Steel and Lace |
  • USA • 1991 • 90m •    • Directed by: Ernest Farino. • Starring: Clare Wren, Bruce Davison, Stacy Haiduk, David Naughton, Michael Cerveris, Scott Burkholder, Paul Lieber, Brian Backer, John J. York, Nick Tate, David L. Lander, John DeMita, Brenda Swanson. • Music by: John Massari.      Daniel Emerson is acquited of the rape of classical pianist Gaily Morton, and part of the blame for the acquittal lies with the testimony of Daniel's friends. Still devastated by the rape and unable to deal with the acquittal, Gaily commits suicide by jumping off of the top of the court building, much to the horror of her brother Albert, who is a scientist. Five years later, Albert has turned Gaily into a cyborg that is programmed to get revenge...
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Review:
Directed by Ernest D. Farino I thought Steel and Lace was an OK time-waster but nothing particularly special. The script by Joseph Dougherty & Dave Edison has a neat central premise but it fails to deliver the goods on too many occasions. For starters Emerson is nowhere near villainous enough, we never see him rape Gaily & most of the film he comes across as a slightly dishonest property developer which meant I never really got behind the cybernetic Gaily & her revenge mission as much as I would have liked, his four mates are even worse as beside lying in court for him they don't do anything else at all. I also thought it was too slow & pedestrian between the revenge segments which are few, I'd have liked a much bigger body count. I mean when you look at the plot synopsis & see that it's a film about rape, death, revenge, murder & killer cyborgs you just think that it's going to be slightly more exploitative than it actually is. Basically the rape scene is none existent & the revenge scenes aren't much to shout about either, Death Wish (1974), I Spit On Your Grave (1978) or MS. 45 (1981) this ain't. Having said that it's still watchable, it's reasonably good fun & there are one or two amusing (intentional) comedic moments in it & I quite liked the ending.
Director Farino doesn't do anything special & it sort of looks a bit like a made-for-TV film, it's a bit static & dull to watch. No mention of how Gaily was brought back is made, she just shows up as a killer robot which seems to skip a somewhat major plot point but I doubt anyone is going to watch Steel and Lace for it's writing or intricate plot. There are a couple of decent scenes & some nice gore, someone gets a drill through their chest which leaves a rather big hole, someone is decapitated & a cool Dawn of the Dead (1978) style scene when someone has the top of their head chopped off by the spinning blades on a helicopter.
Technically the film is OK but nothing special, the special effects are actually decent. The acting was alright & there are a couple of familiar faces here.
Steel and Lace is a decent time-waster, it's one of those films which I thought was fine but nothing spectacular & I'd have probably forgotten about it by the end of next week. Worth a watch for sure but don't lose any sleep if you haven't seen it already.
Review by poolandrews from the Internet Movie Database.
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