Magus

You have to be impressed with the level of the martial arts brawls in this film, and for a limited budget in an independent film it works for the movie itself. I felt bad that I missed the preview of the movie at Gothicfest 2007 (Ron and I were billed on the roster for signings that weekend.) Since he got to check out some of my work -- I grabbed this film up.

I haven't seen the other films yet but to see Ron in this kind of film, what he does in real life as an illusionist makes this film a little more something you have to pay attention to in the details. It talks about Wizard's codes and such. Ron carries this film with his character as Magus.

Lizzy and half-sister Julie Strain work together in this one, and the younger half sister has some impressive fight sequences especially when she's putting her skills to someone who either has a Krav Maga or Savate background.

This is the kind of story that is designed for Fitzgerald, and the writer I think actually did his research since he worked with Ron previously. This is the film I will say is made for Ron exclusively to play in, the horror elements are strong in this one and also are the crime noir elements because his character got a job as hit-man in one scene.

I was drawn the most to the fights (and looks like they had actors who are very much trained in their disciplines either as a street fighter or the grappling arts. I would love to see the live fight demonstrations with this film.) As a martial artist myself I can appreciate this film.

I won't give away the fight scene at the end of the film but I will say this much, expect to hear some bones breaking in parts because the main female villain actually would pull off some vicious spin kicks. (one of the wizards looked if she was trained in Tae Kwan Do. The speed of the fights would give me that hint, but don't quote me on this.) This is a horror film that also works as a Martial Arts movie.

I have to give it to the writer / director for having some experienced martial artists on board. I don't think the punches were faked in this one, because they did connect. They must had a damn good martial arts trainer for the sequences because there was a combination of grace and brutality with each punch, kick, block, throw, and choke. I am curious to figure out how long did it take to train each actress and actor who have the martial arts styles. If they want to do the live demonstration of the fight scenes for this movie -- get the mats out because one of them studied a cousin to Judo.

They had to have a medium sized budget to afford a high performance sports car for one of the scenes. Hot ladies, fast cars and faster fights. It gets you watching, and I am curious to see how the story was written to see where it played out into the screen. For a straight to DVD fare -- I am impressed. This would be one of those I think would do well on a large screen too if given the chance.

This one is the worse I've seen in my entire life. Cast made with refurbished actors not even in a mint condition. It was like I was watching a group of teenager acting in a movie shot in their backyard. Except that there were some old guys. Did I mention their stupid faces? Wow it was unbelievable. And the so called special effects, you can make some better stuff on your first contact with Adobe After Effects. Tons of glowing electricity going out from the "wizards" hands in blue green and red and the bad guy melting in the end toasted by the good guy power,hmmm (sounds familiar?) God, avoid it with any price. I can't talk about the plot because there wasn't such thing. Anyway I still asking myself like I did every minute why I was watching that, so f you don't to be haunted by this question for the rest of your life avoid the movie. Yuck

This movie was fairly decent and had a bit of potential; however, several things kept it from being great. The story was a bit bare, though it had enough to drive it to the end. The FX were pretty cool at times, but quite juvenile in other (the ending sequence was as cheesy as it gets and reminded me of crappy FX you see in 70's films). Worst of all was the acting, or lack thereof. It sounded like all, I repeat, ALL of the actors were reading straight from the script, you know, like reading a book out loud without and acting even being attempted. This might as well have been a read session instead of the final film.

I forced myself through it just to see what they threw at us. It was cool at times, but quite corny/cheesy/dumb in others. It's not on par with the Warlock series, but good to kill a few hours on the weekend or late at night. There was a gratuitous full-frontal scene in it, if that will help get you through the film (nice bod!).

All-in-all, not too bad but shallow story, poor acting, err.. reading, and blah FX in some places kept this film from getting a better grade. It was better than most straight-to-video films I've seen.

You see, average, disappointing movies get 4 or 5. Only true indie movies ever get 2 or 3. They are either too stupid, under-budget or unintentionally funny that they are worth seeing.

Well, I wouldn't call this worth seeing. After all it is a bad script, terrible acting, clichéd story and '84 special effects are top of the line. But you can see that the people actually tried, even if completely lacking any talent. You get your evil wizard and his sexy fighting sidechick, you get the retired old good wizard and his lovely (ahem :( ) niece and a lot of secondary characters that either die in a blaze of ... magic or stick helplessly around. In the end good wins.

Bottom line: this proves that anyone can make a movie. Even if almost a complete failure, at least it is not overrated: what you see is what you get. They have tried, gave their best, and I respect that.

MAGUS is the perfect example of talented filmmakers making the most out of a limited budget. This looks like a film that cost a LOT more than they could possibly have had. This director (John Lechago) is definitely worth watching. This is a great-looking film with credible performances (including a shockingly good one from Julie Strain), that has an interesting story, told at a quick pace. It also boasts some of the best special effects I've ever seen in a low-budget, direct-to-video film. It certainly tops anything you'd see on the Sci-fi channel or in the Roger Corman film library.

Magus is by no means a perfect film. It is, however, a fun movie with a lot of great moments (watch for the "magic sex" scene!), and some cool surprises. I, for one, certainly look forward to seeing what this crew comes up with next.