Heatseeker is my favorite cyborg kickboxing tournament film. Now,
that may not be a huge genre, but it should be! Could there be anything
better than a bunch of fight scenes, well staged ones at that, which
end with head stompings that reveal smooshed up cyberfaces? Nope?
Heatseeker gives you exactly what you want if you are watching it, and
as a piece of the Pyuniverse it delivers in spades!
Keith Cooke stars as Chance O'Brien, kickboxing champion. When we
first meet him he is delivering a beat down to Xao, played by the
always welcome Gary Daniels-the only guy that could play a Wing Chun
practicing CyberFighter that wears white hi-top sneakers! With his gal
pal / trainer Jo (the beautiful Pyun regular Tina Cote) looking on,
Chance is on top of the world of ass kickers. Too bad for him the
Sianon Corporation wants to make an example of him in their big Cyborg
Enhanced Kickboxing Challenge Of The Century For All The Money In The
CyberEnhancedCyborgKickBoxer Market DeathMatch Battle. The creepy Tsui
Tung, played with massive screen devouring presence by Norbert Weisser,
puts his life on the line with the even creepier board of directors of
his MegaCorp-and that includes a red haired and long fingernailed Tim
Thomerson as Fu Man Pyun! Tung captures Jo, implants her with a chip
that makes her passive enough for him to use the Tung Tongue on her-and
forces her to work with Xao to not only train him, but show him LOVE!!!
Chance fights, tournament battles of varying awesomeness occur,
and Xao rips through his competition as Chance seeks to find his way
back to Jo and out of the cyberfisticuffs alive. Lucky for him, the
always cool Thom Matthews is around as a CyberCEO / Fighter working for
the bad guys who helps him along. A fight is about to happen, and we
know what it is...who will survive, what percentage will be left of
them, and could we get one additional nude scene with Jo? Well, I'm
hopeful...
Heatseeker is a fun film in a little sub genre of martial arts that benefits from some really strong fight choreography by
Burton Richardson-so
if you want low budget ass kicking with a little cybertwist than you
should already be satisfied by this film. But for Pyuniversal Soldiers
this film is total paydirt! Every bit as eccentric as an Albert Pyun
film should be, it takes that familiar tourney trope and twists it all
over the place by adding odd detail upon weird visual in every scene.
Heatseeker isn't looking to revolutionize science fiction fight flicks,
but I doubt you'll see another one like it.
First off, we have the Pyun Players in full effect. Keith Cooke,
who I always associate with China O'Brien (for better or worse) is
really game to be earnest at times and then run around naked through the
Phillipines at others. This scene is hysterical as it takes the
serious "Will I be able to save my lady love" moment of Dudley
Do-Rightism and slings a real bit of what in the Sam Hill are the people
on the streets thinking as they cower from the cameras and the naked
white guy surrealism. Also, Cooke may not be a master thespian, but he
does great cinematic kung fu kicks and facial expressions. I'm ready
for Heatseeker 2 Mr. Pyun...today. Kathy Long and Keith Cooke would make
a great pair of Mutated MMA Fighters...but I digress. Thom Matthews is
funny and does all his fight scenes proud-but it isn't his acting or
fighting I'll remember, it is his clothes. The guy looks like a giant
Kung Fu Christmas Tree in weird suits and strange hypnofashions that you
can laugh at, but not in front of Big Brandon! He'd kick your head to a
mess of circuits and pseudoflesh! I love Tina Cote's look in this
film, she has a great face and can rock the short and spiked up hair cut
with great aplomb-and manages to keep a mostly straight face as she
acts frozen and gets munched like 25 pages of script in one reading by
Norbert Weisser.
And speaking of the man...Norbert Weisser may have his best scene
of all Pyuntime here as he explains that his cyborg friend just needs
LOOOOOVE!!! I'm going to try and get that clip for preservation on the
Pyuniverse. I can't stress it enough-Weisser is great and he puts
everything out there in this film. Watch as he rubs Thom Matthews leg a
little bit closer to the epicenter of his chi than was probably in the
script...I don't know how anyone works across from him when he is in the
zone. Truly awesome. Norbert Weisser...you are the maximum Pyunamatic
Performer!
And what the hell...you have to see Tim Thomerson all CyberGothPulpCrazy...yikes.
And that brings us to Gary Daniels. He can go either way for
me...he does great screen kung fu, but many of his non-HK films don't
really use him very well. Not so here, his fights as Xao are excellent,
if not a bit brief because he is putting over how powerful the character
is. Maybe less personality and more fist flinging suits him. He was
the same way in Fist of the North Star and that turned out great.
Pyun pulls out the stops, using the weird lighting effects and
letting the fight scenes work for themselves without a ton of additional
editing. The man knows Cyborg Kickboxing, sit back and let him
drive... Joined by the boopdadeeboopchakkachakkaPYUNPUMPINchakaboom
score by Tony Riparetti-the two are an audio visual Cerebrus (the third
head is George Mooradian) and Heatseeker delivers what was expected and
as happens in the best corners of the Pyuniverse, much much more for
those wearing the proper tuning gear in their teeth!
Love it.
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