The guys known as Astron-6, who brought us the gay gross grindhouse flick Father’s Day, bring us a different kind of midnight movie with the whacky sci-fi/horror geek movie Manborg. Think Robocop on happy gas.
Earth has gone to hell. Literally. The human race’s battle against the monster army from hell (that seems to borrow its fashion sense from the Nazis) leads one young human army soldier to be taken by the evil Count Draculon and turned into a “manborg,” just like in the opening of The Six Million Dollar Man. Awesome! Soon, Manborg teams up with a punk brother and sister and a martial arts hottie to destroy Count Draculon and save the world from the wrath of hell.
Manborg is trippy sci-fi consisting of stop motion technology and green screen backdrops to create a colorful, apocalyptic universe for crazy cheesy action scenes that seem to be modeled after every awesome sci-fi and fighting video game you’ve ever played. It’s like retro-futuristic low-budget filmmaking madness!
There are a few bloody battles, but this is not Father’s Day disgusting. There’s not even any sex, nudity, or perverse language. It’s virtually a movie the whole family can enjoy! The guys from Father’s Day are back in all the leading roles. The blond who played gay hustler Twink in Father’s Day isn’t officially gay in this one, but he does have twinkle toes—he likes to dance while fighting the monster army. And the martial arts dude is shirtless the entire time. Yummy.
It’s one hour of pure silly fun. Yep. One hour if you deduct the closing credits—and the 7-minute long trailer that follows the credits. It’s actually a “short film” trailer called BIO-COP! I really hope the Astron-6 guys make it into a full-length feature, because it looks so my speed. After the BIO-COP trailer, keep watching for a satirical “copyright infringement” message.
Manborg should seriously get heavy rotation on the SyFy Network, although it may be a little too quirky for modern audiences who didn’t grow up on the special effects of low-budget flicks from the 1960s and 1970s. I’m psyched that Astron-6 mixes things up and taps into different retro styles. Can’t wait to see what they come up with next.
