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A group of monsters led by the evil Princess Elzibub are taking over the world, and only Inframan can stop them. That's about the depth of the plot. Super Inframan was developed by the Shaw Brothers studio as a Chinese version of the popular Japanese children's show "Ultraman", and it's pretty shameless in ripping off that program, right down to the transformation sequences where Danny Lee (yes, he plays something other than a cop here) becomes the pumped-up hero.

Even though this is first and foremost a "kid's movie", it's still pretty fun for adults. The picture is unintentionally hilarious; some of the monsters (which include a giant plant, some weird thing with drills for hands, and a hot lady with eyes on her palms) are so ridiculous that they have to be seen to be believed. And the script -- oh, the script -- I'm really surprised that the actors managed to deliver some of the lines in here with a straight face. Of course, there's also the stock characters, like the mandatory cute-girl-in-distress and the dreaded annoying kid, which provide plenty of laughs as you wonder exactly why Inframan would bother saving them.

But despite the cheese factor and low budget, Super Inframan still manages to deliver some solid action, especially considering that it's guys fighting in big rubber suits for the most part. I also enjoyed some of the set and character designs -- all in all, the movie does have a kind of cool visual style. And really, it brought back some nice memories of sitting around the TV on Saturday afternoons, watching the latest monster flick. As long as you don't try to attempt to take Super Inframan seriously in any way, you should have a good time with it. At the very least, it provides some excellent "Mystery Science Theatre" fodder to go along with a few adult beverages.

RATING: 7

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