Welcome back to 1 out of 5 – Would Recommend, where the best of the worst get their day in the sun. Today, we’re deviating from the format a tad, tackling something awfully good from the small screen: Tattooed Teenage Alien Fighters from Beverly Hills!
What’s The Plot?
Evil emperor Gorganus (pronounced “gorg-anus” in the theme song but “gor-gann-us” in the show) wants to take control of Earth for reasons that don’t honestly matter. Nimbar, a sentient ball of magic snot, selects four teenagers to become Galactic Sentinels to battle Gorganus’ army…of five or six rotating monsters.
…Why?
Because Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers was bigger than Jesus, that’s why. The show is a blatant knock-off of Power Rangers and just about the only show that rode that show’s popularity wave to not use Japanese footage for the monster fights. The end result looks like a series based on knock-off action figures from the dollar store with a budget to match.
Five Reasons to Watch It
- Glenn Shaddix (Beetlejuice, Demolition Man) and David Lander (Squiggy) are among the supporting cast despite both being much better than this.
- Ninajbot, the first monster of the week, is a stunt man in face paint and cheap armor. Even the characters think he looks fake.
Probably not on this dude’s resume.
- The sets for the giant monster battles were probably the most expensive things on the show, hence why they never actually get too damaged. Though “battles” is too strong a word for sequences that consist mostly of gymnastics and pointing.
- The four teenagers actually start off hating each other, which is an oddly realistic touch for a production of this caliber.
- “We’ve been transformed/got muscles and powers!” – the song from the first fight scene, written using the age old technique of “describe what the audience just saw in song”.
Recommendation
If you grew up on Power Rangers and love bad movies, this show is a must. It’s a dollar store knock-off of the real thing, having all the cheese of early Power Rangers with none of the well made Japanese footage to save it. Whole series is on DVD for less than $10 and you get 14 hours of entertainment from it. Bonus: The theme will be stuck in your head for the rest of your life.
…Why does the yellow one only have one sleeve?
NEXT WEEK: Hollywood comes scrapin’ at the door in 2012’s Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance.
