"Be That Guy": MacGyver and The Guyver

I had the opportunity recently to watch a treasured B-movie classic. Last Saturday night around 1 a.m., I was reacquainted with The Guyver. The early 90's sci-fi flick was back in all of its grandeur of yesteryear. I watched with unbridled enthusiasm as days of my adolescence were brought to the forefront of my adulthood. While I gazed into the nostalgic window of prepubescent geekdom, I couldn't help but be reminded of another early 90's hero: MacGyver. You remember MacGyver-the leather jacket, the Swiss-army knife, and most of all, the mullet. He was the man our dad's wanted to be and our mom's wanted to be with. So as I reveled in the excellence of The Guyver (and daydreamed of MacGyver), I decided it was only fitting to honor both of these awe-inspiring "guys."

The Guyver is the tale of a college/karate student named Sean Baker (Jack Armstrong) who stumbles upon an otherworldly mechanism simply known as "the guyver." When he comes in contact with the device, it turns him into a bio-mechanical super hero. He then goes on to battle the diabolical Chronos Corporation and its alien-like creatures: The Zoanoids. The story takes off from there but I want to focus on some of the actors who appear in this great film. The head of the Chronos Corporation, Fulton Balcus, is played by former-presidential-nominee-John Kerry-look-alike-David Gale (no relation to the wack Kevin Spacey flick). David Gale of course went instant legend in the undeniably magnificent Re-Animator. Here he teams up with his Re-Animator co-star, the infamous Dr. Herbert West (Jeffrey Combs). And just like in that film, Combs plays a slightly loony scientist with a wry wit. It seems the director pays a tongue-in-cheek tribute to Herbert West because in The Guyver, Comb's name is Dr. East. The film is directed by a man simply and poetically known as Screaming Mad George. SMG (what his friends call him) was the special effects guru on films like Predator, Nightmare on Elm Street 4, Silent Night Deadly Night 4, and both Re-Animator sequels (which explains the Gale and Combs connection). Another key actor in The Guyver is none other than one Mr. Jimmie Walker aka J.J. from Good Times. Walker plays Striker, a Zoanoid henchman for the Chronos Corporation. He adds a lot of the comic relief to the film and even drops his world-renowned catch phrase.

The greatest practitioner of the fine arts to appear in The Guyver has to be Mark Hamill. Unless you've been frozen in carbonite for the last 30 years, you know that Mark Hamill gave the performance of a lifetime as Luke Skywalker in Star Wars. Unfortunately, his role in The Guyver is somewhat of a bit part. He plays detective Max Reed, and he is mostly there to crack "cheesy" one-liners, mostly. Even though he doesn't play the title character, Hamill somehow graces the cover of the DVD as the Guyver [pictured above]. Weird? It's like the producers felt they had to market their major star in order to profit off this cinematic tour de force. Baffling to say the least... The eclectic cast and superb acting they display, might be the main reason this is a sci-fi masterpiece. However, the direction, story-telling, special effects wizardry, and overall heart and soul, really make this a timeless must-see for everyone. That includes our children's children's children (also a Moody Blues album). May The Guyver live on forever.

Angus MacGyver (Richard Dean Anderson) was the definition of cool in the mid 90's. The aforementioned leather jacket, Swiss-army knife, and mullet are like the holy trinity of coolness. Still the thing that made MacGyver so bad ass, was the way he used incredibly innovative and non-violent methods to defeat his foes. Hell, MacGyver practically invented "thinking outside the box." In fact, he built the "box" out of gum wrappers, a bar of hotel soap, and a cocktail umbrella. MacGyver was so popular his name became a verb. Example: "I had to "MacGyver" my microwave to fix it. I used a light bulb, some tinfoil, and a shoebox, now it's finally working again." But I don't need to keep going on and on about his resourcefulness, just watch for yourself.



The thing that makes MacGyver cooler and greater than other shows though, probably more than anything else is...one of the producers of the show is this "guy."

MacGyver:


The Guyver: