there is very little T & A one can ogle and not a single moment of wrestling one can enjoy
As a film, the only positive aspect of "Wrestlemaniac" is the ingenious back story crafted for its killer, El Mascarado. Back in the sixties, the Mexican government decided they wanted to win a gold medal at the Olympics. Shortly after this announcement, the top four Mexican wrestlers went mysteriously missing. Then El Mascarado appeared on the scene and dominated all who dared to oppose him in the square ring. But then something went wrong, El Mascarado went insane and began killing his opponents. Fifty lobotomies later, he was just as insane as ever as he escaped into the fabled ghost town of El Diablo Negro. With a cool origin like that, delivered by veteran character actor Irwin Keyes, how could they go wrong? By casting a fifty-year-old former wrestler who barely reaches five foot six and seems to get winded doing the most mundane tasks on screen, that´s how. Watching Rey Misterio, Sr. try to be a menacing force in "Wrestlemaniac" is akin to viewing the annual moment when WWE´s Vince McMahan trots the Iron Sheik or Jimmy Snuka out to get their butts handed to him by some young buck. You know that their bodies are far too old to endure whatever punishment is about to be handed down to them, but you watch anyway. The filmmakers try to hide Misterio´s inability to perform by using quick cuts and little screen time, but in the end one can´t help but wonder if the film would have been salvageable with somebody else in the role.
Video:
Even though the picture gets a bit muddy and grainy at times the widescreen presentation featuring a 1.78:1 aspect ratio looks far better than "Wrestlemaniac" deserves.
Audio:
Both the Dolby Digital 5.1 and Dolby Digital 2.0 audio tracks sound fine. Neither track sounds muted, and the audio mix works well.
Extras:
The feature-length audio commentary with producer/writer/editor/director Jesse Baget, director of photography Tabbert Fiiller, and actor Adam Huss offers a few insights into why the film simply doesn´t work. The filmmakers freely admit that after a troubled start, they worked without a script, improvising the majority of the dialogue. They also divulge the reasoning for the film´s short run time: they didn´t shoot enough footage. Baget states that they left in everything they shot in the flick and stretched out the opening titles to make it longer. The other special feature, "Wrestling the Maniac: Behind-the-Scenes of Wrestlemaniac," is little more than five minutes of cobbled together on-set footage set to music.
Film Value:
The opening title montage for "Wrestlemaniac" showing masked wrestlers bounding about a ring set to a great song offered a lot of promise right off the bat. Unfortunately, what could have been a really original film quickly dissolves into a generic and boring slasher flick. "Wrestlemaniac" was written, directed, produced, and edited by the same man, first timer Jesse Baget, who might have been better served by finding a different writer, director, producer, or editor for this project. For a film about porn stars getting slaughtered by a crazed wrestler, there is very little T & A one can ogle and not a single moment of wrestling one can enjoy.
Video:
Even though the picture gets a bit muddy and grainy at times the widescreen presentation featuring a 1.78:1 aspect ratio looks far better than "Wrestlemaniac" deserves.
Audio:
Both the Dolby Digital 5.1 and Dolby Digital 2.0 audio tracks sound fine. Neither track sounds muted, and the audio mix works well.
Extras:
The feature-length audio commentary with producer/writer/editor/director Jesse Baget, director of photography Tabbert Fiiller, and actor Adam Huss offers a few insights into why the film simply doesn´t work. The filmmakers freely admit that after a troubled start, they worked without a script, improvising the majority of the dialogue. They also divulge the reasoning for the film´s short run time: they didn´t shoot enough footage. Baget states that they left in everything they shot in the flick and stretched out the opening titles to make it longer. The other special feature, "Wrestling the Maniac: Behind-the-Scenes of Wrestlemaniac," is little more than five minutes of cobbled together on-set footage set to music.
Film Value:
The opening title montage for "Wrestlemaniac" showing masked wrestlers bounding about a ring set to a great song offered a lot of promise right off the bat. Unfortunately, what could have been a really original film quickly dissolves into a generic and boring slasher flick. "Wrestlemaniac" was written, directed, produced, and edited by the same man, first timer Jesse Baget, who might have been better served by finding a different writer, director, producer, or editor for this project. For a film about porn stars getting slaughtered by a crazed wrestler, there is very little T & A one can ogle and not a single moment of wrestling one can enjoy.
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