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Bookmark this pageHardware (1990)
Director: Richard Stanley
Movie review
From Time Out Film Guide
In the barren wastelands of the future, a zone trooper stumbles upon the remains of an advanced killing machine, the Mark 13 cyborg. Purchased by rugged space trooper Mo (McDermott) as a gift for his sculptress girlfriend Jill (Travis), the dismembered fragments reconstruct themselves from household appliances, turning Jill's apartment into a combat zone as the reborn machinery goes on the rampage. Former pop-promo director Stanley's feature debut is an impressive assault on the senses, a shamelessly plagiaristic robotics nightmare laden with OTT apocalyptic symbolism and brash cinematic homages, from Argento's Deep Red to Cameron's The Terminator. Stanley's gaudy vision achieves a roller-coaster pace, swept along by an incessant industrial soundtrack, the perfect backdrop for Image Animation's deliciously fetishistic creation, all pumping pistons and sinewy flex. An energetic, low-budget Pandora's Box of delights, tailor-made for the disposable '90s.Author: MK
User reviews of this film
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- GeoffF said...
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Posted on Jun 23 2009 12:55
I understood that the storyline of this film was origially taked from an old comic-book story called SHOK - which was printed in 2000AD years ago>
There's no mention of this in the inteview with Stanley - can anyone shed any light on this??? - Report as inappropriate
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- David said...
- Posted on Mar 30 2009 22:42 Innovative, sickly hallucinogenic futurekill sci-fi about an artist who is given a new toy which happens to be a high tech killing machine. The backdrop to the story is a bleak polluted world which with its loving kaleidoscopic attention to detail nearly draws focus from the rampaging droid. Director's cut should in a rational world be released to dvd, but so far no dice. This and Dust Devil Stanley's only films. Both brilliant. Average age of the cast: 16.
- Report as inappropriate
Cast & crew
Director: Richard Stanley
Producer: Paul Trybits, JoAnne Sellar
Cast: Dylan McDermott, Stacey Travis, John Lynch, William Hootkins, Iggy Pop, Carl McCoy, Mark Northover full cast
Genre(s): Science Fiction
Duration: 94 mins
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