Monday, May 31, 2010

Hardware (1990)

Dir: Richard Stanley
Severin Blu-ray

The film starts with a nomadic cyborg looking fella wandering the desert and salvaging robotic junk. It cuts to an urban setting where Dylan McDermott and his partner are going to visit a junk dealer. It feels that though, despite his budget limitations, Stanley is creating a large scale post-apocalyptic world. The rug is pulled out from under us when we are introduced to McDermott's girlfriend (Stacey Travis) and her claustrophobic apartment where the bulk of the film actually takes place. Living across from Ms. Travis is a gross perv that watches her and calls her bad names while he abuses himself. McDermott brings Travis a robot head, seen in the opening, for her "art" (art is highly in demand after the apocalypse). The Head builds a body and goes homicidal. The perv gets caught in the middle but mostly it's just Ms. Travis battling a robot in an apartment. Not the worst premise but kind of a let down if you were expecting something on a larger scope that the beginning would suggest. The premise isn't really the problem though, the script was written by an angry thirteen year old and directed in the style of a Nitzer Ebb or Ministry video. A pretty juvenile film and it's surprising Stanley has such a cult following today.

3/10

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