My Cultural Diet

Continuing in my quest to watch all of those movies whose VHS covers fascinated me back in the early-to-mid ’90s, I checked out this dystopian martial arts action flick starring Billy Blanks (of “Tae Bo” fame) as a police-like enforcer who protects the underground city of the wealthy from the scavengers of the surface world. TC 2000 isn’t a great movie, even by cult standards, although Blanks certainly gives it his all, right down to some film noir-ish voiceovers. I do, however, have a fondness for how ’90s films envisioned societal and environmental collapse in the not-too-distant future — TC 2000 is set in 2020 — and in that regard, the film doesn’t disappoint. I love all of the ’90s architecture (e.g., Ontario’s Mississauga Civic Centre) as well as the little ways the movie tries to communicate “futuristic,” from the fashion to the vehicles. Still, it’s hard to watch TC 2000 and not be consistently reminded of far better films like The Terminator, RoboCop, and even Demolition Man. That, and the endless martial arts sequences eventually become a slog, meaning the film wastes both Blanks and Bolo Yeung. Oh, and the film also serves as a 90-minute promo piece for a line of martial arts gear. So take that for whatever it’s worth.

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