Trancers (1984)

Directed by Charles Band

Excellent sci-fi adventure movie taking influence from Terminator and Bladerunner. Clearly low budget but the story and acting in the main roles are well done. The main role is played by veteran B actor, Tim Thomerson, who largely carries this movie, he is so good in this part.  Playing opposite is Helen Hunt in one of her earliest roles (funny that both Helen Hunt and Paul Reiser who later played together on the sit-com Mad About You, both started in sci-fi movies in the early careers). There have been a whopping FIVE (and a half) sequels.  I'm not going to say I've seen them, the impressions of others seem fairly poor.  Director Charles Band and Helen Hunt (good sport that she is) returned for the second one but had nothing to do with the increasingly poor follow-ups.

Cherry 2000 (1987)

Directed by Steve De Jarnatt

I really wanted to like this movie, it has a decent plot idea and I love Melanie Griffith but .... it's like it can't decide what it wants to be.  A kitschy spoof of 50s sci-fi and culture?  Or a grim and gritty post-apocalyptic future?  It's attempt to marry these two ideas makes for a fairly incongruous result.

It's a shame because with a little more post-production polish you can imagine it could have been at least like B-movie classic level. It's like they ran out of money towards the end of the production. So many scenes just fall flat or are almost surreal in how little sense they make.