Magus

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.

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

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.

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.

This movie sounded very cool when I heard about it first, but I was disappointed to find out it was almost nothing like I thought it was. I expected a grand adventure to hunt down the mighty Magus, but instead I was treated to a 3 person army of slightly worn-out "wizards" that obviously are no match for the "mighty" Magus.

The conversations seem unrealistic at many points, the acting is a bit "forced" and I somehow get the feeling that I'm watching a toned-down version of power-rangers. Yes, that's right, I feel like I'm sometimes watching a kids-movie where they couldn't afford a fight-coordinator, and had to improvise the scenes themselves.

The story in itself seems lousy at best, and contains the clichè characters struggling to discover their true lost/undiscovered strengths. I felt like I had seen this movie many times before..

There are a few upsides to this movie which must be mentioned. The magic-effects actually look good, though they seem a bit limited in number of different effects.. As a man, I definitely enjoyed the nudity (hehe..), and I liked the concept of the movie. I'm sad to say, the list of upsides stops around that point..

All in all, it was *almost* worth watching, but definitely not worth paying for.. (and I put it that way because I'm nice..) During the movie I was struggling to keep me from shutting it off, and was left unimpressed at the ending screen. You can easily skip this movie, unless you really enjoy the concept of "real" magic, and want to see a few nice magic-effects. But honestly, you would MUCH rather just watch the Harry Potter movies for that.