HUMANOID DEFENDER

HUMANOID DEFENDER/J.O.E. and the COLONEL

This is no doubt a pilot for a television series which never made it. It may even be a pilot, and then a follow-up episode because it actually feels like three television episodes edited together. Basically we have something a lot like UNIVERSAL SOLDIER. "J.O.E." is actually not a robot, nor even really a cyborg, he's a genetically engineered clone, made by government scientists to be the perfect soldier, but he's too good, too moral, and he won't kill a dog when they order him to. This is a Bellisarius production so it features the usual actors from Magnum PI, Airwolf and Tales of the Gold Monkey. J.O.E. goes on the run with his creator after one of the other scientists disappear when she defends J.O.E.'s desire to leave the program and have a life of his own. Act I is J.O.E.'s creation and training. Act II is J.O.E. living in hiding with his creator and getting out in the real world...until another supersoldier shows up and they have themselves a supersoldier fight... 'The Colonel' is the guy who was chasing them for awhile, and he sympathizes with J.O.E. Like every other Bellisarius production, the main characters on the run from the government eventually work for the government, and what is essentially AIRWOLF with a supersoldier instead of a helecopter, they get conned into a 'first mission' in the last act. Thus, providing the title for the series, "J.O.E. and the Colonel."

It isn't bad, needs to be trimmed if they're pawning this off as a movie, because it has TV pacing. Though, if you're a fan, you get the footage, but it could really use an edit. It isn't a bad little TV pilot, which precedes UNIVERSAL SOLDIER, and has the same sort of sensibilities and ideas. The government kills people who don't go along with their secret programs, its a cliche one can never get enough of. Its a little cheesy, and as I said the pacing makes it kind of dull, but overall it isn't terrible. The opening 'flashback' sequence is really cheesy but once you get into the story, I recommend this film over I-Man starring Scott Bakula any day. If you are the kind of person who enjoyed THE INCREDIBLE HULK with Bill Bixby...(I did)...or AIRWOLF its about the same quality, with the same sort of direction. J.O.E. and the Colonel would have gone on most likely, as Stringfellow Hawke and Ernest Borgnine helping people and doing secret missions for the government, so it follows that sort of formula, while possibly being on the run from government agents. The funniest thing that happens is that like the A-Team, J.O.E. and his buddy-creator on-the-run contract out to help people 'if they have a problem, and if you can find them' like the A-team. They go to Japan to rescue a kidnapped girl from 'Japanese Terrorists.' WTF? J.O.E. isn't really a 'humanoid' so I don't know where they're coming up with that, and the cover makes it appear that this is another 'cyborg' film, but it isn't. If you're looking for something obscure from the early 80s, or perhaps if you enjoyed CLONUS, or EMBRYO this is right up your alley. It is a decent effort, and maybe because it kind of leaves you hanging for a series, at least in tone, it seems a little weird. I am loosely going to expand "CYBERTRONIC CLASSICS" to include genetic engineering, since a lot of these films do involve some of that...such as even Blade Runner which implies a bit of both cloning and robotics...one day it will most likely be a combination of the two, so look for that category coming soon.

I checked this film out because it appeared to be about a cyborg super-soldier, but not really at all. They do use some fancy but silly tech-helmets at the end when they raid some secret lair, but other than that, it isn't heavy on tech, except bioengineering. It's not great, not bad, if you're into Airwolf, this is one of those companion Belliarius shows, which are all about the military and people disenfranchised with the military. It was fun to re-visit the 80s with this sort of 'alternate universe' TV show which never existed. I definitely would have watched this series back then, and would have recalled it along with Airwolf, the A-Team and Macgyver. One of the reasons I don't think it succeeded was because of the tone of the show...the government kills people, forces its people to kill dogs to test them to see if they're willing to carry out assassinations, it is saying that J.O.E. is another product of the military industrial complex which will one day create cloned supersoldiers to do its bidding. Secret Black projects, assassins and covert ops with bloodthirsty killers...back in the 80s...that tone would have been pretty dark for primetime. This has a darker tone than AIRWOLF or MAGNUM, it is a bit conspiratorial and they actually kill people. So don't get too attached to anyone that isn't J.O.E. or the Colonel...hmmm ...This is before X-Files, and Nowhere Man and the Lone Gunmen... but it might have worked...you never know.