Infra-Man

...that you'll want to watch over and over again. A weird, psychedelic mixture of martial arts movies, Japanese giant monster movies, spy adventures, and just plain goofiness. The plot makes no senses, the characters are thinnest cardboard, and the monsters are truly hilarious. If you wonder where they came up with Power Rangers, look no further than here.

This is a hoot and a half; a Shaw Brothers' gem. Add in a manga based story, the Shaw Bros. studio lot, sci-fi, and lots of amazing, kampy fighting surpassing even the staged corny fighting by the Bat in blue tights Adam West, and that's Super Inframan in a nutshell. According to production notes, Danny Lee did don the Inframan suit on and I loved the transformation sequences with really 70ish sound effects! There's 70s written throughout this one. I never knew a Demon Princess could dress and look so funky psychedelic! I thought she stopped by a Viking convention. Plus, best use of motorcycle helmets goes to the numerous black-clad skull minions who take turns getting an Inframan-ish beating and lots of well-timed body flips. This film is a very good homage to Japan's Kaiju. Please ignore the fact that the monsters are human-sized rather than several stories tall. The Super Inframan and the Mighty Peking Man should be shown back-to-back at Subway Cinema 2004 at the Film Forum in NYC!

This film steals a lot from ultraman, from sound effects to some of his move set, not saying this is a bad thing just something I noticed. Though inframan does borrow a lot from ultraman he has enough uniqueness to make him his own. Towards the last 3rd of the film his moveset goes mental and hes jumping all over the place blowing things up. The last 3rd is definitely the best part of the film but the film is fun enough to keep you invested until then. I love inframans outfit, the ultra red color pops especially against his dulled grey and green enemies. The creatures in this are extremely wacky and fun, my favorite one is the lizard guy with the horn mustache that breathes fire, the 2 robots are really cool as well. Worth a watch for the camp and the crazy action

Super Infra-man (1975) was the Shaw Brothers attempt to try and start a franchise super hero like Ultraman. Filmed in Shawscope (panavision) Super Infra-man is an enjoyable action film filled with cheesy over the top bad guys and a whole lot of sci-fi mumbo jumbo. Danny Lee is chosen to become Infra-man when Earth is threatened by a race of interstellar demons. To sum up the movie, just imagine an episode of The Mighty Morphin Power Rangers that was action-directed by Bruce Lee! That's because one of the Dragon's protégés was involved with directing the fight scenes. The whole cast seems to be in on the joke and no one takes it too seriously. Harmless family fun.

Highly recommended!

Factoid: For some reason, the Shaw Brothers like to recycle stock footage from their other films and reuse certain scenes over and over.

Time to own up: Inframan is one of my favorite movies. This film is nothing less than an hour and a half of ferocious martial arts, monsters in costumes cheaper than you can imagine, and the fearsome pronouncements of Princess Dragon Mom - and it's a blast. I rent this movie at least once every couple of months just to remind myself how much fun a low-budget film can be. After all, how can you not love a movie whose villainess has her lair decorated with what appears to be Saran Wrap, and whose hero has to free himself from "liquid ice"?