Future Cop (Trancers) (1985)

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General		Extras
Category	Science Fiction	Outtakes Audio Commentary-Director and a Fan Filmographies-Cast
Rating
Year Of Production	1985
Running Time	76:15
RSDL / Flipper	No/No	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	4	Directed By	Charles Band
Studio Distributor	Full Moon Pictures Beyond Home Entertainment	Starring	Tim Thomerson Helen Hunt Michael Stefani Art LaFleur Telma Hopkins Richard Herd Anne Seymour Miguel Fernandes Biff Manard
Case	Amaray-Opaque
RPI	?	Music	Phil Davies Mark Ryder

    Future Cop, AKA Trancers, was a cult hit in the emerging home video arena of the mid to late 1980s. One of those cult hits that managed to spawn 5 straight-to-video sequels over the course of the 1990s. Produced and directed by straight-to-video impresario Charles Band, which probably say enough in itself to trashy horror fans (his hand and/or wallet was involved in such genre fare as Ghoulies, Puppet Master, Troll, Robot Jox and Subspecies), starring an aging stand-up comedian, Tim Thomerson, in a purely straight-faced action-hero role and a pre-fame Helen Hunt in a cliche-soaked supporting female tag-along role, Future Cop/Trancers is utter rubbish. The kind of utter rubbish that makes great late-night viewing.

    Starting out in the mid 23rd century, Jack Deth (Tim Thomerson) is a grizzled cop (adorned in the finest, grimiest trenchcoat-chic) who has spent years on the trail of a man known as Whistler (Michael Stefani), a criminal mastermind who uses ill-described psychic powers to "trance" ordinary folk - more or less hypnotising them so that they generally do his bidding and turn into homicidal maniacs at appropriate moments (these are the titular "trancers" - I guess the more correct "Tranceds" wasn't catchy enough). As Deth closes in on Whistler, the criminal mastermind uses a drug that takes him back in time in such a way that his consciousness inhabits the body of one of his ancestors and leaves his own body as an empty husk in its day and age.

    Deth pursues Whistler to 1985, occupying the body of his ancestor Phil Deth, a reporter. He teams up with a young lass with whom Phil has just had a one-night stand (Helen Hunt). His blokey boss (Art LaFleur) occasionally keeps track of him through the body of a little girl. Armed with a revolver, whose butt contains two vials of drug that will return the time travellers to their correct time, and a single-use watch that can slow down time so that one second seems to pass like ten seconds to the wearer, Deth fights against the odds to bring Whistler back - particularly when he discovers Whistler is inhabiting the body of an influential police officer.

    The story itself is terribly written, but in pulpy film-noir style that is impossible not to be sucked in by. As awfully put together and executed as they are, the concepts and ideas in the story are great (a goldmine for anyone looking to pinch for a film with an actual effects budget). The acting is intermittently solid (Thomerson, Hunt and LaFleur) and atrocious (everyone else). The "special" effects are generally shoddy enough to be entertaining, but there are plenty of explosions - and it is hard to go wrong with blowing stuff up the old fashioned way, sans CGI. Taken for what it is, high-concept sci-fi whose production is so bad it is good, Future Cop is easy to recommend to late-night trash trawlers.

Video

    It is worth prefacing this part of the review by warning readers and potential purchasers of the disc that the distributor of this disc contacted us prior to this review to tell us that the transfer of this title was cropped and that a widescreen special edition of Trancers/Future Cop would be available some time next year. This information is much appreciated by this reviewer and hopefully any other B-Movie fans out there.

    The film is presented in a 1.33:1 aspect ratio, cropped from what looks to be a 1.85:1 original aspect.

    The video quality on offer is pretty much comparable to a reasonable VHS copy. The film transfer appears to have been sourced from tape as it features occasional, minor, tracking errors (though nowhere near as bad as those in the recently reviewed The Bobo. The focus is soft throughout and features substantial edge enhancement (resulting in foreground images looking unusually sharper than the background, though still in soft focus). The colours are faded and pale throughout the film. Most blacks look like darkish grey. There is a noticeable degree of noise and grain in the image.

    Occasional film artefacts are visible in the video, although their presence is fairly negligible weighed against the soft video. There aren't any noticeable compression issues, or other digital faux-pas with the video.

    In a strange nostalgic way the fuzzy video actually added to the viewing experience. The movie looks pretty much just like I remember it from the first time I picked it up as a $1 weekly video hire in the early 1990s and that look fits well with the clumsily-executed high-concept cult B-movie aesthetic of the film itself (in fact this is about the only movie I have ever come across where I would buy into the videotape nostalgia idea of Be Kind Rewind). That said, I would be flat-out lying if I said it looked any good, or even that it looked like the filmmakers intended. This is really an example of rather awful video being adequate enough for the material on offer - where the nature of the film bumps one-star video to the two star mark.

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

    The film features a very centre-heavy Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kbps) audio track.

    The audio is reasonably clear, though a moderate background hiss is present throughout. A lot of ADR is evident in the video, although the film generally looks to be in reasonable sync.

    There is no surround or subwoofer usage noticeable.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

    A couple of basic extras are provided, which comes as somewhat of a surprise given the basic nature of the transfer on this disc.

Audio Commentary

    A moderately interesting commentary from Charles Band and Chris Gore, a fan who runs the Film Threat website. The pair view the film in fair light and have plenty interesting to say about its place in the genre.

Outtakes (6:42)

    A couple of bloopers and some behind-the-scenes footage that doesn't look like it belongs to this particular film in the Trancers series.

Bio/Filmographies

    A small text bio and filmography for Tim Thomerson and Helen Hunt. A waste of a click for anyone with access to a thing called the Internet, which I dare say is anyone reading this review.

    A winner for Region 4 here. The Region 1 edition is pretty much bare-bones (featuring only trailers for other B-movies, which admittedly are often better than the movies themselves) and equally crummy looking.

    A cult B-movie, whose high concept paired with a good lashing of so-bad-its-good cheesiness makes it well worth a look for trash fans.

    The transfer is pretty equivalent to VHS, which looks awful but in a twisted way suits the material. The couple of extras on offer are worthwhile for fans but in no way a selling point to anyone else.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall