kai ringler Wow what a movie,, at first I thought it was like a prequel of sorts to the Road Warrior or something like that,, so many similarities I thought that it was uncanny, like for instance the boneyard of junk cars and such, and the baron wasteland. No major actors or actresses in here that I noticed but that didn't matter because the plot and the action carried the movie 100 percent of the time, I was not disappointed in anything at all really,, all of the fight sequences were choreographed brilliantly, and the female lead was nice to look at. a man/cyborg 70/30 mix , is on the run after being programmed to kill a top scientist, great action, arm wrestling, chases and the like , great movie I was totally surprised at how great this movie was and will watch again very soon.

zardoz-13 Sergio Martino's superficial cyborg saga "Hands of Steel" came out a year before "RoboCop" and six years before "Universal Soldier." Interestingly enough, this makes Martino's film somewhat seminal if you put it into a chronological cyborg time-line. These three epics featured cyborgs who suffer a crisis of conscience and rebel against their programming. Of course, all bionic adventures can be traced back to the television series "The Six-Million Dollar Man," but the Lee Majors hero never worried about following orders like the protagonists in "Hands of Steel," "RoboCop," and "Universal Soldier." Prior to these pictures, the biggest Hollywood cyborgs appeared in the "Star Wars" film franchise with Dark Vader as the ultimate cyborgs. Meanwhile, this slightly futuristic Italian melodrama takes place against an aura of political corruption and environmental intrigue. Pollution ranks as our foremost fear in America. An environmental advocate drapes the country with banners that proclaim: You Have No Future." Acid rain drenches parts of America. The villains deploy a primitive prototype of a laser weapon, and they possess a gadget that can penetrate walls and determine the number of individuals in a dwelling. Everything else remains strictly contemporary. "Torso" helmer Martino penned the predictable but action-packed screenplay with number of notable scribes, including Elisa Briganti of "Zombie," John Crowther of "The Evil Men Do," Ernesto Gastaldi of "The Grand Duel," Dardano Sacchetti of "1990: The Bronx Warriors," rookie writer Saul Sasha, with Lewis E. Ciannelli of "Arizona Colt" contributing supplemental dialogue. Most of these scenarists shared screenplay credit on several of Martino's films. Despite six writers, "Hands of Steel" qualifies as a fair to middling, a science fiction hybrid hampered by abysmal acting. Comparably, the film is like its protagonist. At one point, the hero states that he is seventy percent robotic and thirty percent human. "Hands of Steel" is thirty percent sci-fi, while seventy percent contemporary manhunt.The evil chairman of a major foundation, Francis Turner (John Saxon of "Enter The Dragon"), wants to permanently silence an ecology guru, the Reverend Arthur Mosely (Franco Fantasia of "Adios Sabata"), because he is interfering with his so they send a cyborg, Paco Queruak (Daniel Greene of "Kingpin"), to assassinate the popular leader. As it turns out, the same hotel where Mosely is operating out of with his minions is the same place that our hero is staying. Paco slips past FBI security, disposes of Mosely's second-in-command by knocking him out with a powerful blow, and then confronts Mosely. Paco experiences a crisis of conscience when he confronts Mosely. Instead of killing him as programmed, Paco violates his programming and ruptures Mosely's spleen. When Turner's gunsels embark on their search for Paco, they consult a scientist, Professor Olster (Donald O'Brien of "Grand Prix") who no longer works for Turner. Before his encounter with Mosely, Paco had been a classified as the best of the best, maximum in both efficiency and reliability. Olster attributes Paco's refusal to kill to memories from his youth clashing with his operating system. He thinks Paco is trying to recapture his past and rebuild his identity. Doesn't this sounds a lot like "RoboCop" with Peter Weller and "Universal Soldier" with Jean-Claude Van Damme, except "Hands of Steel" beat both pictures to the screen? Anyway, the henchmen kill Olster after he provides them with his theories and head to Arizona. Paco heads to his native state of Arizona and masquerades as a handyman for Linda (Janet Agren) who owns a bar and motel for hookers.While hiding out from Turner's hired guns, Paco finds himself caught up with redneck truck drivers in an arm wrestling championship that anticipated the 1987 sports opus "Over the Top" with Sylvester Stallone. A group of rednecks led by Raoul Morales (George Eastman) make life difficult for Paco. At one point, they drag him across the desert behind a tow-truck and then Raoul and his cronies beat him savagely so he cannot participate in the tournament. The sight of Paco dangling helplessly by his ankles while his assailants smash lead pipes against his physique is cartoonishly violent. Later, an arm wrestling championship appears reminiscent of an earlier Saxon movie "The Appaloosa" where scorpions were tied to the table where the match was held and the loser had his hand smashed down on the poisonous creature. Martino and his scribes have changed it up a little. Martino substitutes rattlesnakes for scorpions. This manhunt melodrama doesn't reveal Paco's true identity until almost an hour into the action. This low-budget, inferior thriller has a few good scenes and some bullet-blasting action but it is as moronic as they come. Fortunately, Martino doesn't let this nonsense drag on past 94 minutes. The acting is abysmal. Daniel Greene's performance is thoroughly impassive, but the bionic modification that his character submitted to could account for his wooden delivery. Naturally, John Saxon acquits himself well considering the low-budget and his inept co-stars. According to IMDb.COM, Saxon went to Rome to complete all his scenes since "Hands of Steel" was a non-union shoot. Had he flaunt the Screen Actors' Guild and done his scenes in Arizona, the actor believes that he would have died in the same helicopter crash that claimed co-star Claudio Cassinelli's life. Spaghetti western stalwart George Eastman is a thorough-going dastard! Look out for the scene when Paco tangles with a female cyborg. Claudio Simonetti's orchestral score enlivens the action.Some have accused Martino's Euro-Trash classic of ripping off James Cameron's "The Terminator," released two years before. Actually, Arnold Schwarzenegger played an android rather than a cyborgs in "The Terminator." The biggest surprise in "Hands of Steel" occurs at about 52 minutes when Dr. Peckinpah defines what constitutes a cyborg. "A cyborg is a human body with most of its internal organs, functions, ands structures replaced by mechanical and electrical substitutes. It's human in form and behavior, but it has incredible physical power and endurance." "Hands of Steel" is definitely no masterpiece, but it has a significant place in the chronological cyborg time-line.

Comeuppance Reviews In a post-apocalyptic city, Rev. Arthur Mosely (Fantasia) is the man controlling things. With posters pasted all around that scream "You Have No Future", the populace is understandably despairing. Enter a hulking brute named, inexplicably, Paco Queruak (Greene). Queruak is 80% cyborg and has been programmed to kill Mosely. After seemingly completing his mission, Paco goes on the run and ends up in rural Arizona. He stops at a road house run by Linda (Agren) and begins working there, as well as developing a relationship with her. But her joint is known for its rowdy arm-wrestling competitions. A man named Raul (Eastman) sure does love to wrist-wrassle. All the while, a mysterious businessman named Turner (Saxon), as well as his goons, are after Paco because they want to stop him, and they will stop at nothing to do so. Dodging danger at every turn, what will happen to Paco Queruak? Paco Queruak. That name is really all you need to know. The minds that could come up with that applied their talents to an entire movie. How do you even pronounce that last name? Is it like Jack Kerouac? Because if so, Paco Queruak is the real "beat poet", if you know what we mean. Hands of Steel is director Sergio Martino's take on the movies of the day - it's sort of a melange of The Terminator (1984) and Robocop (1987) if they were to walk into a Road House (1989) and go Over The Top (1987). Impressively, Hands of Steel pre-dated all those movies except The Terminator. Martino would go on to use Daniel Greene in American Tiger (1990) a few years later, but here he's cast perfectly as the lead, because he can be as robotic as he wants to be.In the future there are plenty of abandoned warehouses, signs warning against acid rain, and, perhaps most dangerously, John Saxon with a laser cannon. It seemed like Saxon was going to have a sit-down role for most of the movie until this scene occurred. It's worth watching this movie for this part alone. Plus there's an evil cyborg named Susie that is uncredited in the movie but looks a lot like Daria Nicolodi. But as for the lead, Daniel Greene as - one more time - Paco Queruak - for a guy with "Hands Of Steel" he sure ends up in the right place. That being a place where arm wrestling is king. And during a computer run-down of his attributes as part man and part machine, this is seen on the screen: "Negative Characteristics: None". So he really is the perfect man. But the strange coda at the end of the movie just may confuse things. You'll just have to see it to know what we mean.Highlighted by some great music by Claudio Simonetti, Hands Of Steel is a lot of fun and definitely worth checking out.For more action insanity, drop by: www.comeuppancereviews.com

tomimt Paco is an assassin cyborg, who after a failed assassination escapes and starts to regain his humanity in the tender, loving care of motel keeper Linda. All this happens while the bad guys try to find their broken toy in order to get rid of the evidence before the FBI gets on their track.If anything is evident from Hands of Steel, it's the evident lack of budget. It's one of those cheap 80's movies, that are filled with clunky special effects, odd music and strange plot pieces which in the case of this movie revolve around arm wrestling.Hands of Steel is what it is: a cheap, clichéd sci-fi yarn with moments of unintentional hilarity from severally overacted scenes of oozing testosterone and badassery.Surprisingly enough the movie is not totally unwatchable. It has some nice scenes in it and the camp value is high, but it does require a certain state of mind.