Fantastic Fest 2011 Movie Review- MANBORG- He said/She said

MANBORG

Director by: Steven Kostanski

Writer by: Steven Kostanski

Starring: Adam Brooks, Jeremy Gillespie, and Conor Sweeney

Synopsis: When the gates of Hell open up, and mankind is on the brink
of extinction, our only hope is Manborg!

Jonesy: This movie was a lot of fun. It's really cheesy, but looked like a super old movie. However, given the next-to-nothing budget, I thought the filmmakers pulled off a fun movie.  

Javi: I like how their short film collective Astron-6 has geniune love for this early 90's cheesy action movies.  Even with their limited budget, they accomplished a lot of things that were surprising. I have to say out of opening day of Fantastic Fest, this was one of the highlights. What'd you think about the story? Don't worry dear readers, I feel we can't spoil this movie because you have seen this movie so many times in the past. 

Jonesy: Story wise, it was nothing original, but the premise of the story was ambitious.  It's a post-apocaluptic world where Hell has taken over Earth and are making the humans fight in an arena to the death.  I got a very TRON vibe from it.

Javi: I thought it was a cool twist of the post-apocalyptic world where demons had superior technology to humans. I thought it was neat. However, the time period in which the story takes place wasn't clear. The human soldiers seemed to be fighting in 1940's WW2 clothing, but then you wake up, it's the freaking BLADE RUNNER world. It had so many funny cheesy touches, like the Asian character that spoke like he was badly overdubbed. All characters are just cheesy versions of every action hero movie, and there's even the subplot of, "Oh, I have to fight my brainwashed best friend now!" I mean the movie even ends like MORTAL KOMBAT. The only real complaint was the type of humor that it was going for. There was cheesy humor and just funny humor, but it should have stuck to one or the other.

Jonesy: They should have stayed with the cheesy aspect.  But overall I really enjoyed it.  

Javi: Agreed. Also, I really enjoy the Astron 6 site, and they create have lots of cool trailers, in similar styles, for movies that don't exist.  Definitely worth checking out.

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