Nemesis 4: Death Angel (1996) Movie Review

Nemesis 4: Death Angel (also known as Cry of Angels) is a 1996 sci-fi action movie written and directed by Abert Pyun. The film is the fourth installment in the Nemesis film series and is the last one to have Pyun involved at any capacity. It stars Sue Price, Blanka Copikova, Andrew Divoff, Nicholas Guest and Norbert Weisser. Made in Slovakia about two years after part two and three were shot, the film is loose on continuity because Nemesis 3 didn't sell very well, so more nudity was added. Shooting was done in between the filming of Adrenalin: Fear the Rush, another film by Pyun shot in Europe.

In this entry, Alex Sinclair is a professional cybernetically-enhanced assassin in a world where humans and cyborgs have had a ceasefire. Her skills are top notch but she tends to be a bit messy and things get real bad when she kills Carlos Jr, the son of a crime syndicate leader. She also gets visions of a woman in black with a distortion VFX who haunts her, probably an angel of death alluding to how death gets closer to Alex because every bounty hunter is after the muscular killer now. 

This one is a sort of reboot of the series in the sense that very few things are brought back, only the fact that Alex is a genetically modified human and some plot points that are honestly not that noticeable at first. Don't expect a concrete continuity. The production values are still on the lower end and the limitations are apparent, but the very pretty european setting carries a good amount of the weight and gives the movie a rich amount of locations Pyun works with quite well, just as he did with the desert and industrial locations in the last two.

A lot of the movie features uncensored nudity from Price and others, surely an attempt by the makers of appealing to the direct-to-video crowd who wanted softcore stuff. A curious thing to point out is that this is probably one of the few times a brawny female body has been eroticized and threatened the way more normative bodies are shot in such films and turned seductive in sexual sequences. A nice refreshing sight. Because of these scenes, the unreal and surreal vibes are back due to the playful way Pyun uses lighting and takes advantage of his new shooting locations, as mentioned above, and also because of the outlandish and bizarre deaths. The more out-of-this-world storyline with apparitions and strange occurrences are further proof that a great deal of changes were more out of the director's desire to touch upon particular themes and ideas.

The film mostly unfolds as a sexy thriller with some sci-fi components but things are mostly kept tight and intimate, the camera mostly stays in closed spaces and does close ups of the actors. Every performer does a very decent job and all retain their charm, especially the leading lady. After a rather vague and understated resolution we see what I can only assume is a tribute to Sue Price as a montage sequence of stock footage put together with some of her highlights appears on the screen, followed by her screen credit. A very worthy and awesome goodbye to the series, at least that's what it was until 2017 but that's another story.

Totally recommended for the DTV scavengers who enjoy this very B-level series and are also eager to see a lot of muscular nudity. This one should satisfy with its intriguing plot and solid cast.

Rhea Gall Force (1989) Anime OVA Review

Rhea Gall Force is a 1989 action sci-fi war anime OVA that functions as a continuation of the Gall Force franchise following the events of the original trilogy. The same writer and director team up of Katsuhito Akiyama and Hideki Kakinuma was incharge of it, same animation director and character designer as well, with the voices of Michie Tomizawa, Eriko Hara, Naoko Watanabe, Hiromi Tsuru, Chieko Honda and Naoko Matsui.

Set years after the events of the original trilogy, in the year 2085, WWIII devastated a great portion of the planet and Paranoid technology found by a scientist brought an end to civilization as human guerrilla groups are fighting against the mechanical menaces previously used by humans but that turned on them. Sandy, a young and idealist soldier, meets with other humans in the resistance, such as Score, in order to leave Earth and survive as a species.

The post-apocaliptic arc begins. Everything we knew about Gall Force before isnt really that prominent here. There's no outer space battles, no all-female armies nor do we get a comedic relief or surreal imagery. The story turns into a very familiar plot about humans battling machines after civilization falls and there's only rubble and military resistance groups. I gotta say that this isnt a bad example of this type of fiction but the things that made Gall Force distinctive and original are almost gone.

Having said that, Rhea Gall Force it’s still a very solid OVA since the original team behind the last few entries worked on this one as well and you can tell that they had fun changing things up a bit by having different but well done characters designs, other beautifully illustrated locations and even some excellently storyboarded and directed action sequences in the ground as opposed to the starship fights from before, which is a nice change of pace, as good as those other battles were. A lot more bullet and machine gun action in this one, but it’s far from just being flashy spectacle, especially because the armed conflict still has some severe casualties and some intense moments of loss and death.

The main group is severely cut down and does not have as many interesting characters but the leading pair of heroines carry the OVA. Sandy is pretty much Rabby and Score is practically Lufy but she's good with guns instead of piloting. Their clashes are cute and even if very little time is spent fleshing them out, by the time Score congratulates Sandy after her mission is completed you do get to realize that they do get along after all, specially after sharing moments in combat. Aside from that, most of the characters are almost inconsequential, one-dimensional or empty, barely any of them have a set personality and others can feel stale and generic. This is most likely because of the short runtime and because the group mentality of the others is a major theme that still has resonance here.

The animation is pretty good, the movements of the robotic enemies are as neatly done as you expect from this team and the fluidity of the shootout sequences is appreciated, making things very appealing and smooth. The visuals and the animation are the strong points of this movie as a lot of effort was put into that department. Some corners are cut but it’s overall a very well made OVA.

I can totally recommend it to anyone looking for an action anime with a science fiction flavor to it. You don't even need to watch the other movies to understand the plot of this one since the scenario is so familiar and not much of the previous films is brought back or referenced directly, which is a good choice, making it stand alone for the most part. Fun characters and marvelous action.