The Gratuitous B-Movie Column 02.07.11: Issue #144 - Trancers III: Deth Lives

Posted by Bryan Kristopowitz on 02.07.2011

In this issue we take a look at the classic Trancers III: Deth Lives, which hit home video way back in 1992

The Gratuitous B-Movie Column Issue #144: Trancers III: Deth Lives (1992)


Hello, everyone, and welcome once again to the internets movie review column that has never been thrown out of a window, The Gratuitous B-Movie Column, and I am your host Bryan Kristopowitz. In this issue, issue number one hundred and forty-four, I take a look at the third movie in the Trancers franchise, Trancers III: Deth Lives, which hit home video in 1992.

I had originally planned on writing a review for Seventh Moon, that horror flick from the fine folks at Ghosthouse Underground and Lionsgate starring the awesome Amy Smart, but the DVD I rented decided not to work. I didn't have anything else ready to go, so that's why I'm reviewing Trancers III: Deth Lives. Hopefully, in the next few weeks, I will actually get a chance to see Seventh Moon and do up a review.

Trancers III: Deth Lives (1992)



Trancers III: Deth Lives, also known as Future Cop III in some parts of the world, has the great Tim Thomerson back once again as Jack Deth, the trench coat wearing Trancer hunter from the future. Picking up about a year after the events of Trancers II: The Return of Jack Deth (check out my review of that flick here), part three has Deth separated from his wife Lena (Helen Hunt) and working as a private detective (a private detective with a hilarious low budget TV commercial). While working a case Deth is captured by a big ass android from the future named Shark (R.A. Mihailoff) and taken via time machine to the year 2247, where Deth learns that the trancer threat he thought he destroyed in the first two movies is still very much alive and well. Angel City, Deth's former home, is in ruins, and the police and the Council are on their last legs. Deth's former wife from the future, Alice Stillwell (Megan Ward) is a bad ass warrior, Commander Ruth "Ruthie" Raines (Telma Hopkins) is up to her elbows in blood and guts trying to save wounded troopers, and there's only one Council member left, a guy named Harris (Stephen Macht). Harris talks to Deth and tells him that the Council, Harris, needs him to go to the year 2005, when the whole trancers thing began, and take the trancers out "at their source."



And what exactly is the "source" of the future trancer menace? A super secret government/military experiment run by the weird beard doctor Colonel Daddy Muthuh (Andrew Robinson) in Los Angeles. At a super secret underground lab/base (it's below a strip club), Colonel Muthuh and his scientists work on a kind of "super soldier" serum that allows test subjects to "bring out" their warrior selves, or "trance." We see the serum in action during a bar fight when program soldier Stevens (Don Dowe) goes batshit insane and kills a bunch of people. Unfortunately for Stevens he is unable to "untrance" and he's shot dead by Mr. Jason (Tony Pierce) and his men. During the bar fight we see top program soldiers Jana (Dawn Ann Billings) and Lt. Ryan (Ed Beechner) fight in non-trancer mode and squeamish new trancer soldier R.J. (Melanie Smith) flake out and leave the program.

So Deth arrives in 2005 and starts looking for Colonel Muthuh and the trancers HQ. He also attempts to reconnect with Lena, who has since remarried and is now known as Lena Forrest. It just so happens that Lena, as a reporter for the local newspaper, has been investigating Colonel Muthuh's operation and has befriended R.J., the one person that can get Deth inside Colonel Muthuh's operation and take it down.

Trancers III is probably the darkest movie in the franchise, especially considering the uber happy ending of part two. Jack Deth's life is in serious disarray and there's a sense that, even if Deth succeeds he won't win. What does he have to look forward to? Lena is gone, Alice no longer needs him, and he no longer has a home. So, again, what does he have to look forward to? Normally, considering the circumstances Deth finds himself in, R.J. would become his new love interest. But, writer-director C. Courtney Joyner doesn't go down that path and R.J. is just a person caught in a bad spot who just happens to be female. She can take care of herself and doesn't really need Deth's help (in fact she shoots one of Jason's agents in the head and saves Deth's life at one point). How often does that happen in low budget sc-fi action flicks? I mean, they don't even kiss.



The trancer villains are also very different from the other Trancers movies. The man responsible for creating the trancers, Colonel Muthuh, is a freaking lunatic, sure, but his motives aren't all that bad. He isn't exactly completely evil. He wants to help save American soldiers in combat and give them an edge over their enemies. He watched too many soldiers under his command die in combat, presumably in Vietnam (the movie never explicitly says what "overseas conflict" Colonel Muthuh was in), and he wants to make sure that, in the nation's next great conflict, that American forces prevail. The problem with achieving this goal is that it chews up a lot of innocent people along the way and, again, when you get right down to it, Colonel Muthuh is a freaking lunatic. No matter what, no matter how sincere and righteous the Colonel's intentions may be, it just isn't going to end well (you know that anyway because of the whole "future trancers" thing, but even if you didn't know any of that stuff I don't see how you can come to any other conclusion than "This isn't going to end well for anyone").



