THE GUYVER (1991) Unearthed Films Blu ray Screenshots + Review
The Guyver (1991) is a sci-fi action/superhero flick adapted from Yoshiki Takaya's manga series of the same name. Produced by Brian Yuzna (Society) and co-directed by surreal FX legend Screaming Mad George (Curse II: The Bite) and Steve Wang (Guyver: Dark Hero) it starts off with a bit of a text crawl and voiceover that explains that basic idea of the film. As explained, a race of long-gone aliens bio-engineered humans as organic weapons, and that there exists alien-human hybrids known as Zoanoids, and how there's an alien artifact called "The Unit" which has the ability to transforms humans into an alien-hybrid super soldier called "The Guyver", but that how to activate the artifact has long remained a mystery.
The film opens with scientist Dr. Segawa (Greg Paik) who has "The Unit" in his possession having stolen it from his employer the Chronos corporation, which run by evil CEO Fulton Balcus (David Gale, Re-Animator). He's trying to get the device into the hands of CIA agent Max Reed (Mark Hamill, Star Wars), but before he can make the handoff he is intercepted by Balcus's Zoanoid henchmen Lisker (Michael Berryman, The Hills Have Eyes), M.C. Striker (Jimmie Walker, TV's Good Times), Ramsey (Peter Spellos, Bound), and Weber (Spice Williams-Crosby, Fatal Games), mutating into their monstrous Zoanoid forms and dispatching the scientist, who also turns out to be an alien-human hybrid. The recover the briefcase carrying "The Unit" and bring it to Balcus, who is quite displeased to find a kitchen toaster inside!
It turns out that The Unit was hidden away nearby in a lunchbox, and it's discovered by middling karate student Sean Barker (Jack Armstrong, TV's Days of Our Lives). Not realizing what it is he picks it up and marvels at it, before being accosted by a street gang. It's during the alteration that he falls face-first onto The Unit accidentally activating it, which fuses to his face before covering his body in the Guyver armor, allowing him to easily dispatch the street toughs. From here we get Balcus cronies attacking Sean in an effort to get The Unit, but when he turns out to be near indestructible they kidnap his girlfriend Mizky (Vivian Wu, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III) who is coincidentally Dr. Segawa's daughter, resulting in Sean as The Guyver teaming-up with Agent Reed to infiltrate the Chronos facility and save his girlfriend, and the world.
I had thought I'd watched The Guyver before, but it became apparent just a few minutes in I clearly had not. I think I saw the sequel Guyver: Dark Hero at some point, but I only just barely remember it. I will say the sequel must be darker in tone from what I remember, because the comic book/slapstick sense of humor found here caught me a bit by surprise. The general tone of this comes across as a more violent Power Rangers or Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, there's corny sound effects like the sound of a tree falling when one of the villains is knocked-out, it's pretty groan inducing but fun if you're in the right mood, and the one-liners, oof! The dialogue during the rubber-suited monster/Guyver battles is 100% grade-A kiddie TV stuff.
That's not to say I didn't like it, I absolutely did. I was won over by the incredible rubber-suited monsters and the Guyver armor by Screaming Mad George, these looked pretty fantastic, and the transformations from humanoid to zoanoid really do look great. There's some nice variation, a couple of the monsters look like oversized Gremlins, one of the female is hair-covered except for her breasts, it's fun stuff, even if Jimmy Walker's characters monster alter-ego crossed-eyes and oversized lips seem pretty fucking racist and ill-advised in hindsight.
There are also some fun cameos, we as well, we get a very brief walk-on from Linnea Quigley (The Return of the Living Dead), who is simply credited as "Scream Queen", and Jeffrey Combs (Re-Animator) plays a scientist in the employ of Balcus, his name Dr. East - clearly a fun nod to Dr. West who Combes played in the Re-Animator films.
Admittedly Jack Armstrong is pretty weak in the acting department, he makes a stiff and unremarkable lead, but it gets better once he's covered in rubber as The Guyver. The fight scenes are plenty entertaining but not exactly kinetic masterpieces of martial arts either, but good enough for a rubber suited sci-fi actioner....
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