Comeuppance Reviews Now here's a find. You won't fail to be entertained by the greatness of Evolver! Teen Kyle (Embry) likes to hang out at "TurboPlay Virtual Excitement", a Virtual Reality (remember VR?) arcade of sorts. He's so good at VR games, crowds come to watch him do his thing. So much so that his buddy Zach (Quinn) takes bets on this neo-Tommy and his neo-Pinball machine. It's also there where he meets the cute Jamie (Rae) and they strike up a friendship/relationship. All seems to be going relatively well in Kyle's world, and when robotics company Cyber Tronix eyes him as a popular video game fan, they announce him as the winner of the "Evolver" contest. What's that you ask? Evolver is a robot that lives in your home and you play with him. He has built in "levels" that get progressively harder.It seems fun, but there's one problem. Deep in Evolver's (or "Evo" as the cool kids call him) is government-created warfare technology. Seeing everyone as an enemy, Evo goes off the rails and begins killing and maiming people. Can Kyle and Jamie put an end to the robotic chaos? Find out today! Evolver is a wildly entertaining movie that everyone should see. It has no fat or filler - and it doesn't have much time to, as it can only be described as a Sci-Fi Horror Comedy Coming-Of-Age Tale. Amazingly, it all works and is a lot of fun. The movie takes cues from such movies as The Terminator (1984), Robocop (1987), The Last Starfighter (1984), Weird Science (1985), C.H.O.M.P.S. (1979) and most notably the two Short Circuit (1986) movies. But its heart is in lower-budget exploitation like Arcade (1993) or Chopping Mall (1986). The 90's VR trend allows for some lovably dated graphics, and it all adds to the fun.As far as the Evolver robot is concerned, this li'l homunculus is like some sort of bizarre melding of Nintendo's Rob the Robot, a game of Laser Tag, a Tamagotchi, the "Happy Birthday Paulie" robot, a Roomba and Mr. Bucket. But instead of balls popping out of his mouth (remember the song?) - it's metal ball bearings that shoot at you. Naturally the voice of Evo is none other than William H. Macy. It's truly a career best performance. We're not being sarcastic, he's great as the tricky little bugger. Paul Dooley is on hand as the head of the robotics company, and Ethan Embry does a great job as Kyle. He's a real teen and not a 37 year old in disguise. He really seems to care about the proceedings.What's great about Evolver is that it's just an insane idea that actually got made. It's not really that predictable for most of its running time either. It should really be more well-known. But maybe this movie was originally made as a tie-in or potential long-form commercial for a real Evolver you can buy in stores, but it never materialized. Either that, or there are hundreds of them buried in secret in the Nevada desert like the E.T. game for Atari. We just better hope they never wake up and go for revenge.Interestingly, in Kyle's living room at home, not only does he have an NES, but a pretty decent VHS collection, and very briefly on screen you can see an assortment of Vidmark titles (Evolver is a Vidmark). One of which is one of the American Kickboxer (1990) movies! So clearly Kyle has good taste.Featuring the 90's techno song "Beat the Machine", Evolver will appeal to just about anybody. But fans of 90's nostalgia especially will love the movie's charms. We definitely recommend Evolver.For more action insanity, please visit: www.comeuppancereviews.com

Lee Eisenberg Although a little nasty in some scenes, Mark Rosman's "Evolver" is mostly a fun romp. It focuses on a computer whiz (Ethan Embry) who wins a robot with whom to play laser tag, only to find that this particular robot got designed for an army program, and is therefore intended as a killing machine. Specifically, one that never loses. There were a few scenes that I think that they could have done without, but otherwise the movie is pretty enjoyable. Maybe a little predictable, but no one expects much else from one of these movies, right? Also starring Cindy Pickett (the mom in "Ferris Bueller's Day Off") and William H. Macy as the voice of Evolver.

Vomitron_G Well, okay, I'm being harsh. This movie isn't total crap. In fact, though it is pretty lame for today's standards, it's entertaining on some levels. The story is predictable and offers no surprises. Kyle Baxter is a champion in the virtual reality game 'Evolver' and hereby wins a real-life Evolver robot. So Kyle and his friends can now chase it around the house while playing the shoot'n'survive game. But there's a glitch in Evolver's system, making it see enemies everywhere as he gets going on a killing spree. Kyle finds out that its initial program was used in an abandoned military project (you didn't see that one coming, did ya? Harharhar!).I can imaging a 10-year-old being extremely excited about the coolness of Evolver, but to me it looks like a Transformer-version of Johny 5 from SHORT CIRCUIT. Why EVOLVER got an R-rating is beyond me, 'cause there's almost no blood in it (and certainly no gore or nudity). In Belgium it got a 12-rating, just like it should be 'cause this is a horror/sci-fi-flick for kids. But it is kinda cool that every now and then Evolver upgrades himself to the next level. Though he looks like he's made out of plastic, he really is a tough little bastard. Throwing him in a pool, hitting him with blunt objects and even blowing him up don't seem to shut him down. Why didn't anyone call Optimus Prime to terminate it? The only real surprise this movie provided was when I read in the end-credits that William H. Macy performed the voice of Evolver. So you can imaging your friendly neighbor sounding much scarier than Evo. However, Mr. Macy did have some nice one-liners like "Delete this!" and "Bonus round!" before killing someone. Ethan Embry (as Kyle Baxter and rather young at the time he did EVOLVER) maybe isn't a top-notch actor but he injects a certain enthusiasm in his role and he did manage to show up in the surprisingly good horror-flick THEY (2002), giving a decent performance in it and showing us that he has grown as an actor.So, EVOLVER is that kinda movie from the mid-90's that's neither good or bad. Just average acting, average special effects and an okay-looking robot. We've seen it all before. Remember the shoot-out scenes from the virtual reality game in GHOST IN THE MACHINE? Well, EVOLVER's got 'em too, only not as good and less dynamic. One good thing might be that the movie never gets really boring, but don't expect any scary stuff either. I say EVOLVER is somewhere stuck between Pyun's ARCADE and Flynn's BRAINSCAN, though none of them are comparable movies for that matter. I was contemplating giving EVOLVER 4 out of 10 stars, but I feel generous and will therefore add one star extra for Mr. Macy doing the robo-voice.

Claudio Carvalho Kyle Baxter (Ethan Randall) is a teenager who plays very well a video game called `Evolver'. This game was developed by Dr. Russell Bennett (John de Lancie). He wins a competition of Evolver where the prize was a robot similar to the game. What nobody knows is that Evolver indeed is a war machine with artificial intelligence. Therefore, the friends of Kyle are playing against a dangerous weapon. Although being a very predictable and forgettable movie, Evolver really entertains. It has some good special effects and a reasonable thriller. My vote is five.