Rogue Cinema - Cyxork 7 (2007)

Cyxork 7 (2007) - By Brian Morton
Posted on Monday, September 01 @ Mountain Daylight Time by Duane

Last September, I headed down to Franklin, Indiana for the B Movie Film Festival, that's where I had the opportunity to meet indie director John Huff. John is one of the nicest guys I've ever met in this business, he seemed to be there watching movies and offering his honest opinion to film makers about their work. He was also there showing his movie Cyxork 7, which just hit DVD thanks to Lloyd Kaufman and the good people over at Troma!

If you've never seen it, Cyxork 7 is about the making of a sci fi franchise sequel, Cyxork was once a great franchise, now, on the 6th sequel it's really gone downhill, so the film makers have a great idea, there's been a huge earthquake predicted in the Los Angeles area, so our intrepid group set out to film as close to the epicenter as possible, thereby getting themselves some free special effects! Cyxork 7 isn't really about the movie though; it's about the people making the movie. It stars Ray Wise as Rex Anderson, who plays Kommander 88 in the Cyxork series, think William Shatner from about 15 years ago, a bit arrogant, but deep down he knows that his career is on the wane and is desperate for a restart, and Sonya Smith as Angela LaSalle a young director with a vision, who see Cyxork as not only a way to get her career off the ground, but as a way to turn this 'popular' franchise into an art film! Both Wise and Smith shine in this movie, Wise definitely doesn't take himself too seriously and that show here, his character is so over the top that it's completely believable to anyone who's worked with 'talent'. Smith, here in her first English speaking role, is perfectly cast as the young director, who finds that she has to grab herself by the bootstraps and 'be a man', to take control of this totally out of control set.

If you know anything about the behind the scenes of filmmaker (even if you've just watched those 'making of' segments on your DVDs) then you'll totally get the joke that Mr. Huff and company are going for (and nail) here. There's not one miscast or 'off note' role here, from Greg Proops and Rebecca Correy as the anchors of the "Entertainment Weekly" style newscast, to Jack Jozefson as the socialist cameraman, this was Jozefson's final role before cancer took this talented actor, but he couldn't have left this plane on a higher note! Luckily for all of us, Lloyd Kaufman at Troma got his hands on a copy of the movie, and is now making it available to all of us (God Bless Troma!!), so you too can get your very own copy of this excellent movie about making a marginal movie by heading over to the Cyxork 7 web page, you can get your own copy of the movie, and take a minute and grab a Cyxork T Shirt too, I have to say, it's the only shirt that gets me stopped in the street with people asking me, "what the hell is a Cyxork?!". I'm giving Cyxork 7 four out of four cigars, because this is a movie that can be enjoyed on several levels, each one funnier than the last. So, until next time, when I'll be sitting here playing with my Kommander 88 action figure, remember that the best movies are bad movies.