In 1997: The Guardian Of The Future Is Much More Than A Man

The Psychotronic Video Guide summarizes Sergio Martino's Hands of Steel (1986) thustly: "In 1997 in America, a muscular renegade cyborg who knows martial arts (Daniel Greene) is hiding out with the owner of a bar in the desert (Janet Angren). John Saxon is a mercenary-leader villain, and George Eastman is an arm-wrestling (!) villain." That's a fantastic two sentences, but I believe I can improve upon it exponentially by adding a simple two-word phrase. Here goes:

"In 1997 in America, a muscular renegade cyborg named Paco who knows martial arts (Daniel Greene) is hiding out with the owner of a bar in the desert (Janet Angren). John Saxon is a mercenary-leader villain, and George Eastman is an arm-wrestling (!) villain."

What did I tell you?

The film's box art (which you can see after the jump, along with a trailer and two clips from the film) is almost as good as Psychotronic's summary of the film. There's helicopters shooting lasers, a delivery truck exploding in midair, a futuristic building that looks like the Superfriends-era Hall of Justice, a gigantic laser cannon, and - of course - beefy Daniel Greene proudly displaying his robotic bits for our viewing pleasure. Sadly, the artist decided not to depict evil John Saxon or arm-wrestling George Eastman. What a wasted opportunity.