Mandroid

Mandroid (1993) is a Full Moon Entertainment movie that I recently watched on Tubi. The storyline follows a man who invents a robot that acts using a mind control device. When the CIA and Russia fight to get control of the device an accident occurs causing the scientist to become one with the robot and significantly disfigured. He sets the robot out for revenge.

This movie is directed by Jack Ersgard (Rancid) and stars Brian Cousins (Star Trek: The Next Generation), Michael Della Femina (A Gentleman's Game), Robert Symonds (The Exorcist), Curt Lowens (Angels & Demons) and Mircea Albulescu (Youth without Youth).

This is a very average science fiction movie. The acting, dialogue and storyline is inconsistent. The special effects, masks and costumes were solid and reminded me of The Wraith. They could have made the robot a little more robotic and not an obvious man in a costume, though the robot's vision was cool. There's also a contamination scene that's excellent.

Overall, this is nothing special but worth a watch for science fiction genre fans. I would score this a 4.5/10 but recommend seeing it once.

MANDROID is a remote control robot, built in Romania by Karl Zimmer (Robert Symonds) and his team, one of whom, named Drago (Curt Lowens) is jealous and wants his due credit. Zimmer has also been working on a revolutionary new fuel source.

Of course, the USA is very interested in the fuel, dispatching a CIA operative named Joe (Patrik Ersgard) and a scientist named Wade (Brian Cousins) to gather information and possibly procure the fuel.

Meanwhile, Drago wants to see MANDROID transformed into a lethal weapon of war, and so he sets out to cause trouble. Mayhem ensues, and Drago gets more than he had anticipated, turning him into a murdering madman!

Oh no!

He gains control of MANDROID! Let the death and destruction begin!

Since this is a FULL MOON production, it could / should have been far more schlock-tastic than it actually is. Is it absurd? Well, yes, but not in a too-terrible-to-be-enjoyable way. In fact, this movie is one of the best "serious" efforts in FM's catalog. Charles Band was wise to shoot his films in Romania, cutting costs while gaining access to some pretty awesome scenery and structures. For his part, Lowens makes Drago a memorable villain.

EXTRA POINTS FOR: The totally bonkers shootout, bloodbath denouement and obligatory epilogue!...

With the aforementioned three main ingredients, how can one not have fun with this flick? 'Mandroid' pretty much is your typical Full Moon brand of low budget movie magic (from back in their early days, when they still had comfortable little budgets to play with). This also means it's the type of silly sci-fi/action/horror nonsense you get where you can't take things too seriously. By far not up there with Full Moon's classics like 'Puppet Master' and 'Subspecies' and far less horrific than their more straightforward horror releases like 'Shadowzone', 'Mandroid' still offers 80 minutes of undemanding entertainment thanks to being a simple yet crazy mixture of various genre elements juiced up with some fun special effects. Again, I'm referring to the three main ingredients mentioned in the summary line, also featuring a laughable plot a little out there, nodding to various old school B&W classic sci-fi flicks (mad scientists, amazing discoveries falling into the wrong hands, etc.) and shot entirely in Roumania. If the B-movie ways of 'Mandroid' should annoy you, then you're simply watching the wrong movie.

Mandroid! Piloted by a human soul! Yes, YOU control Mandroid. No longer do you have to make sure your instructions aren't misinterpreted, since you control the robot himself! Mandroid is invincible! My favorite quote: "Mr. American scientist. End of the road!"

This is one of the worst full moon films. It really is hard to hate movies that have such a low budget you feel sorry for the people who work on the film and the actors that have to say the lines in the script. But hey, when full moon keeps cranking out such junk, there tends to be uber junk and this is that film. Basically, two scientists build a android that they can control with a helmet and hand controls because they are working on super toxic mushrooms and need this mandroid to handle the mushrooms. One scientist is trying to save the world and the other wants to make mandroid into military units. A lot of talking and only a couple of sets to film on, it gets pretty boring until the end where you are rewarded with some decent action. There is a sequel to this film, and I have no idea why because Mandroid could not have been that popular, which is even worst. If you bought the full moon classics volume 2 set like I did, you probably are going to watch this and say to yourself, why do I do this to myself? the answer is "I can't control myself" This film is almost so bad its good type film but it gets a little too talky to make it not.

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