Low budget sci fi robot/android/cyborg film from the 80's

[Yendor]

Hello everyone!

Could anyone give me a hand trying to identify this wonderful film please..?

It's a violent film set in the future with a black-suited team of humans fighting human looking robots trying to rescue some scientists or similar.

There's a scene where a guy with a tache (a la Freddie Mercury) is nonchalantly stood with his arms folded watching the rest of the team fight these battle bots unaware that one has been activated behind him that he promptly beats up and then its head explodes or something.

Also, there's a bit where one of the team jumps up in the air, lands on a robot's face and the face gets stuck to their boots and they rip it off revealing a robot head underneath...

Additional: Think they (or one of the team) had some form of flamethrower strapped to their wrist...
Also seem to have memories of the main bad guy - he was like a massive dude sat in a chair (bit like Davros for the old skool Wholians) controlling all the robots from afar.

Reading this back, there's a good chance that it was a budget Italian release badly dubbed with American accents - I think the title had the words 'Cyborg' or 'Android' in there somewhere too.

More info:

If it helps at all, I watched this film in Malaysia/Indonesia in about 1986/87 and think it was probably made about 1982/83. It all seemed to be filmed in soft focus like a classic 80's music video. A team of skintight black-suited human 'robot killers' embark on a mission to save some scientists and despatch robots by laser bolts, flame throwers and/or over-the-top kung fu moves (eg. flying kick to kick a robot's head off). One of them looks like Freddie Mercury (or it may have been that he just had a great moustache).

Pretty sure it had robot/cyborg/android in the title. Sounds like an Italian production that may have been badly dubbed into English, may have even been a 'straight to Betamax' classic American low-budget sci-fi romp. Who knows..?

It's been bugging me for ages and I just can't seem to think what it might be - any ideas...?

Suggestions so far included 'War of the Robots' and 'Star Odyssey' both of which were in keeping with the plot but a little too old for the film I'm looking for I think...

Thanks!

[Trevor]

Sounds like ELIMINATORS to me.

[Yendor]

Nice suggestion Trevor! Just found it on YT and had a good scan through but sadly - no - that's not it!

Any other guesses?

[Andrew]

This sounds a lot like "The Time Guardian" (1987) but your mention of the main bad guy reminds me of "Spacehunter:  Adventures in the Forbidden Zone" (1983).

[Robot Ears]

Sounds like a cool movie... If it gets solved I'm going to have to watch it. :)

[dick rambone]

Sounds a bit like mutant hunt to me. Used to be on netflix, not sure if it still is or not.

[Yendor]

Hey Dick Rambone. I think you may be on to something!

Just been viewing one of the trailers for 'Mutant Hunt' (1987) on YT and there's even a quick clip of a cyborg walking up behind a moustachio'd dude looking on! This just HAS to be the same film!

Most reviews refer to this as one of the worst low-budget sci-fi flicks out there with p**s-poor martial arts choreography akin to drunk 6 year olds having a fight in a playground. Mind you the special effects are supposed to be pretty good - cyborgs melt and fall to bits and stuff.

Regardless, as an impressionable 8 - 9 year old, watching cyborgs dissolve and chase people before your very eyes was probably quite a mind-blowing experience at the time and I think that's why it's stuck in my memory.

The director (one 'Tim Kincaid') was noted for a certain type of specialist adult cinema experience in the 80's - one that involves big burly men getting 'rough and ready' with one another so may well explain the leather jumpsuits and questionable facial hair!

If you're interested, there's a fantastic review on io9 - just google "mutant hunt" and it's about the 3rd or 4th link down entitled 'Mutant Hunt = the best movie about robots doing drugs in human history'

Thanks to everyone for helped try to identify this film. I shall think of you all and raise a hollowed cyborg head full of diesel oil in your honour!