Infra Man is the touching, subtle story of how one man, even in his own small way, can change the world around him. Okay, the movie's really about how one man can turn into a cyborg superhero and whomp on guys in rubber monster suits. The movie's action starts up when a group of subterranean monsters, led by the oddly named Princess Dragon Mom [Terry Liu], decide they want to take over the surface world. Hey, it's something to do. Setting up shop just outside of Hong Kong in a mountain fortress that has uses big, stone skulls as doorway decorations, the monsters proceed to cause general havoc. The local group of action scientists [a bunch of extras in silver jumpsuits who sort of know kung-fu] are powerless against the onslaught of the monster cartel and their minions [extras in nifty black skeleton style jumpsuits who wear motorcycle helmets and who sort of know kung-fu as well.] Earth's only hope is the experimental cybernetics program by some movie scientist type who's name escapes me [Wang Hsieh.] Performing a strange operation that involves laying bits of mechanical junk on the patient -not actually putting the pieces in the person's body mind you, just placing them on his body- the professor turns his brave volunteer [Danny Lee] into Infra Man. Using a combination of his kung-fu skills and crazy built in weapons that include elbow lasers and sparklers built into the bottom of his feet Infra Man proceeds to kick major levels of monster butt.

Infra Man is a Hong Kong movie from the 1970's which has been dubbed into English and is little more than a knock-off of the endlessly popular Ultraman/Power Rangers style shows from Japan. With a lineage like that you know you're not dealing with the greatest film of all time. Still, there's a certain exuberance to be found in Infra Man that makes it worth seeing. Not only is Infra Man insane, it manages to keep a level of weirdness going through the entire movie. Every time you turn around someone's fighting a giant plant or getting stuck in ball of webbing, or fighting a woman who not only has eyes on the palms of her hands but can shoot lasers out of those eyes... it's great.

Even the costumes of the characters are fun. The monsters are all distinctive -you'll never mistake the green lumpy monster with a drill for a hand for the monster that looks to be built out of carpet samples- and they seem to really get a kick out of being evil. When they aren't being bossed around by Queen Dragon Mom or rumbling out lines like "Kill the humans!" they stand around and laugh about their latest plan or simply about how great it is to be a group of evil monsters. They seem amazingly content with their place in life. Plus, there's quite a number of them so Infra Man is never lacking for someone to blow up. Not to be out done by his rogues gallery, Infra Man has quite the spiffy outfit as well. When transformed into his robotic alter-ego Infra Man sports a red costume with leathery shoulder pads, giant blue goggle eyes on his mask-like face, and rabbit ear antennae on his helmet-style head. It's quite the look. Infra Man also doesn't have to worry about such encumbrances as changing in and out of his super-suit but instead transforms by waving his arms about in a manner that makes it look like he's doing a little cheerleader routine. If you asked the average person on the street to design a monster fighting cybernetic kung-fu super hero they would be hard pressed to come up with a design as nifty as Infra Man.

You may wonder why I spend time listing movies such as Infra Man. I don't know how many times when I've been in a video store I've heard a variation on the line "but I've seen everything here already." Really, how likely is that? Be honest. There are literally new movies coming out every day; the odds are very good that something terrific that you never heard of or never thought of renting is waiting on the shelves for you to discover. Or if that doesn't work out you can always bite the bullet and rent Infra Man.

As always, you can get ahold of me at gleep9@hotmail.com. Use your built in rocket shoes to head back to either the Third Movie or Main page.