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MANBORG - REVIEW

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There are movies. And then there is Manborg . When nazi vampires from Hell take over the Earth, a soldier is killed by Count Draculon (Adam Brooks) after witnessing his brother's death. Somehow, the soldier is soon reborn as a half-man, half-cyborg entity known only as Manborg. His goal? To learn to master his powers (before he accidentally kills someone he shouldn't), get revenge for what Draculon did to him and take down those Hellish forces before all hope is lost. Basically, RoboCop meets Hellraiser meets Toxic Avenger meets... I guess the 80's in general. Along the way, Manborg meets some resistance fighters including martial arts expert #1 Man (voice-dubbed by Kyle Hebert), Australian Billy Idol-esque gunfighter Justice (Conor Sweeney) and his sister Mina (Meredith Sweeney) whose fighting style is very much steeped in anime. Together, they escape the dastardly (and in-love) Baron (Jeremy Gillespie) and, in an odd Star Wars -esque turn of events, start tr

SUCKER: THE VAMPIRE - REVIEW

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Here's another Troma Entertainment vampire film for y'all. Unlike Rockabilly Vampire , though, this is one of those Troma movies that's much more concerned with getting as many boobs on show as possible as it is with telling a humorous little story as cheaply as possible. Now, don't get me wrong, Sucker: The Vampire is, indeed, humorous and incredibly cheap! Just not as enjoyably so as the aforementioned flick. As titillating as you might find the more erotic scenes that this movie has to offer, you'll soon just want to skip to the more plot-driven moments as at least 50% of the film is basically filler. Its look is completely inconsistent in that sometimes it's over-stylised with funky lighting, red filters and dutch angles and sometimes it's just not. It's when the film does resemble a legitimate vampire film somewhat and feels like the usual tongue-in-cheek Troma style you expect that it's at its strongest, of course. Unfortunately, the firs

ROCKABILLY VAMPIRE - REVIEW

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From Troma Entertainment comes 1996's  Rockabilly Vampire : truly one of the great rockabilly vampire films of our time. Here's one movie that's simply full of ground-breaking ideas. The concept of rockabilly vampires is a fascinating one, especially in the way it's tackled in this particular creative piece. Rockabilly vampires follow typical vampire lore in that they drink blood, live forever and can die of wooden stakes through the heart but they don't really have fangs and can go out during the day no problem. In this universe, there are different types of vampires. This is just the rockabilly kind. The film follows a young rockabilly vampire called Eddie (Paul Stevenson) who meets Iris (Margaret Lancaster), a woman who happens to be on a quest to find Elvis Presley, who just can't be dead. I mean... he's The King! They could just get together and live happily ever after but there are obstacles including Eddie's brother Wrecks and his gang of

HOBO WITH A SHOTGUN - REVIEW

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Flop or not, Quentin Tanrantino and Robert Rodriguez's Grindhouse was certainly influential enough with countless crazy-ass films trying to capture the same type of trashy faux-thenticity and lolgasmic OTT nonsense since. The results have been a mixed bag, for sure, but I'm happy to say Hobo With A Shotgun is one of the good ones. It seemed pretty promising, the prospect of an aging Rutger Hauer shotgunning down thugs "one shell at a time" was something to look forward to. In the end we got a film which unfortunately didn't have that "event" quality Planet Terror possessed but which did not disappoint delivering a strong, funny, completely entertaining addition to the subgenre. Hobo With A Shotgun works as a stylish, well made Troma flick with less boobs but more surreal cruelty... and more hobos. The film looks great with its, ahem, interesting colour palette mostly limited to red or blue half the time, Hauer plays it straight and does a fantas