“Cyborg” is a futuristic action movie that clearly takes inspiration from a whole host of films including “Escape From New York” and the “Mad Max” franchise. The problem is that it lacks the passion, the energy and the creativity of the films I’ve just mentioned.

In a post-apocalyptic future, disease has decimated humanity and Jean-Claude Van Damme (“Timecop”, “Universal Soldier”) stars as a mercenary by the name of Gibson Rickenbacker. He finds himself on a mission to locate and rescue a cyborg, which holds information that could save the human race, as well as defeat a ruthless bandit leader (Vincent Klyn “Point Break”).

Van Damme fights many countless gang members in this film; sometimes he opts to shoot them and sometimes he kicks them in the face and there really is not a lot more to his character than that. Van Damme gives a bad performance. The villains are clearly taken right out of the “Mad Max” films with their zany outfits so there is no originality there. Deborah Simmons plays Rickenbacker’s sidekick and she’s extremely dull. Some of the effects for the cyborg are somewhat impressive but there’s only a few shots near the beginning of the movie that actually show you anything.

“Cyborg” is a very clichéd film and it never does anything interesting with the clichés to make it remotely worth watching. The fight scenes are below average, the acting is terrible, the characters are dull and the whole movie has a cheap and nasty feel to it. Fans of films such as “Escape From New York” and “Mad Max” will just see this a weak imitation and if you’ve yet to see those films, watch them instead so only diehard fans of Van Damme could really enjoy this. “Cyborg” is pretty much a big disappointment from its opening until the end credits.