I'll be honest, I was not familiar with the Trancers films until my boyfriend started buying them over the past recent months. I liked Helen Hunt from "Mad about You" and "What Women Want" but I did not know Tim Thomerson. With the recent purchase of Trancers 6 now in our DVD library, we watched this one over the weekend.
I feel that Trancers 6 hearkens back to the first two Trancers films, even though Tim Thomerson's Jack Deth appearance was via stock footage from the early Trancers canon (I did give a moan and an eye roll when I saw familiar scenes, but hey, you got to do what you can when you don't have the series-making star at one's disposal). However, there was the dry, film noir-ish humor that made Jack interesting, this time delivered by Zette Sullivan, Deth's daughter. Sullivan did a decent job of pulling off Deth-like lines and even manages to pull off his trench coat wearing style (no greased back hair though, I'm glad to report). She had big shoes to fill, and she pulled it off.
Additionally, the strong female leads of Sullivan and Jennifer Capo were refreshing to the usual strong-arm masculine roles that dominant the Sci-Fi genre (the exception being the Alien and Terminator franchises). Actually, for the most part, Jack Deth has been surrounded by some strong feminine characters throughout the canon series.
The special effects are not great (especially the trancer that jumped from the window, reminding me of the movie "The Beginning of the End" with Peter Graves the grasshoppers on postcard scenes), but one cannot expect blockbuster effects when working on a shoestring budget. Director Jay Woelfel provides a candid behind the scenes look of what he went through to get this movie made and is worth a read (http://www.jaywoelfel.com/trancers6notes.html). I commend him for sticking with the film and getting it made.
It's not the best film out there, but if you are looking for a Trancer's film that fits with the early canon, then Trancers 6 is it. This movie definitely fits well with what made Trancers 1 and 2 work well in the first place, unlike Trancers 4 and 5, which in my opinion, were well off the mark of the franchise.
I feel that Trancers 6 hearkens back to the first two Trancers films, even though Tim Thomerson's Jack Deth appearance was via stock footage from the early Trancers canon (I did give a moan and an eye roll when I saw familiar scenes, but hey, you got to do what you can when you don't have the series-making star at one's disposal). However, there was the dry, film noir-ish humor that made Jack interesting, this time delivered by Zette Sullivan, Deth's daughter. Sullivan did a decent job of pulling off Deth-like lines and even manages to pull off his trench coat wearing style (no greased back hair though, I'm glad to report). She had big shoes to fill, and she pulled it off.
Additionally, the strong female leads of Sullivan and Jennifer Capo were refreshing to the usual strong-arm masculine roles that dominant the Sci-Fi genre (the exception being the Alien and Terminator franchises). Actually, for the most part, Jack Deth has been surrounded by some strong feminine characters throughout the canon series.
The special effects are not great (especially the trancer that jumped from the window, reminding me of the movie "The Beginning of the End" with Peter Graves the grasshoppers on postcard scenes), but one cannot expect blockbuster effects when working on a shoestring budget. Director Jay Woelfel provides a candid behind the scenes look of what he went through to get this movie made and is worth a read (http://www.jaywoelfel.com/trancers6notes.html). I commend him for sticking with the film and getting it made.
It's not the best film out there, but if you are looking for a Trancer's film that fits with the early canon, then Trancers 6 is it. This movie definitely fits well with what made Trancers 1 and 2 work well in the first place, unlike Trancers 4 and 5, which in my opinion, were well off the mark of the franchise.