T-Force |
  • USA • 1994 • 105m •    • Directed by: Richard Pepin. • Starring: Jack Scalia, Evan Lurie, Erin Gray, Bobby Johnston, Deron McBee, Jennifer MacDonald, Martin E. Brooks, Vernon Wells, Nick DeMauro, Sean Moran, Duke Stroud, R. David Smith, Robert Gallo. • Music by: Louis Febre.     In the near future, after a hostage situation goes awry, the last resort option of law enforcement, cybernaut unit T-Force, is ordered to be disassembled. But the robots sees this as a "threat to their self-preservation" and goes on a killing rampage. It's up to police lieutenant Jack Floyd and one of the cybernauts to bring them down.
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Review:
"T-Force" was a totally unoriginal B-Movie, but boy, was it whole lot of fun while it lasted. In fact, it's not just a movie, it's a never ending game of "Guess what (more successful) movie they ripped this scene off from!"
Our story: we're sometime in the "near" future (so the filmmakers can get away with still using then-current automobiles, fashions, and technology along with a few token "futuristic" touches) and humanity's life has been made easier thanks to the creation of "Cybernauts," which are human-looking robots ("Terminator" anyone?) designed to perform menial tasks (i.e. chauffeurs, cooks, maids, etc.) for us. A group of these Cybernauts have been programmed to perform law enforcement duties (paging "RoboCop!"), for missions that are too dangerous for human cops. Due to the lethal nature in which they carry out their orders, these robots have been dubbed the "Terminal Force" or "T-Force" for short.
In the opening scene, which is ripped straight out of "Die Hard", a group of terrorists (they're even led by a guy with a goatee and a British accent!) have taken hostages inside of an L.A. skyscraper, and T-Force is called in. The Cybernauts make short work of the terrorists, but unfortunately they kill a couple of the innocent hostages as well. Thie causes the Mayor of L.A. (former "Buck Rogers" hottie Erin Gray, still holding up well at this point) to demand that the robots be shut down. Unfortunately, these self aware Cybernauts decide that they aren't ready to die yet (shades of "Blade Runner!") so they go "rogue," escaping into the city and blowin' a whole lotta stuff up. First they exact revenge on the police force (in perhaps the most audacious ripoff of the entire film, the famous "Police Station Shootout" scene from "The Terminator" is borrowed practically frame-for-frame! Have these people no shame??) and head towards their Numero Uno target, Mayor Erin Gray. At this point, Jack Scalia (former '80s TV soap opera hunk and '90s direct-to-video mainstay), a hard drinking, robot-hating human cop, gets partnered up with "Cain," the lone Cybernaut who stayed on the "good" side of the law (I guess he's the only one who studied the First Law of Robotics), and the mismatched pair drive around in Jack's beat-up Cadillac (do I smell me some "48 HRS."?) for the rest of the movie, dodging bullets and explosions on their way to shutting down the cyber-threats. Naturally, Scalia's character has a romantic past with Erin Gray's Mayor, which lends the necessary amount of urgency in their efforts to save the hot chick.
Yes, it's goofy as hell, and the acting is pretty much terrible throughout. Scalia is in low-rent Bruce Willis mode for the entire movie, i.e. all smirk and no bite, and the actors playing the robots act...well...robotic.
However, "T-Force" was filled with enough wall-to-wall shoot-em-upblow-em-up action sequences that you can almost forgive the ultra-cheesy presentation. Whatever the small budget was for this movie, it looks they must've spent about three quarters of it on large-caliber ammunition and TNT.
If that ain't enough for you, there are numerous gratuitous boob shots (unfortunately none of said boobs belong to Erin Gray; if they did, this flick's rating would've shot up a few extra points) and all in all "T-Force" kept me entertained, even if it was kinda for all the wrong reasons. Insomniac action fans might want to give it a spin, as long as they're not too picky.
It should be noted, by the way, that this film has no connection whatsoever with the "Mr. T. and the T-Force" comic book series, which was being published at around the same time (early 90s.) That is kind of a shame, because if Mr. T. had been involved with this movie, he definitely woulda brought the PAIN to them robotic fools.
Review by MetalGeek from the Internet Movie Database.
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