It is hard to rate some trashy films. Films can be really good entertainment in spite of the quality of the filmmaking. In fact, it might be even harder to create unique trash that keeps surprising you than most "quality" films with which you know what you are going to get. It certainly is an even better pleasure to watch them. My friend says that he knows a trash film is worth something if it gets three laughs out of me. I mean proper, good belly laughs when you just can't believe what the film is showing to you, scene after scene. That's as good a rating as any for these movies. Any film that has these three laughs has a special place in my heart.
Three laughs case file #26:
Los campeones justicieros (The Champions of Justice), Mexico 1971
Director: Federico Curiel
Mexican cinema is filled with luchadore pictures, featuring the exploits of popular masked wrestlers who are something akin to superheroes in the country. The most famous of these is of course Santo, who was popular enough to also star in ripoffs such as 3 Dev Adam. Also in his official films, Santo fought against monsters, vampires and mummies and such.
My favorite film of this subgenre features Santo's sometimes-sidekick Blue Demon, as well as four other colorful luchas. It's a sort of Avengers film to see all these guys together, with the attitude straight outta Da 5 Bloods. The coolest wrestler to my mind is Mil Mascaras (Thousand Masks), who keeps switching his mask, having a neat trick with which to change his mask on the fly without revealing his face. It would be akin to Judge Dredd removing his helmet. Needless to say, he has a specific mask with each task he's doing.
The film's plotting is corny and comicbooky, but also meant to be as such. The costumes are colorful and garish. It has a similar style of both riffing and embracing the pop art stylings of its day as the Adam West Batman show. Most of the film has the luchas relax somewhere, like on a beach or a picnic, which gets interrupted by the sudden appearance of evil midget wrestlers, and a fight ensues while some improvised jazz plays on the soundtrack. It is to me, a sort of perfect breezy summer movie.
★ or ★★★★★
Three laughs (SPOILERS):
1. The opening scene of the film just oozes coolness as our heroes drive motorcycles through nightly scenes as the cool jazz score plays. Each one gets a close-up and their name so as we know who they are on the first scene that is a wrestling match against Los Hermanos Muertes.
2. The film's villains soon appear themselves, too. They are some little people dressed in red devil outfits, armed with machine guns. They shoot the referee of the match from the rafters and then escape through the roof with a handy rope heading to their getaway car.
3. Of course, these dwarves haven't come about naturally, but they are a creation of a vengeful mad scientist. He has a machine that creates these little fellows, after which they show off their judo throws on the professor's hypnotized henchman, Demon Mask. The uruk-hai sure didn't get as good a programming and a training session to boot.
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