Invisible:

The Chronicles of Benjamin Knight

THE STORY: At the end of this movie there's a Full moon special about it. The director, Jack Ersgard says how its an action-packed special effects bonanza. Yeah, right. Not that I didn't find it entertaining, but hey, it wasn't all that. It was just a cheesy, comic book like movie. Its also the sequel to the movie Mandroid. you may want to read that review first.

This movie begins pretty much right after Mandroid ends. Drago, the evil mad scientist is very much alive and has set up camp in an old asylum. He has an army of lackeys. For some reason he kidnaps women and imprisons them in the asylum and forces them to do table dances for him and his men. (Hey, thats what I'd do if I was a mad scientist!) He still wants the formula for the supercon element. Wade, wheelchair bound after his last encounter with Drago is working with Zanna Zimmer, the daughter of Drago's deceased partner. (that Drago murdered himself) They have a new lab assistant, Ryder. Zanna and Wade are trying to cure their friend Benjamin Knight. Knight was inadvertently turned invisible by Drago. In his spare time, Wade has developed a pair of "Max Headroom" sunglasses that allows the wearer to control Mandroid, the mighty robot.

Unbeknownst to anyone Drago has Ryder's father as a prisoner and is blackmailing Ryder to steal the supercon element. Using the supercon element, Zanna develops a serum that can turn Ben visible temporarily. But if Ben comes in contact with supercon crystals he becomes invisible. Ryder manages to steal some supercon crystals. Unfortunately he doesn't have time to put them in a container so he sneaks the out in his pants. Ryder has a car wreck on his way to Drago and dies. When the police find his body its becoming invisible. A doctor at the hospital that Ben was in reports to an unbelieving police chief about Ben's invisibility. Wanting the truth and the secret, the chief, Colonel Petroff, arrests Zanna. Ben comes and frees her. After a mobile gunfight Zanna, Wade and Ben make it to their lab, but the police are there instantly. Zanna and Ben hide in a secret room. wade tells Petroff that they've fled so Petroff arrests him. Zanna and Wade then go hide out in a cabin her father used as a hunting lodge when he was friends with Drago. Since no one realizes Drago is still alive, Zanna is taken by suprise by Drago's men at the cabin. Ben becomes invisible (by fondling some supercon crystals he keeps in a small case) and frees Wade from the police. Just in time too, as Petroff was having him tortured and drugged for information. With the Mandroid, Wade and Ben go to Drago's hideout. Zanna is being forced to "table dance" in a skimpy dress for Drago and his men. She manages to escape from Drago and his men but is recaptured. Drago holds her suspended over a pit and is ready to kill her when Ben and the Mandroid burst in. Ben is wounded by Drago but Mandroid manages to save Zanna. Driven by revenge, Zanna confronts Drago and sword fights with him. Zanna wins. I'd assume Drago is dead, but if Full Moon ever makes a sequel to this he probably isn't. Triumphant our heroes flee the country and head for the US with the Mandroid. (and I guess the supercon formula.)

Like the movie, Mandroid, this movie was pretty much a live action comic book. Corny, cheesy but entertaining because of that. I'm sure Full Moon considers it to be an action packed thriller, but lets be for real...its kind of silly. Doesn't mean I didn't like it. I got a lot of chuckles out of it. I did expect it to be more about Benjamin Knight and his invisibility, but it seemed like it was more of a continuation of Mandroid. Invisible characters seem to be hard to do in movies....at least good movies. With today's technology you don't have too many visible strings holding objects and the like, but still it seems hokey most of the time. Actually though, this movie did a pretty good job with the effects. The movie "The Invisible Man" with Claude Raines was also pretty good. But it was made decades ago!

THE PROS AND CONS OF BEING INVISIBLE: How many of us haven't wondered at least once in awhile what it would be like to be invisible? There are certain advantages, but is it all its cracked up to be?

PROS:

1) Okay, you're invisible. Hey you can spy on people with impunity! You can even spy on the opposite sex to get your rocks off.

2) You can pretend to haunt someone's house! hide their car keys, make things 'float' through the air, etc. That'd be kind of fun.

3) You could of course, be an excellent thief. $150.00 for a pair of sneakers? Funk Dat! If you can get out of the store without anyone seeing items floating away, you're Scot-free!

4) Speaking of Scot-free, you can see as many movies in a theater as you want. For Free! Concerts? Free! You can even sneak back stage after the show to meet the band! (if you don't scare the [unwrite] outta them, first)

5) Why just spy on the opposite sex? There's probably a lot of hot babes out there who'd get into sex with an Invisible dude! You don't even have to be good looking! The same goes for invisible females! Hey, it'd be weird, but its kind of a slight turn on.

