Touches You

Great Film overall

This movie was so-so. It had it's moments, but wasn't the greatest.

Worth seeing just to witness how winsome it is.

For some reason I never got around to watch the first "Cyborg" movie, the one from 1989 starring Jean Claude Van Damme. It just always reeked of low budget, and thus I avoided it as if it was on fire. I didn't know that they had made a part two and three to the movie, before I stumbled upon "Cyborg 2: Glass Shadow" by sheer random luck, and now saw that there is a "Cyborg 3: The Recycler" as I looked up "Cyborg 2: Glass Shadow" here on IMDb.If the first movie is anywhere near as catastrophic as this second movie is, then I have been avoiding it for a good reason. Because, while this sequel has Elias Koteas and Angelina Jolie in it, as well as the iconic voice of Jack Palance, then the movie was a shambled mess of a chaotic movie trying to make sense.The story is about cyborg Casella Reese (played by Angelina Jolie) whom is carrying a high-explosive compound inside her, as she is designed to be the ultimate espionage cyborg. With the assistance of Colton Ricks (played by Elias Koteas), the renegade cyborg is freed into the chaotic world outside the confines of the PinWheel corporation.Right, well I am sure that the storyline worked well enough on paper and for the ones who wrote it. But it didn't really translate all that well on the screen. I found the movie to be a somewhat cluster of random scenes put together in order to achieve a wholesome end result. But it wasn't successful.I felt my interest in the storyline dwindle quite shortly into the movie, and director Michael Schroeder failed to lead me back on track, because the movie never progressed into something that had any real interest in terms of an attractive storyline.The acting in the movie was actually good, despite the talents having virtually nothing to work with.As for the special effects, which are quite important in order for a Sci-Fi movie to prove effective, then the special effects department that worked on "Cyborg 2: Glass Shadow" didn't really achieve anything worthwhile, impressive or memorable. And for a futuristic movie, then I was really amazed with what had to be a very antique phone booth with a rotary wheel dial standing in a junk yard, fully functional and operational, and requiring no coins or other payments to use.After having seen part two, then I still feel discouraged from actually sitting down and watching the original 1989 "Cyborg" movie, despite having it in my DVD collection. And I am even less interested in watching part three after this disastrous movie."Cyborg 2: Glass Shadow" scores a mere three out of ten stars here from me, and I do feel very generous with that rating.

In her first major role, a teenaged Angelina Jolie plays "Cash" Reese, a cyborg designed by the powerful Pinwheel Corporation. Pinwheel is at war with the Japanese outfit Kobayashi for control of the lucrative robotics market. Cash's purpose in "life" will be to charm her way into the Kobayashi headquarters and detonate the liquid explosive that she is carrying inside her. But before that can happen, she takes it on the lam with her nice guy combat instructor, "Colt" Ricks (Elias Koteas). Assisting them for much of their journey is the mysterious "Mercy" (Jack Palance), who, for the most part, is only partly visible on various screens.Co-writer / director Michael Schroeder deserves credit for taking this as seriously as he does. There's a minimum of camp and silliness, resulting in a rather sober and affecting love story as well as a tried and true futuristic sci-fi actioner. The relationship between Cash and Colt is handled in poignant fashion, and Mercy is likewise treated with quite a deal of dignity. The movie isn't terribly slick, and is somewhat clunky, but engaging nonetheless and vividly designed. (It's too bad that the Region 1 DVD is mostly fullscreen when this was clearly shot in the 2.35:1 aspect ratio.) Peter Allen did a fine job with the emotion-rich music score.Angelina looks great, and delivers an appealing performance. The always excellent Koteas acquits himself well as her love interest. Allen Garfield (who dedicated his performance to the late Ray Sharkey), as corporate creep Martin Dunn, Karen Sheperd, as nasty cyborg Chen, and especially the scenery devouring Billy Drago as slithery cyborg hunter Danny Bench all size up as worthy villains. There are brief appearances by Ric Young, Tracey Walter, and Sven-Ole Thorsen. Palance is deliciously hammy much of the time, with his exaggerated delivery of expository dialogue. (You're sure you'll have a pretty good time when you hear Palance uttering the opening information with real gusto.)Ultimately, this is on the routine side, but Schroeder does show some ambition beyond making a mere B movie.Seven out of 10.

When you watch this film, you can see that the participants were trying. There is evidence of real effort. But all you need to know is that Angelina Jolie says when she saw the film, she went home and was sick.The film scores very low on this site and deservedly so. Much of it is boring. And much of the dialogue is cheesy.There is a fine line between an homage and a derivative. "Cyborg 2" mostly has the feel of the latter.Overall, this film is very uneven. Sometimes the music sounds impressive, sometimes annoying. Sometimes Angelina does a good job; most of the time she cannot overcome the script or her own inexperience. The plot has little to tell us. The action scenes cannot sustain the film on their own, though mostly they too are tedious.

This low-budget movie attempts to cash in on the "cyborg" fad created by Terminator 2 a few years before it. Okay, so I am a big fan of Jack Palance. I've seen City Slickers 2 and Tango and Cash (see username) at least 100 times. This movie isn't quite as good, but it still has ol' JP in it, and is therefore worth seeing. Three best parts of this movie:Angelina Jolie is a smokin' hot 18-year-old cyborg. The guy that plays Casey Jones in the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movies is in this. Jack Palance is in fine form, being weird, and saying weird stuff (insert *irregular breathing* here).Other than that it's really cheesy - which I hope you expected, watching a movie called "Cyborg 2."Two questions about this movie: 1. Who is the Asian guy with vampire teeth who yells and holds money during the fighting scene? 2. What the hell happens in the end? Where are they? Is that a house? And who is the old guy in the last shot of the movie?4/10