Directed By: Albert Pyun
Starring: Tim Thomerson, Jackie Earle Haley, Kamala Lopez
Tag line: "He's the toughest cop on the planet Arturus -- but on earth he's in over his head!"
Trivia: Filmed back-to-back with Arcade
The concept is fairly ingenious: a cop from an advanced, yet extremely violent alien world chases his arch-nemesis through space, where the two encounter an energy field that transports them 10,000 light years in the blink of an eye, causing them to crash-land on the nearest planet, which happens to be earth. And as the cop and the criminal will soon discover, things are going to be much different for them going forward, because while both were perfectly normal on their home world, they stand no more than a foot tall on earth!
The cop is Brick Bardo (Tim Thomerson), the toughest son of a bitch on the planet Arturos. Since the day his wife and kids were murdered in cold blood, he’s been something of a renegade, shooting first and asking questions later. To back up his no-nonsense attitude, he carries a Grogan handgun, a custom-made blaster that packs one hell of a wallop. It’s so powerful, in fact, that its reduced his arch-nemesis Sprug (Frank Collision) to little more than a head on a robotic stick (during their initial encounter, Bardo blew Sprug’s arm off with a single shot, and he’s been whittling away at him, piece by piece, ever since). But Sprug may have the last laugh after all, because he’s gotten hold of a molecular bomb, which, with the push of a button, could destroy all of Arturos. Unimpressed, Bardo kills Sprug’s henchmen, at which point the evil criminal hops into his ship and heads for the stratosphere. Eager to finish Sprug off once and for all, Bardo gives chase in his own ship, and soon both vessels are pulled into the energy field mentioned above, forcing them down in a vacant lot situated in the South Bronx, a veritable slum controlled by gangs, drug dealers, and prostitutes.
Always the diligent cop, Bardo spends his first few minutes on this new planet rescuing Debi Alejandro (Kamala Lopez), a damsel in distress whose personal crusade against crime has landed her in hot water with the area’s toughest gang. Despite his size, Bardo’s handgun is still plenty strong, and before they know (or can see) what hit them, one gang member is dead and another is critically injured. Convinced the rest of the gang will now be looking for him, Debi brings Bardo (spaceship and all) home with her, where the reluctant cop will spend the night with her and her young son Kevin (Humberto Ortiz).
Meanwhile, Sprug’s damaged ship is found by the gang’s leader, a thug named Braxton Red (Jackie Earle Haley), who’s anxious to know more about the bomb his diminutive new friend is carrying. In return for helping him defeat Bardo, Sprug promises to share the bomb with Braxton, making him the most powerful gangster in not only New York City, but the entire world.
Though the premise is ripe for comedy, Dollman plays it 100% straight, with a handful of very violent scenes encased within a story that offers an honest, sometimes brutal look at life in the inner-city. I also liked how the film allowed Bardo to keep his bad-ass persona even when reduced to the size of an action figure; his custom firearm, which could obliterate an entire body on Arturos, still does some serious damage on earth (the holes it makes are smaller, but are lethal all the same). The performances are worth noting as well, starting with Thomerson, whose tough-as-nails approach makes Bardo a formidable foe at any size. In addition, Jackie Earle Haley is effective as the volatile, yet strangely sympathetic Braxton (we can’t help but feel sorry for him in the end), while Kamala Lopez’s turn as Debi, the single mother determined to fight crime in her neighborhood, provides Dollman with a female character every bit as ornery as her male counterparts.
Perhaps most surprising of all are the special effects, which, for a low budget movie, are better than you’d think ( I’m not saying they’d win any awards, mind you, but the blood and guts that go flying when Bardo fires his blaster are pretty darn convincing). Toss in a tense opening scene set on Arturos (shot in the style of a modern film noir) and a wild and crazy finale and you have what may be the best straight-to-video release that Charles Band and Full Moon Productions ever turned out.
