Starting off the Full Moon reviews, this one was appealing because of the description and title:
Dr. Zimmer has invented Mandroid, a humanoid robot. When is partner, Drago tries to steal Mandroid, he becomes exposed to the highly toxic Supercon. Drago flees and won’t give up on Mandroid, even though he’s disfigured.
That just sounds like great B-Movie material, with the potential for some horror, some science-fiction, and some crazy B-Movie action. The movie doesn’t fail at any of those even if the Mandroid itself is totally ridiculous and should have been ridiculous even at the time: for one, it has two rubber hoses in the front that would have been my first target when confronted by the thing. They must server some purpose and I cannot imagine how well it’d function without them.
Te movie starts with some action and humor, then introduces us to the Supercon element — some sort of concentrate they get from certain types of mushrooms. Somehow this stuff both powers the Mandroid and threatens to turn people into a sort-of Toxic Avenger/Phantom of the Opera type. Oh, and it somehow can make people invisible under given circumstances.
The CIA wants to buy the tech, and not only that, but for some reason they only want to buy one of the things rather than sign off on more development and research. The movie kind of wavers in the middle, not sure what sort of movie it wants to be — and that’s actually a good quality for this B-Movie.
After the bad guy is exposed to the Supercon toward the beginning he turns into a monstrously ugly figure that requires serious make-up for the actor. Rather than keep using that, they put a simple beekeeper hat and veil over him. From there, he gets a much cooler mask that looks genuinely creepy. This should be every B-movie’s strategy for avoiding difficult or expensive make-up: give it to us once and make the guy wear a mask.
The movie delivers, if you’re wanting for a sci-fi B-movie about an android.
Report card:
Acting: Above average, for a B-movie.
Effects: Practical, not a lot of CGI type effects. They’re good for the time.
Violence: A ton. Nothing too crazy, but it’s all pretty over the top.
Gun Use: Exactly average — wounds don’t make sense and guns never seem to run out of ammo.
Gore: No.
Creepy? Not really.
Monster Type? Man made machine, and man.
Funny? Absolutely.
Nudity: A totally gratuitous boob scene at the end that doesn’t really make sense or fit in the movie.
Pacing: It starts fast, slows down and drags a bit, then picks up.
