Movie Details
| Title: | Mirageman | |
| Director: | Ernesto Díaz Espinoza | |
| Year: | 2007 | |
| Genre: | Kung-Fu | |
| Times Seen: | 1 | |
| Last Seen: | 09.21.07 |
Other Movies Seen By This Director (4)
- Bring Me the Head of Machine Gun Woman
- Kiltro
- Mandrill
- Redeemer
| Date Viewed | Venue | Note |
| 09.21.07 | Alamo South Lamar | This Screening is part of event: FantasticFest 2007 I had originally planned to see the Mobius doc next but... I was really more in the mood for something with action that would keep me awake so I switched at the last minute and found a seat for this instead. So... this dude Marko Zaror is a martial arts guy and made a movie in Chile called Kiltro (showing later in the fest). According to the Twitch guy who introduced the film, that was South America's first martial arts movie. The same team behind that movie made another movie and this is it. Basically, it's the story of what if Marko wanted to become a vigilante superhero. He doesn't have any superpowers but he can beat the everloving shit out of you if he wants to and, you know, that's been known to deter some crime from time to time. So the movie's shot very verite style, very fast and loose, with marko running around the streets in his little home-made costume fighting crime. There's lots of humor as he tries things like changing into his costume when he sees wrong being done or public backlash because he looks lame and people take him for a crazy person or a joke, but the music in the movie give his serious motives an action movie mentality that resulted in the crowd cheering A LOT whenever Marko did an awesome kick or won a fight or whatever. And this is the Bruce lee kind of fighting where there's no wires or digital effects, just people getting punched and kicked and thrown around. I liked the movie and laughed and felt entertained throughout, but also felt a sense that everyone around me was liking it a bit more than I was. It's weird... I liked it for sure but it felt like it was missing an ingredient to make it a real movie. I'm not sure that makes sense to anyone (I'd think festival regulars might get me before casual viewers do), but it's like it needed salt or something. I actually think this is common in festivals and one of the major reasons why movies like Hatchet and Behind the Mask lose their luster when seen as a "normal" movie. In the context of all these micro-budget submissions and imported indies, festival-goers glom on to any and every enjoyable moment in each film, deeming it good or even MUST-SEE if there are enough of them, yet a lot of these movies are incredibly mediocre stacked against a good studio movie. It's worth it because every once in a while you find real gold that's way better than any studio movie could be, but along the way there's a good deal of pyrite as well. Not to say this movie is pyrite. Marko, please don't kick me in the face. |
