it's only the Italians who can pull that off.
But Charles Band was somehow able to make a Bladerunner / Terminator ripoff with enough originality to make it stand out from the crowd. The plot of Future Cop concerns an Angel City ( the city built near a now flooded L.A sometime in the future) trooper by the name of Jack Deth. Deth is like a futuristic Colombo complete with trenchcoat, but minus the wonky eye. Jack is sent back in time to take care of a revolutionary named Whistler. Whistler is planning to kill the ancestors of a few politicians with the help of zombie like followers called Trancers.
Jack isn't alone in his quest to track Whistler through present day Los Angeles. He hooks up with a very young Helen Hunt to hunt down the evil doer. This movie throws in everything bar the kitchen sink. We see tricky gadget watches, timetravel, a flooded L.A., zombies, tanning salon zombies, pro- baseball players turned bums, cliche punks, and plenty of action. This is one self serving beer and pizza movie.
I had a chuckle when I found out we were staying on Cahuanga Blvd. in Hollywood on my recent trip. I searched for the infamous Trancer tanning salon on my many strolls down to Hollywood Blvd. to no avail. I did stumble into the Italian eatery featured in They Call Me Bruce though. But I'm way off track here.
As I said before, this has all the hallmarks of good old fashioned Italian sci-fi despite its American origin. As Jack Deth, Tim Thomerson really dives head-first into the role and has some priceless one liners. Future Cop is a good example of the kind of movie Charles Band used to make before he ran out of decent ideas and started churning out Bad Channels vs. Dollman vs. Shrunken Heads vs. Puppetmaster vs. Demonic Toys sequels. This one's a little hard to find these days, but well worth the search. |
