The second film of day 6 at Toronto After Dark 2011 was Manborg. This one is coming from Steven Kostanski, who is part of Astron-6. These guys put together some amazing short films, and were also behind Father’s Day, but Manborg left me with little to enjoy.
I don’t know if it was the overwhelming abuse that The Divide had just finished inflicting on my brain, but I just wasn’t in the mood for another film when Manborg showed up. For what was spent on the movie, it looks great. That these guys can take about $1,000 and make an hour long epic homage to bad video games and VHS rentals from the 80′s is impressive. I just didn’t really find it all that funny. The one character that did get me laughing was The Baron (Jeremy Gillespie).
Basically, Manborg (Matthew Kennedy) was a soldier in the war against Draculon (Adam Brooks) and his minions from Hell. They’re terribly outgunned and Manborg winds up dead, only to be resurrected years later as a jacked up cyborg. He gets captured by Draculon’s men and is left to rot in prison with #1 Man, a badly dubbed Bruce Lee type character played by Ludwig Lee and voiced by Kyle Hebert. Also with them are the sibling team of Shadow Mega (Andrea Karr) and Justice (Conor Sweeny). This is where The Baron comes in. He has a crush on Shadow Mega and watching him try to pick her up like he’s a shy schoolboy was hilarious. I just wish more of the film had been that good.
Draculon is a pretty evil bastard. Too bad his men aren't as useful as he is.
From there, stuff happens. The film only runs 60 minutes, which was a welcome thought when I wasn’t getting into it. Had the movie actually run 90 minutes, I think I would have lost my mind. It’s too bad that it wasn’t connecting with me because the effects and makeup are so well done. All the costumes were great, with that kind of cheesy charm that you’d find in a super sentai series out of Japan. The Astron-6 guys have a firm grasp on the 80′s video boom, complete with a logo that someone mentioned is very reminiscent of Vestron Video. Some of those guys were probably born in the 80′s though! Kinda makes me feel old.
Some stop motion even makes an appearance. This isn't exactly your holiday special kind of claymation though.
I’d say that there was problems with Manborg but there really isn’t. Well, there is, but that’s kind of the point. Think of a badly made, direct to video, 80′s sci-fi flick and that’s what you get. Everyone involved is quite talented and you can see that onscreen, this time around they just didn’t make something that I was interested in. At the right time, I would have laughed my ass off. This would certainly be a blast to watch when you’re hanging out with your buddies in the basement. It’s the kind of thing I can imagine my 13 year old self renting and watching with some friends in the basement while consuming large, glass bottles of Coke and eating chocolate bars and chips. That’s really what they’re aiming for here, and that is exactly what they accomplish. So get some beer and some buddies and saddle up for ridiculous fun!
In the shadows – Will
