Manborg is an über-cheesy, ultra low-budget science fiction film, which is a homage to…well, über-cheesy, ultra low-budget science fiction films! The film is meant to look and feel like an old direct-to-video film that you would have found in the VHS bargain bins in the 1980s. Sometime in the future, humanity has fallen against the forces of Hell, lead by the evil Count Draculon. A fallen soldier from the war is reanimated as Manborg – half man, half cyborg. Joining up with a band of misfits, Manborg sets out to free humanity from the demonic forces. Manborg is a relatively brief film, running just over an hour long, but I do have to say that it was a very fun hour. The film is intentionally very cheesy and is worth it for the deadpan humour alone. Adding to the cheesiness is the heavy use of over-dubbed dialogue, including the use of voice-actor Kyle Hebert (Dragonball Z) as the voice of the Asian martial arts expert #1 Man. Also, for a film that was filmed against green screens for $1000 in a garage, Manborg had some fairly decent special effects, including many impressive stop-motion monsters. Overall, I would say that if you like cheesy, low budget sci-fi, with plenty of humour and gore, than Manborg is the film for you! 9 | REALLY LIKED IT One more thing! As a way to enhance the experience of the film feeling like an old VHS tape (and to extend the overall running time by a few minutes), immediately following Manborg was the faux trailer Bio-Cop! This was my second time seeing this short, which just won “Best Canadian Short” at Toronto After Dark, and it just confirmed for me how completely awesome Bio-Cop is. In fact, I have to admit that I like Bio-Cop a smidge better than Manborg, even though both films together make for a very enjoyable experience.
