Supersonic Man

Me and my high school dog pack caught this movie by chance one late night on Channel 44 in the Bay Area. Perhaps by devine intervention, I hit the record button and got the whole film on tape. It provided us and our respective families with endless laughs. We even composed a song/chant out of some of our favorite lines that we would recite religiously in the park at night (This is true San Jose-style recreation!!) Highlights? The terrifying killer robot that displayed the speed and swiftness of a cheetah! That devastating glare of Supersonic's evil nemesis as he monitors his underlings' treacherous deeds. The timeless beauty and personal complexity of Supersonic's love interest, Patricia Morgan. And the special effects -- especially the balsa wood steamroller, realistic-looking toy helicopter and the seamless camera work the director achieved whenever Paul morphs into Supersonic. To the uninitiated: May the forces of the universe be with you in your quest to see this movie!!

Supervillain Gulik (Cameron Mitchell) kidnaps a scientist in search of a powerful weapon which shall make him ruler of the world. When the scientist asks him why he wants to become ruler, he just shrugs and says: 'Aren't we all driven by something?' In other words, he has no clue, but the movie needed a super-villain... Enter the superhero: somewhere out in space, Supersonic Man comes to the rescue, his cape fluttering happily in the airless emptiness, accompanied by the even happier doodleeedoo soundtrack. Supersonic Man can stop bullets, lift heavy machinery, and he can turn into Boring Guy with a 1979 moustache, so the scientist's daughter won't discover his secret identity, but the moustache disappears every time he turns into Supersonic Man. Everything you thought was silly in superhero movies is right in here, so if you love bad movies with ridiculous special effects, don't miss the hilarious "Supersonic Man"!

It just seems logical that the Italians would have made something along the lines of Superman as they often do versions of successful films such as Jaws, Star Wars and Alien. I had just never really seen any like I had the others; however, I have seen one now, Supersonic Man! Yes, he looks super built, but his costume definitely needs more work and his alter ego is played by a completely different person. Though the plus side on that is that it is harder to discover his identity, but the villain seems to think it is one and the same guy. And speaking of villains, never before has the screen seen a villain such as the one here, who seems to have no real goal beyond boring an old man to death with his discussions.

The story, Supersonic Man is dispatched to Earth because something so dastardly is about to go down that it will cause ripples throughout the universe! Actually, I think whoever gives orders to Supersonic Man really oversold the threat, not sure the villain would have been too much trouble for a normal person to take out. A professor is kidnapped and Supersonic Man under his guise as Paul comforts her and for reasons unknown will search warehouses as Paul who has no powers so that he can get captured!

Supersonic man seems to have rather vague powers. Seems he has super strength and speed sure, but also the ability to turn a gun into a banana... Suffice to say, he is nearly indestructible to lava, freezing cold and bullets so it makes little sense they they try a flame throwing slowly walking robot at him. The only thing that seems to stop him is high frequency sound.

So, this film is rather lame, but entertaining to watch. I laughed quite a bit when a car goes down a somewhat steep incline and just explodes! Then a boat explodes for no reason and then a house explodes! Everything in this film is very prone to just blowing up! The villain is the typical villain of this era, no powers whatsoever and lots and lots of henchmen. Supervillains literally did not start appearing until like the 2000 films and no Batman's villains are not supervillains, just costumed insane villains!

This is two movies in one. The first is a 1-star bad movie and a 10-star RiffTrax movie with the voice-overs. How do you rate a movie like this?

The actors involved try hard, but in the end the plot and script drag it down. Cameron Mitchell as always delivers a fine performance in low-budget movies given what he has to work with.

Is it worth watching? To me on it's own, no. But with the RiffTrax crew working their magic was well worth my time and quite entertaining.

...if you're a lover of bad cinema. From the horrible credit sequence which desperately tries to copy SUPERMAN, to the super cheesy flying sequences, to scenes of hero lifting up things like an incredibly fake looking, wooden (yes, wooden) bulldozer, director J.P. Simon delivers the goods yet again! The man who brought you PIECES and SLUGS doesn't disappoint. If you have no life, viewing this film is a must!!!