Director: Steven Kostanski
Starring: Matthew Kennedy, Adam Brooks, Meredith Sweeney, Conor Sweeney, Ludwig Lee.
Running Time: 60 min
Certificate: 15
Extras: TBD
The problem with purposely making a bad sci-fi film is that more often than not, you end up with a bad sci-fi film. MANBORG is an attempted parody of/love letter to 80’s ‘straight to VHS’ science fiction films but the problem is it’s not very funny. Confusingly the film plays straight for the first 10 minutes before the obviously Liu Kang/Bruce Lee inspired #1 Man arrives (yes, that is actually his name) arrives and it kicks into a higher gear and starts to riff on the genre.
Made on a budget of $1000, the film is filmed entirely on green screen with most of the voice acting done in post-production. Cloying in the beginning , it quickly becomes the norm and you realise the practical effects are actually quite good.
But does it hit its mark, is it a good spoof? Not really, the problem with the film is a lack of laughs, and while you can see that the film-makers love the genre, most of the time it’s a bit boring. There are a few bits that work – in particular the hell creature called The Baron that is in charge of the prison, and his endless pursuit for love – but there is little else.
After the film, there is a short mock-trailer called BIO-COP which is really, really funny, and it’s a shame they didn’t choose to make that film instead. Sometimes films are so bad they’re good, sadly MANBORG doesn’t quite make it full circle, but running at just 60 minutes, the film doesn’t have enough time to make you hate it.
Manborg is released on DVD in the UK on 4th February 2013.
Luke Ryan Baldock
Jan 31, 2013 at 2:02 pm
This looks amazing. Certainly putting it down on my Watchlist.