American Ninja Michael Dudikoff is cast as Nick James, a former cop in an Earth of the future, haunted by his inability to save his partner. Now he's a boozer, a terminally unlucky gambler, and a *janitor* (!) at a technology company. But he's still the best bet to save the day when cyber-villain Nassim (the late, great bad guy specialist Brion James) and his incompetent henchmen take over the building and take hostages. Nassims' goal is to acquire a cutting-edge, partly biological virus and achieve world domination.
A shameless, B-level imitation of "Die Hard" (the script even has Nick talking to himself at some points), "Cyberjack" a.k.a. "Virtual Assassin" is overall extremely routine. The characters, the plotting, and the action scenes are delivered with no real zeal. Much of the supporting cast is pretty nondescript, with star attraction Dudikoff not coming off much better - despite his attempts to actually deliver a performance. At least Suki Kaiser ("The Virgin Suicides") is excellent eye candy as an egghead essential to Nassims' plans, and James was always great value, whether acting in mainstream movies or independent clunkers like this one. He's at his hammy best (and sports a ridiculous wig), managing to save the picture to some degree.
Most of the digital effects in this sci-fi flick are no more than passable, although there is one fairly decent robot effect on hand.
Best of all is the sequence where Dudikoff uses some gizmos to project holographic images of himself, allowing him to get the drop on one of the ultra-moronic henchmen (most of whom can't hit the broad side of a barn, in the action movie tradition).
The oddest element is that the movie never makes it clear if the Dudikoff we see throughout the balance of the story is "real", because Nassim thought he had killed off his nemesis long ago.
Overall, this is one to see only if you're a Brion James fan. If you're a Dudikoff fan, just revisit "Avenging Force" instead.
Five out of 10.
A shameless, B-level imitation of "Die Hard" (the script even has Nick talking to himself at some points), "Cyberjack" a.k.a. "Virtual Assassin" is overall extremely routine. The characters, the plotting, and the action scenes are delivered with no real zeal. Much of the supporting cast is pretty nondescript, with star attraction Dudikoff not coming off much better - despite his attempts to actually deliver a performance. At least Suki Kaiser ("The Virgin Suicides") is excellent eye candy as an egghead essential to Nassims' plans, and James was always great value, whether acting in mainstream movies or independent clunkers like this one. He's at his hammy best (and sports a ridiculous wig), managing to save the picture to some degree.
Most of the digital effects in this sci-fi flick are no more than passable, although there is one fairly decent robot effect on hand.
Best of all is the sequence where Dudikoff uses some gizmos to project holographic images of himself, allowing him to get the drop on one of the ultra-moronic henchmen (most of whom can't hit the broad side of a barn, in the action movie tradition).
The oddest element is that the movie never makes it clear if the Dudikoff we see throughout the balance of the story is "real", because Nassim thought he had killed off his nemesis long ago.
Overall, this is one to see only if you're a Brion James fan. If you're a Dudikoff fan, just revisit "Avenging Force" instead.
Five out of 10.