User reviews

I've always tried to watch all the films Albert Pyun has done, ever since I watched "Mean Guns". His way of directing is weird, his usage of special effects generally is bad, but I can't say I do not enjoy his films. Unfortunately, American straight-to-video releases of this kind seldom make it to my country, and cable TV every once in a while blesses me with them.

Like "Adrenalin", "Omega Doom" is another of his apocalyptical future films, and like "Cyborg", there are cyborgs involved (redundant I've been called). The title character is a human-robot hybrid who arrives at a place where he finds two different kinds of robots who would normally be "killing" each other. Apparently, they are looking for guns for when "the humans come to destroy them", so they are in a sort of truce. Of course, and because otherwise it would not be interesting, OD (a.k.a. Guardian Angel) soon makes the two groups (which are composed of 3 members each) angry with him.

The main problem with this film is that, albeit similar to "Cyborg", it lacks action. While Jean Claude Van Damme surely provides that, Rutger Hauer gives more acting, and keeps you all the film waiting for him to use a sword he carries. THere are a couple of badly-made short-lived western-like fights, yet I confess the final fight was better than expected.

As for the performances, Rutger is Rutger. One will always like him. The bar woman is fairly decently played. As for the cyborgs, they were somewhat, if a bit exaggerated, believable. Tina Cotè playing BlackHeart looks so sensual, and her look will remind you of "The Matrix"'s Trinity, but not only this movie is older, Tina looks better!

Concluding, this is a futuristic film. It lacks the depth of "Nirvana", the effects of "The Matrix", or the action of "Equilibrium". But if you were looking for any of these, you would not rent an Albert Pyun's film, would you?

This looks like its going to be an exceptionally dull sci-fi, with Rutger Hauer, looking like some kind of Russian WW2 soldier, playing a renegade android in a post-apocalyptic landscape - a setting which allows for no expensive effects, just a derelict, rubble-strewn building site.

'Omega Doom' is still dull, but when after 20 minutes or so, you realise that the story is a Yojimbo/Fistful of Dollars remake, the film starts to have some minor points of interest.

With no real sci-fi elements - a bloke with shaven bits in his hair, metal gloves and blue contact lenses doesn't totally convince as a fully-fledged android - the film leans towards its Western roots, with two rival gangs holed up on either side of the street and a saloon where Rutger Hauer muses with the friendly female bartender, before playing off the opposing gangs. Hauer fits into the role as the impassive stranger well, accompanied by a spaghetti western guitar theme building up the tension to the inevitable showdowns, which are settled in the classic Western tradition - Omega Doom has a quick draw Shane would be proud of.

Although I quite enjoyed these areas, they couldn't cloud the fact that 'Omega Doom' is boring and derivative, not demonstrating any particular areas of ability on the part of its cast or crew, apart from Hauer who is OK despite being on auto-pilot - but then he is a class actor who, for some reason, prefers to ply his trade in these bargain-basement efforts.

With an annoying whirring noise which accompanies each androids move, and a tiresome 'head' character providing Hauer with his sidekick, there is nothing here for even the most easily satisfied sci-fi viewer. Kurosawa and Leone fans will find enough points of reference to make this interesting, but only in the same way that 'Jaws' fans enjoy 'Orca' or 'Grizzly.

"Omega Doom" is a movie whose ambitions clearly outweigh its budget. However, there is something to be said for genre filmmakers like Albert Pyun who try to make the most of the budget they do have. As others have already pointed out, this is essentially a spaghetti Western transported to a post-apocalyptic setting. At times laughably pretentious, at other times interesting. Rutger Hauer (who has the "stoic, mysterious and deadly loner" role, in the classic Clint Eastwood tradition) still has screen presence, and Tina Cote is pretty hot even when she's playing an emotionless, cold-as-ice killer robot. Their last fight could have been longer and better edited, though. (**)

Most people would tell you that this flick stinks because it's got poor special effects or the plot seems to be vague. Frankly, you can't judge it next to A-list movies. It's not an A-list movie. What it is though, is a remarkable story with some interesting film tricks to get around its obvious low budget.

