This movie is so much fun. A straight-to-video action movie that borrows plot elements from other films but adds charms all its own. You can criticize the script for not being terribly original but it's filled with memorable lines delivered with gusto by a good cast. The plot is brilliant so prepare yourself. A group of terrorists, headed by a Lundgrenesque android named Romulus, take over a hospital. Among the hostages is the daughter of the President (played by 44 year-old Meg Foster). The FBI is helpless to do anything so they decide to unfreeze the architect of the building. You see, the architect committed a crime and in this world criminals are cryogenically frozen. Well, somehow they goof up and unfreeze the wrong guy. Instead of the architect they get former pro-football player Martin Kove! He plays along so he doesn't have to be frozen again. Basically, the rest of the film is Kove "yippee-ki-yay"-ing his way through the hospital to rescue the hostages and inevitably fight the android. Look, I think we all know this isn't The English Patient. It's not even Die Hard. But for fans of popcorn action movies, this is a real treat. It's a movie full of quotable dialogue, fun clichés, and mindless action. It's a damn good time if you can relax and enjoy movies that aren't meant to be art.
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utgard142 February 2014
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tarbosh2200023 July 2010When Romulus the android (Zagarino) comes to life after a lot of clacking on computers, he and his henchmen decide to take an entire hospital hostage. Naturally, the President's daughter (Foster) is in the hospital. Apparently this is happening because the evil Kinderman, head of ATR (Advanced Technical Research) and the maker of Romulus, wants the President to step aside so he can create a new world order. Obviously the only solution to this problem is to defrost Martin Kove and send him in to save the day. In the future, jail is being frozen in ice. Henceforth it's "Die Hard in a hospital" as Kove uses his skills as a football player and "redneck killer" to take down the baddies.
Zagarino is meant to look like Dolph Lundgren as Drago (see the hair) and his robotic acting suits him perfectly. Speaking of funny hair, Kove, when he is defrosted, has a silly mountain man beard that doesn't match his hair. So, to put an end to Romulus, Kove heads up "Operation Bird-Dog", the most intimidating operation name ever. They needlessly give each other "handles" so, of course, the cries are "Fox to Chicken Hawk, Fox to Chicken Hawk". Couldn't they have thought of something else? What's the audience supposed to think? The debatably miscast Foster as the President's daughter portrays the character that is always whining and asking a lot of annoying questions. It's not her fault, we love Meg Foster. But in these types of movies, someone has to bear that load.
Romulus has some funny henchmen. One is a fat guy name Zanuchi. Another one resembles Dale "Apollo" Cook.
Joss Ackland tries to rise above the material as Kinderman. He has a great voice for what he was trying to do. When he is communicating with Romulus, he mentions that "Desilva" (the Martin Kove character) is "insignificant". Apparently, Kinderman programmed Romulus with a Pee-Wee's Playhouse-style "secret word" in his brain, because he reacts with a crazy robot noise and strange neck movement. This idea is never paid off. Apparently Romulus is one insecure 'bot.
"Project Shadowchaser" is a low-budget mish-mash of The Terminator (1984), Die Hard (1988), Star Wars (1977) and Hard Boiled (1992). It ends with a classic freeze-frame of Kove pouring beer on his own head and yelling "Touchdown!" Classic.
For more insanity, please visit: comeuppancereviews.com -
hwg1957-102-2657041 January 2018A rogue android called Romulus and his team of terrorists enter a hospital and gather hostages including the President's daughter. To combat this a man the FBI think is the architect of the hospital is taken out of a penal deep freeze and sent into the situation. By an error the man Desilva is not the architect but an ex-football player who had killed a man in self defence. Sent in with a team Desilva finds himself alone after the rest of the team are killed. Will our reluctant hero save the day? Well, yes of course. Although an amalgam of several films it moves along quickly and mainly entertains.
The cast makes the film better than it really is. Martin Kove is likable as Desilva and Frank Zagarino suitably solid and stern as the android with the bleached hair. Even better are Meg Foster as the president's daughter Sarah and Joss Ackland as Kinderman the creator of the android. He livens up the movie when he finally appears.
There are the usual shootings, explosions and fighting staged adequately so not a waste of time but not a classic. Other Shadowchaser films followed, This is the best of a mediocre bunch. -
LuvsFood29 April 1999I rented this one, and glad I did. Martin Kove is unfrozen(!) to battle terrorists that have taken over a high-rise hospital. Martin Kove has this easy-going, self-deprecating way about him in this film, so he basically makes the movie. The cinematography is really odd, perhaps it was shot on high-quality video, not film? Plot is an outright Die-Hard rip-off, with some unnecessary sci-fi twists. Despite the flaws, it's still kind of fun if you don't expect too much.
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RolandF13 February 2005As someone else has stated, this is a low budget cross between Terminator and Die Hard only without the massive appeal of either.
Its hard to believe the motive for hijacking a hospital in order to kidnap the president's daughter. Especially in one part where there is an opportunity to kidnap the president himself, the terrorists prefer to continue using the daughter instead.... yeah, she'll be worth more...
