Cyborg 2087 (1966)
4/10
Cheesy forerunner to The Terminator
31 May 2016
Warning: Spoilers
This is a pretty rare example of a low-budget '60s sci-fi movie, complete with all of those technological gadgets which look incredibly laughable and dated these days. In a film where homing devices turn out to be compasses and where time machines look like giant spark plugs, you can't fail to laugh and have a good time. Sadly, what could have been a nice and tight little thriller turns out to be a tacky affair, unable to overcome a low budget and one which ends up just being disappointing.

Once you get over the initial disappointment that this isn't going to be very serious entertainment, I'm sure you'll find yourself enjoying the supreme '60s nature of the film, complete with dodgy laser guns (beams drawn on the film, no less), silly silver space suits and a lively score which appears to have been used in a number of other movies since. Michael Rennie finds himself typecast as the cyborg visitor from the future, basically playing the same kind of "stranger" character as he did in THE DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL, and it is sad to see him reduced to running around in a space-suit while shooting people with ray guns.

Rennie is supported by Karen Steele - an incredibly irritating dumb blonde - and Wendell Corey, who made a living for himself doing these kinds of films and television shows. Elsewhere, a quartet of overage teenagers enjoy themselves by grooving in some snazzy attire - and while there, why not check out their unintentionally hilarious dialogue, which even outdoes I WAS A TEENAGE WEREWOLF for sheer cheesiness! Sci-fi fans may well notice that the plot bears more than a passing resemblance to that of THE TERMINATOR, and this was an obvious influence on that film. One more thing - if you want to see something really funny, check out the two killer cyborgs from the future - Arnold Schwarzenegger they are not! Instead, they look like two camp joggers out on a night-time run, and are some of the funniest characters ever to appear in a movie.
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