In Canada we have a TV station that happens to play independent Sci-fi flicks on weekends and Omega Doom caught my eye because it has Rutger Hauer in it. I figured I would turn it on, have a good chuckle at a plotless flick with a good actor and was surprised to see an intriguing situation of the "Omega Doom", Guardian Angel (Hauer) being feared by others of his kind. That and he has a wicked looking sword...it's like the line in the Simpsons when Homer says "but that little guy hasn't done anything yet, you know he's gonna do something and you know it's going to be good."

While you wait for him to do his thing, the other characters are introduced, the war is explained...and frankly, by then I was salivating. You just *know* who he is. Finally, Angel begins to do his work. The film work is well done, and despite what has been said above, Hauer did his own stunts. And for you Ladyhawke fans, he performs the sword-throwing trick again.

It's also a very good example of a short story brought to life. It could work well on a stage, too. The acting is very consistent and the dialogue, while sparce, doesn't betray the characters. The only thing I didn't like was the bartender singing Joy to the World at the end, but it's okay, because the conversation between Zeke and Angel at the end nods at the idea that life is about waiting, knowing when to act and when not to.

If you are looking for an A-list movie, go to your local theater. If you want to see something quaint and intriguing, watch this. Just don't raise the bar too high...that wouldn't be true to the flick. It's an excellent B-movie, and something good to write a paper on!

Omega Doom is *Brace yourself* the 8th movie in the Cyborg/Nemesis franchise that started with Jean-Claude Van Damme's Cyborg (1989).

I have to say that over the years none of the previous seven movies have come close to anything resembling a good film and Omega Doom is one of the worst despite the veteran lead.

Playing the titular character is Rutger Hauer who hams it up the best he can alongside notorious erotic film actress Shannon Whirry. I didn't actually realize it was her until after I'd finished the film and noticed her on the credits, the fact she remained 100% clothed throughout might have had something to do with that.

It tells yet another story in a post apocalyptic world populated by cyborgs and humans who are in a never ending conflict with one another. Once again however there is no clear connection with any of the previous movies and I can't understand how this even constitutes a franchise! There is zero continuity, in fact in almost every film it contradicts the previous.

Omega Doom is a slow burner and when something happens you almost wish it hadn't. It's ugly, it's tacky and it's a sheer unadulterated mess from start to finish.

The Good:

Nothing springs to mind

The Bad:

Further lack of continuity

Simply not very interesting

Naff sfx

In a dark and dismal world, Rutger has obviously found passage through a land of endless fatty food buffets. This movie was bad enough on its own, but add a nearly comical robot to be cut to pieces, a gun, a bunch of women borrowed from a Robert Palmer video set (and almost as active), and a waddling Rutger Hauer; what do you have? Something Troma would have refused to release on their Sex & Violence office webcam.

Man-o-man does this movie suck a whole lot. It is so bad that its worth watching to laugh at it and pull an MST3K with friends. I don't know if its important or not, but the plot was lifted from Yojimbo and crunched into one day's time.

No story. No plot. Bad Acting. No effects, and no Action (camera cuts away just before the few action scenes were supposed to come).

A Clear 1 (0 if it was possible) out of 10.

Nah, I don't think it's a horrible movie. Sure it lacks a lot of action that movies of the period had, but I never thought of this as an action movie anyway. It seemed to me to be more like a comic book/graphic novel meets 70's samurai movie meets spaghetti western. Despite the obvious overarching situation (apocalypse, possibility of humans returning, obvious society gone to hell), it pretty much all but ignores that and focuses on the problem at hand: ridding the robot town of the "bad guys." It ends with a sense that Omega Doom has really done nothing more than put a band-aid on the whole situation, but his actions are more along the lines of self-preservation than anything else. He just showed up for a drink and gets sucked into a fight. That's how pretty much any of the same genre starts. Someone comes along, wanting to be left alone, but some dumb schmuck picks a fight and then our hero has to teach them a lesson. Nothing is resolved, the world is still as crummy as it ever was, but the hero gets to get back on the road in one piece. Lather, rinse, repeat.

