"Project: Human Weapon"

[Fearless Freep]

Last night I wasted some time with Project: Human Weapon (aka Mindstorm)

The basic story is that a cold war Soviet project (Mindstorm) in telepathy and telekinesis has been picked up by the Americans and now it's a joint American/Russian project.   The last remaining member (Jerry Chaminsky) of the experimental group of people with mental powers gets mad at the guy running the project (Rojack)  and escapes.  Jerry, haunted by flash visions of his past, starts searching Europe for any relatives, while Rojack tries to recapture him before he falls into the wrong hands.  His efforts to find Jerry include hiring a mercenary tracking team headed by a man named Evan Mink, who has a prior history with Rojack. Also persuing Jerry is the Russian army

This film seems to be a mostly Eastern European effort and the cast list shows it.  The only actors of note are Evan Mink (Judge Reinhold, considerably heavier than in "Beverly Hills Cop" and Rojack (William Zabka).

What I liked:
I must admit the understated score with the continues drum beat worked pretty well in most parts.  One repeating motif, in particular, I found haunting and addictive.  That's the only thing that really stood out to me

What I didn't like:
The story tried to have too much, and never really followed through on a lot of it.    A lot of subplots that could add some real depth and motivation to the story never are fully developed or completed

There's a opening scene where Evan is leading a team in enemy territory to retrieve some secret documents.  The extraction is to be done by a C-130 flyby (in a rather strange manner of pickup).  Evan gives the documents to a team member to be last on-board, under the suspicion that if he takes the documents first, the rest of the team will be abandonded.  This turns out to be true as Evan  is extracted first, the rest of the team is killed, and the documents are lost.  Latter, it turns out that the documents were related to the Mindstorm project.  Rojack basically tries to use this against Evan, accusing him that if he had not failed his mission, then the whole problem with Jerry escaping would not have happened.  This doesn't relly work as a subplot as a) The Russians and Americans are working together anyway so why the Americans wanted to steal the documents doesn't make a lot of sense b) Evan still seems covinced that trying to keep his team alive  was a good thing so he never seems to show any guilt that 'this mess is all my fault' c) Rojack is such a double dealing slime that it's hard for any of his moral accusations to carry much way.  A few scenes make a lot of this, but it really doesn't seem to carry  any weight and doesn't really impact the story much.

The real cause of Jerry's escape can be placed squarely at Rojack's feet.  He tells the project scientists that there is only enough budget to take one of the test subjects to the next level of research and traning, so the decision will be based on whomever survives direct combat between the two ramaining subjects (Jerry and one other short-lived subject).  When Jerry refuses to kill his adversary, Rojack shoots him directly, which upsets Jerry to the point that he gets mad and escapes (added to that is that Rojack seems to know something of Jerry's parents that he his hiding from Jerry.  Jerry can detect this, and knows Rojack is lying to him). If Rojack has used a bit more common sense, or at least some tact, Jerry would not have gone beserk.

For what it's worth,  Jerry trying to find his relatives is little more than a motive for him to go from place to place, but is never really addressed as to what happened to them; the subplot gets dropped about half way through.  Dropped even sooner (like after one scene) is something abut the Mindstorm subjects not really working out.

Jerry finds his sister, who also exhibits some telekinetic abilities.  She's basically using them to scam casinos to make money.  Once Jerry finds her and they take off together, her powers are never mentioned again.  There were a couple of places where they are in a tight spot where I thought she would use her mental powers to get them out, but it never happens.  Sylvia is actually mostly just baggage through the movie.

The whole interaction between Rojack and the Americans on one side, and the Russians on the other is a bit convoluted.  Half the time they seem to be working together and half the time they seem to be competing, which makes a bit of sense but could've been spelled out better, because rather than a plot driver it seems to be more of an excuse form some rather vague confontational scences.

In summary
The movie is not too bad, but is dragged down by subplots that  never go anywhere, plot points that are brought up but never realized, and too much 'travelling through Eastern Europe" padding (although I admit that the music helps to carry through the padding).  Jerry's mental powers are almost a McGuffin because once he escapes, he never uses them much, other than bringing down a helicoptor on top of a team of Russian commandoes persuing him (also to perform a 'miracle' at a monastary...which grabs all sorts of attention from the people chasing him...nice going there, Jerry).   Not really a bad movie, just not a lot to grab you and it could've been a lot better



Post Edited (06-27-03 10:16)

[Dolph Lundgren]

Sounds like your run-of-the-mill b-movie, and it looks like the folks over at IMDB were less than enthusiastic about this movie as well.  I just think it's hilarious that William Zabka is still acting.  Now that's a name from the 80s.  He was pretty much the king of 80s jocks/a***ole type characters in 80s movies.  He was great as Johnny in Karate Kid.

Where did you find this movie at, Freep?  Did you rent it?  Just curious.

Nick

[Fearless Freep]

Sounds like your run-of-the-mill b-movie,

Pretty much.

 The special effects were kinda strange.  A lot of planes and helicopter's and such  that were very obviously CG.  I found myself looking at them a lot; they looked alomst video gamish.  not really bad...just..interesing


He was pretty much the king of 80s jocks/a***ole type characters in 80s movies.

He's pretty much the 90s government spook/a***ole type here

Where did you find this movie at, Freep? Did you rent it? Just curious.

Rented it at the "Hollywood Video" I go to a lot here.  It only showed up recently.  I manage to find a lot of odd stuff their  (like "Forever Evil")