Tim Thomerson does his usual excellent job as Jack Deth. There isn't a false moment in his performance. He is Jack freaking Deth. The last third of the movie is where he really shines, after he's captured and Colonel Muthuh attempts to make him into a trancer. It features some of his best acting in the entire series and shows you exactly what Thomerson can do. And pay attention to the last scene in the movie and Thomerson's face. I don't think I've ever seen an actor's expression sum up a movie as well as Thomerson's.

Melanie Smith does a decent job as R.J. You can tell that she's lived a hard life and that she's never had it easy, but she's also a fighter that isn't going to give up. Her last scene seems to suggest that that isn't the case, that she really isn't a strong willed fighter, but I ask you to watch it again. What is she really doing there?

Andrew Robinson is simply outstanding as Colonel Daddy Muthuh. While not exactly sympathetic, Robinson gives the Colonel the kind of humanity that helps you understand the "good" side of what he wants to do with the trancer program (he does that in the movie's few "quiet" moments). Of course, Robinson also does his patented weird beard psycho routine and does it extremely well while having disturbing sex with Dawn Ann Billings' Jana, freaking out Jason, attempting to turn Deth into a trancer, and trying to kill Deth at the end. Amazing, amazing stuff.

Helen Hunt, in her last appearance in the series, does a great job as Lena. When she tells Deth what she's been up to the last thirteen years, trying to create a life for herself after the sudden disappearance of her husband, not knowing what happened to him, realizing after a year that she's a year older and she can't wait around forever for a man who may never show up again, it's a brilliant moment. The end of their relationship is a profound, messy moment. Even after they say their goodbyes and Jack leaves Lena's apartment Lena walks over to the window that looks out on the street, hoping to catch one last look at the man she once loved deeply and likely still does. We assume that she does see Deth one more time, but there's a chance that she didn't, that she couldn't bare to see him one last time because it was just too painful. "That was another century, Jack," she tells him as he tries to kiss her one last time. It's not a blow off. It's her admitting that she can't go back. It's just too painful.

Megan Ward does another fine job as Alice. She's become the ultimate female badass, wasting bad guys left and right and ordering people around like she's in charge. She sort of cleans up nicely at the end, though. Telma Hopkins is great as Commander Raines, Ruthie, as Deth calls her. She has such an easy chemistry with Thomerson it's amazing that no one wanted to make a movie starring both of them, or at least featuring them in a supporting role. And Stephen Macht is excellent as Harris. He's never really likeable, but you're drawn to him anyway. You do wonder, though, how the heck he became a member of the Council. Was it a result of simple attrition, or did he really work at moving up the ladder before the trancer war began?

Dawn Ann Billings is good as Jana. She has a creepy sexuality that's unnerving. Ed Beechler is hilarious as Lt. Ryan. Why hilarious? Because Lt. Ryan is a total scumbag. He loves his position in the program so much he's willing to kill his brother in order to keep it and impress Colonel Muthuh. He has the best death scene in the movie ("Scum like you aren't worth defending at all. Weak, Jack, weak," he says. Then Shark walks up behind him and snaps his neck like a twig. Hilarious). And R.A. Mihailoff does a great job as the android Shark. It's too bad that Shark didn't appear in parts 4 and 5 (Shark's head appears in part 4 but that's it). It would have been dang cool to see Deth and Shark taking on the bad guys. The fine folks at KNB FX made a great monster suit for him, though.

And then there's Tony Pierce as Mr. Jason. Pierce does a good job both playing the sleazy black ops agent that's always a step ahead of the people he's tracking down and the scared man that works for a lunatic. You almost feel sorry for him when he dies because you get the feeling that he wanted to be a part of the program because he figured that it would help him move up the CIA/black ops ladder. The man was only trying to better his life. What's wrong with doing that?

I also want to commend the topless stripper in the first bar scene. I don't know her name, but, man, she's got some nice boobies. As the great Joe Bob Briggs might say, I've got two words for her: yum mee.



Trancers III: Deth Lives is a great low budget sc-fi B-movie. It's a brilliant little movie that packs a punch, a punch you're not expecting. The flick deserves way more respect than it gets.

See Trancers III: Deth Lives. See it, see it, see it.

So what do we have here? Some great opening theme music, gratuitous Tim Thomerson voice over, gratuitous Tim Thomerson, gratuitous Helen Hunt, gratuitous low budget TV commercial for the Jack Deth Detective Agency, a botched convenience store robbery, glass breaking, ear bleeding, a big ass android from the future, gratuitous old man banging a young girl in a sleazy hotel, gratuitous time machine that looks like a phone booth, face punching, gratuitous destroyed future where people still smoke, gratuitous Telma Hopkins, gratuitous Megan Ward, gratuitous Stephen Macht, several bloody wounds, a heart-to-heart, more time travel, one hot topless stripper, gratuitous Don Dowe, sexual harassment, rednecks, gratuitous slow motion face transformation, pool cue through the stomach, a bloody mouth, a flying dead body, an impromptu execution, body burning, gratuitous Andrew Robinson, an incredibly disturbing sex scene, changed locks, a really bad newspaper photo of Helen Hunt, a sad meeting between old friends, gratuitous old school Corvette, bullet to the head, a funny sign regarding the ocean, forcible detention, some wacky acting from Andrew Robinson, electric razor to the neck, a nasty beatdown, throat ripping, more glass breaking, a shootout, a sad bullet to the gut, neck snapping, sword through the gut, attempted brainwashing, a great final death scene, and a funny little moment to end the movie.

