#3 – Scanners III: The Takeover (1992)
I toiled long and hard about what order to place my top three favorites in. Realistically, I love them all equally, albeit for different reasons. So what sets Scanners III: The Takeover among the greats? It might be one of the best parodies of late ‘80s/early ‘90s action cinema that I have ever seen!
Seriously, this film is absolutely bonkers. After an opening where our scanner lead accidentally kills someone during a Christmas party (Shane Black-style), he runs off to Thailand to live in a monastery, Rambo III-style. Naturally he learns martial arts while over there, which he later uses with a scanner twist. Have you ever seen someone roundhouse kick a henchman with their mind instead of their feet? You will if you watch this movie.
The insanity doesn’t stop there. This film has mind-controlled kickboxers, exploding golf carts, short bus-driving machine gunners, Death Wish 3-style street thugs, a dance sequence, multiple cheesy sex scenes, and a megalomaniacal villain with a personal connection to our “loner hero with a troubled past”. Did I mention that our hero returns from Thailand in requisite hero attire (jeans, a leather jacket, and stubble)?
Watch Scanners III and you will find all of this and so, so much more. I generally try not to oversell films, but it’s kind of impossible to not beam with excitement when writing about this one. It simply has to be seen to be believed.
