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Released by: Vinegar Syndrome
Released on: July 26th, 2022.
Director: J. Christian Ingvordsen
Cast: Robert Davi, Matthias Hues, Debbie Rochon, J. Christian Ingvordsen, John Weiner, Terry Serpico, J. Gregory Smith
Year: 1995
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Cyber Vengeance – Movie Review:
J. Christian Ingvordsen, the man who gave us the fantastic Blue Vengeance in 1989, opens his 1995 film, Cyber Vengeance, with an exciting medieval battle scene where a hero must save a lovely, bra-adverse maiden named Princess Mika (Debbie Rochon) from a bunch of bad guys led by a hulking blonde guy named Thor played by Matthias Hues. Lots of fighting happens and then… boom! We’ve been suckered! This was all a virtual reality experience by a guy named Will (J. Gregory Smith) who works as a guard for a virtual reality prison company owned by a man named R. D. Crowley (Robert Davi). In this compound, various prisoners are kept in a state of suspended animation, their minds seemingly permanently locked away in various virtual reality environments. One day, while on the job, Will meets Stu (Josh Mosby), an inmate who is, understandably, afraid that something is very wrong within the compound. Will and Stu are on the same page, both men suspect that something isn't right, something that they're not supposed to know about.
Will, however, loves his VR games, much to the dismay of his perpetually disgruntled lady friend, Tory (Susan Misner), but in between bouts of VR entertainment and relationship drama, he does start poking around his place of employment, uncovering clues about just what exactly it is that feels off. This doesn't sit well with Crowley, who is allowing rich dudes to pay for the privilege of participating in a 'Most Dangerous Game' virtual reality scenario in which they hunt down prisoners, which turns out to have real a world impact on both their minds and their bodies. Crowley decides to punish Will, Stu and a female employee named Niki (Susan Rollman) by casting them off into different VR arenas where they'll have to fight highly skilled combatants like Traven (John Weiner), Valentine (Terry Serpico) and Dietrich (played by the director himself). Thankfully, Will’s VR gaming habit comes in handy as they try and fight their way out and back to reality.
Set in the distant future of 2005, where the prison system is now an entirely privatized, for-profit endeavor, Cyber Vengeance is an entertaining enough B-movie that keeps the action coming at a pretty regular clip, almost regular enough to distract from the fact that the story has some problems. The ending never really properly satisfies and there are logic gaps aplenty here. Still, you’ve got to admire a low budget movie that throws in a pre-CGI era World War One dog fight sequence. Ingvordsen and company are pretty ambitious here, hoping to use costume and location changes to convince their audience that they’re travelling through a virtual reality time loop with Will and company and while it never really quite does get to the point where we’re convinced, it’s fun to watch them try.
Not a movie you should think too much about, Cyber Vengeance throws in some boobs and some blood here and there to keep things interesting and mildly exploitative. Smith is an okay lead, not super charismatic but good enough. Davi steals most of the scenes that he’s in, because he’s Robert Davi and he can do that. Matthias Hues is always fun to watch and this movie is no exception. He can’t really act but he flexes a lot.
Cyber Vengeance – Blu-ray Review:
Cyber Vengeance arrives on a 50GB region free Blu-ray disc with an AVC encoded 1080p high definition transfer framed at 1.85.1 widescreen newly scanned and restored in 4k from its original 35mm negative and taking up 27.6GBs of space on the 50GB disc. Picture quality is really nice, the colors really pop throughout the movie and the black levels are inky and deep. A few darker scenes look a tad under lit but that would appear to be how the movie was shot. Otherwise, skin tones look spot on and most of the time the image is pretty much spotless, preserving the grain but showing no real print damage to speak of. Detail, depth and texture are impressive throughout, the movie looks really strong.
The English language 24-bit DTS-HD 2.0 Stereo track, which comes with optional English subtitles, sounds very good. There are no problems to note with any hiss or any distortion, dialogue is crisp and clear and both the effects and the score all sound very good.
The only extras on the disc is a twenty-two minute featurette titled Making Cyber Vengeance, which is made up of interviews with director/co-writer J. Christian Ingvordsen, cinematographer Matthew Howe, co-writer/producer Josh Weiner and actor Rich Washburn. Ingvordsen has the most to say, looking back on the boom days of the VHS rental market and the part he played in producing content for that market, but we also learn about story ideas and writing the script, casting the film, what it was like on set, having to bring the production in on budget and needing to really stretch dollars to do it and quite a bit more.
Menus and chapter selection options are also provided.
As far as the packaging goes, Vinegar Syndrome offers this release, part of their VSU limited edition line, (limited to 5,000 copies and not to be re-pressed) with a hand numbered bottom loading slipcover, a reversible cover sleeve and a double-sided poster.
Cyber Vengeance - The Final Word:
Cyber Vengeance is as flawed as it is fun, a goofy B-movie that’s best enjoyed when you’re not in the mood to think much. There’s some decent action scenes here and some good ideas that aren’t explored in as much depth as they should have been, but even if it doesn’t hit its potential, it’s still pretty entertaining and Vinegar Syndrome’s Blu-ray is of excellent quality.