Best lines: (just about every line in the movie is a classic, but these are the best ones that I remember) "I don't know what you need more, a personality or a bullet in the head. I've already had a bullet in the head," "Alice, you're the best thing that's happened to me in two centuries," "D E T H, Deth, yeah, like the end of your life, Lena is the first name," "It's been thirteen years, Jack," "That was another century, Jack," "My little bureaucrat," "Only squids can be tranced," "No, no, not gonna get me," "I'll mail you my recommendation for funding, asshole!," "Scum like you aren't worth defending at all. Weak, Jack, weak," "Shark, get this dizzy bitch off of me!," "Even your humor belongs to me," and "You know, this could be the beginning of a beautiful... forget it."

Rating: 10.0/10.0



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And now, the weekly Fearnet update

Do you have Fearnet on your cable/satellite system? If you do, you're lucky because it's the only free all horror/thriller on Demand station going (it's also one of the few places that is proud of B-movies). If you're a Time Warner cable subscriber, you don't have it. You probably used to have it, but it was snatched away from you. But there is a way to see what Fearnet has to offer. Just go here.

Yes, that's the Fearnet website, where you can check out the free movies Fearnet has to offer (the site gets new ones every Wednesday), horror news, and more. Peter Jackson's epic zombie flick Dead Alive was on there last week. Is it still there?Check and see. The site also has a pretty nifty web series featuring Freddy Krueger hisself, Robert Englund, and Kane "Jason Voorhees" Hodder, Fear Clinic that's definitely worth a look (the series is directed by Robert Hall, the writer/director of Laid to Rest. How cool is that?).



Oh, and be sure to check out the ultra cool web series Zombie Roadkill starring Thomas Haden Church. It's about zombies and whatnot.



If you're a Facebook nerd you can check out the Fearnet fans Facebook page, which can be seen here. There are plenty of people out there interested in Fearnet. Come join them.

(As always, thanks to both Mark Lindsey and Mathew Hirsch for info regarding the Fearnet fan movement).

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Live Evil is now on DVD. You need to see it now!



Live Evil the movie I've been talking about for over a year and reviewed here is now on DVD and available to purchase.

It's been a long time coming but Live Evil is finally on store shelves all over the country. If you don't have a reputable DVD seller near you (and by reputable I mean a seller that deals in damn near everything that comes out on DVD, from major studio releases to small independent movies like Live Evil) go to the movie's website and order it from there or you can go here to amazon. You can also rent the flick from various video rental places, but you'll have to go to those places to find out if they have it.

The DVD contains the following:

- Unrated movie
- 5.1 Surround Sound
- Audio commentary with director Jay Woelfel, producer Mark Terry, and Mark Hengst ("Benedict")
- Deleted scenes
- Q & A with star Tim Thomerson and director Jay Woelfel at Fangoria LA convention
- Tim Thomerson intro from Flashback Weekend 2009
- Promo video of Live Evil at Fangoria Weekend of Horror 2009
- Theatrical trailer
- And more!

With all of those cool special features how could you not want to own Live Evil?
So go out right now (well, you can wait until after you finish reading this column) and purchase Live Evil. You'll be glad you did.

Long live the Priest!





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Well, I think that'll be about it for this issue. B-movies rule, always remember that.

If there's anything you want to see reviewed here in this column, feel free to offer a comment below or send me an e-mail. I'm always on the lookout for new stuff to watch.

And don't forget to bookmark 411 via the little line below. You'll be glad you did.

Trancers III: Deth Lives

Tim Thomerson- Jack Deth
Melanie Smith- R.J.
Andrew Robinson- Colonel Daddy Muthuh
Tony Pierce- Jason
Dawn Ann Billings- Jana
Ed Beechner- Lt. Ryan
Helen Hunt- Lena
Megan Ward- Alice Stillwell
Stephen Macht- Harris
Telma Hopkins- Commander Raines
Randal Keith- Matt
R.A. Mihailoff- Shark
Hunter von Leer- Senator McCoy
Don Dowe- Stevens

Directed by C. Courtney Joyner
Screenplay by C. Courtney Joyner, based on characters created by Danny Bilson and Paul De Meo

Distributed by Full Moon Entertainment and Echo Bridge Home Entertainment (2010)

Rated R for bloody violence, language, and nudity
Runtime- 75 minutes

Buy it here and here and here