This is the most interesting film in the series. Not so much for the story, but it’s legacy. Released in an anthology movie called Pulse Pounders, with two other 30 minute shorts; only to be lost for over two decades. Eventually found and restored, then put onto the Blu Ray and DVD with the original Trancers as an extra. A pretty fabulous extra at that.
Jack Deth is targeted by assassin Edlin Shock, who has escaped from prison to extract revenge. Deth is now working as a Private Eye in the 1988 version of Los Angeles. Teaming up with his Police Chief from the future, McNulty, who’s only ancestor to inhabit in the time period is still that 13-year-old girl, Deth is back in action, for almost 30 minutes!
The interesting thing about the Trancers series is that despite the hoaky plots with the zombie-esq Trancer creatures, the hero is having to deal with relationship troubles with his love interests in a much more complicated way than the average relationship, thanks to the time travel.
At this run time the film works nicely as they pack everything in tightly and there is little room for it to become dull. Thomerson, Hunt and LaFleur have great fun here and their writers are proving that they know how to liven up a silly script with some fun ideas.
Trancers: City of Lost Angels does suffer greatly from cheapness. The film might have a third of the budget of the already cheap Trancers and given that most of the cast returns, you can see where the larger part of the budget has gone. There isn’t much in the way of spectacle and there is reuse of a lot of the costumes and props from the original. A fan will, like me, will lap up the novelty of an extra adventure in the universe, especially as most will come to this after they have seen several of the better known outings.
This is a fun follow-up to the original and a treat for fans. Cheap, silly, funny and inventive.
Original artwork showed the title of Trancers II The Return of Jack Deth. Once resurrected City of Lost Angels would need a re-title as the feature film sequel would reuse this title once the Pulse Pounders approach was abandoned.
You can grab the Blu Ray from Amazon here where is it included amongst the extras.