That's why this kind of movie appeals to me. I don't think it's boring or a waste of time. It's interesting enough in it's hopeless nothingness. I don't always want to see a happily ever after ending or some Matrix-y, save-the-human-race type of fight. Those are a dime a dozen. That's what has always appealed to me in old samurai movies, though those tend to focus more on making things better. This movie was very reminiscent of Philip K. Dick stories: bleak futures with small stories that just are what they are.

Of course this kind of movie doesn't appeal to everyone, not by a long shot. I think my little brother fell asleep. Van Damme movies were more his thing. Lots of fight scenes and the bad guys get their due. Not that I don't like those movies, I do. It's just that something of the type of movie that Omega Doom is, is a breath of fresh air. There's a pointless despair to it that I enjoy. Something is done, and yet it isn't.

Also, I know the special effects are bad, but I honestly thought it was an 80's movie. I was surprised to see 1995-1997 as a release date. I think it's much better thinking of it as an 80's movie if you're the type of person who just can't get past special effects not being as good as LotR or Star Wars.

So this gets 6 stars from me. Not the greatest, but not the worst. Despite IMDb's plot description, it doesn't try to be anything other than it is, it fulfills my comic book/graphic novel pleasures, and I much enjoyed some of the talent in it compared to, say Van Damme.

Albert Pyun is really underrated. This guy deserves more attention on how bad he is. Bad as a director and writer, a couple of years ago I already declared him the Ed Wood of modern movie making. Sad thing about directors like Pyun is that they have no talent for movie-making but keep on making movies nevertheless.

Reason why I watched this movie in the first place is because Rutger Hauer is in it. It's too bad that he is given awful material to work with, the script has some terrible dialogs.

Still I can appreciate a big fat B-movie every now and then. B-movie's are always ridicules and awfully looking with terrible acting. In a way its always very relaxing to watch after a hard week of work. This movie is no exception. Fans of the genre and I know that there are a lot of those, will enjoy this movie big time. It has all the typical modern science-fiction B-movie elements in it.

The special effects are laughable bad at times, especially for the character Head. The sound effects also made me laugh. Remember that Cain droid from "Robocop 2"? Remember that sound that he made when he walked? It's a kind of scary sound for Cain but a laughable sound when it is used for just normal human looking droid characters in this movie. It's really not fitting.

Don't stop making crap Pyun! In a way I always enjoy it.

...I kind of like the cover though.

4/10

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RESUME: "Last Man Standing" with robots. A lone stranger enters a post-apocalyptic 'town', where he takes advantage of the growing tensions between two 'gangs' of killing-machines, using their own inane appetite for destruction against themselves. They are a doomed race, we learn, being capable of nothing but destruction.

GOOD: The visual language is that of Sergio Leone's classic spaghetti westerns, where most of the time is spend building up tension in a psychological (positronic?) game of poker between the main characters, before the actual violence takes place in the blink of an eye. The scenes with our protagonist, Hauer, and the evil female robot, "Blackheart", are a visual, erotic intercourse, replacing menace for foreplay and death for climax! I can't help but wonder if the Wachowsky Brothers saw this movie while making "Matrix", since they totally borrowed the look and style off this movie!

BAD: Style aside, it is a sin to make a movie with such obvious potential for delving into the intricacies of being human/artificial and utterly ignoring it for the whole 90 minutes! Just a hint of Isaac Asimov or Phillip K. Dick would have done the deed!

UGLY?: No, actually quite a nice little b-movie that leaves you with a gnawing feeling of what it could have been with just a slightly better script.

I enjoyed the film's surrealistic and somber tone. Like other Rutger Hauer movies (e.g. Blade Runner,) his character is both sensitive and tough, a mix of philosophy AND action. There is something very appealing about the poet-warrior, and Hauer plays him well. Additionally, the whole question of robot choice/emotion/hope works well for me. I gave the movie an "8," that is, a "B/B+". As B movies go, it was well done.

