1988 - I LOVE MARIA, aka Roboforce

Filmmaker Tsui Hark is the producer and stars in this pretty wild film which mixes about every conceivable genre possible for one film.  The obvious inspiration for this film was Robocop but instead of just doing a rehash of that film I Love Maria is jammed with lots of crazy action and comedy scenes.

In brief, a criminal gang known as The Hero Gang has built an impregnable robot called Pioneer 1 who can tear through the police like a piece of paper.  The stated goal of The Hero Gang is to eliminate the police and create chaos.  In addition they have developed another more humanoid looking robot called Maria played by Sally Yeh.  Yeh was the actor who was the blind women in John Woo's The Killer but I digress.  Anyway a scientist from the police force, a former member of The Hero Gang and a goofy reporter manage to get control of Maria and take on The Hero Gang along with help from the robot girl.  

 

As with a lot of these Hong Kong action films from the 1980's the fighting and shootouts are very well done. However you have to sit through a lot and I mean a lot of some really dumb comedy.  But that's the price you pay when you watch some of these Hong Kong action films.

 

I Love Maria is an entertaining film and a very fun ride of a film for the most part. 

The film was written (if that's the word) by Yuen Kai Chi, the running time is a frantic and never dull 96 minutes.