Cody, Robert, and Nat dive into early 1990s exploitation cinema with Albert Pyun’s NEMESIS.
It’s fairly safe to say that everyone was a little confused about who is who, what do they want, and why do they want it in NEMESIS. But, you’ve probably seen BLADE RUNNER, ROBOCOP, and THE TERMINATOR and can probably figure out the gist of it. Alex Rain (Olivier Grunier) is a Los Angeles cop who is slowly becoming more machine than man as he battles “information terrorists”. His ex-lover Jared (Marjorie Monaghan) apparently is about to pass along some important information to the “terrorists” and Alex is coerced into hunting her down.
That’s ostensibly the plot. Which in execution turns out to be both simpler and more convoluted than described. Because although there certainly are options to delve deeper into theme, character, and plot, NEMESIS has two goals in mind. How can this look cool and how much action can we fit in?
And it turns out it can fit a lot of cool images and action into its lean running time, even if it does have to sacrifice plot logic, theme, and character. In some cases, this seems like a fair tradeoff.
We somewhat jokingly note that they do not make films like this anymore. Or, if they do, they somehow have someone like Ryan Reynolds and a $50 million paycheck attached and probably will never make a dime and disappear into the algorithm. NEMESIS is derivative as hell, but somehow has its own identity and at least 3 sequels. And surprisingly we have a lot to say about the film even if it is just trying to work out the plot mechanics for ourselves and figure out how many better known films it is ripping off. But there’s an obvious affection for this period of filmmaking and this type of film so we hope you have fun listening to this.
No need for eye surgery. You can give us a play below or Download the episode. Also, feel free to let us know what you think by commenting below or Email Us at skiespocast@gmail.com as we appreciate feedback.
Time tracks:
NEMESIS Discussion 0:00 to 1:19:22
Next Movie and Outro: 1:19:22 to End
Next month, Neo-Tokyo is about to explode as we watch the anime game-changer AKIRA. We hope you’ll join us.
