Criminal scientists use cloning to develop disposable sex slaves in TERMINAL JUSTICE, an action exercise whose direction and writing aren't nearly as imaginative as its weird central concept.
Eager to outdo the sexual thrills available in the virtual reality market, depraved adult toymaker Reggie Matthews (Chris Sarandon) and mad scientist Dr. Vivyan (Peter Coyote) have concocted the next big thing. Dipping into his own gene pool for a modified version of cloning, Dr. Vivyan creates
female equivalents of himself. Matthews molests and murders two of them.
Eager to move up a step, Matthews sends two goons to steal DNA from soft-core porn star Pamela Travis (Kari Wuhrer). When a police investigation uncovers Matthews's plan, Travis hires a moonlighting police detective as a bodyguard, Sgt. Chase (Lorenzo Lamas); he protects her when Matthews' men
invade her home. Subsequently, Chase's partner Phillips (Barry Flatman) is slain by one of Matthews's henchmen. Pressured by his Metro division superior, Chase teams up with cyber-genius Hiroshi (Tod Thawley) to foil Matthews's genetic theft of Travis's DNA. After Chase locates the corpse of one
of Matthews's genetically-created victims, Matthews retaliates by unsuccessfully ambushing Chase and Travis at a restaurant. Tracing him through Matthews's low-level thugs, Chase arrests Dr. Vivyan and saves the newest clone from being sold overseas.
After Matthews abducts Travis, Chase is forced to pursue him through a deadly virtual reality game called Hellraiser. Despite being badly wounded during the virtual competition, Chase eliminates the assassins, rescues Travis, and arrests Matthews. Dr. Vivyan is released when a court accepts his
legal argument that one cannot be tried for killing oneself (i.e., a cloned version of oneself). His sole surviving clone takes advantage of that argument by grabbing a cop's gun and shooting her creator to death.
This outre but undisciplined action pic is full of neat gimmicks, like a remote control pheromone-seeker that attacks Chase in the restaurant. If only it weren't so stuffed with macho movie cliches like avenging the cop buddy's death and putting the haughty female lead in her (submissive) place.
The direction of this deja-vu-ish material is thoroughly routine; quality actors Peter Coyote and Chris Sarandon grope for that ham overkill level set by Jack Nicholson in BATMAN (1989). Although it has a few delirious moments, TERMINAL JUSTICE does little to revitalize stale cliches. Instead, it
trashes scientific wizardry to jazz up overly familiar cops-and-gene-robbers schlock. (Graphic violence, extreme profanity, extensive nudity, sexual situations, substance abuse.) leave a comment