Written by: Michael Den Boer on July 23rd, 2011
Theatrical Release Date: USA, 2009
Director: Eugene Baldovino
Writer: Eugene Baldovino
Cast: Jacki R. Chan, Jade English, Nora Jesse, Chip Joslin, David A. Lockhart, Elina Madison, Ricardo Mamood-Vega, Anthony Ray Parker, McKay Stewart, Tabitha Taylor, Elan Tom, Hawk Younkins
DVD released: July 12th, 2011
Approximate running time: 80 Minutes
Aspect Ratio: 1.78:1 Anamorphic Widescreen
Rating: NR
Sound: Dolby Digital Stereo English
Subtitles: N/A
DVD Release: Cinema Epoch
Region Coding: Region 1 NTSC
Retail Price: $19.98
Synopsis: A female superhero, who’s power lies within mint chocolates is forced to take on an arsenal of villains in hopes of saving her mentor.
Content wise, this film can best be summed as a comic book superhero film, with a dash of Anime fan-service. The plot is simplistic, the heroine of this tale a woman named Minty is put through a series of ridiculous challenges / fights (think of the plot of Bruce Lee’s Game of Death).
To keep things moving along and lively this film is populated with one of the most colorful casts to ever grace the silver screen. The gallery of rogues include Captain Capability (who shoot’s laser beams out of his eyes), Sensational Ninja (the most flamboyant ninja with an incredible fashion sense), a rat monster, Bruce Zee (a bastard clone of Bruce Lee), a psychotic cartoon rabbit, Molly Leviathan (who uses alcohol to fuel the fire balls she shoots out of her orifices), Zen Cowboy (who wears a blindfold to heighten his other senses), Dr. Brain Bender (the diabolical mastermind behind everything in this film) and Double Delicious (a large breasted lesbian vampire).
The humor in this film has its tongue firmly planted in its cheek. And while some of the humor does require a little bit of knowledge about comic book superhero’s. It is not a deal breaker if you are not as versed in the subject of superhero’s, since plenty of the humor has a universal appeal to it. Also sex plays an integral part in the story at hand and many of the jokes are also rooted in sex.
Though the action scenes are well executed, there is also a crudeness to them. Thankfully this does not take away from their overall impact, since it is highly doubtful that anyone who is watching this film is expecting action scenes rooted in reality.
One area of this production that deserves special notice is its soundtrack of Nerdcore songs.Which includes bands like Pidgeon, 8-Bit, Avenue D. and Malcos.
Performance wise the entire cast all run with their respective roles and the end result is a pitch perfect example of a casts enthusiasm overriding what few minor flaws this production has. And while Elina Madison in the role of the film’s protagonist Minty is one of this film’s stronger performances. The distinction of this film’s most memorable performance goes to Tabitha Taylor in the role of Double Delicious.
The DVD:
Cinema Epoch presents Minty the Assassin in an anamorphic widescreen that preserves the film’s original aspect ratio. Colors and flesh tones look accurate, black levels look very good, details look crisp and there are no problems with compression.
This release comes with one audio option, a Dolby Digital stereo mix in English. The audio sounds clear, balanced and robust when it needs too.
Extras for this release include a trailer for the film (1 minute 18 seconds – anamorphic widescreen) and stills gallery with music from the film in the background. Also included with this release is a promo image gallery of titles that are available on DVD from Cinema Epoch. Overall Minty the Assassin gets a strong audio / video presentation from Cinema Epoch.