International terrorist leader Fatima (Sandahl Bergman, She, Hell Comes to Frogtown) tries to hijack a plane and runs right into a secret task force called the Retaliators and their leader Eric Matthews (Robert Ginty, Exterminator 2) and finds herself critically wounded. For some reason, the U.S. government takes her and turns her into a cyborg killing machine — I mean, she already was a killing machine — and sends her after her former friends. Sounds like a great plan said no one ever, as the moment she’s hit in the head, she remembers that she’s a bad girl and now has the robot powers to dispense even more death and destruction than ever before.

Director Allan Holzman also made Forbidden World, Grunt! The Wrestling Movie and Out of Control, so he knows how to make a good rental movie. Writer Robert Short also wrote Scared to Death and Rage of Honor, so yeah, he also knows how to make an entertaining film.

Keep in mind this is a Trans World Entertainment movie and not Cannon, because if Cannon made it, it would somehow even be even crazier and yes, this is also a movie that has Sandahl Bergman machine gun a school bus full of children. Things would be better if this movie inverted the screen time that Ginty and Bergman have, as she’s the best thing in this.

Bonus: Paul Walker’s third acting job after appearing on Highway to Heaven and in Monster In the Closet.

The Kino Lorber blu ray release of Programmed to Kill has a 2K Scan of the 35mm Interpositive, new commentary by director Allan Holzman (moderated by filmmaker Douglas Hosdale), a new interview with writer Robert Short, an alternate opening and a theatrical trailer. You can get it from MVD.