Painkiller Jane
Painkiller Jane
| 10 December 2005 (USA)
Painkiller Jane Trailers

Jane, a young soldier, is exposed to a biochemical weapon that endows her with self-healing powers. She uses her abilities to fight crime while eluding the military.

Reviews
Vic_max

After watching a few episodes of the recent TV series, I expected the worst. However, this movie (the original) was surprisingly different and better. All the actors are different and the plot is actually interesting.Basically, the story is about a female soldier who has an unexpected reaction to a chemical agent. She gains regenerative and some sort of perceptual power. The military wants to seclude, study and use her ... but she's more interested in finding out what and who is responsible for what happened to her.The film is reasonably well acted and the plot is interesting. Her quest to find a diabolical foreign scientist who is as surprised at her situation as she is ... is interesting. Plus, he's not quite as far away as one might think.If you're looking to pass time with a semi-decent "made-for-TV", B-level sci-fi movie, this might work for you.

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ich_yama

This is a reasonable TV pilot. I would even watch the series if only the SciFi channel would hire a military consultant to sufficiently cultivate the illusion of realism.Here are my military complaints: (1) The uniforms do not match the depicted branch of service. (2) The mixed-gender assault element in the beginning of the film is unbelievable. (3) The Aliens-style crab-walk-with-a-rifle does not pass even school-children's idea of tactical muster.The protagonist is believable in other respects, not to mention physically attractive without crossing the 1950's Amazon Action Heroine threshold. The directing seemed inspired, the casting excellent, and the acting well above the level demanded by the mediocre script!Ich_Yama's SciFi-meter:(BBB: 1 primary character)(BEM: None)(World: Present/near-future)(Preference: Conspiracy theorists)

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fgunther

This is the first show I've ever seen Emmanuelle Vaugier in, and she's not half bad, as an actress, or as eye candy. The basic plot line seems to be, she's infected by a virus when she and her Army Special Ops team stumble onto a biolab camouflaged as an illegal drug factory. This virus is usually 100% fatal, but accelerates her body's healing abilities. She finds this out when she is the only survivor of an ambush as her team tries to evacuate the lab.Naturally, Dark Forces in government and crime want to analyze her healing abilities, and create a force of unkillable warriors. For the remainder of the flick (pilot?), she's on the run, trying to figure out who's wearing the White Hats and Black Hats. She forms an alliance with a good-looking (naturally) thief and his buddies, and eventually figures out which way is up.It is a pleasure to see Richard Roundtree again, and part of his excellence is, he is equally convincing as both good guy and bad guy (sorry, you'll have to watch the film to see which he turns out to be). Hopefully, the TV series, if it comes, will leave out some of the sappier sister/sister interactions, one of this film's weak points.Good escapist Saturday afternoon stuff, about what you expect from SciFi's better original flicks.

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Ray Humphries

Reasonable plot, sufficient suspense and misdirection. The premise is believable in a science fiction way. There are no fake monsters. There are no incredibly stupid moves by the heroine ineptly designed to create artificial tension, an amateurish plot technique that seems to be rampant even in network (e.g., "24") programs. Good role for great old Richard (Shaft) Roundtree. No really awful acting. Attractive heroine. There were no parts that were so slow or boring that I skipped ahead, and I would watch this again in a year or so. It is head and shoulders above most Sci Fi Channel fare. Clearly, I was pretty impressed.No, it's not Emmy caliber, but it is so much better than expected, I really can't understand what "ambrazos" is whining about in his review.

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