Director Albert Pyun would like to hear from fans in his final days
November 18, 2022 1:40 PM Subscribe
Cult movie director Albert Pyun carved a reputation for himself as a B-level action/sci-fi director who brought memorable visuals and endless imagination to films that were usually filmed on very limited budgets. Sadly, Pyun was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis several years ago… and is now in hospice. His wife Cynthia Curnan took to Facebook to ask fans to send in personal messages so she can read them to him in his final days.
Pyun's debut film The Sword and The Sorcerer was a breakout fantasy hit that made $30 million in 1982. He also directed the 1990 Captain America, the 1989 Jean-Claude Van Damme sci-fi hit Cyborg, Nemesis and its sequels, a number of hit kickboxing movies, the direct-to-video horror hit Dollman, and dozens of other feature films, as well as music videos for The Smithereens, Ice-T, and others.
Pyun's debut film The Sword and The Sorcerer was a breakout fantasy hit that made $30 million in 1982. He also directed the 1990 Captain America, the 1989 Jean-Claude Van Damme sci-fi hit Cyborg, Nemesis and its sequels, a number of hit kickboxing movies, the direct-to-video horror hit Dollman, and dozens of other feature films, as well as music videos for The Smithereens, Ice-T, and others.
I kinda love Cyborg. It’s one of those post-apocalyptic movies that looks and feels like the kind of nonsense I came up with playing with action figures in my room when I was a kid.
Sort of appropriate given it was made based mostly on the sets having already been built for a “He-Man and the Masters of the Universe” sequel that never got made.
posted by Mister Moofoo at 2:39 PM on November 18, 2022 [3 favorites]
Sort of appropriate given it was made based mostly on the sets having already been built for a “He-Man and the Masters of the Universe” sequel that never got made.
posted by Mister Moofoo at 2:39 PM on November 18, 2022 [3 favorites]
I will defend Nemesis to my dying day. It's gorgeous, it's fun and for my friends and I back in the early 90's playing Cyberpunk and Shadowrun, it was an inspiration.
The acting and dialogue... could be better. But when I finally purchased my Bluray copy several years ago, I watched it with the French audio track and no subtitles. That fixed it.
posted by AlonzoMosleyFBI at 2:45 PM on November 18, 2022 [2 favorites]
The acting and dialogue... could be better. But when I finally purchased my Bluray copy several years ago, I watched it with the French audio track and no subtitles. That fixed it.
posted by AlonzoMosleyFBI at 2:45 PM on November 18, 2022 [2 favorites]
Well, now I'm feeling kind of bad about this.
posted by Halloween Jack at 2:59 PM on November 18, 2022
posted by Halloween Jack at 2:59 PM on November 18, 2022
Also Nemesis and The Sword and the Sorcerer, because why not?
posted by DirtyOldTown at 3:02 PM on November 18, 2022
posted by DirtyOldTown at 3:02 PM on November 18, 2022
His Captain America really was bad. (Sorry, Albert!)
Honestly, his niche was finding ways to make a movie in the six figures with a title, concept, and production design that a 12 to 16 year-old who had already rented all of the obvious blockbusters would, upon seeing the box, say "OK, this seems cool." Above and beyond that, a fair number of them were good enough that although you were painfully aware they weren't in the same league as those other films, you weren't mad about having seen them, either.
Somewhat unexpectedly, there is a previously on Albert and his journey with MS.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 3:04 PM on November 18, 2022 [3 favorites]
Honestly, his niche was finding ways to make a movie in the six figures with a title, concept, and production design that a 12 to 16 year-old who had already rented all of the obvious blockbusters would, upon seeing the box, say "OK, this seems cool." Above and beyond that, a fair number of them were good enough that although you were painfully aware they weren't in the same league as those other films, you weren't mad about having seen them, either.
Somewhat unexpectedly, there is a previously on Albert and his journey with MS.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 3:04 PM on November 18, 2022 [3 favorites]
I could stand to watch The Sword and the Sorcerer again. It’s been since high school.
Never saw Nemesis. Used to get it mixed up in my head with Nomads, what with never having seen either of them. When I finally watched Nomads several years ago, I wondered where all the scifi bricabrac was; I think I was unconsciously expecting Nemesis.
posted by Mister Moofoo at 3:36 PM on November 18, 2022
Never saw Nemesis. Used to get it mixed up in my head with Nomads, what with never having seen either of them. When I finally watched Nomads several years ago, I wondered where all the scifi bricabrac was; I think I was unconsciously expecting Nemesis.
posted by Mister Moofoo at 3:36 PM on November 18, 2022
ya had 3 VHS movies to d&d too. Animated Hobbit. Sword and the Sorceror and The 7 voyages of Sinbad and renting them cost more then the Tomb of Horrors
posted by clavdivs at 4:01 PM on November 18, 2022
posted by clavdivs at 4:01 PM on November 18, 2022
Albert’s IMDB page, which might be useful for some context.
posted by JustSayNoDawg at 4:53 PM on November 18, 2022
posted by JustSayNoDawg at 4:53 PM on November 18, 2022
I'm about as big of an '80s college rock nerd as it is possible to be, and I had no idea of the Smithereens connection. One of my zillion project/documentary ideas is around the under-explored history of indie directors and music video in the pre-superstar era (before Romanek, Cunningham, Gondry, etc., when being a music video director became a much more outwardly-focused brand identity). Anyway, a whole other subject, but thank you, Albert, for all your flights of fancy.
