THE STORY: I need to read the boxes more closely when I go to the video store. I grabbed this one off of the 'for sale' rack for 2 bucks. If I had realized it starred Lorenzo Lamas I'd have only paid 25 cents. Years ago I saw his Snake Eater movies...I don't remember much about them but I remember sitting in the barracks trying to drown the pain with shot after shot of tequila. Fortunately for me this movie didn't suck as hard as I was afraid it would.

The plot is immaterial to me in this movie. I'm more interested on some of the future tech the movie has in it. Its the year 2008 in this flick and Lamas' character, Police officer Bobby Chase has bionic eyes! he lost his real eyes in "The Russian cartel wars". These eyes are pretty cool...he can switch to infra red vision to better see at night. Also people in this movie are pretty much addicted to virtual sex. Its perfect every time and of course you can have the partner of your choice. One of the characters, Hiroshi, even admits that he's never had real sex and thinks its icky. Virtual Sex is the way he wants it. Drugs like heroin are "analogized" into chips for consumption. (Yes I know analogized is probably the wrong terminology to use, but I'm tired and I don't feel like trying to rephrase that) There's also an illegal VR game that's all the craze with the kids called "Hellraiser"...but its so real many kids die playing it! And to add to those things the plot hinges on the plans of a scientist who has perfected human cloning, and he sells the clones (all female...the same female over and over again) to be used as love/sex slaves.

All of those things are remarkably interesting and make for a very compelling sci-fi future world story. There's just a few problems. One...Lorenzo Lamas. This guy cannot act. He has pretty much the same expression on his face no matter what happens in the movie. The second thing is the movie doesn't exploit the interesting consequences of a world where more people want virtual sex than the real thang, where VR games can actually kill and it only touches the implications of human cloning a little bit. Instead the movie is about Chase trying to protect an actress, Pamela Travis, from Vivyan  (the scientist) and Matthews, a corrupt VR game maker. Pamela has, against her wishes, been made into a VR sex doll. Everyone talks about how they screwed her in VR. Vivyan and Matthews want a sample of her DNA so they can make unlimited clones of her to sell on the black market. The movie boils down to a good guy cop (with angst...don't forget the angst. During the Cartel Wars soldiers like Chase were given a drug called Hellraiser, which made them crazy killing machines...the vets of that war suffer side effects of killer rage) against the bad guys shoot-em-up formula. Heck, when the movie started and I saw Chase's partner I knew he was dead meat even though he wasn't black. He was the hero's older partner, who was also the only guy Chase trusted. Yep, he was dead meat. I kind of wanted him to get blown away though, since he kept talking about how he likes to screw the VR Pamela. (Thank you, Officer Penis....like I needed to know about your electronic masturbation techniques.)

Despite the complaints I have the movie was pretty entertaining for a b-movie. I paid two bucks for it, but its worth a rental if you can get it for a buck fifty.

Matthews was Chris Sarandon. Pamela was Kari Salin and Hiroshi was Tod Thawley.

Best Lines: "Meat is for old-timers like you....VR sex is perfect, every time! Real sex is nothing but sweat and weird fluids."- Hiroshi's opinions on real sex.

ARE YOU KIDDING ME?:

1.) If the Veterans of the Russian Cartel Wars suffer from berserker rages due to the Hellraiser drug still being in their systems, how can Chase be a cop? Who wants a cop that might go nuts and start killing people in an uncontrollable rage? I sure don't. Can you imagine the problems? "Why did you pull me over, officer? Was I going to fast?" WHAM! CRUNCH! POW!

2.) Its mentioned that the VR sex is kind of expensive. That seems like a further incentive for the real thang. Don't tell Mrs. Dante I said this, but when I was single I got it for free all of the time! Free! Oh, waitaminnit....had to pay for the movies, dinners, booze to get her drunk....well, ALMOST FREE!

3.) Kari Salin is a pretty lady, but she ain't the prettiest lady I've ever seen. What can she possibly do that men are salivating to sleep with her character? (They say in the movie "she does this thing with her fingernails....") It just simply cannot be that good. And man, for once I'd like to see a cheap movie without the obligatory sex scene. Just once.

4.) The female clones that Vivyan is selling have blank minds it seems. (the one that survives does begin to mentally "Grow up" but that's beside the point right now) The clones basically don't know anything when he sells them. Like a newborn kind of. ICK! I don't care if the clones do look like a grown woman, isn't that like screwing a baby? I'm not even going to go any further, because its disgusting to me.

NUDITY AND SEX:  Pamela and Chase have sex. Pamela's boobies are seen.

HUH?:  Ok, the clone thing is kind of creepy, but the sick side of me can see where it would be appealing to some people in the context of the movie. The clones have NO RIGHTS. I don't see how that works, since the clone is obviously an individual person. But the charges of murder are dropped against Vivyan because the clone is considered part of him, even though its a female. Which means the buyer can do whatever they want with them. I personally couldn't do it, but I'm sure there are people that would buy a clone of  a beautiful woman if they could basically treat her like a blow up doll and have no consideration for her feelings. This opens up a big can of worms, doesn't it? If clones of humans were possible now, what would their status be?

The public has a problem with the VR game Hellraiser since many kids who play it die. There's a short news clip in the movie where teens being interviewed say things like "Hellraiser is cool! We need our excitement!" and "Its cool, because its, like, real and you can die!" What's the problem if these idiots want to play a game that can kill them? Hell, lets sell the game to them now! If they're stupid enough to want to play it they at least help out the Darwin Awards and make things safe for the Gene Pool. There's some kids down the street I'd buy the damn game for right now.

Hmmmm...one advantage to virtual sex is that at least it probably helps cut down on sexually transmitted diseases and to control population growth. I'm putting too much thought into it, ain't I?

THE FINAL JUDGEMENT: Don't run out and rent this right away but if you're in the video store looking to find a decent sci-fi b-movie, this one is ok. Its not a masterpiece but unlike other Lorenzo Lamas films you won't want to into a berserker "Hellraiser" rage and kill him afterwards.