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The Guyver
Mutronics
USA 1991
produced by Brian Yuzna, Yutaka Wada (executive), Aki Komine (executive) for New Line
directed by Screaming Mad George, Steve Wang
starring Mark Hamill, Vivian Wu, Jack Armstrong, David Gale, Jimmie 'JJ' Walker, Michael Berryman, Peter Spellos, Spice Williams-Crosby, Willard E. Pugh, Jeffrey Combs, David Wells, Linnea Quigley, Greg Joung Paik, Johnnie Saiko, Deborah Anne Gorman, Danny Gibson, 'Evil' Ted Smith, Doug Simpson, Brian Simpson, Dennis Madalone, Michael Deak, Jay Kelley
written by Jon Purdy, based on the manga by Yoshiki Takaya, music by Matthew Morse, creature effects by Steve Wang, Screaming Mad George
Guyver
review by Mike Haberfelner
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Back a little bit before our time, aliens have created humankind as the
ultimate weapon, and the ability to turn into a monster is somehow
embedded deep in each one of us, only it can't be accessed with a little
bit of modifying. These days, the whole alien heritage is controlled by
the Chronos Corporation, which apart from this is also more than
interested in the Guyver suit, a super-suit that would dwarf all the
monsters - thing is, nobody knows how the suit's activated. Dr. Segawa
(Greg Joung Paik) works at Chronos, but when he learns about the Guyver
suit, he feels that's a weapon too dangerous to be left in the hands of
the company, and thus one night steals it to hand it over to FBI agent
Reed (Mark Hamill). But he's stopped by Chronos' quartet of thugs (Michael
Berryman, Jimmie 'JJ' Walker, Peter Spellos, Spice Williams-Crosby), who
turn into monsters to tear him to pieces - but somehow fail to find the
suit on him. The suit is actually found by Sean (Jack Armstrong), a very
mediocre martial arts student and by some coincidence the boyfriend of
Segawa's daughter Mizky (Vivian Wu). When he faces a gang of street thugs,
Sean accidently activates the Guyver suit, and he unexpectedly beats
everyone to a pulp but is shocked what he has become. In the meantime,
Balcus (David Gale), head of Chronos, has learned about Segawa's daughter
and has his quartet of thugs kidnap her. But she has Reed and Sean by her
side, and while Reed tries to get her to safety, with moderate success,
Sean turns once again into the Guyver and beats up the foursome, who of
course turn into monsters as well. Then though he erroneously thinks he
has killed Mizky, and that's all the distraction the monsters need to
literally tear him apart. Mizky later comes to at Chronos headquarters,
and Balcus first tries to charm then force her into giving away the secret
of the Guyver suit, which she actually doesn't even know, but from the
severed parts, Sean grows back into the Guyver and starts to give the
Chronos monsters another good beating - but this time they're more,
they're on their home turf, and they're backed by Balcus, who, as the head
of the corporation, can turn into a particularly nasty piece of work ... Genre
fave Jeffrey Combs, in an intentional twist of irony, plays an employee of
his Re-Animator antagonist
David Gale (and Combs is even called Dr. East to hammer the point home),
then contemporary scream queen Linnea Quigley, in another ironic twist,
plays a scream queen whose scene in a movie within the movie is destroyed
by a "real" monster. In a way, this is your typical
1990s B-movie of the sci fi/monster variety: A somewhat ridiculous and
pretty much predictable plot, plenty of action and a good deal of
violence, your almost prerogatory macho attitude, grotesque practical
creature effects, all combined in a film that's moving fast enough to
butter over at least some of the plot inconsistencies. That said, The
Guyver on one hand boasts a cooler than usual cast, including many
actors who have since become legends, on the other though it's also pretty
funny, ever now and again breaking up the hard-hitting action for some
slapstick, some piece of (self-)parody, or just some really funny lines.
Thing is, none of these detract from the film's overall tension let alone
drag it towards the moronic. Now all of this makes this film maybe no
masterpiece, but a pretty fun watch nonetheless.
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