Mirageman

The midnight movies at SIFF are usually cheesy B-reel stuff. And that can be great, as long as it's done with heart and a sense of humor. Mirageman delivers spectacularly.

Mirageman is a "super hero" who roams the streets of an unnamed city in Chile, battling evil and returning purses to little old ladies. Really he's a martial arts master with a younger brother whose fear of leaving his room seems to be helped by seeing Mirageman's antics portrayed on the local news. And of course there are plenty of people willing to bend his philanthropy to their own purpose.

Nearly every super hero series takes a stab at the "before they were famous" phase. Fashioning early versions of costumes is a favorite, and the inevitable mishap in the early tussle with a gang who has the upper hand on the hero. But few do it with such dead-pan humor and style.

Make no mistake, this is still a very low budget film. Costumes look like Goodwill handouts, and the acting isn't great. Don't look for complex character development or flashy special effects. But a couple scenes remeniscent of the Bruce Lee "climb the pagoda" movies and some awesomely cheesy dialog make this way more fun than most of the mainstream superhero movies.