DOCTOR MORDRID

(A.k.a. DOCTOR MORDRID: MASTER OF THE UNKOWN; DR MORDRID)

In Rio De Janeiro, an armoured car driver is shot dead by his colleague. This allows the second security guard to empty the car and pass on its mysterious contents - several padlocked crates filled with chemical elements - to the monotone space alchemist Kabal (Brian Thompson) on a deserted South American back road. Kabal makes the crates disappear first, and then his brainwashed human accomplice.

Meanwhile, over in New York, Anton Mordrid (Jeffrey Combs) lives in a quiet tenement block where his dingy apartment doubles up as a secret high-tech office from which he can observe unusual activity from around the globe. His aim over the last 100 years has been to keep guard on Earth, for fear of his old nemesis Kabal returning to the planet with notions of wiping out the human race...

Of course, these two space travellers are destined for a showdown or two. But first, we learn that Mordrid is lonely after spending a century with only his trusty raven Edgar and an all-seeing alien hologram called Monitor for company. Enthusiastic cop Samantha (Yvette Nipar), who lives across the hallway from him, is as equally intrigued in her elusive neighbour as he is with her. Their relationship grows after she attends a police seminar held by Mordrid, in "The Criminal Mind and the Supernatural".

As any fan of action fantasies will no doubt know though, women who get close to heroes do so only to later be placed in peril at the hands of the villain. That's certainly the case here. Fortunately, Mordrid possesses otherworldly powers to assist him in his plight. Unfortunately, Kabal - or the "Death's Head" as he's known by the inhabitants of his original planet (one even refers to him as a "cosmic son of a bitch"!) - has been imbued with similar powers...

A bargain-basement labour of love from Full Moon head honcho Charles Band and his father Albert, DOCTOR MORDRID harks back to matinee serials of yore while unashamedly cribbing from Marvel Comics' 'Dr Strange' books. A lot of its charm comes not only from the truly game cast and C Courtney Joyner's comic strip-style screenplay, but also the filmmakers' steadfast refusal to sully such fun with unsightly sex, bad language (I counted just one 'f-bomb' around the 28-minute mark) or violence.

The bad guy sounds like Arnie but looks like a broad blonde chick dressed in Luke Skywalker's cast-offs. It's one thing to happen upon an actor so devoid of charisma, but the Bands must be applauded for actually going one step further and casting the guy. Brave ... and, in the unlikeliest way, it sort of works. Thompson, a veteran of American TV series' such as "The X Files" and "Kindred" brings unintentional comedy to his role.

Combs is Combs, of course. Only here, he is admittedly a little more reserved than usual. Which is odd, given the fantastical nature of the screenplay. Still, once he's sporting a lurid blue jumpsuit and cape he does seem twice as camp as normal. It's hard not to love him when the overacting finally emerges while in such attire.

Richard Band's score is immediately recognisable as his work. Its pomp and melodrama fits well amid the loud colour schemes and gleeful boys' own shenanigans. Dave Allen's animatronics FX are just as reliably distinctive. Who cares that they're embarrassingly primitive by 1992 standards? If they don't raise a smile from you, you must be dead from the neck up. Adolfo Bartoli's cinematography is consistent with his other work for Full Moon: unfussy, fluent, surprisingly slick.

Yes, this is insanely cheap fare, there's no doubt about that. But that does present the opportunity for the likes of a museum's dinosaur bones springing into action in sub-Ray Harryhausen stop-motion manner, and numerous explosions taking place unconvincingly on miniature sets. Racing out its enjoyably daft screenplay at breakneck pace over the course of a trim 74 minutes, the bottom line is that DOCTOR MORDRID - for all its low-rent CGI effects, broad performances and silly dialogue - is never, ever dull.

Allow the 12-year-old kid inside you to surface, and you can't fail to enjoy this film.

MORDRID is presented uncut in its original 1.33:1 aspect ratio. Despite its video origins and the fact that this is an NTSC-to-PAL conversion job, this is a colourful, sharp and detailed proposition. Movement isn't always smooth, as I'm sure you can imagine, but at least there are plenty of nicely vivid scenes (especially the exterior scenes). This transfer really is generally good - lot of strong detours into bold visuals despite an overall source-dependent shortcoming...

English audio is put across in the film's original 2.0 stereo mix and is actually very consistent as a result.

The disc opens to a static main menu page. From there, a static scene-selection menu allows access to the film via 12 chapters.

This UK DVD from 88 Films, which is region free, trumps Full Moon's US counterpart in terms of extras.

As well as a reasonably engaging pillar-boxed (and VHS quality) "Videozone" Making Of featurette which runs for just shy of 9 minutes - available on both releases - we also get the film's original 65-second trailer here, along with previews for THE CORPSE GRINDERS, HIDEOUS!, GIRL IN GOLD BOOTS, DOLL SQUAD, CASTLE FREAK, SLICE AND DICE, DOLLMAN, ROBOT WARS, TWO MOON JUNCTION and BLOOD ORGY OF THE SHE-DEVILS.

DOCTOR MORDRID is a guiltily enjoyable, gaudily colourful romp that is equal parts silliness, unapologetic cheap trash and engaging sci-fi matinee-type hokum. Fans of Full Moon no doubt know what to expect already. If you're a fan of this film, or simply a die-hard Combs acolyte, then the best way to see this feature is via 88 Films' decent DVD.

By Stuart Willis