posted by mykescipark at 5:58 PM on November 18, 2022 [1 favorite]
posted by mykescipark at 5:58 PM on November 18, 2022 [1 favorite]
I haven't seen Nemesis in its entirety in at least twenty-five years. I was in high school when it came out, and yeah, I loved it, even while recognizing it was kind of garbage-adjacent. Looking at the cast, it's kind of surprising to see how many are pretty solid to mid-tier stars now. I never really understood while Olivier Grunner didn't end up being a bigger star.
posted by Ghidorah at 2:58 AM on November 19, 2022
posted by Ghidorah at 2:58 AM on November 19, 2022
Cyborg was the first R-rated movie I ever successfully snuck into. After the show my friends and I ran into a couple of girls from our high school who had just come out of Say Anything and were over the moon about it (I double-checked and they would have been in theatres at the same time, so this appears to not be a false memory). I re-watched it during my hard lockdown movie binge and like others have said, it definitely looks better in terms of the cinematography, lighting, sets, etc. than a lot of movies in its budgetary neighbourhood. Now, is it a *good* movie? No. Is it a fun movie? Yes.
posted by The Card Cheat at 6:36 AM on November 19, 2022
posted by The Card Cheat at 6:36 AM on November 19, 2022
Pyun has a reputation as a later-day Ed Wood that is apt in some respects, but unfair in others. There's a degree of cinematic craft that put his movies a cut above the rest of THAT shelf at Blockbuster - he has an eye for photography, color, and texture. A lot of the time there's more visual creativity to his movies than the subject/budget/plot matter supports, and its part of why, despite showing their resources, they still look pretty good, and keep their the pace bouncy, and the tone light-on-its-feet.
There's also an element of what I think of as the "community theater effect" going on. Where you wouldn't define what you're seeing as "good" but there's an inviting quality to it that a more polished film wouldn't have. It feels a little bit like an old friend telling you a familiar story.
And I think that's the biggest reason why I'll miss the guy's presence in film. Behind a lot of the polish of Hollywood movies, and the availability of slick SFX to the current crop of genre flicks, it's easy to lose the central feeling that somebody back there was having FUN making this movie, and wanted you to have fun too.
posted by Phobos the Space Potato at 12:56 PM on November 19, 2022 [4 favorites]
There's also an element of what I think of as the "community theater effect" going on. Where you wouldn't define what you're seeing as "good" but there's an inviting quality to it that a more polished film wouldn't have. It feels a little bit like an old friend telling you a familiar story.
And I think that's the biggest reason why I'll miss the guy's presence in film. Behind a lot of the polish of Hollywood movies, and the availability of slick SFX to the current crop of genre flicks, it's easy to lose the central feeling that somebody back there was having FUN making this movie, and wanted you to have fun too.
posted by Phobos the Space Potato at 12:56 PM on November 19, 2022 [4 favorites]
I recently discovered that the Nemesis and Cyborg films are part of the same universe (apparently) so I rewatched them. I was kind of surprised. I'm with Phobos' here - Pyun has got a lot more going on there then you'd expect for the kind of movies he's making. For instance, his movie Knights, in different hands likely totally forgettable schlock, but with Pyun at the wheel it is better than it has any right to be (IMO at least).
For the bookish, I recommend Justin DeCloux's Radioactive Dreams: The Cinema of Albert Pyun.
posted by Ashwagandha at 10:58 PM on November 19, 2022 [1 favorite]
For the bookish, I recommend Justin DeCloux's Radioactive Dreams: The Cinema of Albert Pyun.
posted by Ashwagandha at 10:58 PM on November 19, 2022 [1 favorite]
Variety reports that Albert Pyun passed away with his wife at his side on Saturday, 26 November 2022.
posted by Multicellular Exothermic at 6:36 AM on November 27, 2022 [1 favorite]
posted by Multicellular Exothermic at 6:36 AM on November 27, 2022 [1 favorite]
.
Earlier this year I watched Cyborg for the first time. It was bizarre and riveting, it felt like finding a lost treasure. I've since watched Nemesis, Sword and the Sorcerer, and Dollman. There's something about his work that perfectly captures that Cannon films low budget VHS aesthetic.
The work that Pyun did with the constraints that he had between budget, acting, and tight schedules is utterly astounding. Absolutely one of a kind.
posted by Neronomius at 12:14 PM on November 27, 2022
Earlier this year I watched Cyborg for the first time. It was bizarre and riveting, it felt like finding a lost treasure. I've since watched Nemesis, Sword and the Sorcerer, and Dollman. There's something about his work that perfectly captures that Cannon films low budget VHS aesthetic.
The work that Pyun did with the constraints that he had between budget, acting, and tight schedules is utterly astounding. Absolutely one of a kind.
posted by Neronomius at 12:14 PM on November 27, 2022
RIP, sir.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 2:48 PM on November 27, 2022
posted by DirtyOldTown at 2:48 PM on November 27, 2022
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