Supelice Dreadfully Boring

FuzzyTagz If the ambition is to provide two hours of instantly forgettable, popcorn-munching escapism, it succeeds.

Twilightfa Watch something else. There are very few redeeming qualities to this film.

Voxitype Good films always raise compelling questions, whether the format is fiction or documentary fact.

JP Fournier The movie starts with a monkey in a cage, who's been hooked up to some sort of robotic transmitter that people can command the monkey to perform certain acts. Then one of the scientists says, "Now take a look at what happens when we touch him with a robot." To which a small remote controlled robot enters the cage and touches the monkey, followed by inappropriate reaction from the monkey. Whenever a film starts with testing a monkey and we hear, "Ok Now take a look at what happens with when touch him with a robot." I'm going to be in for the long run.Vindicator might not feel like an original story, crossing Robocop with the Hulk (film doesn't even try to hide that it has borrowed a concept from the hulk by making), with a scientist who's been rebuilt into a powerful after a freak accident, which was purposely cause by his coworkers to push forward an experiment.Yes, this is low budget, and yes this is silly, and yes, this is very eighties, however the film runs smoothly, never feeling dull. It's villains are despicable and you'll root for the hero to give them their dues. Some of the directors choices are also good, for instance a church sequence that has a great shot of our hero jumping from a balcony into shattering wood floors.This is a true 80's low budget gem. Hard to find but worth the hunt.

Paul Andrews The Vindicator start as ARC, Aerospace Research Corporation, research scientist Carl Lehman (David McIlwraith) is killed in a laboratory explosion after he confronts his corrupt boss Alex Whyte (Richard Cox) about missing money. Carl's pregnant wife Lauren (Teri Austin) is devastated but thinks that's the end of the matter, however Alex & several other ARC scientists pool their research in order to create a living cybernetic robot that contains Carl's brain that is intended to explore Mars. Unfortunately the remote control device is disconnected from Carl & manages to escape the research facility & contacts Lauren, enraged about what has been done to him by his fellow scientists Carl decides to use his almost limitless strength & robotic power to take revenge on those who did this to him. Meanwhile Whyte calls in Hunter (Pam Grier) an assassin to cover the mess & bodies left behind as well as track Carl down & bring him in...This American Canadian co-production was directed by Jean-Claude Lord who had previously made the Canadian slasher Visiting Hours (1982) & is still directing even now, anyway this being the first of January 2010 The Vindicator is in fact not only the first film of 2010 that I have seen but the first film of the new decade & while it's not a bad way to kick start my exploitation viewing for the next ten years I wouldn't exactly call it a classic. The Vindicator is a pretty obscure film & one I would actually like to know more about in terms of it's production since the IMDb lists a release date of 1986 but the copyright date on the credits says 1984 (I think & the IMDb itself lists the production date as from October 1984 to November 1985) & it was originally called Frankenstein '88 until the huge success of The Terminator (1984) which probably made Twentieth Century Fox pick it for distribution & release it theatrically in the US & certainly influenced the change of title to The Vindicator which sounds a lot like The Terminator doesn't it? As far as the film itself goes you can clearly see that The Vindicator was a modern take on the Frankenstein story, several character's refer to Frankenstein by name & the idea of saving someone's brain & transplanting it is taken directly from Frankenstein. At 90 odd minutes in length it has a good pace, it moves along quickly enough, there are one or two memorable scenes especially the fiery first appearance of the Vindicator & it has a certain sleazy seriousness to it, there are a couple of minor plot twists & overall it's an entertaining piece of sci-fi action horror that is strangely obscure & not that well known. Of course the film isn't perfect, using the guy's brain who you have just murdered seems like a foolish idea, there's no real logical reason as to why Carl is programmed to kill or destroy anything that even touches him or why he makes a silly bleep bleep noise when he's in rage mode & there's no explanation given at the end as to how Whyte manages to become a cyborg in the space of ten minutes with no help from anyone.There's a real early 80's vibe going on here with the fashions, laboratory equipment & decor but it has a level of seriousness that sort of works & it hasn't dated too badly everything considered. I quite liked the casio keyboard synthesiser music too with loads of chimes going on in the background. The effects are pretty good, the robot suit looks a bit clunky at times & a bit too much like plastic but it looks alright & the unmasking scene in the Church is cool as he reveals his face beneath the mask which has no lips or upper skull & his brain is visible. There's some gore like a needle through someones throat & some action scenes including several exploding cars, it's just a shame the action scenes aren't staged that well. There's also an unpleasant sexual assault which almost certainly was the footage that the BBFC cut from the UK tape back when it was released over here. The film feels a lot like Robocop (1987) & the same sorts of themes & ideas are present in both although The Vindicator was shot at least a few years before. Maybe I am just thinking out loud here or guessing but around 1980 an adaptation of Frankenstein was announced to be directed by legendary Canadian filmmaker David Cronenberg (even as far as advance ads appearing in magazines) but it ultimately never got made & I am wondering if The Vindicator is what that project eventually turned into, I mean the Frankenstein themes are there & Pierre David was involved in both as a producer.A lot of reviews comment on this being low budget but with a budget of almost $4,500,000 back in the early eighties this was probably quite well funded for the time. The end credits list Montréal as it's filming location. The acting is OK with Pam Grier the only real recognisable name in the cast.The Vindicator is a film I liked, I liked the modern (80's anyway) updating of the classic Frankenstein themes & thought it was a good little sci-fi horror film with some good action. Sure, it isn't any sort of masterpiece but I think most exploitation fans will be happy with this largely ignored & forgotten effort.

