I don't remember when I first saw this. It was like seven or eight years ago, maybe on Joe Bob Briggs' show, or some other late night thing. I saw it again recently (as in a year or two ago) when I was up late drunk, and passed out before the end. It's one of those things where late at night I'm looking for something to watch, and I see the name of DTVC Hall of Famer Rutger Hauer, and it peaks my interest.
Omega Doom is a take on Kurosawa's classic Yojimbo set in a post-apocalyptic future where androids rule and humans supposedly are regrouping to take over. Hauer is the hero who enters a town with two gangs of androids that he has to play against each other and take out. He's an android too, I think. Unlike Yojimbo, though, it turns out in the end that Hauer has been sent by the humans to clean out the android population... I think... maybe he was just a loner... maybe I missed something when I watched it.
In terms of the Yojimbo redux in the DTV market, Omega Doom is better than Desert Heat, the Van Damme movie. The only reason for this: Omega Doom doesn't think the audience is too dumb to pick up on it's Kurosaw-ian roots, while Desert Heat felt they needed to tell us that at the end. There's nothing I hate more than bad action films telling me I'm dumb.
The Hauer factor in this is very solid. There's no Hauer Bait-and-Switch here, he's in it as the lead, showing up in at least 75% of the scenes. This may not be Blade Runner or The Hitcher Hauer, but it's definitely really good DTV Hauer, and you really can't ask for much more than that.
This is bad action/sci-fi in no uncertain terms. The androids make no sense: they can be decapitated myriad times and survive, but a shot with this light thing to the abdomen is fatal. The androids, except for Hauer, makes tons of loud noises when they walk, as if a foley guy was a nephew of one of the studio execs, and demanded a bigger role in the film. The only proper word for the whole thing is comical. And it's a good comical too.
I guess for the bad, this film is pretty mediocre. Sure, it's great bad action/sci-fi, but it has no real memorable moments. There's plenty to laugh at, but nothing that'll have you dying. It's like slightly better than a Sci-Fi Pictures Original, with Rutger Hauer in it too. I'm not sure what that does for you. I liked it, but it's probably only like in my top 50 of all time bad movies. Maybe.
If you can pick this up for $2 on VHS like I did, I'd say do it, because that's not much of a risk. It's also a solid choice if it's on TV late at night, and nothing else is on. If you're having a bad movie night, this might be better shown after the main event, like they do on UFC Pay-Per-Views; but not as the big thing everyone comes over to watch. This is really meant for hard core bad movie watchers, and you should view it after the kids go to bed.
For more info: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0117238/
Wow dude, I saw this one because it came on the same dvd as Blind Fury (which I recently reviewed and enjoyed) but man, Omega Doom was damn near unwatchable!
ReplyDeleteThe whole film takes place in one or two sets...the robotic noises some of the characters make when they walk, and their obviously robotic walk...
As you said, no memorable moments at all, but it sure has a lot of people talking bullshit for extended periods of time.
Funny thing, the movie doesnt even last an hour and a half, it was over pretty quick. Thankfully.
Still, you could see Hauer making the best of it.
Wow, I really enjoyed it. It had its issues, but I liked the idea of Yojimbo with androids. I think the problem is as it always is with Pyun's films, that the budget and resources hamper his productions, but I had fun with this.
ReplyDeleteIm watching this as i type and i dig the open ended context of the precluded notions in differential consequences among the cyborg clusters- HARDCORE DEVOLUTION!!!!!
ReplyDelete