Movie #3: Hands of Steel

Welcome to Sci-Fi 100! 
100 Sci-Fi movies in 100 days!

"Hands of Steel" (AKA "Atomic Cyborg") is a cheesy Italian-made Sci-Fi B-movie from 1986. This is another one that I saw when it was first released on VHS in the late 80s and I enjoyed seeing it again.
It was shot primarily in Arizona using American actors. 
The film was written & directed by Sergio Martino and stars Daniel Greene (Falcon Crest,) Janet Agren, and John Saxon (Enter the Dragon, Nightmare on Elm Street.) 
The story is about a villain ( John Saxon) that programs a cyborg (Daniel Greene) to kill a scientist in order to cover us some shady business deals. The cyborg, which develops a conscience, doesn't cary out the assassination and is on the run. The Villain sends his thugs to track down and kill the Cyborg. Oh, the Cyborg's name is Paco, which I thought was an odd name for a killer cyborg.

         watch the trailer in the box above.

The first thing I'll say about this movie is that it's the type of low-budget cheesy flick you would watch around 1:00 AM with one eye open... eating stale nachos, cold pizza and drinking a flat soda. You know the kind I'm talking about.
The film had bad music, bad acting, cheesy fight scenes, and lots of overused camera zooms. 

Most of the movie is slow-paced with a few scattered fight scenes, and an arm wrestling scene atop a box of rattle snakes, but the last 10 minutes of the movie picks up with some good action which includes lots of machine gun fights, rocket launchers, lasers, helicopter chases through canyons and some good hand-to-hand cyborg fighting in which he crushes peoples heads and even rips someone's heart out.

I read some trivia on this movie that said one of the co-stars was killed in a helicopter crash while filming a scene. How terrible. 

I rate this film a 4 out of 10, and just because I rate it that low doesn't mean I didn't enjoy it.  I like cheesy movies like this, especially the ones made in the '80s and I thought this one was pretty awesome.
The best things about this film are... 1.) The awesome poster! and... 2.) John Saxon as the villain. Saxon was by far the best actor in the entire film. He once played a cyborg himself in "The Six Million Dollar Man." He was the character that later became known in the toy line as "Maskatron."



To the left is a screen grab of the ultra cool John Saxon firing a shotgun at Paco the Cyborg from a helicopter.






Below is a photo of the ultra cool me with John Saxon when I had the privilege to meet him at the 2010 Memphis Film Festival.

If you get a chance to watch this film please comment on it so I can see what you thought about it.
I'll see you tomorrow for movie #4!

- Patrick Shawn Bennett
Broadcasting from a hidden base in the Louisiana swamps... patrolled by killer cyborg alligators.