Entertainment
R-Rated 90s Sci-Fi Actioner Is The Wildest RoboCop Ripoff You Never Heard Of
By Robert Scucci
| Published
If you’ve ever found yourself watching RoboCop and wondering if there was a crappier version starring Billy Blanks, I’d point you to 1993’s TC 2000. That’s right, the Tae Bo guy leads a dystopian sci-fi action flick in which his partner becomes a ruthless killing machine with only fragmented memories of her past life. Cybersecurity is compromised, government buildings are leveled, and the fate of humanity hangs in the balance. Thankfully, we get enough montages involving flexed muscles and shadowboxing to reassure us that, after all is said and done, everything will be right in the world.
TC 2000, despite its sloppy mixed martial arts messaging, remains an entertaining entry in writer-director T.J. Scott’s filmography, and for his first feature-length project, it certainly has legs. Those legs belong to Billy Blanks, who unflinchingly steps up as the action hero nobody asked for and commits fully to the premise.
Humans Vs. Cyborgs Vs … Picasso?
Set in an underground city in the year 2020, TC 2000 centers on an elite police force designed to protect the wealthy from the remaining surface dwellers, who are always looking for a way into their heavily fortified community. Jason Storm (Billy Blanks) and his partner Zoey Kinsella (Bobbie Phillips) work as Tracker-Communicators, or TCs, whose sole purpose is to keep the riff raff out of the compound. When the community’s force field is breached by common citizens who just want a safe place to rest their heads, Zoey suspects they were given intel from the inside, meaning the city is no longer secure.
Through exchanges between Jason and his superior, The Controller (Ramsay Smith), we learn that, with the help of his muscle man Bigalow (Matthias Hues), he plans to replace TCs with the next iteration of cybernetically infused enforcers known as TC-Xs.
When gang leader Niki Picasso (Jalal Merhi) infiltrates the city with the intention of seizing whatever pre-collapse firepower is hidden within its walls, Zoey is killed and secretly converted into a TC-X by The Controller. He programs her to gain Picasso’s trust through seduction, intending to infiltrate another gang known as the Lifers, who guard a research facility he wants to claim.
Exiled from the force and framed for his partner’s murder, Jason needs a training montage to restore balance and properly confront The Controller. With the help of his mentor, Master Sumai (Bolo Yeung), Jason learns the facility was once owned by Zoey’s father to repair the environment, but has since been converted into a chemical weapons manufacturing plant. Now guarded by Zoey, who has been programmed to assassinate her former partner, breaching the factory seems impossible for anyone but Jason Storm.
A Martial Arts Showcase
While TC 2000 leaves plenty to be desired in terms of on-screen chemistry, special effects, truly menacing villains, and meaningful internal conflict between Jason Storm and his superiors, it more than makes up for its lack of depth with its fight sequences. Billy Blanks tries his hardest to be a leading man and action hero, and the effort is commendable, but he is just not that guy. He can throw hands and roundhouse kick as well as Jean-Claude Van Damme, but he lacks the charisma needed to carry the show alone.
As for the evil forces at play, Picasso may go down as one of the least threatening villains in cinema history. He listens to records and struts around like he is a badass, but if I am being honest, I kept waiting for him to clutch his pearls and yell “curses!” upon defeat. What I anticipated is not too far off from what actually happens in TC 2000.
If you head over to Tubi and fire up TC 2000, you might find yourself drifting during the expository scenes. When the fights ramp up, though, it is worth your time if you love a good old-fashioned cybernetic beatdown. It’s cheesy but it’s charming. It’s sloppy, but it’s fun. It’s best not to take this one too seriously, because it will ruin the experience.
Entertainment
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Entertainment
BookCon 2026: Authors Rachel Reid, Stephanie Archer talk hockey romance and how it could change the sport for the better
With the fervor of Heated Rivalry, there’s a fierce desire among book readers for even more hockey. On Sunday, April 19, at BookCon, the “You Had Me at Hockey: A Look at One of Sports Romance’s Hottest Genres”, authors Rachel Reid (Heated Rivalry, Game Changer), Emily Rath (Pucking Around), Ngozi Ukazu (Check Please), Stephanie Archer (The Wild Card), and Kate Cochrane (Wake Up, Nat & Darcy) were joined by moderator and fellow author Bal Khabra (Collide) to discuss the rise and continued success of hockey romance.
Khabra kicked off the panel, asking just how hockey became so popular. Ukazu joked that it was as if the genre “escaped containment,” like when the Omegaverse went mainstream, while Reid described the mystery around hockey, saying, “what [the players] are doing seems impossible.” Archer also added that the sport itself is exceptionally hard on the body, and the celebrity around players, especially in Canada, is fun to play with.
But there’s more to the genre’s success than the tropes. “It has to be said,” Rath argued, “that the cornerstone of why this is so popular in publishing is racism.” She went on to say that straight, white women’s voices dominated the romance genre for so long, pointing out that hockey is also the whitest sport. Among major league sports, the NHL is the most predominantly white. In 2022, ESPN reported that 83.6% of league players and staff were white, compared to the NFL, where 25-27% of players are white, or the NBA, where white players make up 17.5% of the league.
Mashable Top Stories
Zooming into the genre, the authors also spoke about the writing process. They dove into the deeper aspects of their work, even the smut. Rath said, “I think the least sexy thing you can ever do is write a sex scene.” A similar sentiment came up during Reid’s Saturday panel, where she described using the sex scenes to further the emotional arc. When readers ask authors if they can skip the spice, Archer says of her own books, “No, you can’t skip the sex scenes. You’re missing so much character development if you don’t go on the journey with them.”
The panel turned to the future, too. Many of the authors write BIPOC and queer representation into their novels, in a genre that often centers on whiteness and homophobia. “We’re writing the world as we want it to be,” Rath said.
Reid has found that there is progress toward a future that these authors and their readers want to see, saying that the NHL is interested in working with them. “People on the inside, they really want to work toward change and want to make this happen.”
With the hockey fandom at an all-time high, there’s a whole team behind these authors ready to drive change.
Entertainment
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Credit: BJ’s Wholesale Club
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Mashable Deals
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Mashable Trend Report
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