Green Ghost and the Masters of the Stone

It's never good when the producer of an action movie is also the star- in this case a guy who's 50-something thinking he can play the brother of 20-somethings- but I watched this cuz Danny Trejo. Imagine Big Trouble in Little China but without good actors or a good script. The plot revolves around setting up supernatural fights, which themselves are well done, but there's nothing new or imaginative in this story or its characters. (Is anyone else tired of magic + kungfu movies?)

It has some funny juvenile humor. It feels like a mashup between a Marvel comic book, Kung Fu martial arts, Mexican comedies films drenched in cheese. My favorite parts were with Danny and the homage to the guy's mother during the end credit. The end credits touched me.

I just finished watching Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon. I enjoyed the Green Ghost movie more. Why?

First, the fighting was top notch. I was quite frankly shocked with how good the choreography was. I've seen indie movie kung fu and it looks bad. Real bad. But this was superb.

The acting was decent. Also a lot better than I expected. The only guy I kinda knew was Danny Trejo. But the others were solid too. The lead reminded me of Johnny Lawrence's brother or cousin. I was surprised as I thought he was just comedic relief. But the dude can really fight.

The special effects were adequate...even good for an indie movie.

There was heart in this movie, a strong message about who your family really is, some laugh out loud humor, fantastic fighting and really good directing.

I definitely want to see them do a sequel or a bigger budget version of this film. Will be following the people associated with this for sure. I'd give it a solid 7.5 out of 10. Will be watching again.

Greetings again from the darkness. Next up in this prime era for Superheroes comes "Green Ghost", a struggling south Texas car dealer who moonlights as a Lucha Libre wrestler with untapped mystical powers linked to the Mayan Apocalypse! Does that sound preposterous? Sure it does. But really, is it any more ridiculous than Thanos' Infinity Gauntlet? With an overall budget that was likely less than that AVENGERS powerful glove prop, writer-director Michael D Olmos and co-writers Charlie Clark and Brian Douglas deliver their version of a gently comical, semi-serious genre film saturated with martial arts moments and finding meaning in life. While certainly no cinematic masterpiece, what's obvious about the film is that it was a labor of love ... a true passion project.

Charlie Clark stars as Charlie Clark, aka "Gringo", aka "Green Ghost" (the latter two make for an easy to decipher play on words). The real Charlie Clark is a car dealer in Brownsville, Texas. He's also the star, producer, and co-writer of this project, so obviously it is very personal to him. This movie is not meant to be compared to big budget productions. In fact, it feels more like a bucket list item for Mr. Clark, and he was fortunate enough and committed enough to fulfill his own wish of making a movie (very) loosely based on his life. In real life, Clark was raised in the Mexican culture by his Nana ... photos are shown over the closing credits. This plays as a tribute to her and his upbringing.

In the film, Charlie's dealership is floundering, mostly because he's quick to shirk his duties and head to the latest underground wresting match for his adoptive brother, Marco (Kuno Becker). Charlie supports Marco by donning his Green Ghost spandex costume - one that the crowd loves to jeer, and that causes fellow wrestlers to cringe. At a very high level (and low bar), the story involves a plan by evil forces led by Drake (Marko Zarar), the son of Nana's sister, to obtain the magical and mystical emerald and rule humanity. The defenders of humanity are the trio nicknamed, El Trio de la Luz, and it consists of Marco, his sister Karina (Sofia Pernas), and to his surprise, Charlie. The group's leader is Nana (Renee Victor, screen veteran Renee Victor, who voiced Abuelita in COCO). To prepare for battle, Nana arranges a training program featuring Master Kane (MMA fighter Cain Velasquez), Master Hung (renowned stunt coordinator Andy Chang, "Rush Hour" films), and, best of all, Master Gin, played by the always great Danny Trejo ... who even gets a "Machete" punchline. A "Rocky" montage technique is utilized, replete with a Spanish version of "Eye of the Tiger" performed by (director) Robert Rodriguez's band.

An inordinately high percentage of scenes involve martial arts fighting, and some of the stunt work is much better than we'd expect. And then there are the moments that are meant to ensure we understand the filmmakers are in on the joke ... like the flinging of tortillas, and a protective force field negated by fancy eyewear. We are never really sure how all of the mystical powers fit together, but the issue of corruption by power is pretty obvious, even within a family. The film's best line is, "Every family's not perfect, Charlie. Sometimes, we just have to make our own." While watching, a few other films came to mind. This includes Tommy Wiseau's THE ROOM, and Jack Black's NACHO LIBRE. Perhaps that will help you find the right mindset for this one.

Available VOD beginning June 28, 2022.

My friend and I are the only 2 people in the theater which is always a great feeling as we can speak freely (not a slam by the way, this happens to us a lot where we live). We're only watching this because a Texas rule is to consume anything with Danny Trejo in it.

About 10 minutes into the movie, the plot, effects, and acting make us say "Why is this in theaters instead of a free streaming service?" We begin to deconstruct what's happening. As children, the 3 main characters are all the same age, yet as adults, Charlie is 15+ years older so now we've moved on to "Why is this guy the lead?" We start wondering if this is a regular guy who's so rich that he managed to fund a film just so he could see himself on the big screen. We begin Googling... turns out that is in fact the case. A real life, rich car dealership owner is starring in his own film. Wow!

Looking at this movie in a vacuum, it's average at best. The effects are decent enough. The fight choreography is serviceable. The acting is just plain fine. The tough pill to swallow is the storyline. It is remarkably choppy and jumps around with charcter actions not being earned, and the plotholes will take you out of it all completely.

This quickly exposed itself as a passion project by a wealthy guy with a big ego... then we had the rug pulled out from us. The ending credits revealed that irl Charlie was in fact raised by an irl Nana and you are shown a myriad of heart warming pictures of them as they grow older together. It ends up being a really sweet homage to what looks to be an amazing woman by an eternally grateful guy. And I mean, if most of us could give our mother figures the world, we would. The fact this guy actually did it is commendable and you can't fault him for that. I'm sure there's still some ego there (c'mon, guy, you gave yourself first and second billing in the end credits lol) but at the same time, he didn't give himself a 25 year old love interest which is always the case with these. So I don't know, maybe this is 100% sincere. Ultimately, the film resonated with us as a touching Mother's Day gift one week prior to the occasion and made us more appreciative of our own moms who we routinely overlook. And a movie that can do that is a win in my book.