TRANCERS
A film review by Jeff Meyer
Copyright 1987 Jeff Meyer
TRANCERS (USA, 1982) Director: Charles Band Screenwriters: Danny Bilson, Paul de Meo Cast: Tim Thomerson, Helen Hunt, Michael Stefani, Art La Fleur
This film is probably familiar to those of you who have righteous cable service, but to those of us who don't, it's a mystery. It was made before BLADERUNNER or THE TERMINATOR, but it has elements of both. Set in the future, we have tough cop John Death (Tim Thomerson) tracking down Trancers, mutants who can make "weak-minded" people turn white, froth at the mouth, and obey their every whim (rather like some TV evangelists I know of). The leader has headed back into the past, to kill the ancestors of the Los Angeles council, thus causing their future offspring never to exist. Death is sent back to the past to stop the plot, and gets messed up in the kind of senseless violence you'd expect in this kind of film, at time having to out-run bullets, elsewhere almost being tanned to death.
Good maniacal fun, lots of neat parts, and a very clean plot that makes sense and is clever to boot. It's a good idea to remember that it precedes those other two SF movies, since so many of the elements are similar. A grade of C, B if you're at a midnight movie to see it.
Moriarty, aka Jeff Meyer INTERNET: moriarty@tc.fluke.COM Manual UUCP: {uw-beaver, sun, allegra, hplsla, lbl-csam}!fluke!moriarty
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