Must See Movie...

This is a tender, generous movie that likes its characters and presents them as real people, full of flaws and strengths.

Clever, believable, and super fun to watch. It totally has replay value.

I really wanted to like this movie. I feel terribly cynical trashing it, and that's why I'm giving it a middling 5. Actually, I'm giving it a 5 because there were some superb performances.

BIONIC BOY is a Filipino rip-off of the American TV series THE SIX MILLION DOLLAR MAN, with the twist that the 'bionic' person is now a little kid and the survivor of a car accident that maimed him and killed his family. Some nefarious gangsters were responsible and are now determined to finish the job, so the kid is fitted with mechanical limbs and an artificial eye and goes up against them. This is cheesy stuff indeed, shot flat on a low budget with all of the exploding hut footage that you expect from films shot in the Philippines.The acting is pretty poor and the static direction saps the whole venture of flair and excitement, and yet the premise is so delightfully cheesy that the film as a whole is difficult to dislike. Basically you watch as a kid goes around performing Hulk-style feats of strength, jumps twenty feet into the air and on top of bad guys, and uses some very basic martial arts skills to bring the enemy down. Fans of high camp will like this one, even if it isn't quite as delirious as the later FOR YOUR HEIGHT ONLY.