Purely Joyful Movie!

Expected more

A Major Disappointment

It's a good bad... and worth a popcorn matinée. While it's easy to lament what could have been...

This is a remarkably bad movie, even by Don Wilson's meager standards. I'm sure there are folks in the world who enjoy low-budget, sci-fi B-movies and for whom FUTURE KICK fulfills some personal niche, but for me, this is just lousy, unimaginative filmmaking, the only good thing about which is that it sets a low standard to which all future Don Wilson sci-fi outings thankfully rise above.The story: In a dystopian future where corporations control the world, a wealthy female moon-dweller (Meg Foster) arrives on earth to track down her husband's murderer - a task for which she enlists the aid of the last member of a race of lethal androids (Wilson).Give cult producer Roger Corman credit for being game enough to give every weirdo script that fell into his lap a chance; a filmmaker would *have* to be pretty indiscriminant to try and make something of this. Mind you, this isn't to say that the script co-written by Catherine Cyran couldn't have been made into a decent film, but rather that the movie makers were foolish to attempt it on what must have been a small budget. With a plot that clearly outweighs this one's financial resources, the results include embarrassing computer effects, cheapo sets that hardly convey it's a futuristic setting, and a perpetually dark lighting scheme. This last aspect is the worst for me: absolutely every scene is filmed in shadow, making the movie an entirely depressing experience.The film features five fight scenes; three of them are crud and the other two (including a showdown between Wilson and his late friend Chris Penn) are only marginally better - all thanks to that awful lighting scheme. Beyond that, there's only a car chase to see, and a bucketload of gore. This one's clearly the bloodiest flick Wilson ever starred in, but even that isn't worth seeing the film for by itself. Characters are lucky if they're two-dimensional, seeing as some (e.g. Don Wilson himself) are completely lacking in character at all. Bad guy Eb Lottimer goes through the whole movie stabbing people and ripping their hearts out, but at the end he's still the most boring serial killer you'll ever see.What else can I say? I have nothing substantially good to write about this one. Admittedly, I've never been a fan of Don Wilson's movies, but this is the absolute low for him. I don't often blame a single movie for ensuring a director's success or lack of, but man, am I not surprised that Damian Klaus hasn't made another picture since this one.

I can't imagine Don 'The Dragon' Wilson ever having played in one single decent film. Once again he's starring in a whole heap of inconsistent rubbish with so many ridiculous elements thrown into the plot, that the movie just becomes insane. Main man Don plays a Cyberon - part human, part machine - and he's the last of his kind. Apparently the government wants him eliminated, but that is of no importance to the plot. Because this movie is about Meg Foster - who's very much sleepwalking her way through this flick - who lives on the moon but comes to the earth because her husband scientists got killed there. But there's also an evil corporation which illegally traffics human body parts, so that's also what this movie is about. But actually, the main villain is a serial killer running around ripping people's hearts out, so this film is about him. Also, this film is simply about a series of titty bars, because futuristic cities are a cesspool of depravity, as to be expected. And then we have a (cyber-)game called 'Laserblade', which is also of importance to the plot. Are you still following? Doesn't matter, because it's all a giant bunch of nonsense without any logic to it. And what on earth was Chris Penn doing in this stinker? He's playing a cyborg who gets to kick-box against Don near the end. Some more redeeming qualities this movie has: a decapitation, two head explosions, a full body explosion, a cut-off finger and a lot of naked tits. Since this is a Roger Corman production, Corman took the liberty of splicing in footage from a lot of other movies produced by him; mainly special outer-space effects footage (from "Galaxy Of Terror" & "Forbidden World") and naked tits (from "Stripped To Kill II: Live Girls"). How cheap can you get, Roger? The conclusion of the film is downright stupid, but it does explain why nothing in it for 70 minutes long makes any sense at all. Seeing is believing. And I saw it. Otherwise I could not have imagined how an unbelievable heap of rubbish "Future Kick" is. Now you go watch it. You know you want to.

If you like Don Wilson it is for you. Fight scenes were OK and he does manage to get some charisma across ! Chris Penn was underused.I was more disappointed with the film's overuse of stock footage from other low budget films. We had Nell from "Battle Beyond the Stars" as the virtual reality computer - also space cowboys ship was an escape pod falling to earth(akia) A car chase from "Crime Zone" was pasted in - looked plain stupid given the fact that the cars looked totally different and the chase itself (round and round a warehouse)made no sense as it was brutally edited to ensure the "Crime Zone" characters didn't get a look in. The mad part is when the "crime zone" car chase ends.. the 2 cars involved (one is supposed to be Don's) come to a halt - then we cut back to FutureKick and Dons car is shown still moving, then braking in a location that looks nothing like the one in "Crime Zone".Another for Mystery Science Theatre !!!

If you like John Carpenter films - especially the great ones like "They Live" - then you'll love FUTURE KICK! First of all, the story is fresh and haunting as its set in a world where (SPOILERS ALERT!) the rich live on the moon and the drug and sex-crazed criminals run rampant on the Earth. The other thing is - and this is really almost true today - is that corporations have become the true evil in our society. They have their own police force and death squads. If you think about it, we're not that far off from that becoming true.The lead actor is a famous kick-boxer named "The Dragon". I didn't know who he was before I started watching the film but now I really want to see more of his work. The fight scenes are very good considering the lack of computer effects in those days (think THE MATRIX without the slow-motion stuff).The characters and performances were all good too and you really felt bad for these people as they (SPOILERS) lost their organs for corporate crime. Chris Penn (Resivior Dogs, True Romance) was also very good, and might have showed some of his best work as the Cyberon aptly named Bang.The gory effects were a bit gory, but I think it was necessary for the story. Its much better than "Dune" but not as good as "Total Recall" and worth buying if they ever make a DVD.