Back when some friends and I used to make dumb movies we dreamed of one day making a “big budget” flick. The people at Astron-6 made one of those films. It’s terrible to the point of being charming.
“Earth, the legacy of the HELL Wars. When mankind fought the armies of HELL And HELL won… With every passing hour, another nation crumbles to the technological might of this unholy menace, and their monstrous leader COUNT DRACULON. As the oceans fill with the blood of billions, a desperate few bravely hold their ground, defiantly refusing to ABANDON ALL HOPE…”
A soldier fights alongside his brother in the war to end all wars against hell itself. As the two bravely fight against hell’s legions and their leader Draculon, the older brother (I’m guessing) is KIA. As the younger brother witnesses his death he flies into a rage and tries to take on Draculon alone. He is easily defeated and then shot to death. His body is bloodied and broken, but he is brought back to life to finish the fight as the confused, but powerful, Manborg.
Manborg is a terrible movie, and that is why I like it so much. It’s as if someone found a bunch of clips meant for a canceled FMV game for the SEGA CD, patched them all together, and pressed it onto a disc. If Wikipedia is right, it was made with a small crew and an exceedingly small budget. It’s full of bad jokes, bad line reads, and worse acting… but it’s in on the joke. Manborg (the movie) never takes itself too seriously, or maybe it takes its stupidity extremely serious. I’m honestly not sure. Whatever combination it uses, it works.
To watch Manborg and enjoy it will take a certain mindset or at the very least a certain type of appreciation for what the full product is. Manborg and Astron-6 are what Troma wishes they could be. If Troma movies weren’t all so hung up on “dick and fart jokes” this is a movie it could have easily made. Don’t get me wrong, I love a good dick and fart joke, but they haven’t had a good one of those in years. Manborg is full of gore, campy humor, cheesy special effects (as well as some downright great stop-motion effects), outrageously over-the-top characters, and that is a BIG part of its charm. It also has possibly one of the best endings to a movie of this type I have ever seen. It takes a little while to realize the true (dumb) potential of Manborg, but ultimately it’s only 70mins long and knows not to overstay its welcome. It’s currently streaming on Amazon Prime, and I would say that if you have that service you should check it out.
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