15 reviews
Met with universal criticism this 3rd Cyborg movie but 5th in the franchise (It gets confusing) see's a continuation of the 2nds story, kind of.
We see Cash (Recast from Angelina Jolie) in an adventure where she must escape the clutches of "Recycler" Richard Lynch.
Also along for the ride is Zach "Gremlins" Galligan, Rebecca Ferratti, Andrew Bryniarski and industry veteran Malcolm McDowell. Note though, despite McDowell being the cover star he has a very small role in the film so certainly don't watch it for him.
Action packed, inconsistent on the cyborg rules/plot and full of your usual 90's action tropes it's everything you'd expect but not as bad as they say. Sure it's bad, but there is a lot worse out there! This at least was saved by a really fantastic cast, did I mention William Katt? Being a bit of a Katt fanboy I appreciate his addition to any movie.
Passable stuff for fans of brainless 80's/90's b-movie action, not so much for everyone else.
The Good:
Connections to previous movies
Well above par cast
William Katt
The Bad:
Still naff Cyborg nonsense
Recasting
Things I Learnt From This Movie:
I cannot see Bryniarski without seeing Zangief from Streetfighter (1994)
We see Cash (Recast from Angelina Jolie) in an adventure where she must escape the clutches of "Recycler" Richard Lynch.
Also along for the ride is Zach "Gremlins" Galligan, Rebecca Ferratti, Andrew Bryniarski and industry veteran Malcolm McDowell. Note though, despite McDowell being the cover star he has a very small role in the film so certainly don't watch it for him.
Action packed, inconsistent on the cyborg rules/plot and full of your usual 90's action tropes it's everything you'd expect but not as bad as they say. Sure it's bad, but there is a lot worse out there! This at least was saved by a really fantastic cast, did I mention William Katt? Being a bit of a Katt fanboy I appreciate his addition to any movie.
Passable stuff for fans of brainless 80's/90's b-movie action, not so much for everyone else.
The Good:
Connections to previous movies
Well above par cast
William Katt
The Bad:
Still naff Cyborg nonsense
Recasting
Things I Learnt From This Movie:
I cannot see Bryniarski without seeing Zangief from Streetfighter (1994)
- Platypuschow
- Dec 17, 2018
- Permalink
Cyborg 3 feels like a movie that was directed by three people. One who actually knew what he was doing, one who kinda knew what he was doing and one who was totally out of it.
I have not seen the previous films and can't comment on the movie's relationship with them. All I can say is that the movie undoubtedly has a very cheap feel to it. At times however the film's quality seems to boost up and sometimes it can drop horrifically in the process of a scene. This is marked by the extremely diverse quality of dialogue scenes. Sometimes the actors are stiff as dolls, but the next minute they could be delivering a speech with such passion you start wondering if you suddenly switched to a whole different movie.
I was actually happy to see that the action-scenes were done quite well and many of the cyborg-characters were very sympathetic. However there are also plenty of scenes that either make little to no sense or are extremely ill-planned that they slightly ruin the experience.
Not the worst movie I've seen, but far from the best of them.
I have not seen the previous films and can't comment on the movie's relationship with them. All I can say is that the movie undoubtedly has a very cheap feel to it. At times however the film's quality seems to boost up and sometimes it can drop horrifically in the process of a scene. This is marked by the extremely diverse quality of dialogue scenes. Sometimes the actors are stiff as dolls, but the next minute they could be delivering a speech with such passion you start wondering if you suddenly switched to a whole different movie.
I was actually happy to see that the action-scenes were done quite well and many of the cyborg-characters were very sympathetic. However there are also plenty of scenes that either make little to no sense or are extremely ill-planned that they slightly ruin the experience.
Not the worst movie I've seen, but far from the best of them.
Years after the fall of the last of the great corporations, the world has fallen into a new dark age where cyborgs are harvested for their parts. Cash, a female cyborg, travels to a wasteland doctor to receive news that she is pregnant. On the run from Recyclers (bounty hunters who hunt cyborgs), Cash tries to find her way to Cytown, the mythical refuge for cyborgs.
"Cyborg 3: The Recycler" is the third (& last so far) entry in the CYBORG trilogy. The first film was originally planned to be a sequel to MASTERS OF THE UNIVERSE, but was quickly rewritten into a standard post-apocalyptic martial-arts fest that became something of a cult classic due to its cheesy action scenes. CYBORG 2: GLASS SHADOW was a sequel that actually improved upon its predecessor but was not widely seen (& was dismissed by those few who saw it as cheap fodder).