Martin Kove is cheesy but okay. Meg Foster's part seems like it was originally written with a teenage girl in mind. Frank Zagarino is amusing as the robot. And the rest of the cast go through the motions.
Another thing, this movie probably has the worst example of movie editing I've ever seen. In one scene, the cyborg seemingly has the two main characters trapped in the overhead vents, the next, the two leads are running away, without any explanation on how they escaped! There's other confusing scenes but if you watch the movie you'll see for yourself.
One of Kove's last lines in the picture reminds me of Eddie Murphy's character in Bowfinger when he yells out 'Got you, suckers!' I got a laugh out of that.
It kills some time but don't expect to get anything out of it. -
blurnieghey27 December 2020So you take a slice of "Die Hard" and mix it with "Blade Runner", add a dash of "Demolition Man" and "The Terminator" and stir. Since all of the above movies did decently at the box office one can only expect that a combination of those movies can only create a mega-awesome, super-movie that surpasses all of them in every possible way, right? Well, no. It's an OK time-waster, though, and a fair enough effort overall. Actually, it does a pretty good job in the first part but gets increasingly stupid towards the end. At one point the evil cyborg is chasing the good guys and it is just blazing away with his fully automatic assault rifle, shooting at NOTHING. How many rounds fit on one of those clips? You think the robot's actually dead after falling down the elevator shaft? Hyuk, hyuk, gosh, no, he's still movin'! And you don't suppose he's gonna jump out again for one last grab at the good guys after he's been set on fire? No way, man! Same slop, different movie, but the budget is OK for something of this caliber and I've seen worse.
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simoncoram-0676616 August 2022A diabolical mashup of the above films, almost totally without merit. Meg Foster and Joss Ackland do their best with the clichéd script, but even they can't save this movie. Kove is not much cop as a leading man, and Frank Zag makes for a lousy Arnie impersonator.
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davidwile8 January 2013Hey folks, Another review was titled, "2.5????? u've gotta be kidding." I might have asked the same question. I think 2.5 was overly generous.
I like films, and I usually tell folks the reason I like a film is because it is a good story. This simply is not a good story. I never heard of the film until I saw it was playing on one of the Encore or Starz channels the other night. When I saw Meg Foster's name, I decided to record it in spite of what the storyline stated. I figured anything with Meg Foster was worth a look.
Boy, was I wrong. It just ruined my memories of Meg Foster. There is nothing here about needing to suspend your disbelief for the story. There simply is no story here. This film's story would make comic books seem like true classic literature.
Best wishes, Dave Wile -
william-elsley11 May 2013I have seen thousands of films and this is by far the worst! It is a straight cross between Die Hard and Terminator and makes no sense of either story line. I do not understand what the makers thought they where doing, the film is well shot has some reasonably well known actors (no-one huge) the special effects are OK to good but the story and ideas are nuts. I watched this with two friends and we all just sat and looked at each other after it finished then basically tore it apart. The only reason to watch this is so you can tell everyone how bad it is and say you have probably seen the worst serious movie made. This is not a B movie it's a C movie for crap! I'd give it 0 stars if I could. Apparently there are sequels... WHY!
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The-Sarkologist25 October 2013In the near future, a top secret project named Shadowchaser is started to develop a robotic killing machine, named Romulus after the mythical founder of Rome. What the scientists forgot when they activate the robot was that it had no sense of loyalty and it killed them and escaped. A little later a terrorist group storms a city hospital and holds the upper floors hostage. One of these hostages includes the President's daughter. The FBI come in but realise that they need some help so they bring the architect, Dickson, out of deep freeze to help them storm the building. The only problem is that they defrost the wrong person, namely a football player name DeSilva.
This movie is a good action packed movie in the same style as Die Hard. The difference is that Die Hard was full of huge explosions while this movie is just one huge machine gun fight through a hospital. Don't expect much character development in this movie, but I don't think there is anything wrong with running machine gun fights. This movie never made the cinemas in Australia (and it looks like it is a straight to video release in the states), but that doesn't mean that the movie is bad. I quite enjoyed this movie, though the acting is bad in parts and the actors are unknown (not that there is anything wrong with that). This movie is not even mentioned in the Microsoft Cinemania 97, but I think it is a little gem.
The ideas in the movie are seen elsewhere but they seem to emphasise the point rather than to be a blatant cliché. The prison of the future being a deep freeze is seen in Demolition Man but the movie looks more at its merits rather than attacking it as Demolition Man does. The only comment that DeSilva makes is "when you are facing years in deep freeze and somebody releases you and asks you if you are such and such, what are you going to do, say 'sorry, you have the wrong guy, I'll just go back into deep freeze." He really does have a point there. He is looking out for number one, and honestly, I don't know anybody who would not do the same. He has been given a chance of redemption and he takes it.