"Omega Doom" is a thinly disguised sci-fi version of the concept behind "Yojimbo" and "A Fistful of Dollars", in which one character manipulates two warring factions in an isolated setting. Albert Pyun, the prolific low budget genre director who co-wrote this with Ed Naha, gets at least somewhat ambitious with this script - he starts off by quoting a Dylan Thomas poem - but ultimately this is too dull, and too routine, to really take off. The characters, for the most part, tend to not generate much interest. Star Rutger Hauer is fortunately charismatic and amusing as usual, but he can't bring a lot of life to this tired movie. He plays the title character, a robot in a world of the future where mechanicals have practically decimated all mankind. So now they're left to fend and think for themselves and also fight one another. Doom, whose programming was damaged during a fight, comes upon a remote run down area where two types of robots, "Roms" and "Droids", are having it out, convincing each side to try to team up while having his own hidden agenda. Leading the Droids is sexy Shannon Whirry of the erotic thriller genre, and leading the Roms is Tina Cote, a regular in Pyuns' films. Also among the cast are the appealing Anna Katarina as the "bartender" who serves up refreshing glasses of water, Jahi J.J. Zuri as a trouble making Droid, and Norbert Weisser, who like Cote reappears often in Pyuns' oeuvre, as the principal supplier of comedy relief, as the hapless "Head" who's the recipient of much abuse. Decent atmosphere and convincing production design (the movie was shot on location in Slovakia) are assets, but overall the movie is not terribly stimulating, nor is it very easy to root for anyone present. Die hard Hauer fans or devotees of post-apocalypse cinema may find some value here, but it's not something that's worth a hearty endorsement. Five out of 10.

'Omega Doom' really does have a special place in my heart. As movies go, it's not the best. It isn't even good. But... well, just watch the thing. There's no way you can sit through the whole sci-fi/western/inexplicable noise-packed experience without either beginning to love it or snapping and attacking bystanders with the remote.

It's less of a movie and more of a game, to be honest. See how long *you* can stand the bizarre whirring sounds, played whenever each and every 'robotic' (translated from Low-Budget: contact lenses and metal gloves) character moves. Even when their eyes move, for god's sake! It's half endurance test, and half bad, bad movie. But watch it anyway.

I got this movie out from the video store, looking for something without too much depth - an action movie, basically... what I found was the sort of thing studied in an English class. Weighted down with MINUTES of one-on one dialogue as the camera zoomed in continuous 360 degree closeups of each person, and standoffs that took so long I had to fast-forward through most of them - an example:

"did you HEAR what I SAID?"...

"I SAID did you HEAR what I SAID!"......

"are you DEAF? did you HEAR what I SAID???".........

Rutger aka Omega Doom slowly turns - VERY SLOWLY...

then follows a scene where omega doom SLOWLY prepares his energy blade thing, while SLOWLY staring at the baddie...

then follows a scene where the camera looks in close-up at each person watching...

then the baddie attacks, omega doom retaliates, and the action scene you were waiting for is over in precisely 0.1 of a second;

ok, don't get me wrong, i didn't really look deeply into the symbolism of the incessant electric-motor whirring limb movements, or the 'pssshhhhh' noise that was made whenever one of them exhaled a frosty breath into the cold air (how CLEVER!) or the way they drank water instead of alcohol because it caused minor short circuits (bzzzzzt! bz bzt bzzzzt!) or the highly charged emotional scenes such as when, at the end of the film, omega doom returns to the female cyborg he fatally wounded in the middle somewhere: "please... turn my head so that I can see the sunset psshhhhhh..." omega doom walks over and turns her head slowly <CREEEEEAAAAAK! SQUEEEEAL!> gasp psssshhhhh it's beautiful...."