This film, for one thing, tries to be a meld of the first two films (the first was a cheesy action film while the second was a smart Cyberpunk story) but unfortunately falls short on both counts. The budget was obviously lower than CYBORG 2, with the film being set in the desert wastelands (like so many post-apocalyptic action films of the 90s were), shot around old industrial buildings to conserve costs.
The film's story centres on a plot device, that of a pregnant cyborg, that is as interesting as it is absurd (this film is not the first to try that idea; the anime OVA series ARMITAGE III uses it to a greater extent). But the film falls into the same trap that so many low-budget sci-fi action films fall victim to, in the fact that the snags (synthetic organisms) featured are nothing more than androids. The visual effects amount to nothing more than prosthetic arms & makeup effects.
The acting is pretty standard for this kind of film, with the lead actress (Khrystyne Haje) being the single worst performer on display. Instead of being joyed at the news she is pregnant, she acts all whiny & sullen. Her co-stars are much better, Malcolm McDowell being the usual gangster type who enlivens the scenes he appears in & Richard Lynch has a lot of fun as the chief villain. Of particular note is Andrew Byniarski, playing Lynch's right hand man, who would later appear in THE Texas CHAINSAW MASSACRE remake & its prequel.
"Cyborg 3: The Recycler" is the third (& last so far) entry in the CYBORG trilogy. The first film was originally planned to be a sequel to MASTERS OF THE UNIVERSE, but was quickly rewritten into a standard post-apocalyptic martial-arts fest that became something of a cult classic due to its cheesy action scenes. CYBORG 2: GLASS SHADOW was a sequel that actually improved upon its predecessor but was not widely seen (& was dismissed by those few who saw it as cheap fodder).
This film, for one thing, tries to be a meld of the first two films (the first was a cheesy action film while the second was a smart Cyberpunk story) but unfortunately falls short on both counts. The budget was obviously lower than CYBORG 2, with the film being set in the desert wastelands (like so many post-apocalyptic action films of the 90s were), shot around old industrial buildings to conserve costs.
The film's story centres on a plot device, that of a pregnant cyborg, that is as interesting as it is absurd (this film is not the first to try that idea; the anime OVA series ARMITAGE III uses it to a greater extent). But the film falls into the same trap that so many low-budget sci-fi action films fall victim to, in the fact that the snags (synthetic organisms) featured are nothing more than androids. The visual effects amount to nothing more than prosthetic arms & makeup effects.
The acting is pretty standard for this kind of film, with the lead actress (Khrystyne Haje) being the single worst performer on display. Instead of being joyed at the news she is pregnant, she acts all whiny & sullen. Her co-stars are much better, Malcolm McDowell being the usual gangster type who enlivens the scenes he appears in & Richard Lynch has a lot of fun as the chief villain. Of particular note is Andrew Byniarski, playing Lynch's right hand man, who would later appear in THE Texas CHAINSAW MASSACRE remake & its prequel.
- DigitalRevenantX7
- May 24, 2009
- Permalink
STAR RATING:*****Unmissable****Very Good***Okay**You Could Go Out For A Meal Instead*Avoid At All Costs
In the future,civility between man and machine has deceased and war wages.'Recycler' Llewyllyn (Richard Lynch,coming across as a poor mans Rutger Hauer! (yikes)) and his sidekick Jocko (Andrew Bryniarski,who weirdly resembles a beefier,blanker version of Vincent Klyn from the original film) hunt cyborgs across the desert,hoping to catch them and sell their scrap parts to the highest bidder.Cyborg Cash (Khrystyne Haje,in a role originally played by a young Angelina Jolie in the previous film) is the first cyborg to become pregnant and becomes their primary target.The story also features a character called Evans (an older Zach Galligan from the Gremlins films) as one of Cash's old flames and a walk-on part (despite being headbilled on the front cover) from Malcolm 'will-work-for-food' McDowell as Lord Talon,one of Llewellyn's main buyers.
The director of the last film,Michael Schroeder,returns to helming duties here,the first in the series to feature no martial artists in the leading roles.
The,erm,shall we say,less than oscar worthy production values,screenplay and acting aside,this plotless rubbish is totally far away from the essence of the original film,which,lets face it,was quite an uninspired mess to begin with and should really say it all.It's also appropriately titled,in the way it seems to 'recycle' ideas from many other movies of much superior quality made before it.This is aside from a nauseating soundtrack which grates on the nerves throughout the film.
