Programmed to Kill (1987)

Sorry, this movie sucks

Great Film overall

Good concept, poorly executed.

An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

Just a note for convenience that this movie is alternately titled, "The Retaliator" on several online databases...just apparently not IMDB. Nor did it show up under searches on "retaliator" on IMDB as of the date of this "review".

But the only line I remembered was the joke about "an E-ticket in Khadafy-land".This could have been an okay movie, if it had people who could act in it. Robert Ginty looks like he wasn't even trying. I don't think Sandahl Bergman could ever act, so I give her a pass.The plot is that a hot female terrorist is rebuilt as a killer cyborg so she can re-infiltrate her terror cell and kill all the terrorists. But instead, he programming snaps and she goes after anyone involved in either capturing her or turning her into a robot.The movie has some interesting scenes, and some dumb ones. I think it could have been an interesting film with better dialog, better actors. It also looks like they ran out of money at the end, with the final scene being shot at a private airport. The scenes in Beruit (or wherever) looked really good. The scene where he's infiltrating an office building, not so much.

Cyborg movies were all the rage in the mid-80s after the release of THE TERMINATOR. That movie worked so well because it depicted a nightmarish vision of the future dominated by rampaging, killer machines. And while it had plenty of nifty sci-fi and cyborg effects, the human story was equally strong. Several years later, this movie came out. The version I saw called it THE RETALIATOR, but it's sometimes referred to as PROGRAMMED TO KILL. Personally, I like the shorter title better. But you can definitely see where the filmmakers wanted to cash in on the Terminator craze. Now then, the story: The movie opens in Crete where a group of terrorists open fire on innocent civilians and kidnap two children. The terrorists flee to Beirut with their hostages. So the CIA contacts a team of mercenaries led by the wooden Robert Ginty (from WARRIOR OF THE LOST WORLD, uh, fame?) to go in, kill the terrorists and rescue the children. In the course of the operation, they manage to rescue the kids and take a female terrorist as a prisoner. The terrorist, played expertly by Sandahl Bergman, is then subjected to a top-secret government project (aren't they all!) whereby they replace parts of her with machines, reprogram and transform her into a killer cyborg. The CIA then sends her back into Beirut to kill a top priority terrorist. As you probably suspect, not even two minutes after she completes her mission, the cyborg goes haywire and starts a rampage against her creators. So Ginty takes it upon himself to stop her. The kills are impressive, my personal favorite is the moment where she kills a guy using a car phone. But Ginty doesn't have much of a screen presence. Granted, he's mildly better in this one than in WOTLW, but that's not saying much. The biggest problem with this film is that it has a cheap feel to it. While it may not be all-that-cheap, afterall it was filmed in several countries, the movie looks and feels cheap. If you're just looking for some mild entertainment, then look no further. But if you want to really see the cyborg movie shine, go out and watch any or all of the following: THE TERMINATOR, TERMINATOR SALVATION, BLADE RUNNER, and ROBOCOP.

OK, you have seen Universal Soldier with Jean-Claude Van Damme and Dolph Lundgren. A real macho film.This film came out five years earlier, and feature a female in the lead role - Golden Globe winner Sandahl Bergman (Conan the Barbarian, Red Sonja).It's a mostly forgettable movie, but it is interesting in the fact that it is really timely right now. Bergman plays a Middle Eastern terrorist who is captured and turn against her friends after some nifty programming like the Universal Soldiers. But, as you may suspect, something goes wrong and she goes after those that cyborg-ed her.I really only tuned into it because the initial action took place in Crete, and I couldn't resist that. Heck, I might have been there playing in a softball tournament when they were filming.