberate choice, and one often overlooked - the 'knife' here is humanity, and the man who drops it is symbolic of God. It is just a sign of Firsenberg's movie working on several different levels - one of which is just happens to be 'sci-fi/action extravaganza'
Bradley, once again, gives a bravaura performance, and puts Hollywood veterans like Daniel Baldwin and Jeff Fahey to shame. The unvieling of his character (now with a new black side-kick who is mercifully killed off in the opening reels) must surely go down in history as rivalling that of Omar Sharif in 'Lawrence of Arabia'. It made me literally choke on a piece on sponge cake which I then spat out as it offended me. Not only does Bradley have THE bum-bag (of which I have bought a replica, signed by Avi Lerner), but he has now added snake-skin boots and a pair of darkened shades to expand his wardrobe, and the emotional complexity of the character of Jack Ryan.
What was not to be expected though was the almost show stealing performance of a certain Morgan Hunter (perhaps best known for his touching role as transexual high school cheerleader in 'Lion Strike'). Hunter here is a bald menace. His head reflecting literally and metaphorically the fear and death he inflicts. He is truely the Pontius Pilate to Bradley's Jesus. Mel Gibson must be kicking himself, and his Bible, as he didn't get the divine message when casting the 'Passion'!
One area that has to be mentionned negatively is the film's lack of a romantic thread. I like watching nudity, and after this film I'd been brewing for ninety minutes with no sexual payoff. It was like an evening with my sister. After the necessary gratuitous sex scene in Cyborg Cop 1 (a better scene I have yet to see, even in hardcore Austrian pornography), I was, it has to be said, rather irate. This was remedied by the sexual attraction I was beginning to feel for the young child who escapes the cyborgs' destruction. I'd like to see some more of him(!), one to watch in the future (in the shower perhaps HA HA).
Overall, this film has everything, making '2001: A Space Odyssey' look like 'Cop and a Half' (starring Burt Reynolds). Having said that, I still recommend 'Cop and a Half' if only for the macabre scene in which a man is pelted by 'twinkies', the closest analolgy of AIDS yet committed to celeuloid. Sam Firstenberg has done it again...A triumph! A masterpiece of post-modernism! One of the greatest meta-textual behemoths of all time. It is, surely, better than Fifa.
This agression will not stand
P.S I am not actually racist or a paedophile - sorry