6) You could also beat the [unwrite] out of your enemies without too much trouble.

CONS:

1) Well, in most movies with invisible people, you'd have to be naked to not be seen. (Unless you could make your clothes invisible) This would make invisibility uncomfortable in the winter. Plus, well, you could accidentally smack your wee-wee on something walking around. Better have some pretty tough feet, too.

2) Walking around wouldn't be too much fun either. you'd have to learn how to get your hand-eye coordination together first...without seeing your own hands! you'd probably trip a lot, not being able to see your feet. Lotsa stubbed toes.

3) For guys, shaving would suck! Hey a bad haircut might not be too important, (who's gonna see it?) but stubble builds up pretty quick. I'd probably slice my own throat by accident. Ladies, your legs might be in for some rough treatment.

4) Peeing might be a problem. I don't exactly hit the toilet and I can SEE my dick.

5) If you get hurt you're gonna have a rough time with a doctor. If you have no way of becoming visible getting your tonsils out, or even a tooth pulled would really suck.

6) Um...the government would probably hunt you down. that'd ruin my day. If Fox Mulder didn't track you down the Cigarette Smoking Man probably would.

Best Lines: "Right now, I'd drop to the floor for any man who'd take me to America."-One of the girls that Drago kidnaps before she's abducted. do people in Eastern Europe want to go the US that badly?

"Misery? Are you kidding? I call this character building!"-Wade refuses to answer his interrogators and end the misery of being hit in the face by a big burly beef-eatin' dude.

1.) The actress that plays Zanna is not the same woman from the first movie. Probably because the original Zanna wouldn't do a nude sex scene with Wade. I'm just speculating.

2.) Once again these scientists have radioactive material stored in the house they live in. To make it worse one experiment with supercon goes wrong and Zanna says something about frying the whole country with radiation if they don't get it under control. But, but, they're only ten feet away from the experiment. Yeah, its behind some kind of shielding, but if the radiation is potentially powerful enough to spread to the entire country wouldn't being that near to the source induce instant DEATH? Or at least some pretty bad radiation poisoning?

3.) Does supercon turn anyone that touches it invisible? I thought Ben's condition was a weird accident, but Ryder's dead body begins to fade away from just having it in his pocket!

4.) When Drago first captures Zanna he manhandles her a bit. Drago has got to be around 70! She should have kicked his ass. He was unarmed and Zanna looks to be in pretty good shape.

5.) Zanna has a chance to kill Drago but he taunts her that she can't do it. She flees. When one of his goons catches her, she stabs him. So, Zanna, you can kill this poor unnamed bozo, but you can't kill Drago, the man who killed your father in front you, made one of your friends invisible and crippled the man you love?

NUDITY AND SEX: This movie has more nudity in it than Mandroid. Zanna is seen naked and doing the wild thing, and the other women are seen in various states of undress.

HUH?: Why are these guys still in eastern Europe? In Mandroid the US government wanted to buy their secrets! Why didn't they leave? Obviously the authorities are kind of corrupt in whatever country this is supposed to be. The police chief is a good example of that. He pretty much arrested Zanna with no evidence. Just because Ryder worked for her doesn't mean she had something to do with his death. (Well, a dead body turning invisible might hold up in court since Zanna is known to be working on some crazy science project.)

Wade is all bloody when he's being beaten by the police, but in the next scene nary a bruise. That's one tough hombre!

After Zanna fails to have the nerve to cut Drago's throat she runs away. She runs away even though Drago's men are all around her. She has to run past them. Yet these idiots don't go after her until Drago says "Go after her!" Yeesh....a mad scientist just can't get smart henchman, can he?

How the hell did Drago survive? In Mandroid Wade collapsed several tons of concrete on him! What is this guy, a krytonian? Its never explained even though Zanna asks him how he could possibly still be alive. He just says she doesn't know all about the human body. Yeah, well neither did I. I was unaware that 70 year old men could withstand a few big ass chunks of stone falling on them.

THE TALLY: If you like comic books (sure, we all do!0 this movie won't hurt a bit. For that matter I found it amusing. I cracked jokes pretty much through the whole thing. The whole thing is something out of a superhero magazine. Invisible men, a super-robot, mad scientist that survive certain death to come back again....its all here! Stan Lee* probably loves this flick!