GUNHED
A film review by Paul-Michael Agapow
Copyright 1997 Paul-Michael Agapow
The computer Chiron-5 went rogue in 2025 and took over the factory island 8JO. 13 years later a group of scavengers arrive to steal valuable computer chips. When they and a team of Texas Air Rangers are slaughtered by Chiron, the survivors (Takashima and Bakke) must team up to reactivate the killer robot Gunhed so as to defeat Chiron.
Well, this was terrible.
It didn't look so bad to start with. There are some nice shots of massive half-seen robots lurching about in the dark, big sets and the prospect of the slinky Brenda Bakke (Selina Coombs from TV's "American Gothic") as a hard-bitten Texas Ranger. But no.
Hamstring by the perpetually sulky Takashima (as crack mechanic Brooklyn, with a charisma deficit so severe that he'll be in arrears until the year 2020) and poor quality dubbing (even Bakke doesn't mesh with her own voice) "Gunhed" combines the problems of anime with the difficulties of a live production. The initially impressive robots are revealed to be completely inflexible, sub-Anderson creations that cannot move their arms or head. A "diving bell for head" android appears to menace the group but it mostly just reminds you of "Robot Monster". Two irritating children materialise by which point you're shouting "Chiron - I knew Skynet. And you're no Skynet!"
One of the lovable aspects of anime is its completely demented logic. (Where do the Puma sisters keep their guns? What's so wonderful about A-ko? Surely someone would notice the Knight Sabers taking off and landing from their condo hideout?) But "Gunhed" is just completely demented, so arbitrary as to be impossible to follow. Characters appear and disappear at random, act on whim and the layout of the factory doesn't even have the logic of a computer game. Focus on that line in the credits "Produced by: Gunhed Production Committee".
Hideous. [*/misfire] and bad improvisational jazz on the Sid and Nancy scale.
"Gunhed" Directed by Masato Harada. Starring Marsahiro Takashima, Brenda Bakke, James B Thompson. Released 1989.
------ paul-michael agapow (agapow@latcs1.oz.au), La Trobe Uni, Infocalypse [archived at http://www.cs.latrobe.edu.au/~agapow/Postviews/]
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