Knights (1993)

Knights is the kind of scrappy, sun-baked sci-fi action movie that wins you over with pure physical storytelling: real stunts, clean martial-arts choreography, and a relentless forward drive that doesn’t stop to over-explain itself. Albert Pyun turns a wasteland of deserts and ruined outposts into a stark, pulpy arena, and the cinematography makes the landscape feel both mythic and mean. Kris Kristofferson brings weathered gravitas as a laconic cyborg hunter, while Lance Henriksen gives the villain a sly, nasty charisma that elevates every scene he’s in. If you need glossy effects or deep world-building, this may not be your ride—but if you’re on the fence and want a lean, energetic, post-apocalyptic throwdown with memorable faces and satisfying action, Knights delivers.

Knights is trying to be a gritty, post-apocalyptic cyborg-vs-cyborg thriller with a simple revenge engine and a comic-book sense of spectacle, and you can feel Albert Pyun reaching for scrappy B-movie energy over polish. The problem is the film leans heavily on familiar Mad Max-meets-Terminator leftovers, with thin storytelling and dialogue that often lands more cheesy than cool, and the low budget shows in the staging and overall look. If you need tight writing, believable world-building, or action that feels expensive and weighty, this will test your patience. But if you’re in the mood for a lean, no-nudity, moderately violent ‘90s VHS-style sci-fi oddity with a committed Lance Henriksen and a martial-arts-forward lead, there’s enough rough charm to make it a late-night curiosity.