A lot of fun.

This is a tender, generous movie that likes its characters and presents them as real people, full of flaws and strengths.

This is a gorgeous movie made by a gorgeous spirit.

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

Oh, glorious cheese! This falls into that category of so bad it's good. Direct to video, rental goodness. You have a pile of recognizable B movie stars who many would be hard-pressed to name, but would know their faces, over-the-top special effects, terrible (albeit entertaining) dialogue and a score that feels like it was stolen from one of the Rambo movies. If you took Terminator, Cyborg, Johnny Mnemonic & Blade Runner, starring a budget Jean Claude Van Damme knockoff, then add a touch of Cannon Films for good measure & mixed it into a cocktail you'd have this film. One thing Nemesis manages to be is entertaining. Maybe not for the right reasons, but if you grew up perusing the rental isles of your video store and had a love for low budget sci-fi/action films you need to check this out. This isn't something everyone will appreciate, but those who do will enjoy the hell out of it. Is it a good movie, not at all, is it entertaining, yes, yes it is.My Rating: 5/10

In the future, cybernetic beings are replacing humans with perfectly duplicated cyborgs which mimic human behavior and look the part. Oliver Grunner is an LA cop, Alex Raine, who is a human with cybernetic parts, who hunts terrorists for his department, under Commissioner Farnsworth (Tim Thomerson). What Alex doesn't realize is that Farnsworth has been "replaced" with a state-of-the-art cybernetic recreation who is to lead a revolution with a plan to wipe out humankind. There are characters like Angie-liv (Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa), Max Impact (Merle Kennedy, who moves like a monkey), Jared (Marjorie Monaghan, a "good cyborg" and once Alex's lover before he discovered she was in fact an "it"), and Julian (Deborah Shelton, Jared's cybernetic ally whose naked body actually looks synthetic) who are trying to stop the evil cyborg's from the planned human holocaust.The plot, with a lot of technical mumbo jumbo as dialogue to explain facets of the story play second fiddle to the non-stop action and you can most definitely see the John Woo influence in the grand ways director Albert Pyun and cinematographer George Mooradian stage action sequences. Gruner, in exceptional shape, even moves like Chow Yun Fat , at times, with how he shoots his various guns, particularly hand weapons. Lots of buildings take abuse, sparks emitting when metal is blasted into, the ground exploding from missiles and bullets, trees in Java toppling, old factories no longer in use taking an ass whooping thanks to the stunt coordinators and action choreographers allowed to work their cinematic magic.Coolest scene could be where Gruner must escape from certain death by blowing out several floors under him in order to escape. Plenty of "cyborg effects" which should appeal to fans of "cyberpunk".

Don't be fooled by the box art that promises a gritty urban cyberpunk experience. Most of the film's running time takes place in Hawaii - standing in for a low tech, low life Javanese town called Shang Loo - so it looks a little too bright and airy to be cyberpunk to anyone familiar with William Gibson's 'Sprawl'. There are science fiction elements essential to the plot but science fiction fans looking for a tech thriller will be disappointed. This is a generic late 80's / early 90's actioner of a type which has thankfully gone out of style. Lots of explosions, karate fights and expended shell casings strung around a thin, mostly incoherent plot about intrigue in the cyborg population that takes the entire first half of the film to get going. The only compensation seems to be an abundance of stunning women in the cast. The producers must have been owed a favor by a modeling agency or something. Features a rare nude appearance by 1970 Miss USA Deborah Shelton, still looking very hot in her mid-40s, as Julian, a cyborg who has changed sides.

Olivier Gruner stars as Alex Rain, a cyborg who has lost all his faith in humanity after barely walking away with his life after a gun fight with terrorists, However his former employers want him back and they want him to get rid of a renegade agent and to insure that he does this deed, they implant a bomb in his heart, not impressed by his former employer's antics Rain goes AWOL and joins the rebels. There are many similarities between this and Pyun's other movie Cyborg. Although where as I remember everyone in Cyborg laughing at the antics on screen, I remember everyone walking out of this one saying how good it was. I however was no fan. I thought the narrative was a bit hard to follow and while the action sequences were well staged, I often found myself distracted by the circumstances surrounding them. (Same thing with Cyborg.) However Nemesis is better than Cyborg, there is more depth in the script however there isn't enough exploring of the depth that could have made this thing great. Indeed there are some very good moments to be found here but had Pyun explored these (Mainly the relationship between Gruner and the renegade agent Jared(Played well by Marjorie Monaghan) as well as Gruner's dilemma to being a cyborg) Nemesis might have really been something. Nemesis has it's fans and I can see why, I just was often bored with the corporate clichés and confused narrative. Ed note:However it's still way better than any of the sequels, so if you must watch one from this prolific series, see only this one. * * out of 4-(Fair)