Omega Doom (1996) is a movie I recently watched on Tubi. The storyline takes place in a futuristic world that is run by androids and robots...who are also at war against each other. Humans are thought to be extinct but have secretly sent their own robot to infiltrate society and find a source of hope. The robot finds the war between androids and robots at an impasse over a secret gun stash neither can uncover but both sides kill to ensure the other doesn't get it. Could this be the hope humans are looking for? This movie is directed by Albert Pyun (Cyborg) and stars Rutget Hauer (Hobo with a Shotgun), Shannon Whirry (Me, Myself and Irene), Norbert Weisser (Schindler's List) and Simon Poland (United 93). The opening of this is directly from the war scenes in Terminator 2. The storyline for this had potential in a Trespass kind of way but I couldn't get over the humans trying to act like robots and obnoxious sound effects. The bullet special effects are also terrible. The acting and script are bad as well. There is some funny dialogue in here and some good zingers; but overall, this is stinker I'd score a 3/10.

Now plenty of people attack movies for being cheap but let me tell you this is cheap. Also let me say Albert Pyun had, at times, some style and energy to his movies, but ultimately it was movies like this that kept him in the lower and lower depths of low budget science fiction action movies with no action and retread science fiction.

This is cheap even compared to similar films by say Cannon or Charles Band. It does feature a taking head, like Pyun's film Dollman, which is a better bigger film.

This entire film takes place in one European town square and a few dark interiors of stone or concrete lined basements. There is no action virtually every scene is two people talking. The cyborgs are all silly looking, actors pretending, badly, to be robots while loud mechanical noises sound with their every move. Make up and special effects--a few glowing lights and the talking head effect are all unconvincing when not distractingly bad.

Rutger Hauer is starting to show the ravages of his life-and career style and starting also to put on weight. He seems to take this seriously enough to escape much blame for how poor this film is.

Though made in 1996 it feels more like 1987, the few actual robot heads you see look like ok Halloween costume parts.

The movie moves as slowly as possible because it's not really feature length--though you'll struggle to put up with it until the end credits start--70 minutes into the movie.

The story is a low rent terminator thing and even features the early shot of a bunch of skeletons with a foot crushing a skull.

The talking head character gives the most fun performance, twitching around crazily when attached to a body, oh and the movie is in focus. Those are really it's only virtues.

Don't confuse this with Nemesis, or Trancers, or ever American Cyborg those are all bigger and better films than this. Really bottom of the barrel, like footage you'd cut out of an actual movie--and coming from Largo Entertainment you can see whatever they spent didn't go on screen.

I actually saw this years ago, but I must have suppressed my memory somehow.

First of all, it's most certainly a B-movie, no two ways about that.

The director for this should, if not already (Not checked), get another job.

The plot stinks to high heaven, and the writers have absolutely no talent for terminology, nor logic, and least of all technology.

I'm surprised that movies that have this kind of theme, where the story plays out in the future, that they don't have proper consultants that actually understand something about anatomy (which goes beyond bright white skeletons shown in the beginning), how an android (not "robots"!) would move, talk, reason and least of all function.

None of those things has been taken into consideration, and we see actors that aren't particularly good at mimicking what an android could potentially look like, and how it would move.

In order to have any advantage over any other model, it would have to be proficient, agile and generally quick in combat.

Some attempts are made to make it look so, but fails miserably for the most part.

There are huge gaps in the plot, as what lead the "robots" to be what they've become - Not much of a backstory exactly.

Why would androids, or "robots" (really hurts my head with the terminology here!), have need for water? I could understand if it was for any form of fusion- or hydrogen fuel, something for power, but it's not even addressed. Had they been cyborgs I could understand for the human part, but they're not.

The level of knowledge they (don't) possess regarding weapons is staggering. A bullet shown could interpret as potentially a found weapons cache, but for a "robot" to try to put a rifle round into a revolver which clearly is way too big, really reeks and some of the writing team had a really bad day with that logic.

Any AI with proper ocular means to determine spacial measurements would immediately assess that task, and conclude that it wouldn't fit.

