Even though this is first and foremost a "kid's movie", it's still pretty fun for adults. The picture is unintentionally hilarious; some of the monsters (which include a giant plant, some weird thing with drills for hands, and a hot lady with eyes on her palms) are so ridiculous that they have to be seen to be believed. And the script -- oh, the script -- I'm really surprised that the actors managed to deliver some of the lines in here with a straight face. Of course, there's also the stock characters, like the mandatory cute-girl-in-distress and the dreaded annoying kid, which provide plenty of laughs as you wonder exactly why Inframan would bother saving them.

But despite the cheese factor and low budget, Super Inframan still manages to deliver some solid action, especially considering that it's guys fighting in big rubber suits for the most part. I also enjoyed some of the set and character designs -- all in all, the movie does have a kind of cool visual style. And really, it brought back some nice memories of sitting around the TV on Saturday afternoons, watching the latest monster flick. As long as you don't try to attempt to take Super Inframan seriously in any way, you should have a good time with it. At the very least, it provides some excellent "Mystery Science Theatre" fodder to go along with a few adult beverages.

The Science Research Institute, led by Professor Liu ("Chang" in the dub), has a plan to deal with this threat. Rayma, their most courageous agent, is given bionic implants that turn him into Infra-Man! In addition to martial arts skills and superhuman strength, Infra-Man can fly and change his size. He also has an arsenal of lasers, bombs, and lethal rocket-powered kicks to battle the monsters with. He'll need them. Princess Elzibub's menagerie includes: A tentacled plant monster that sprays explosive acid, a cackling horned devil with a lion's mane (reminiscent of a Daiei Yokai), a kung-fu fighting spider monster, a lumpy tunneling creature with a drill on one arm and a claw on the other, a fire-breathing dragon man, robots with spring-loaded limbs, a sexy female assistant with hypnotic eyes in the palms of her hands, and a legion of skeleton-garbed foot soldiers.

The Princess will go to any length to conquer the Earth. She even kidnaps an Institute researcher and brainwashes him to become her agent. The final showdown between good and evil takes place at the Princess' mountain base, which is surrounded by dragon bones on the outside, and has a hi-tech command center on the inside. There, Infra-Man confronts the ice age monsters on their home turf. Princess Elzibub threatens the captured Professor Liu and his daughter with death, alternately by being dropped into a flaming lava pit, or being frozen solid inside a glacier! Only Infra-Man has a chance against this army of bizarre foes.

Infra-Man is a cult classic in the U.S., and it's not hard to see why. It's a perfect combination of the Chinese martial arts genre, and Japanese-style tokusatsu. It was produced by the Shaw Brothers studio in Hong Kong. Obviously inspired by Ultraman and other Japanese TV superheroes, it has all the trademarks of the genre: A transforming hero, rubber monsters, and colorful costumes and special effects. Rayma is played by Danny Lee, who also stars in the Shaw Brothers' other monster film, The Mighty Peking Man. The action in Infra-Man begins right after the opening credits, and rarely slows down from there. It moves briskly from one action set piece to another. Exuberant fun!

Grade: A-