Review of Trancers 4: Jack of Swords (1994) by James C — 13 May 2010

As he embarks on a routine mission, Jack Deth is attacked and his craft lands in an unknown land and time. But soon to his horror, Jack discovers that a form of Trancer still lives.

As we enter this entry in the 'Trancers' franchise, the plot lines from the previous three entries have all been tied up, and so this movie takes us off in a totally different direction. With a very large fantasy element, it drops Jack in a medieval setting, and adds vampires to the mix (that call themselves Trancers - just enough plot to keep it part of the series), and on the whole this is not a good thing. The plots for these movies are not classics by any means, but 'Trancers 4' is really thin on the ground in the story department, and even at a lowly 74 minutes, it feels drawn out. Certain main plot points are never explained, and by the time you reach the finale, the whole thing is a bit of a mess, and the cliff-hanger ending just makes you wonder how they could stretch this out in to another movie. On the plus side, the lighthearted approach does make Tim Thomerson's comedic acting abilities shine through, and did have this reviewer giggling quite a few times. In the end this is not the best entry in the franchise, and one wonders if 'Trancers 5' will be any better.