The original "Trancers" had a wit and spark to it which in turn made it one of the most inspired and enjoyable low-budget sci-fi sleepers from the 80s. This rather forced belated sequel tries a tad too hard to recapture the spirit of the first one with strictly middling results. Tim Thomerson still has the right cynical stuff as Jack Deth, who this time fights Whistler's brother E.D. Ward (smoothly played by Richard Lynch) who has started his own organization called Green World that's really a sinister front for a trancer farm. Alas, Charles Band's pedestrian direction and Jackson Barr's needlessly convoluted script both result in a very uneven on and off pace: The story really plods in the first two thirds and the initial action set pieces are blandly staged, but fortunately things pick up to a good degree in the pretty exciting last third. A worthy cast of familiar B-movie faces keeps it watchable enough: Martine Beswicke as the evil Nurse Trotter, a goateed Jeffrey Combs as Wardo's antsy assistant Dr. Pyle, Art LeFleur as Deth's hard-nosed boss McNulty, and Barbara Crampton as talk show host Sadie Brady. Helen Hunt is her usual sweet and charming self as the spunky Lena, the adorable Megan Ward adds some much-needed vitality as Jack's feisty first wife Alice Stillwell, Bill Manard is a hoot as reformed drunk Hap Ashby, Sonny Carl Davis contributes an amusing turn as wacky hospital orderly Rabbit, and late, great veteran character actor John Davis Chandler has a nifty bit part as a baseball-playing wino. However, the humor is hit or miss: A sizable amount of Jack's one-liners fall flat, although the squabbling between Lena and Alice does provide a few mildly funny moments. Both Adolfo Bartoli's slick cinematography and the moody synth score by Phil Davies and Mark Ryder are up to par. Acceptable, but it should have been so much better.