As Good As It Gets

A Masterpiece!

A lot of perfectly good film show their cards early, establish a unique premise and let the audience explore a topic at a leisurely pace, without much in terms of surprise. this film is not one of those films.

This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

Although set in the same world as the Van Damme original, CYBORG 2: GLASS SHADOW is a low rent, low budget B-movie that has very little to do with the story, look, or feel of that action film. Instead this is a movie that models itself closely on BLADE RUNNER, with a dark and moody look of shadowy buildings, rain-lashed streets, and fluorescent lighting.The erstwhile hero of the piece is a youthful Elias Koteas, who finds himself on the run with a young female cyborg when she's assigned a suicide bombing mission. Angelina Jolie plays the cyborg, which will be the most interesting thing for today's viewers; this was her debut adult role and she's surprisingly decent playing a robot conflicted with human emotions. This is a Jolie before she was encumbered with extensive tattoos and plastic surgery; at 17 years old she brings a breath of freshness to her role, one which would be missing just a few years later in her career.Sadly, the usual shortcomings of the B-movie genre are here: action scenes ruined by poor choreography, a clichéd story, poor dialogue, and a general cheapness to the production. Koteas gives an assured performance but it's not enough to save the film. There are supporting parts for familiar players like Ric Young, Arnie double Sven-Ole Thorsen, and the underrated Billy Drago playing a typical villain. Jack Palance is also here, albeit briefly, chewing up the scene in an over the top cameo. Fans of robotic stuff will find the sci-fi elements kept to a minimum although there's at least one good fight scene to enjoy when Koteas and Drago go mano-a-mano late on in the proceedings.

Not quite as bad as the rating suggests and has enough to make it watchable, but at the end of the day it just felt like a waste of potential. I forgive that it has little in common with the original Cyborg, the cheesiness and (sort of) the low budget, but not so much that it didn't do enough with its intriguing concept or let its talented cast properly shine.The best asset for me about Cyborg 2 was the performance of Jack Palance, most of his screen time is voice only but that does not once stop Palance from still being a blast as Mercy, one of the few in the cast who actually sounded like he was having fun. Who can't help love his lines either, on the most part the script was not that great at all but the outrageous surrealism of Palance's dialogue and the way he delivered it(literally just going for it no matter how little sense it made) made for enormous entertainment. Billy Drago is a sneeringly over-the-top but also chilling villain and Allen Garfield brings a little wit to his role.Cyborg 2 starts off promisingly, showing some imaginative visuals and some intriguing story set-up. Some of the futuristic special effects are nicely done too, there is a good attempt at a dystopian futuristic atmosphere that can come over effectively and the photography succeeds in being both dream-like and nightmarish.However, with the exception of Mercy's lines the script is rather weak, a lot of it reminiscent of gibberish that was in serious need of a proof-read or two. Some of it only succeeds in confusing the story even further and the characters are literally less-than-one-dimensional stereotypes, Mercy was the only character that actually seemed like the writers cared about halfway developing and even he was severely underdeveloped. The story concept-wise is intriguing, but while effort was made into giving the film atmosphere not as much attention was paid giving it momentum and such. Cyborg 2 drags a lot and changes tone shifts and plot points so frequently the story felt tonally weird and structurally choppy, which just didn't feel right. The action scenes are uneven, some have verve and fun but too many others are sloppily choreographed and lazily performed.While Cyborg 2 is not a amateurish looking film, there are instances where low budget is obvious, the sets are dreary and generally unimaginative, some editing lacks polish and the film is frequently lit far too darkly. The synthesised music score just felt at odds with the film, it sounded cheap and like it would belong more at home in a film from the late 70s-early 80s, plus to me it lacked energy. While it's true that Cyborg 2 has little to do with the first Cyborg it does incorporate a few flashbacks to tie them together, the trouble was they were rather brief and at the end there was not much need for them to be there. It was completely understandable why they did it and it was laudable, but with the way the story was written here their inclusion didn't add very much. Palance, Drago and to a lesser extent Garfield were fun, but Angelina Jolie's(in her lead role debut) acting inexperience shows no matter the effort in as sparely written a role she could have possibly gotten and Elias Koteas is even blander than his very underwritten hero character, while the rest of the cast were average or below.Overall, watchable but mediocre. Notable for it being Jolie's lead actress debut and those fond of Palance and Drago will find pleasure. But at the end of the day, with not enough done with the story and the cast not having enough to shine, it felt like a waste of potential. 5/10 Bethany Cox

Avoid at all costs - had to put it off halfway through. Bad acting, worse dialogues, lousy story and some of the worst lighting ever witnessed in a movie. The story is as weak as the first one, but the sequel isn't even watchable as horribly bad B-movie. Not even Angelina Jolie in tight outfits makes it any better and the acting by Angelina is just painful to watch. It looks like it was filmed in a storehouse over the weekend and edited by a 7 year old. I gave it 2 out of 10 and that was only because I think it will have a certain cult following, but it is just not for me. Allegedly even Angelina Jolie didn't like it and got sick after watching it. I feel your pain, Angelina, I felt the same and I didn't even watch the whole movie.

As a sci-fi and casual Angelina Jolie fan, I thought this obviously low-budget movie might be worth a look... maybe it had a few scenes or a storyline that would make up for all its other faults. Plus, it might be interesting to watch Angelina as she was embarking on her star-bound career.Oh how wrong I was. One thing I learned -- at 18, Angelina Jolie couldn't act. So, to make her comfortable, the producers cast this entire movie with people who couldn't act. Seeing this, Jack Palance (who can actually act) decided to overact. Watching 10 minutes of this happen is enough to burn your eyes out.To the horrible acting and overacting add a nonsensical script, insipid dialog, bottom-of-the-barrel cinematography... in fact add bottom-of-the-barrel everything.The story features Angelina as a cyborg programmed by her corporate overlords as an assassin. She escapes the corporate HQ with the help of her combat instructor. The corporation sends bounty hunters after them. Stupid stuff happens. The end. I would tell you more but I didn't want to waste my life watching this dreck.I implore you -- this is not worth watching. Its not even worth thinking about watching. Save yourself the pain and move on.