Do you like watching fight scenes?

That's it. Don't expect anything more than a bare unoriginal storyline. Loads of inconsistencies, like showing the same boat sometimes appearing to go North, then South, then inland and sometimes in the middle of an ocean .. I don't know. It pretty much summarizes the movie. Lots of fight scenes interspersed with random cuts to scenes that for the most part are just filler and barely tie what plot there is together.

Not being an admirer of fight movies, I can't claim to be an expert, but I'm sure I've seen better in older films .. and the settings are so contrived, I thought I was watching a video game.

Good points: It wasn't so bad that I couldn't sit through it.

Random boat scenes, excessive knife-sharpening, and plenty of Van Dammage

While you might think those 3 factors cannot add up to anything but an outstanding Van Damme movie, you'd be wrong. This movie makes absolutely no sense, don't even try to figure it out. It makes "Maximum Risk" look like "Commando", or "Lion Heart" look like "Cliff Hanger". Now that I think of it, Van Damme movies generally suck as a rule: only exceptions coming to mind right now are Blood Sport and Kickboxer. Did anyone see "In Hell"? Man that movie was awful - it mostly consisted of him sitting in a cell hallucinating about a moth and banging his head against a stone wall. And then there's "The Quest", which is basically like "Blood Sport", with the small exception that it sucks gigantically. Is "Double Team" twice as bad as "Double Impact"? Or 4 times as bad, since they're both doubled? Do they both succumb to the might of "Time Cop"?

But back to Cyborg... Well, honestly I don't remember too much about this movie except that it made me furious. It was a long time ago and I really wasn't paying too much attention. But I definitely remember a boat scene near the beginning with absolutely no explanation as to what's going on. Who's on the boat? Where is it going? Is the boat a cyborg too? Did Van Damme have to spin kick a pirate in the face 5 times in rapid succession to commandeer the boat? The world may never know. But I know this: "Cyborg" was terrible.

Van Damme Becomes a Star

Using costumes and some effect intended for a sequel to the live action MASTERS OF THE UNIVERSE, CYBORG is a bleak and apocalyptic film best known for securing the film career of Jean-Claude Van Damme. The film takes place in a future United States that has been decimated by a plague and internal violence. The film begins in New York City. A female cyborg named Pearl Prophet (Dale Haddon) has retrieved information stored within her memory that when brought back to Atlanta (former headquarters of Centers for Disease Control) should bring about a cure for the plague that has killed and is killing so many others. Unfortunately, Pearl runs into a group of pirates led by Fender Tremolo (Vincent Kyln) a big and ugly villain who grunts a lot and who has scary-looking eyes. While running away from Fender, Pearl runs into Gibson Rickenbacker (Van Damme). Gibson is a wandering do-gooder who has spent the last several years of his life training for the day when he would meet Fender again and get his revenge for killing his loved ones. In their first encounter, Gibson is left for dead. Of course, he's not dead but is just unconscious under a pile of rubble. After crawling his way out, Gibson follows the path of Fender, determined to save Pearl and get his revenge. Also, while following Fender's path, Gibson rescues a young woman named Nady Simmons (Deborah Richter). Gibson eventually meets up with Fender again and battle and mayhem ensue.

CYBORG was directed by Albert Pyun. Pyun has gained a reputation as being a modern Ed Wood. He's directed over forty movies, usually on a shoestring, and will probably be forever infamously known as the man who directed the CAPTAIN AMERICA movie that was never released in U.S. theatres. There are some people who are huge Pyun fans. If you know what you are getting into and are in the right mindset, then a Pyun film can be bearable to watch. But there's a reason besides the huge amount of projects and cheap budgets that Pyun is compared to Ed Wood. His movies have terribly written scripts with bad dialogue and nonsensical plots, usually full of holes. His films usually also have a huge amount of violence. CYBORG has all of those elements as well as a cast of characters named after guitars and other musical instruments.

There's only one reason that I watched CYBORG. Several years ago while flipping through the channels late at night I came across the most memorable scene in the movie. I won't give that scene away, but I was so mesmerized by what I saw that I decided to rent the movie and watch the whole thing. The rest of the movie pales in comparison to that scene, but the scene is worth watching.

CYBORG isn't a good movie. It's a bad movie, but not quite bad enough to be campy. If you enjoy fighting movies and can get past the weak plot, cheesy costumes, musical instrument-named characters, and terrible dialogue, then you might enjoy CYBORG. For everyone else, I would recommend only out of curiosity.

A JCVD 80's Movie to own

I just bought the DVD and haven't seen Cyborg for 15 years or so.

This movie despite the 1980's MTV band costumes is a great movie for having a couple of hours of fun.

best move: the nail out of JCVD's boot as he does a jumping spinning hook kick.

the cheese: the bad guys popping out of the mancover -- sort of like a Monty Python skit.

But good stuff!

Anarchy, Genocide, Starvation - perfect setting for a JCVD movie

The Jean Claude Van Damme Review Matrix (JCVD-RM)

1.Who is he? Gibson Rickenbacker, a post-apocalyptic fighter who helps people affected by the plague
2.Which family member/friend must be avenged? His entire family was murdered
3.Does he take his shirt off? Yes, in the rain.
4.Does he have sex with a C-List actress? Yes, some cute brunette (Dayle Hadden)
5.Is there a tournament? No, just a battle for survival
6.Is training needed for this tournament? No tournament here, but judging by how badly he beats down the enemy lackeys, it doesn't appear that training is needed.
7.Does he do the splits in training or in the tournament? Several times
8.Does he punch someone in the balls? No, but he engages in a little five-on-two grab move during one fight
9.Does he do a series of flying or 360 kicks? Constantly
10.Is his enemy unbeatable? Fender Tremolo (Vincent Klyn) is a cyborg who has nearly glowing eyes and a robotic voicebox similar to that of a tracheotomy patient. He also has a gang of cyborgs at his disposal.
11.Does he overcome an injury or other hindrance? Yes, at one point he literally gets crucified
12.Does he win? Despite the fact that he's absolutely pummeled by Fender, and a car door, he somehow manages to win via meat hook.

Perhaps the most violent of JCVD's flicks, the action in this one is pretty good. The fight sequences are a little choppy at times, with the mega-pause between hits, but overall the choreography is solid. A few gory scenes are a bit of a shocker, specifically the crucifixion scene. Amidst the post-apocalyptic setting, however, everything seems oddly appropriate for a movie approaching B-Movie status. Classic JCVD, it's great.