Worth watching only for the unimaginable hilarity of a woman giving birth to a baby in the shape of a grey tin can with wires dangling off the edge of it.*
In the future,civility between man and machine has deceased and war wages.'Recycler' Llewyllyn (Richard Lynch,coming across as a poor mans Rutger Hauer! (yikes)) and his sidekick Jocko (Andrew Bryniarski,who weirdly resembles a beefier,blanker version of Vincent Klyn from the original film) hunt cyborgs across the desert,hoping to catch them and sell their scrap parts to the highest bidder.Cyborg Cash (Khrystyne Haje,in a role originally played by a young Angelina Jolie in the previous film) is the first cyborg to become pregnant and becomes their primary target.The story also features a character called Evans (an older Zach Galligan from the Gremlins films) as one of Cash's old flames and a walk-on part (despite being headbilled on the front cover) from Malcolm 'will-work-for-food' McDowell as Lord Talon,one of Llewellyn's main buyers.
The director of the last film,Michael Schroeder,returns to helming duties here,the first in the series to feature no martial artists in the leading roles.
The,erm,shall we say,less than oscar worthy production values,screenplay and acting aside,this plotless rubbish is totally far away from the essence of the original film,which,lets face it,was quite an uninspired mess to begin with and should really say it all.It's also appropriately titled,in the way it seems to 'recycle' ideas from many other movies of much superior quality made before it.This is aside from a nauseating soundtrack which grates on the nerves throughout the film.
Worth watching only for the unimaginable hilarity of a woman giving birth to a baby in the shape of a grey tin can with wires dangling off the edge of it.*
- wellthatswhatithinkanyway
- Jan 31, 2004
- Permalink
- nietzschebob
- Sep 1, 2018
- Permalink
- darkmage7280
- Mar 21, 2001
- Permalink
- sirdrinkalotabeer
- Jan 18, 2011
- Permalink
Let me just get to it, this one is a stinker, I mean they didn't really try with this one. Even the story to this one wasn't very good at all, I feel the director and writer which I both blame for this just didn't care about the story and just wanted to make a crappy movie I guess.
I mean this film could have been good but the idea of Cash Reese being pregnant was stretching credibility, she can't she is a robot also I feel the sequels got confused on the cyborg/robot thing.
In the first film, Pearl Prophet was a CYBORG, but she was BORN HUMAN, she was ENHANCED with CYBERNETIC PARTS; Cash Reese is a ROBOT, an ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE, she is designed to LOOK, FEEL,and even ACT HUMAN. See, not the same thing.
This movie has it's small moments but this one is a disappointment, I first seen this with my friend on his laptop, I asked him to download it for me because I could not find it anywhere and my library couldn't get me it to order, originally I was planing on owning it, but I quickly changed my mind after I seen it. We both felt the same about this film, we didn't like it that much, he still hasn't seen Cyborg 2 yet, but he did agree that this one kinda sucked.
Overall, a crappy installment that should of been a lot better. DON'T GET ME WRONG, it did have it's MOMENTS, and some of the film I DID LIKE as well as my buddy. But tone wise, it had a disappointing ending, and the story wasn't that well written. I would have been MORE FORGIVING on it if the ending was better. In the future, I might give this film another chance.
I give it a 1/10. It was pretty bad, it had it's moments but those are few and far between. I hope the forth film "Cyborg Nemesis" will be at least a little better than this one. If your curious about it; you could see it, but proceed with cation.
I mean this film could have been good but the idea of Cash Reese being pregnant was stretching credibility, she can't she is a robot also I feel the sequels got confused on the cyborg/robot thing.
In the first film, Pearl Prophet was a CYBORG, but she was BORN HUMAN, she was ENHANCED with CYBERNETIC PARTS; Cash Reese is a ROBOT, an ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE, she is designed to LOOK, FEEL,and even ACT HUMAN. See, not the same thing.
This movie has it's small moments but this one is a disappointment, I first seen this with my friend on his laptop, I asked him to download it for me because I could not find it anywhere and my library couldn't get me it to order, originally I was planing on owning it, but I quickly changed my mind after I seen it. We both felt the same about this film, we didn't like it that much, he still hasn't seen Cyborg 2 yet, but he did agree that this one kinda sucked.
Overall, a crappy installment that should of been a lot better. DON'T GET ME WRONG, it did have it's MOMENTS, and some of the film I DID LIKE as well as my buddy. But tone wise, it had a disappointing ending, and the story wasn't that well written. I would have been MORE FORGIVING on it if the ending was better. In the future, I might give this film another chance.
I give it a 1/10. It was pretty bad, it had it's moments but those are few and far between. I hope the forth film "Cyborg Nemesis" will be at least a little better than this one. If your curious about it; you could see it, but proceed with cation.
