TRANCERS

Starring: Tim Thomerson, Helen Hunt, Michael Stefani

Writers: Danny Bilson, Paul De Meo

Director: Charles Band

In 23rd century Angel City, Trooper Jak Deth is hunting down the last remnants of a zombie-like cult known as Trancers. He's already done away with their leader Whistler but, as Deth tells his boss after reducing the Trancer population by one in an excellent opening sequence, "someone's got to mop up the strays". Just when Deth thinks his job is all but done he discovers that Whistler's turned up very much alive in an ancestor's body in 1984 Los Angeles and he's intent on bumping off the forefathers of Angel City's Council, thus altering the future and paving the way for Whistler to control the city. As Jak Deth also has an ancestor who lived in LA in the 80s, it's time for him to travel "down the line" and see that justice is served...

In the 1980s, Empire Pictures tapped into the burgeoning video industry and a boatload of their movies sailed across the Atlantic, mooring up in rental shops all over the UK. Movies with titles like Metalstorm and Ragewar. These films had great trailers and attractive packaging and I couldn't wait to see them. I even remember waiting around in the video shop one evening because Metalstorm was due back in and that copy was going to be mine as soon as it was returned. On reflection, that's a bit of my life I'll never get back because Metalstorm was dull as a plodding Magnificent Seven variant could be. I'm unlikely to be reviewing Metalstorm. I can't put myself through it again.

That's not to say all of Empire Pictures' output stuck to the "great trailer/terrible movie" template. A lot fell into the "great trailer/okay movie" category and some even made it to the dizzy heights of "great trailer/excellent movie". It's this last category into which I'd put Trancers, regardless of the fact that the gadgetry featured doesn't stand up to ANY sort of scrutiny. Yes, I know that the very idea of the "long second watch" is absolutely ridiculous. I don't care, it works within the context of this movie and if you get hung up on it as you're watching it you might want to switch off as it's not going to get any more believable. I mean, look at the opening paragraph of this review. Trancers is hardly 2001 in terms of realism.

But I digress. This is a fine example of how you don't need an enormous budget to make an imaginative and engaging sci-fi movie. Okay, the special effects might not have looked all that special even on its original release but there's a lot of fun to be had with the time/culture clash plot and the whole enterprise has such charm that I always watch this with a big smile on my face. There are many memorable sequences in this film, including some "trouble at the North Pole" with a shopping mall Santa and Deth's brief, predictably violent encounter with some punk rockers at a club.

The characterisations are terrific too. Tim Thomerson is perfect as the grizzled future cop coming to terms with his new surroundings and a very young Helen Hunt shows exactly why she went on to be such a big star. Her Leena is smart, tough, funny and - vital to the plot - impervious to "trancing". You see, trancing only works on what Deth refers to as "squids", which are weak-minded, easily controlled people. In a smaller role, Stefani carries the requisite amount of quiet menace as bad guy Whistler and his sharp-suited, softly-spoken police lieutenant provides a nice counterpoint to Thomerson's rumpled, brusque gumshoe.

Clocking in at just 76 minutes the action moves along breezily, possibly a little too breezily come the final confrontation between Deth and Whistler which seems just a tad rushed for my liking. Still, that's a small gripe about a thoroughly amusing and entertaining romp that eclipses many much higher-budgeted movies of the time. Although it may not be as slick as Deth's brylcreemed barnet its ramshackle charms and witty script may very well win you over. Remember, folks: "Dry hair's for squids".