Every once in awhile we’ll throw a random review out that’s not necessarily within the horror genre; why not, huh?  It keeps things interesting….though they will still all be independent films.

Today’s random review will be of Keith Hartman’s REAL HEROES.  The film is a low-budget comedy with some funds even gathered through crowd funding.  But low budget or not, I found the film really did it’s job and was very well done for the money they had.

As my title suggests, the story is about a producer putting a reality TV show together constructed of “real heroes”.  People who wear weird costumes and have, somewhat special abilities.  As the producer gets bored of watching them sitting around talking, he constructs a group of villains to cause havoc forcing the team to spring into action.  Well spring is an over exaggerated term to use.  They fight about their costumes, their side kicks,  who’s in charge, etc, etc.

The team consists of Big Shot, Malibu Action Girl, Sable, Water Warrior, Blue Arrow, and Psychic Sam (my favorite of the bunch).  What makes these characters as fun as they are is the great casting of these characters.  Not one of these characters seemed out of place nor amateurish in nature.  The cast is splendid, giving us some great out loud laughs and memorable characters that I hope we will see again in a sequel with a little larger budget.  Most of the big action set-pieces were constrained to some cool comic artwork due to lack of budget.  I would love to see an all out action scene with these guys to really see how they utilize their abilities, or lack thereof,  onscreen.

The film is fun!  Hartman did a great job developing these characters on the page and adapted them in an interesting and funny way that really makes up the movie.  It’s good original stuff here.

The only real complaint I had about the film is the introduction of Malibu Action Girl’s sidekicks. Sure, they were fun on screen but really had no point being in the film.  You don’t need comic relief characters in a comedy.  They seemed forced on us for no real reason and had no pivotal points to motivate the progression of the story or character development.  But that’s just me.  I maybe batshit crazy on the issue but that’s what I felt when they were on the screen.

But Real Heroes is a real gem, one that I will definitely recommend.  If you are a fan of original comedies or comics, or super heroes, you certainly need to check this one out.

 

REAL HEROES 2014 Random Review: Real World Meets Mystery Men