- RoboRabbit89
- Nov 2, 2017
- Permalink
- I_Ailurophile
- Feb 14, 2023
- Permalink
Cash (Now played by Khrystyne Haje in for Angelina Jolie) has wandered to a post apocalypse wasteland (after her protector has died from old age, said protector was played by Elias Koteas, an actual decent actor) and now she finds that people wander through the rubble looking for cyborgs to trade for scrap metal and cash. She leads a group of burned out cyborgs (That includes William Katt, Evan Lurie and a human scientist played by Zach Galligan) against bounty hunter Richard Lynch. Malcolm McDowell has two minutes of screen time as Lynch's employer. Cyborg 3 does manage to be better than the other two entries but it still is a largely dull feature. The problem this time is that the ideas with potential are never used well, the action sequences are routine and the name cast such as McDowell, Katt and Galligan are given little to do. Haje is indeed a whiny heroine and Lynch is too over the top(as usual) and the film lacks the inspiration or ambition to be as fun-bad as it's hilarious predecessor. (The one with Van Damme, the second one is just dull.) Also disappointing is the science fiction angle which almost aggressively resists any good idea it has. As an action flick this is routine and by the numbers B-movie stuff and it is competently made, that's the only thing positive I can say about it.
*1/2 out of 4-(Poor)
*1/2 out of 4-(Poor)
- fmarkland32
- Mar 16, 2008
- Permalink
- robbiecotterill
- Nov 10, 2005
- Permalink
I seem to be one of the rarefied few sump-sucking Vidiots that righteously dig the dastardly diodes off this murderous mechanoid mung-fest!!? And how could I not, as it features another devilishly deviant performance by triumphant B-Movie Thespian Richard Lynch as the menacingly mercenary misfit Anton Llewellyn, plus a wasteland-warped Malcolm McDowell as slyly scheming Lord Talon, an affable cyber boffin Zach Gallagan is on call ta' get them gremlins outta all that busted old world hardware! So, power up your power-gloves, luridly lube some cyber-slapper's scintillating silicon tits, strap on a high-calibre boom-stick, and blissfully beer-goggle this sinisterly scavenging, low budget, high voltaged, electro-blasting, future-shocking cyber trash! The DVD boom of the 90s were a fertile era for funky-fingered, bargain bin-grubbing B-Movie finks, frequently being geekily overloaded with gnarly, junk-headed sequels many didn't even know existed! So, don't be a plug-headed hater, 'Cyborg 3 The Recycler' is a titanium tough DTV time-waster! While, perhaps, not exactly in the same stainless steel celluloid class as Enzo G. Castellari or Albert Pyun, fans of 'Mandroid' will certainly find worthwhile bemusement in this boisterous B-Movie ode to mechanized death!
- Weirdling_Wolf
- Feb 27, 2022
- Permalink
Being an advid fan of sci-fi I thought there was no way another film could compare to what is probably the utmost important Sci-fi 'The Vindicator', I was wrong. Cyborg 3 is probably the greatest sequal of all time, I would go as far to say that it betters the origional van damme fest. With the combination of ultra realistic make-up/special effects, gritty storyline and oscar wothery acting cyborg 3 is a real treat for the family, and in my personal top 10. Malcolm McDowell gives a fantastic 45 second performance although it was too short. The combination of Mechno-Whore's and frightening explosions make be bemused as I found this as a part of a discount store £2.99 Dvd collection. It is safe to say that cyborg 3 would be nothing without it's fantastic soundtrack featuring Millitant Love Baby's classic * "CALL ME MASTER"....overall I'm looking forward to cyborg 4.
- JV_Meanstreak
- Jan 27, 2003
- Permalink
This is, at least in name, the third part of the Cyborg trilogy started by the 1989 Albert Pyun-Van Damme violent post apocalyptic epic, and followed by the sequel in title only with a very young Angelina Jolie. This movie is more of a sequel of the second part, both part 2 and 3 are not really related to Cyborg. Albert Pyun movie was great. Great action, great music, fast paced and violent. This movie is boring as hell, and its not violent. The music is not that good and it have a lots of dialogs, very poor ones for instance. Its not recommended, just to watch if its aired on TV a Sunday 4 PM and you don't have nothing else to do. A generous 5/10 only because i love post apocalyptic and cyborg movies.
- ultra_tippergore
- Dec 29, 2009
- Permalink
I've read some other comments about this film and most of them said that this is a low budget film. Maybe it's true, but that didn't seem to me when i watch this film. The special effects were quite good for a movie made in 90's and also there were some good action sequences. What else did i liked about this film were colorful characters and pretty weird music. I've seen the first two Cyborg films and i think this is worth watching sequel. Like the first two films this one also has a good plot(maybe even better than in the first film) and lots of action(this time there is more shootouts and car chases). One of the cyborgs is played by Evan Lurie who is known for some roles in martial arts films so in the end there are some good martial arts scenes.
- kurciasbezdalas
- Aug 24, 2008
- Permalink