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  • Writer's pictureDeenur _

CHAMPIONS OF JUSTICE (1971): a great bad film

There are two things which I don't think you can get enough of- caffeine and Pro Wrestling. All pro wrestling yes, but specifically Lucha Libre, that South of the Border version of high-flying combat featured affectionately in "Nacho Libre" with Jack Black.

For whatever reason, the world in the 50s and 60s and 70s decided that we couldn't get enough of characters like Santo and Mil Mascaras, so they started making movies. Movies like Santo vs the Mummy, and Santo vs the Strangler, and Santo vs a bad cup of coffee from Denny's. Santo fought everybody. Then Mil and others like Blue Demon got in on the show.

This movie, kind of a Lucha Libre Avengers film has Blue Demon, Mil Mascaras, El Medico Asesino, La Sombra Vengadora, Tinieblas fighting Black Shadow and a legion of Super Midgets.


Super Midgets. Yes, I said Super Midgets. They weren't always super. The mad scientist that irradiated them with some kind of ray to make them super keeps having trouble with his equipment and the midgets go in and out of super-enhancement mode. So sometimes the midgets are winning the fight, and at other times the Luchadors are winning. But the whole technological deficiency makes for some high tension as you don't know if the Luchadors are going to be killed any second.


The Luchadors have the following superpowers: they can ride motorcycles, fight in Lucha Libre matches, hang out with Mexican pageant girls, fight teamed up together, fight when they are alone, fight outdoors, fight indoors, and stop crazy mad scientist guy from destroying the world. I mean, what else do you need?


I think the plot is this (it's in Spanish with English subtitles): the evil doctor mad scientist guy wants to stop the Luchador Avengers from spoiling his latest plan, so he kidnaps the entrants of a Mexican beauty contest (each of whom has a special tie to one on the Luchadors) to hold the beauties as leverage, and control the wrestlers. At least I think that's it. The great part is that it doesn't matter.


Any story line pasted over the action in this film is going to work, as we really don't care who is doing what and why, we just want to see the Luchadors pound the snot of of energy radiated midgets with matching masks and capes. The midgets have a big "M" on their outfits (see above) which is never explained. It could be for "malevolent" letting you know that they are indeed bad guys. Or it could be more subtle, like "M" for mal, the Spanish word for wrong, meaning that they are indeed wrong in their motives and methods. Or it could just be "M" for midget.


There is a sort of finale, when we find out that one of the good guys is actually a bad guy and was working against the good guys all along. Like I said, any story line pasted over the top of the action would probably work. The film has reportedly fallen into public domain, and is available from a number of sources on the internet.


IMDB says 5.9/10. I thought that was surprising. I thought it would have been much lower from the IMDB crowd. Is it better than X-Men Last Stand? Yes. 6.9/10.

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