TC 2000
film review by Wmpyr
For those that are fans of straight to video martial arts action films from the 90s, and if you like some science fiction to go with it, you want to add this to your collection. The surface world is a brutal place, environmentally hazardous, there are people living there that look homeless, the mandatory ruthless gangs are also there as well. TC are elite trackers that act and look like swat riot police, they work for the underworld, they fight off gangs that try to steal their food supplies. Legendary Tae Bo creator, Billy Blanks is Jason Storm, TC elite tracker who basically gets framed, his partner is a daughter of an important scientist. She gets shot and made into a cyborg. Bottom line the chief who is called the Controller uses a gang from the outworld called the Breakers to launch a surface world cleansing when it was not needed. At the end of the day Billy Blanks is able to stop the launch with the help of Bolo and the cyborg TC2000X who was on the side of the bad guys until she had total recall at the very end.
It's an over complicated plot for this kind of film, don't worry about it, there is plenty of action. At the beginning you already see the martial talent when Billy is able to do a jump off the wall kick in a confined tunnel looking place. Thankfully we also have a tracker vs guard tension, when Billy has an unfriendly sparring match with Mathias Huhes that ends in a brawl. I thought it was funny that Bolo is named shumai a dimsum dish. We get to see Bolo fight someone even larger than him, and Bolo use the chi punch, when the big guy hides behind a non fighter and Bolo punches through him. Basically it's the transferring of force through an object to hit a target, like JCVD did the Dim Mak in the film Blood Sport.
Jalal Merhi is the leader of the gangs called the Breakers, he plays Nikki Picasso, as the name suggests he looks like a weird artsy fartsy guy who looks like a guardian angle to me. His crew looks like a mix mash of madmax looking apocalyptic barbarian invaders, one of them has a spinning Bowie style blade on his hand. Bolo gets a 2nd fight scene once again with another huge guy that looks like one of the tag team members of demolition from the old school WWF. This one is a total pro wrestling match, until Bolo starts to use his kicking and ends the fight when he holds the hand of a kid, I think it was implied that he borrowed the chi from the kid to power up his kick.
Billy quits his job because he suspects foul play and the goons come after him in his apartment, but Billy escapes via the ventilation duct and now becomes a fugitive. He is now in the surface world, faces some goons lead by Rat Face as a welcome party, one of them has double nunchakus. he takes them out with a kangaroo kick you might recognize from King of the Kickboxers. Then we get to see TC 2000X, she gives a demo where she flips on to the stage like Cat Woman in Batman Returns and then takes out a few karate guys in a demo. She should have looked something like a female Robocop mixed with Daryl Hannah Replicant, but instead she looks like a dominatrix fitness girl.
Back to Billy wandering about in the surface world, Bolo is having an underground fight surrounded by a crowd that looks homeless, and the prize being a bag of water. Bolo toys with his opponent and you get to see his classic looking away in the middle of the fight faint move. The opponent pulls a knife and Billy helps out Bolo. Then of course we get the mandatory martial arts training sequences with Bolo and Billy.
Towards the end, there is a free for all fight, in which Bolo vs the spinning blade guy which turns into a long pretty even match, until bolo disarms him, and finishes him off with tiger claws which is a nice homage to the film Tiger Claws in which he played the villain. And then we get to see Mathias vs Bolo, basically it seems like in this film Bolo gets all the tough one on one fights. It's pretty impressive to see Bolo using some fairly acrobatic moves throughout this film especially when you consider his size. Billy gets the multiple opponents but looks crisp in doing so. Mathias hides behind a steel door and this is where Bolo uses the chi punch once again and gets the win. So overall it's a overly complicated if not confusing story mixed with good martial arts action, awesome martial artists, and considering the budget, a very cool futuristic world that we get to see glimpses of here and there, that makes this a classic.
For those that are fans of straight to video martial arts action films from the 90s, and if you like some science fiction to go with it, you want to add this to your collection. The surface world is a brutal place, environmentally hazardous, there are people living there that look homeless, the mandatory ruthless gangs are also there as well. TC are elite trackers that act and look like swat riot police, they work for the underworld, they fight off gangs that try to steal their food supplies. Legendary Tae Bo creator, Billy Blanks is Jason Storm, TC elite tracker who basically gets framed, his partner is a daughter of an important scientist. She gets shot and made into a cyborg. Bottom line the chief who is called the Controller uses a gang from the outworld called the Breakers to launch a surface world cleansing when it was not needed. At the end of the day Billy Blanks is able to stop the launch with the help of Bolo and the cyborg TC2000X who was on the side of the bad guys until she had total recall at the very end.
It's an over complicated plot for this kind of film, don't worry about it, there is plenty of action. At the beginning you already see the martial talent when Billy is able to do a jump off the wall kick in a confined tunnel looking place. Thankfully we also have a tracker vs guard tension, when Billy has an unfriendly sparring match with Mathias Huhes that ends in a brawl. I thought it was funny that Bolo is named shumai a dimsum dish. We get to see Bolo fight someone even larger than him, and Bolo use the chi punch, when the big guy hides behind a non fighter and Bolo punches through him. Basically it's the transferring of force through an object to hit a target, like JCVD did the Dim Mak in the film Blood Sport.
Jalal Merhi is the leader of the gangs called the Breakers, he plays Nikki Picasso, as the name suggests he looks like a weird artsy fartsy guy who looks like a guardian angle to me. His crew looks like a mix mash of madmax looking apocalyptic barbarian invaders, one of them has a spinning Bowie style blade on his hand. Bolo gets a 2nd fight scene once again with another huge guy that looks like one of the tag team members of demolition from the old school WWF. This one is a total pro wrestling match, until Bolo starts to use his kicking and ends the fight when he holds the hand of a kid, I think it was implied that he borrowed the chi from the kid to power up his kick.
Billy quits his job because he suspects foul play and the goons come after him in his apartment, but Billy escapes via the ventilation duct and now becomes a fugitive. He is now in the surface world, faces some goons lead by Rat Face as a welcome party, one of them has double nunchakus. he takes them out with a kangaroo kick you might recognize from King of the Kickboxers. Then we get to see TC 2000X, she gives a demo where she flips on to the stage like Cat Woman in Batman Returns and then takes out a few karate guys in a demo. She should have looked something like a female Robocop mixed with Daryl Hannah Replicant, but instead she looks like a dominatrix fitness girl.
Back to Billy wandering about in the surface world, Bolo is having an underground fight surrounded by a crowd that looks homeless, and the prize being a bag of water. Bolo toys with his opponent and you get to see his classic looking away in the middle of the fight faint move. The opponent pulls a knife and Billy helps out Bolo. Then of course we get the mandatory martial arts training sequences with Bolo and Billy.
Towards the end, there is a free for all fight, in which Bolo vs the spinning blade guy which turns into a long pretty even match, until bolo disarms him, and finishes him off with tiger claws which is a nice homage to the film Tiger Claws in which he played the villain. And then we get to see Mathias vs Bolo, basically it seems like in this film Bolo gets all the tough one on one fights. It's pretty impressive to see Bolo using some fairly acrobatic moves throughout this film especially when you consider his size. Billy gets the multiple opponents but looks crisp in doing so. Mathias hides behind a steel door and this is where Bolo uses the chi punch once again and gets the win. So overall it's a overly complicated if not confusing story mixed with good martial arts action, awesome martial artists, and considering the budget, a very cool futuristic world that we get to see glimpses of here and there, that makes this a classic.
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