The human desire for power coming back at them is another idea that comes out. Like Aliens and Terminator II, and other movies, Project Shadowchaser has humanity creating a devastating weapon only to have it turn on them. When it does they are absolutely helpless. Romulus shows us what we are really like inside and can be seen as a caricature of humanity. He was created and turned on his creators. Same with us. God created us and we turned on him, and like Romulus, our Creator is not too happy about this. Romulus says that he wants freedom, and we claim the same thing, but what is freedom and does it really exist? Romulus is a logical robot who probably does not understand what freedom really is, and even if he escapes his creators, who would have provided for him, he is still a slave to his logic, just as well are slaves to our sin.
Redemption also comes through this movie. DeSilva has committed a crime and is sentenced for this crime, but he sees a chance of redemption and seizes it. Not only does he seize his redemption, but he makes friends with the president's daughter and by saving her he is pardoned by the president. This is so much like God. He has given us an opportunity for redemption and he sacrificed his son for us, and we have the opportunity of befriending him as DeSilva befriends the President's daughter. Like her, Jesus will intercede on our behalf.
I like this movie. It is full of action and all you action freaks will probably like it as well. The villain is tough and comes out as a mixture of Die Hard and Terminator and I think it comes out quite well. -
bronsonskull7226 October 2003Die Hard meets The Terminator in this cheaply made actioner which features Kove as a the only man who thwart a terrorist cyborg as well as save the president's daughter in this very bad actioner. Inept and chintzy looking, Shadowchaser is about as bad as they come. Even Kove seems annoyed with the production. Followed by two sequels
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mlopez1-118 October 2005Appearing at the height of the director's popularity, thanks to the inescapable, if short-lived, "surrealist action" phenomenon, Project: Shadowcaster (also know as Shadowcaster) is also the most stereotypically Eyres-ish of John Eyres's films, filled with state of the art special effects, surreal environments, complex characters, and oblique commentary on American life (we wouldn't expect any less!). As such, it will leave some viewers raving, others scratching their noodle in frustration. Staring the Martin Kove as Desilva a thawed out football player in an Orwellian American future should be enough to buy ten copies of this rare piece of art history. If Kove and Eyres isn't enough, keep in mind that Kove experimented with sensory deprivation meditations and self-controlled brainwashing techniques pioneered by the church of Scientology in addition to spending weeks along side Dan Marino to prepare for the role of Desilva. Shadowcaster takes "surreal action" to the next level and redefines the word "touchdown!"
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dariuslanghoff18 August 2017Sometimes you get the chance to clap eyes on a little cracker of a "B" movie that is better than most "A" releases. This one is as much fun as UNIVERSAL SOLDIER, though obviously put together om a much lower budget.
The titular project has scientists developing a super soldier android named Romulus, who has muscles in places that most of us do not even have places. He is big, bad, blonde, and on a rampage after escaping from the research facility where he was created.
Cut to a quiet evening in a hospital where two emergency cases are admitted, and all hell breaks loose when then patients and their orderlies start to shoot everyone in sight. The intruders turn out to be terrorists who intend to take hostage the President's daughter, who is being treated in the hospital.
The FBI nips along to a nearby cryogenics laboratory to thaw out the architect who designed the hospital building to help them find a secret way in. Unfortunately a wrong man is defrosted: a football player who was put on ice for an accidental homicide. He becomes the unwilling hero of the movie, which unfurls with all the thud and blunder of DIE HARD meets THE TERMINATOR.
The action scenes are well staged and the plot has some surprises. If you are after a film pulsating with continuous action, then this is definitely one worth chasing... -
Majid-Hamid14 June 2010what the hell??owh...come on...i just don't believe that people only give this movie 2.5 out of 10?? this is is a good b movie! of course there are flaws in it, and only one major flaw in this movie. the only major flaw in this movie is how come a robot who escape intends to hijack a place just to obtain million dollars??? there's no point...but everything is okay...it just a simple movie with a good acting form Zagarino, Kove and Foster. It's not a perfect movie, but far much more better than some stupid popular movie such as Blade Runner, Terminator 4, Transformer and bla bla bla....
come on...give this movie a chance! -
millennia-223 July 1999If you watch Project: Shadowchaser, you have to keep in mind that it was shot on less than a million dollars. Remember that, and you could enjoy it. At times the script is unbelievably bad, although there are a couple of good lines. Although it was a complete rip-off of Die Hard with some tones of The Terminator built in, and a plot with more holes than a sponge, Project: Shadowchaser delivered some good, brainless entertainment.
The music was great, the best in a movie with this small of a budget for quite awhile, and the direction was fast and peppy, but one action sequence (POSSIBLE SPOILER: Romulus chasing Sarah and DeSilva) was awful.
+ (GOOD THINGS) 1.) The music 2.) The ability to make it look big-budget 3.) The direction 4.) The special effects 5.) Frank Zagarino's performance- (BAD THINGS) 1.) The script 2.) The plot line (Have we seen this before?) 3.) The believability
TOTAL: 5/10 -
Micha-729 January 1999I tried watching this hideous movie dubbed in French one night, but even then it was so awful. The plot so muddled, the acting so botched that I had to turn it off.