I can't say I loved the weird stuff, but I did really enjoy Death Machine. I steered clear for the longest because the reviews weren't very kind.
However, I will say that this was a lot more enjoyable than Hardware. The biggest difference is that they had some cool action sequences in Death Machine, and I completely adored the guns they used in the film. I wish more movies used those kind of funky, cyberpunk-inspired weapons. We rarely even get guns like that in games and games don't have the same kind of prop/production limitations like movies do (well, back in the 1990s we used to get awesome weapons like that, as seen in games like Corridor 7, Duke Nukem 3D and Blakestone).
If Hardware hadn't languished so much in the mid-section with that Winestein pervert, and if had more Dylan McDermott fighting the robot instead of him going out in such a pansy way, I think I would have enjoyed it more.
But Death Machine was one of those movies that started kind of weird, but slowly picked up the pace and had some fairly satisfying moments. The exo-suit was obviously super cheap, and they really should have taken some hints on the costume design from the production team that worked on awesome 1986 film, The Vindicator (pic below):
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0092172/mediaviewer/rm1745979137/?context=default
But even still, I loved the fact that they used the suit to fight the Warbeast and the fight sequence was actually pretty well done.
The atmosphere was also great in this film. A few corridors/hallways were reused often, but it still looked futuristic in that 90s grunge sort of way, and it reminded me a lot of the old game Syndicate.
The obvious artistic thievery from Aliens when it came to the set design and lighting, and the soundtrack and thematic mimicry of Terminator actually helps give this film a cheesy but engaging platform on which to stand.
I also felt it aped Hardware but did it better and with characters you eventually started rooting for, and who put up a pretty good fight when the odds were stacked against them.
I sorely miss these kind of films, as the low-budget dreck we get these days don't even come close to the quality of Death Machine.
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