Humans can jump to conclusions, irrational thought etc, through emotions overriding common sense, but any AI (or "robots"!) shouldn't do this mistake, again with the bad day(s) for the writing team!.

Also, they keep mentioning "the weapons", and no hints to what kind of weapon, and seeing how that, what's her name, totally snowed in on that revolver (and the bullet that wouldn't fit)m I can't imagine they spent a lot of time thinking about that part of the story.

Had this been done in the 70-80's I could've swallowed it with something to drink, but this late in time, mid-90's ? Come on!

It was made when movies was starting to get good C. G. I (Ok, not all movies should use it, but I meant in general as it was actually getting pretty darn good!) and props got properly manufactured and it no longer looked like crap - In other words, from the mid-90's movies were getting way better, but no, we got this. The "head" is an example when C. G. I. Shouldn't be used, or at least done properly, and also they should be aware what a detached head actually would look like if it was trying to move, as they clearly failed to account for, as proof by the poor effects.

Usually I don't rate this low, but there are a few exceptions, and this is one of them. I hate movies that can't do the genre justice when the movie crew don't even make an effort to try to be both futuristic and logic at the same time.

I gave this a 4 on account of the late Rutger Hauer starring in it, who will forever be missed as one of the greatest actors in this genre and more, especially during the 80's.

Without him, this would be in the range between 1-2 in ratings.

All in all, pretty dull movie, and as many here states, it's like a western movie, but pretty uneventful for the most part. First minutes or so looks promising, but gets exponentially badder the longer into the movie you get, and the ending isn't a payoff either.

Another remake of Kurosawa's landmark film "Yojimbo" (itself suggested by Dashiell Hammet's "Red Harvest"), set in a distant, post-Apocalyptic future. A stranger comes to town and plays one group of badguys against another, kills everybody, walks off into the sunrise. can't go too wrong with a story that simple! The acting is strong, especially that of Hauer, who never realized the promise of his earely career. When action happens, it's neatly handled.

But the pacing just drags. There's not half the action this film needs, and the dialog is way over-wrought.

I did like the use of a quote from Dylan Thomas, and a couple other moments stand out, as when one robot envisions Hauer's character on horseback leading the human race back to triumphal dominance. And this is one of Pyun's better efforts as a director; he just doesn't seem to know how to move a film along - which has always been his main weakness.

Good for a viewing, but unmemorable, and certainly not in a class with Yojimbo.

I cannot believe this film did not do it in terms of the box office. I just sat back and enjoyed it! I think Hauer is a great actor and this film further proves it. He plays a good hero as he did in Blind Fury, he has another sinister role in this film but he is the good guy. He still has that scary appeal about him like what he did in The Hitcher. Shannon Whirry provides superb support as a droid who is incharge. This makes the film all the more enjoyable as she provides a lot of unexpected charisma to it. The scenes where her and Hauer are against each other are just brilliant!

10/10

Enjoy

After a nuclear war that desolated the planet, just robots and machines got to survive. Old and rusty, the group of cyborg usually gather themselves into gangs and the confronts are inevitable among them.When Omega Doom, a machine programmed to protect the innocent ones, arrives in the small villa and starts to help the place's oppressed inhabitants, he ends up provoking the hate of the villainous, and it doesn't take a lot of time for the hero and the evil robots to start a private, violent combat. Using the experiences and abilities acquired in the war, Omega Doom will do everything to help his friends and, by using his high capacity, he will put an end to the tyranny. A low-budget thriller directed by Albert Pyun, a film maker who is specialist in making science-fictions (Pyun is responsible for others interesting motion pictures, such as "Nemesis" and "Crazy Six"). The dark photography combines with the slow and pessimistic story's climate,but there is no action scene (this is a small bad aspect, but for those who like to see adventure moments' "Omega Doom" isn't a good choice), and Pyun substitutes the shootings and fights for surprising dialogues and discussions about pain, happiness and freedom.Even being tedious, there are qualities, as the exuberant visual that composes a frightening, lonely and violent image of the future, and the contained Rutger Hauer's performance.