"Manborg" is a delightfully dopey post-apocalypse flick, played with tongue firmly in cheek. The guys keeping cheesy Bs like these alive are the Canadian collective "Astron-6", who are also responsible for "Father's Day" and "The Editor". In the world of the future, humans have been fighting the armies of Hell for some time, and are losing the war, although some people refuse to give up the fight. Matthew Kennedy plays an unnamed soldier who dies during battle, and is reincarnated as the half-machine "Manborg". He hooks up with three other warriors: feisty Mina (Meredith Sweeney), Australian-accented chatterbox "Justice" (Conor Sweeney), and the truly hilarious # 1 Man (Ludwig Lee / voice of Kyle Hebert).
Although it's not meant to be taken seriously, one has to admire some of the actors for playing it straight, which is the right way to play this sort of material in the first place. The whole thing is a marvel of visual design; it often looks like a video game. It's been stylized to a great degree by director / producer / editor / effects artist / actor Steven Kostanski, and does have an agreeable sense of humour. One of the baddies is a goon named The Baron (Jeremy Gillespie), who pines after the adorably cute Mina.
There's not a particularly big story to tell here, but that's not necessarily a bad thing; it helps to make the movie clock in at barely over an hour. (On the DVD, a promo for an Astron-6 short called "Bio Cop", and a priceless spoof of those FBI warnings on tapes and discs, helps add to the running time.)
The biggest laughs come from Hebert, a riot as the voice of # 1 Man. Adam Brooks (as the primary villain Count Draculon, and the scientist Dr. Scorpius), and Andrea Karr (as a hench woman named Shadow Mega), co-star, and they, like everybody else, play this for everything that it's worth.
The ending is rather abrupt, but in a mindless, gory, funny little diversion like this, that's not such a big issue.
Filmed in my hometown!
Seven out of 10.
