Mandroid — Mandroid( Blu Ray)
From the early 1990s, Mandroid is a Full Moon Entertainment production about a seemingly invincible humanoid robot that several parties are trying to get hold of. The Eastern European-set film mixes sci-fi with a low-key thriller and action elements, and it's an entertaining enough ride. Here’s a Blu-ray release of the film.
Mandroid is from the year 1993- been filmed in Romania, which is meant to be Russia. The film was directed by Täby, Sweden-born Jack Ersgard. Been co-written by C. Courtney Joyner ( Prison, Class Of 1999 ) and Jack Canson (Nowhere to Run, Eight Hundred Leagues Down the Amazon). Ersgard has a total of eight feature credits to his name, including the likes of isolated house horror The Visitors (1988), revenge drama-thriller Living In Peril (1997), and crime thriller Racid (2004
After the blue neon-lightning text credits. We see a car driving through nighttime city streets - inside is the red sensor-eyed, twin-tube body robot Mandroid, who is being controlled back in an underground lab by the grey-haired & bearded Dr Karl Zimmer (Robert Symonds). Also in the car is his blond bob-haired daughter Zanna (Jane Caldwell) and his trilby-hatted & bespectacled assistant Benjamin(Michael Della Femina)- the test drive initially seems to be going well with the Dr controlling the robot well, but all of a sudden things go awry- with the car crashing into a wall… thankfully everyone is ok.
We then head back to the lab and meet the other member of the team, Drago (Curt Lowens)- who is very much embittered about the way the research is going- as Zimmer wants to sell the tech to the US. Next, we switch to an isolated train station- where we meet the other two characters in the mix- Dr. Wade Franklin ( Brian Cousins) and, not- sure-whose-side-he’s-on CIA agent Jo Smith (Patrik Ersgård).
As the film unfolds, Mandroid is used for both good and bad- it all depends on who controls him. We have melted face/ later tin faced mask villain and his homeless mute sidekick; one of the characters starts to turn invisible, and later on, the more action side starts to come into play- with lab break-ins, gunplay battles, robo-manhandling, etc.
I’d say Mandroid is a middling/ fine/ entertaining enough Full Moon Film- with a largely decent cast- though Symonds puts on a really corny older man voice, but we have an eventful enough runtime.
The only extra here aside from a trailer and trailer reel. Is an episode of Videozone- Full Moon’s video zine. It runs at just over the twenty-one-minute mark. We get a brief intro from Charles Band in the sound mixing studio; next is a making-of for the film to hand. We find out it was Swedish director Jack Ersgard first US film, though it was trying at times, as he had a Romanian crew who could speak English, with American actors. We get brief interviews with members of the cast on-set, and find out that the script had changed somewhat from what director/ actors where expecting. We get a look at the robot suit & the guy in it. Then we move on to a director focus on Jeff Burr- who talks about shooting back-to-back Puppet Master 4 & 5.
If you enjoy the sci-fi, light action/ thriller side of Full Moon's output, then I think you’ll dig what Mandroid has to offer. The new print looks good/ fine, and the Videozone episode is worth a look too.