The date on the label of this sci-fi stinkbomb said 1993, but I'll bet my hat it was more like 1985. Whatever. That fib is the least painful thing about the film.

Let's start with the opening credits. All five minutes of them! The camera cruises down a row of electronic panels lit by flying globes. For a moment, I thought I'd rented "Tron." Alas, I was not so lucky.

At last the story kicks in. Our hero, Dr. Nick Sinclair, is awakened by the light from an electrical storm. A voice from nowhere says, "You had a dream." His wife is still asleep at this point. Don't worry. This is but the first of many, many times that an event will make no sense.

The storm continues. Sinclair's wife vanishes, then reappears looking very different. But it was only another dream.

Cue the flashback. Sinclair recalls a time when he worked for a super technology lab. There was a power surge, and the view cuts to a sliding door in the wall opening up. Nobody says what this door is. An unidentified lady reports the computers are still working.

The virtual reality system kicks on. A robot rises out of the floor.

Abruptly the film turns black and white. This is to make up for explaining the transition. Cut to an obnoxious family in an RV. The little boy complains about lunch.

End of that scene! Back to the hero setting up some computer programs.

Off to the desert once more! The RV has stopped. The kid whines about going to the mall. Dad hollers. Little Joey runs away in plain sight, straight away from the Winnebago, into a dirt field. Yet thirty seconds later, they can't find him.

In the time lab again. Something goes wrong, because scientists never know how to operate machines. Sinclair says the robot is going to go through time and kill the family in the desert. All during this movie, the hero has a look on his face as if his dinner did not agree with him. That's the entire 100 minutes, no matter what.

Then the lab leader gets up and gives a "God help us" speech. He doesn't actually do anything, just talks and stands around.

Meanwhile the robot steps out the other side of the time tunnel and runs around shooting at people. The stranded father walks around griping about government experiments.

A group of paramilitary types shows up. One pummels Sinclair. Another shoots that guy and hands a gun to Sinclair.

Why do they help him? Who are these people? Where are they? What little exposition happens in this film comes in voice-overs ten minutes after everything happened.

Suddenly TWO robots appear. No, they don't tell you where the other one came from. They walk around shooting at buildings. Specially programmed killer robots always have lousy aim.

Apropos of nothing, Sinclair narrates that he has come to a base that "has been at constant war for one hundred years." Where? Why? Oh, who cares? "The world is stricken by a virus. The tests were right," Sinclair says. What tests? Jeez....

Sinclair runs into the lab supervisor. You are never going to learn why the lab boss, if he knew the robot was loaded with the virus, didn't just blow the thing up or make some antidote. Once again, the guy just whines about how the outlook is bleak.

Our hero then blurts out that he was "brought here by a tech soldier." Then he says, "Who am I?" So he looks up himself and his wife on the computer. He finds that his wife, Natasha, is one of the soldiers on this world.

The tech troops agree to take Sinclair back to his world. They roam the desert and fight robots. First they pepper the 'bots with bullets, which do no good. Then one man blows it away with a grenade launcher. This happens about ten more times in the film. They never get the idea to have Grenade Guy shoot first, so they can save their bullets. Never.

In perhaps the most ludicrous scene, Natasha is killed during a bomb blast. Only she isn't! She walks out from behind a pile of rocks a minute later. She is unscathed.

They find shelter at last. The virus makes one guy go nuts and attack the others. A second hallucinates that snakes are all over him.

The next day they set out and find a family in a hut. The husband packs a gun. He begs for some water. A soldier gives them some. As the troop leaves, hubby utters the immortal words, "These people are going to be up to their *** in robots."

The crew finds a secret facility in the mountains. They don't see one of the robots walking right toward them. It opens fire. It appears to be only 200 feet away, but Natasha needs to use a scanner to track it down. They blow it up.

Sinclair now has to help open the hall door. He knows the code but waits while the alarm goes off before telling one of the soldiers the whole sequence.

Sinclair says the building survived the trip through time. I guess by survived, he means "got really smashed up by."

The soldiers go up to the roof to watch for robots. They leave our buddy alone, because you wouldn't want to protect the guy can solve the problems, you know.

A soldier radios his base. We can hear several people in the background. So why didn't he just call for reinforcements before?!?

A robot comes out and shoots at the soldiers. Its blasts only hit buildings. Then it disappears.

The crew all of a sudden winds up back at the family's desert camp the next morning. They do not explain this.

Moments later, a soldier shoots a robot and then vanishes into thin air. This is not explained either.

Back at the facility, a trooper pauses to put on his radio. Of course, a robot sneaks up on him. He shoots the robot twice. Then he walks up and puts the CD into the robot. This makes it blow up. Another 'bot sneaks up and shoots the guy.

The captain prepares to fight the robots by taking off his armor. Sure. That'll help. He finally sacrifices himself to destroy the robot carrying the virus.

Sinclair goes back to his time and is happy with his wife, in a world where this all never happened. The end.

Rating: four turkeys. Unbelievably stinky!