David Carradine reprises his role as John Tucker, the monosyllabic, robotic glove wearing tough nut (no really!) in this somewhat superior sequel to the previous years Future Force. This time around our hero is joined by his son, played in typical hip form by director David A Prior's brother, and regular headliner, Ted. Oh, did I happen to mention that his son has come back from the future? Um.....anyway, to cut the story short, our father and son team must now take on a drug dealing no-gooder and his legions of lackeys. Yep, this inevitably spells out as lots of shootouts, a fair amount of fisticuffs and a few explosions thrown in for good measure. Best of all though is the glove! Yes, our remote controlled, laser firing little friend is back and as energetic as ever!.......Now where can I get me one of those wonderful things?!

A rare example of a sequel that's better than the original. David Carradine returns as rough'n'tumble bounty hunter John Turner, who this time locks horns with ruthless drug dealing crime boss Hoffman (an effectively sleazy portrayal by Patrick Culliton). Turner is assisted by brash young hotshot Billy (a likable Ted Prior), who ultimately turns out to be Turner's own son from the future who's traveled back to the present to spend some quality time with his father. Writer/director David A. Prior shows a greater degree of flair and competence than in the previous picture; he relates the story at a steady pace and stages the stirring action scenes with a reasonable amount of brio. Moreover, Carradive delivers a much more lively and committed performance as the hard-nosed Turner. The solid acting from a good cast rates as another substantial plus: Gail Jensen as Turner's fed-up shrewish wife Marion, Ron Taft as Hoffman's vicious flunky Dugan, Charles Napier as huffy corrupt police chief Mickland, Renee Cline as sarcastic informant Cindi, and Dave Scott as sniveling toady Monroe. The breezy and engaging chemistry between Prior and Carradine really keeps the movie humming throughout. Voya Mikulic's slick cinematography, the tight 79 minute running time, William T. Stremberg's spirited cornball score, and a decent dab of gratuitous female nudity are all on the money as well. A perfectly enjoyable little low-budget B-action flick.

David Carradine stars as John Tucker, bounty hunter for the C.O.P.S. program of... the future? Something like that. Here's the deal, or the (il)logic, if need be: people in bad late-80s costumes run around blowing things up. That's fine. They also depend on John Tucker to save the day. Great! They all have regular modern-day weaponry. I can handle that... Except John Tucker.John Tucker has two secret weapons. He has a glove that can shoot laser beams and fly by remote control. He has a son who has traveled back from the future to aid in his quest to ... do something, as the whole plot, whys and wherefores, was kind of lost to me behind all the ugly hair-does and Carradine's bloating body. I don't know how the future has the capability of creating great technologies like video-calling and mega-awesome glove weaponry, and yet the enemies still have to piddle around with their old-school semi-automatics. I also don't quite know why Tucker just doesn't use his glove ALL THE TIME. And I really couldn't tell you if the movie in question ever explains how it comes to be that his son is able to travel through time.So don't worry about it. Just watch, uh, bad explosions and Carradine try to keep a straight face as he pronounces his love to one of the most hideously ugly women ever to have a prominent supporting role. Oh, and Tucker's son is also played by the director. Who wrote the script and produced it. MMmyeah.--PolarisDiB

`Future Zone' is the sequel to `Future Force,' which was a good idea gone totally bad. David A. Prior took a lot of good elements and wasted them in that movie. He had a big name star in David Carradine, and he either didn't utilize this star power or didn't direct the star right, as Carradine just didn't seem to have the heart to be in the movie, looking completely bored. Prior took good music from Steve McClintock and Tim James and put it in all the wrong places and at the wrong decibels. He took good villains (William Zipp and Robert Tessier) and a good plot and squandered them with stilted dialogue and bad pacing. But with this sequel, you wouldn't have known this was the same director. Prior does everything that he did wrong with `Future Force' and corrects it.Here it seems like the events of the first movie have been forgotten except that Carradine is still a hard-nosed bounty hunter, but now he has a wife he neglects, and it isn't the same character he walks off with in the first film. One day, his life is saved by a young hotshot whose shooting skills rival that of Carradine himself, and this youngster (Ted Prior, of all people, doing some of the best acting in his career) beings to hang around with loner Carradine. We know when we first see this character that he is really from the future, and I for one as able to put the pieces together about who he really was before it was revealed, but it was still neat. David Prior's writing was so much better that the ease at which I was predicting events didn't matter because I was enjoying it all so much. The music, though not by the same good musicians as before, was better placed, and the dialogue much better. Best of all was that Carradine did a three-sixty, getting into his part and having fun doing it. While the movie still had some flaws, it was good enough for me, and way better than its predecessor. Zantara's score: 6 out of 10.