In Cyborg Soldier, former UFC Middleweight Champion Rich Franklin stars as I.S.A.A.C., a genetically altered assassin determined to bring down the crooked military institution that first set about creating such ruthless killing machines. Strangely, the film did not receive an Academy-qualifying theatrical run.

The story? I.S.A.A.C. (Intuitive Synthetic Autonomous Assault Commando, for all you acronym fiends out there) is the first prototype of a confidential “human weapon” program that genetically reconstructs humans to become deadly assassins. Searching for freedom and the truth about his military group, I.S.A.A.C. sets off on the lam, taking Deputy Lindsay Reardon (Tiffani Thiessen) as a hostage. Their lives collide as they try to expose the secrets and lies of the corrupt organization, headed up by smooth-talking Simon Hart (Bruce Greenwood).

Directed by Johns Stead, who also wrote the film with John Flock and Christopher Warre Smets, Cyborg Soldier is hamstrung by never really locating its raison d’etre. Probably first and foremost, of course, the movie wants to service action fans, but its perfunctory set pieces,
many of which end before they ever really seem to get going, is hardly the “highly charged explosive thrill ride” its cover box promises. On a certain level, too, the movie wants to be a paranoid, putting-in-right investigatory thriller, though the means by which I.S.A.A.C. and Lindsay unearth certain clues about his past and predicament are almost always arbitrary and/or ridiculous. There’s a pinch of Shooter here, and of course a healthy smear of more obvious influences like Robocop and Universal Soldier, but what’s most sorely lacking is some sort of spitfire chemistry or, failing that, clever interplay. Plenty of movies throw a guy and girl together for reasons having to do less with story than some predetermined commercial necessity — 1994’s The Chase, starring Charlie Sheen and Kristy Swanson, comes to mind — but it’s what happens once those characters are together that matters. In Cyborg Soldier, it’s unfortunately just a bunch of inane chatter. And no, Thiessen does not get naked, guys.

Housed in a regular plastic case with a PhotoShopped cover of Franklin with a hat pulled low over his eyes (and thus undercutting the movie’s most salient selling point), Cyborg Soldier is presented in 1.85:1 anamorphic widescreen, with an English language Dolby digital 5.1 surround sound audio track and optional English SDH and Spanish subtitles. Apart from a gallery of preview trailers for other First Look home video releases, there are unfortunately no other supplemental features. Even just a brief chat with Franklin would have gone a long way toward rallying the UFC base presumably most interested in this title. Alas, we’re left wondering where that charisma is that made folks think Franklin was a natural to headline a movie. To purchase the DVD via Amazon, click here. D (Movie) D (Disc)

The
fourth volume of the filthy, infamous, pseudo-educational 1970s German softcore anthology series, subtitled “What Drives Parents to Despair,” features a number of beauties — most notably Christina Lindberg, who would also turn the heads of sexploitation fans in fare like Maid in Sweden and Anita. Owing to that fact as much as its relative-scale artistry, it’s worth a look for curious niche-market fans.

Schoolgirl Report Volume 4 opens in mock-academic fashion, with a one-minute segment in which a sportsjacket-clad, grey-haired man holds forth on the controversial nature of the series, and asserts that the movie’s dozen or so stand-alone scenarios are all rooted in fact, since “life writes the most interesting scripts.” From there the film moves into discrete thematic storytelling, with cautionary voiceover narration weaving together stories that are sometimes pitched a bit silly, but mostly just straightforward.

The opening segment focuses on a young schoolgirl, Elfi (an attractive Karin Gotz), who seduces her math teacher (Wolf Harnisch) in order to get a passing grade. The other bits involve all sorts of sexual experimentation, with randiness typically giving way to a softly admonishing moral, so that the filmmakers might have their cake and eat it too, so to speak. There’s a perverted older man who poses as a doctor in order to give teenagers his own special check-up, as well as a teenage boy who contrives with his girlfriend to simulate the same scenario, so that he might gain admittance to her room while her parents are home. There’s a group of high school boys who get their female classmates to enter into a prostitution ring with them, so that they can all afford nice new clothes and gadgets. Four girls talk sex and take pleasure in torturing a geeky guy at a public pool.

Lindberg’s segment, meanwhile, stars her as Barbara, a young teen girl who lusts after her older brother Wolfgang (Gunther Mohner), masturbates while watching him score with other women, and has trippy dreams involving bloody, naked nuns, a firing squad and lots of writhing about. Dipping into the taboo of incest is controversial, sure, but certainly the most unnerving segment involves a cabal of jealous, spiteful white girls who lure a black classmate to
a party in order to sexually humiliate her. It’s this segment, more than any other, that makes one feel uncomfortable.

What separates the Schoolgirl Report series from much of the rest of its sexploitation brethren, or at least elevates it a bit, is the production value and care that goes into its construction. Gert Wilden’s score is absolutely hypnotizing, and where else would one expect to see a shot of an undressing guy as seen close-up in the eye of his yearning beholder, as in the movie’s segment with Lindberg and Mohner? While it’s mainly (and unapologetically) an excuse to ogle the bodies of its female players, the movie’s makers were also smart enough to dress it up as something else — a harsh, unyieldingly “modern” representation of the adolescent collision of hormones, power-trading, natural curiosity and naivity.

Housed in a regular Amray plastic case, Schoolgirl Report Volume 4 is presented in 1.66:1 anamorphic widescreen, and the video transfer is surprisingly solid, and clear, save some mid-film grain and a brief run of large white splotches. Apart from chapter selections and newly translated optional English subtitles, there are no supplemental bonus features, unfortunately. To purchase the film on DVD via Amazon, click here. For more information on other Synapse releases, click here. B- (Movie) C (Disc)