Eve of Destruction (1991)
Starring: Gregory Hines, Renée Soutendijk, Michael Greene
Writers: Duncan Gibbons, Yale Udoff
Director: Duncan Gibbons
Synopsis (From Scream Factory):
Created in the image of her inventor,
Eve VIII, a sophisticated and deadly android, is the flawless
culmination of years of research... or is she?
When an unexpected mishap during
testing sends her into a sudden, irreversible rampage, Eve begins
stalking and killing anything she perceives as a threat. And now it's
up to terrorism expert Jim McQuade to find and deactivate her before
she realizes her ultimate capability – nuclear annihilation!
Review:
This sucker is nuclear! Ahh, sometimes
the best kinds of action movies are the ones that go way unbelievably over-the-top. Sure, there's some outlandish action films now, but it
seems like filmmakers in the 80s-90s had not a care in the world when
it came to putting out something just completely fun and ridiculous.
Eve of Destruction fits into that category. It's like The Terminator,
but with the great goofiness of Commando. The actors lay cheese over
a story that has non-stop action. You barely get a breather in
between all the explosions and gun fights that take place in this
flick. Sometimes everybody just needs a “leave your brain at the
door” type movie, and Eve of Destruction is perfect for such an
occasion.
No lie, things get nuts
right after a brief story intro. We are then thrown into a badsass POV subway scene, traveling at breakneck speed. Robo-Eve is getting hit on by some dude in a leather jacket, who has a mullet that's so
awesome it should be illegal. Next thing ya know, BAM! She's in the
middle of an epic bank robbery, where she gets shot, and that flips
her insano switch. From here on out, Eve VIII is throwing dudes
through windows and doors, dressing sexy, and firing an uzi like
nobody's business! She is not one to be reckoned with. Then, we meet Jim McQuade in the middle of a military training exercise. He is the one man who can put a stop to the mechanical madness. Meanwhile,
human-Eve is at home being taught dirty names for male and female
anatomy by her adolescent son- when in comes the alert phone call that
shit is getting real with her robot counterpart.
If you've never seen Eve of
Destruction, I know you are now excited, and that's not even a half
of the movie! There's still plenty of action to get through. More gun
play, people tossing, car chasing... there's all kinds of awesome
wrapped up in the remainder of this film.
Acting is off the charts hammy, but why
would you want it any other way? To be honest, Renée
Soutendijk does a pretty good job of playing both Doctor Eve Simmons
and Eve VIII. It's a good balance of hot robo-baddie and hot science
mom. The late Gregory Hines kills it as Jim McQuade. Right from his first
moment on screen, he's just shreddin' in his tough-as-nails role. I
always applaud when actors who don't really have an action star
appearance give the musclebound guys a run for their money. Gregory
Hines does just that here. There's also
a few moments of legitimate drama between McQuade and Doctor
Eve, and both Hines and Soutendijk are
on point. But thankfully, drama does not outweigh awesome one-liners,
and Eve of Destruction delivers those in full.
The
movie isn't heavy on gore FX, as it's more of a Sci-Fi Action outing
than a Horror film. There's definitely good amounts of blood, though.
The most awesome ingredients in this department are when we see
underneath the skin of the robots. Tissue is pulled back like a flap to
reveal muscle, and there's a cool moment of removing a chest
piece, as if a puzzle is being broken down. It's a really cool moment
and the SFX are totally fun. But, this movie lives more off of
action, and there's nothing wrong with that.
Philippe
Sarde's film score is straight up amazing. Truth be told, when I put
the Blu-ray in, I just sat there for about ten minutes rocking out to
the menu screen. Actually, I'm lying. There was no sitting... I was getting my groove on in the fiercest possible nature. The main theme plays out like
Predator's opening track if it were more of a dance medley. There's
also synthy tribal style drum fills throughout the film that
break for mysterious horn business. It's pretty great, to say
the least.
Final Thoughts:
Am
I speaking volumes too high for Eve of Destruction? Nope, absolutely
not. This is my type of action flick. It has that “early 90s but
doesn't know how NOT to feel 80s” vibe to it. Kinda like I Come in
Peace/Dark Angel, in that sense. It's a movie that tries to be
nothing more than the good time it is. Eve of Destruction doesn't let up and it
doesn't fail at entertaining. Recommended.
Blu-ray:
Scream Factory's release of Eve of Destruction is presented in 1080p High Definition Widescreen (1.78:1) with a 2 channel DTS-HD Master Audio track. The picture quality here is just awesome. If you want to see how leveled up this film is in terms of picture, just take a look at the theatrical trailer on the disc. It will blow your mind. And the 2 channel audio sounds great. Really good mix. The movie obviously has a lot of loud action scenes, but it's balanced out nicely.
Special Features
Theatrical Trailer
Blu-ray Thoughts:
Light on special features, awesome in presentation. I look at it the same way I look at Scream Factory's double feature release of Scanners II & III; it's really just awesome that these films are getting Blu-ray treatment. Eve of Destruction isn't really something I expected to see on Blu-ray, so this is nice enough for me. I wish it had the old TV spot that ended with some dude rapping, though. It went "Yo! Eve of Destruction! Rated R!" That alone made me want to see this movie when I was a kid.
The Blu-ray will be available November 19th, 2013. Order it from Amazon HERE, or directly from Shout!/Scream Factory HERE.
- Eric (Brobocop)