Skutter-2 The Vindicator opens with the memorable scene of a monkey in a cage attacking a ripping apart a small toy robot as part of a scientific experiment. This random act violence sold it for me and I'm happy to say the rest of Vindicator provided a veritable feast of cheese.The Vindicator is about a scientist (David McIlwraith) who is nearly killed an explosion in his lab whose tattered remains are put inside an experimental body suit/armour. For some unfathomable reason he is fitted with a Rage Response Activator, a device wired into his brain that will turn him homicidal if he comes into physical contact with any other person. They give some daft explanation about how it is a necessary defensive mechanism but I cannot see the logic in installing such a device unless you wanted a rampaging cyborg killing machine. It is especially ridiculous when it is indicated the suit Carl is wearing is actually an experimental space suit. What possible need would there be for an astronaut to turn into the incredible hulk whilst on a mission? He predictably breaks out of the lab and proceeds to battle the dodgy scientists who put him in the suit, along with the ninja assassin Hunter played by Pam Grier (No, really).The Vindicator itself looks pretty damn goofy. It is basically a dude in a mangled golden foil suit. He also has a perpetually bewildered look in his eyes, that doesn't inspire fear or even compassion. I guess you can't blame him for that, most people watching the movie will have that same look on their faces.The acting is of the really bad, stilted, 'I'm not sure what the character's emotions or thoughts are that this point so I'll take a punt and spurt out my dialogue in a random tone of voice whilst trying not look at the camera' school of acting. The actor playing the funky black scientist even struggles with this last part.It is after this initial accidental death that the Vindicator goes after the scientists. Strangely enough the whole Rage Response Activator 'touch me and I'll kill you' thing doesn't play as big a role as you might expect with Carl going after his former colleges in a reasonably detached manner. There was one scene where he rather brutally kills some street punks who push him around. I know that it is de rigueur for street gangs to randomly assault the lead characters in eighties movies but surely one of them must have realised it might be a bad idea to attack the hulking cyborg guy even if he does look like C3PO's retarded cousin. As it is they don't even seem that surprised to see a mangled golden cyborg walking down the street as though it was an every day occurrence for them. The only other time this rage response activator comes up in the movie is when old Carl can't give his wife a hug. When Hunter tries to turn this against him by throwing her into him so he'll be forced to kill her he casually remarks he has reprogrammed himself (Off-screen naturally) so this doesn't happen. They could have left out the whole Rage Response Activator thing and just gone with a straight revenge story and it wouldn't have made a huge difference to the movie.There is an amusing sequence in the sewers as Grier and her cronies track down the Vindicator. Due to his armoured hide they are all armed with weapons which fire 'vapourised acid.' For some bizarre reason when these weapons fire it is represented on screen by cartoonish red lines that streak toward their targets ala Ghostbusters. The Vindicator fights back by ripping a gas pipe out of the wall and incinerating all of Grier's goons in an enormous streak of flame that comes out. The resulting fireball is so huge and powerful that it comes out of the sewers out of a man hole and blows up the van a couple of the scientists are. Strangely enough Grier escapes by throwing herself down into the inch deep water despite the fact she was closest to the Vindicator. This is one of several fake fiery explosions throughout the movie, including the death of funky black scientist when the vindicator sends his van of a cliff. (This is after they capture The Vindicator by trapping him in a giant lump of gello- no, seriously). There is also one unsettling and long and out of place sequence in which Carl's treacherous overweight friend, who looks like a poor man's Ned Beatty, reveals his infatuation with Carl's wife and tries to rape her. It goes on for about 5-10 minutes and is full of disturbing shots of the guy slobbering over the wife's face, gyrating on top of her and trying to pull her dress off. It is icky to say the least and seems really out of whack with most of the rest of the movie which is kind of cartoonish and larger than life in its violence.The movies finale involves the Vindicator battling a whole bunch of other dudes in battle suits. For whatever reason all these other dudes are less kick-arse than Carl, some of them being dispatched by the wife simply by having a protruding tube in their side ripped out. Luckily for Carl the suit he is wearing lacks this crucial design flaw. The only really memorable part toward the end is the death of Grier. Doing something I've never seen a baddie do in a movie before, in the middle of her confrontation with the Vindicator she decides she really doesn't stand a chance against him and in a rather of matter of fact manner blows her own brains out with his pistol.

pardy_travis Ok, it's not "craptacular", I just wanted to use the line. I just don't know what the other reviewers are raving about, as this is just not GOOD. The movie does have great special effects and acting, IN COMPARISON to 80's sci-fi Canadian efforts. However, they don't stand up when compared to other films of the same time in the same genre (and Canadian science fiction in the 80's is kind of a narrow field anyway, right?) Even animated films like Akira beat it. Budget-conscious editing and production is apparent but forgivable, as the crew did do a great job with the money given to them (probably the loose change out of George Lucas' wallet). The performances give what is demanded of them, undoubtedly, but the movie has a plot as see-through as the (very bizarre) goop the main character gets trapped in. I'm not saying it's a bad movie, but it's not good either. It's certainly nothing to build Canadian sci-fi around (we still have someone named David Cronenberg), and if Atom Egoyan ever put his massive brain into this genre we'd get something really wonderful. In short, go rent it, give it a shot. It won't live up to the fantastic title, but you might enjoy it for what it is. An 80's Canadian sci-fi movie.