Sci-Fighters review!

I guess the logical place to start with Sci-Fighters would be telling you what it is, since it's unlikely anybody has ever heard of it. Sci-Fighters is a futuristic sci-fi action film set in 2009 starring Roddy Piper and Billy Drago. It's one of the most typical B-movies I've ever seen, but that's not necessarily a bad thing.

The film starts out in a prison on the moon, where some inmates are doing some work. They're using powertools and smoking, which inevitably leads to a fatal brawl between 2 men over a cigarette. This film is inspired.

This real ugly looking inmate is killed by an equally ugly looking inmate (played by Billy Drago), who then cuts himself (adding another scar for each person he has killed I assumed at the time, but maybe he just likes cutting on himself, I don't know). Something bursts out of the face of the ugly dead guy, and flies into the cut of the ugly living guy. The ugly living guy then dies from this parasite, and they ship the two corpses to Earth.

The cut suits the films purposes, but doesn’t half seem random.

The winner of the fight, aka, the living then dead ugly looking guy gets out of his body bag on Earth and begins a killing/raping spree. He snaps the neck of pretty much every man he encounters, and rapes pretty much every woman, while calling them Katie. He's a little disturbed, and his infection isn't helping matters.

Ugly fucker eh?

Roddy Piper's character is then introduced, and it's clear he's a badass. He's dealing with a street gang but is jumped and beat up. He's enough of a badass to disarm one (pretty much literally) and then shoot another dead. About a minute later we learn he's a cop, and not just some vigilante. About a minute after that, we learn he is a Black Shield, which in this futuristic world means he picks his own cases, and can break the rules, so he is pretty much just some vigilante.

A rape victim of the living then dead then living ugly guy is in the police station, and the futuristic computer sketches a remarkably accurate picture of him based on her micro-expression reactions to facial features until it gets a close match. Roddy Piper's character eye-balls the sketch and recognises him. It's Adrian Dunn!

Roddy Piper knows him, and wants to speak to the rape victim. There's just one problem. She's ill. She's got some sort of virus and has been put in isolation at a hospital. Roddy goes there and exchanges words with her doctor chick. There's an immediate convenient chemistry between them, in true B-movie fashion. Of course, they don't get along, because that would be too convenient, and this film has to last 1 hour and 30 minutes.

By the time Roddy Piper gets on good enough terms with the hot doctor, the rape victim has slipped into a coma, so he can't question her now. Looks like he's got to do some police work. He tracks down the leader of the gang that jumped him earlier, puts a collar on him that will shock him every hour, and finally knock him unconscious after an amount of hours which I can't remember, but when that happens he'll likely be killed by a rival gang, Roddy intimates. The gang leader is obliged to help Roddy out in hunting down Dunn.

That’s one hell of a coma!

Sure enough, the gang leader finds Adrian Dunn, and leads Roddy to him. Roddy shoots Dunn, apparently killing him, and the gang leader then strikes at Roddy. Roddy runs off from the gang leader and one of his guy's who are shooting at him, and grabs some cover. Adrian Dunn then walks up, grabs Roddy Pipers gun off of him and shoots the gang bangers dead. He's talking to Roddy Piper like they're friends, and hands Roddy his gun back. Roddy tell's him they're not friends, and to make sure he gets it, Roddy shoots him again.

At that moment, a load of cops run up and arrest Roddy Piper, ignoring his claims that he's a cop for long enough that Adrian Dunn is taken to the wrong hospital to be treated for the half a dozen gunshot wounds he's incurred. Guess what.. He get's away again!

In an awkward attempt at exposition, the doctor chick's friend is infected and she's obviously a bit shook up so Roddy Piper offers to take her home, via his place. Here it's established that she looks startlingly similar to some woman in photos ALL over Roddy's home. ALL OVER. Every wall plastered, every surface covered. A minute later, and we're finally privy to the plot development the film had been promising for so long. Adrian Dunn was Roddy Piper's old friend from the academy, and Katie was one of his ex-girlfriends, who Roddy Piper ended up marrying. Problem is, 2 days after they married, Dunn goes crazy and rapes and beats her, the wounds of which she died from.

At some point in the film, the doctor chick, her infected friend doctor, and Roddy Piper figure out the motives behind the virus. All of it's victims are breathing out methane, and this then gets trapped in the Earth's atmosphere, making it more amenable to some alien life form, which plans to over-run the planet once humankind has died off.

Now, let’s get technical...

The film looks average for a B-movie. There were a few shots which I wasn't happy with, putting the camera at an angle sits ill with me. At least, if I notice it's at an angle it does, if it's done properly I assume I wouldn't notice, and wouldn't therefore be writing this. The sets and props are cheap, but if you're picking fault at that in a movie like this, then you're wasting your time.

The acting is ok, if I'm brutally honest I think Roddy Piper was probably the weakest link, which is unfortunate since he’s the main character. Adrian Dunn was played fine by Billy Drago, who as far as I know, is like the science fiction B-movie equivalent of Steve Buscemi, he always gets cast in roles due to his odd looks, but instead of looking like a weasel and being cast in paranoid roles, he is cast in outright nasty, tortured roles. The doctor was played by Jayne Heitmeyer, who apparently is a real actress and not just some reasonably attractive face accompanied by nice jugs. Her doctor friend was played by Tyrone Benskin, who doesn’t seem like a great actor, but played a nice role.

The dialogue is acceptable, but not great. There were some really enjoyable exchanges between the infected doctor buddy and everybody else. Aside from that though, it wasn't great. That's a real problem with futuristic films, especially B-movie ones - exposition. They've got to explain what has happened between now and the fictional future, but they've got to do it in a way that shouldn't seem forced. This film has a good attempt at it, but doesn't succeed altogether, it's just a little awkward.

There's a thing with pretty much every B-movie, and this film totally follows the trend, with putting hot chicks in the lead roles, and promising nudity, but not delivering. This film does it, they all do it. The doctor chick's bra probably gets more screentime than her face and you convince yourself she’s going to take it off, but she never does.

That's B-movies summed up, lots of promise, no payoff.