Magus Fernos (Ron Fitzgerald) is a bad man. Simply by us calling the dude ‘Magus’ should let you know he’s a bad man if you know anything about mystical magic, which I don’t. We know that Magus is a bad dude because any man wearing that much eye shadow has gotta be up to no good. From what I remember, before Fernos became Magus he was part of a group of underground wizards who generally used their powers for good, like healing people and stuff, but as we well know, absolute power corrupts absolutely.  Soon the cool blue aura that usually represents a good wizard has turned into an evil red as Fernos has ceased to exist and Magus is now in charge with his immediate desire being to destroy those good benevolent wizards who may wish to halt his evil ascent. So with this goal in mind and with his lady Sen (Eva Derek) by his side, a six foot scantily leather clad dominatrix kung fu kicking dame with 2 maybe 3% body fat, they load up in what I think is an old crappy Ford Thunderbird and head out to do some mystical magician killing.

Somewhere else in this universe is a young woman named Claudia (Lizzy Strain) who has just graduated high school and is trying to get her black belt in Jujitsu. To achieve this goal one of the things she has to do is help somebody less fortunate so she decides to assist her old estranged Uncle Felix (Bill Steele). Felix ain’t been right since his wife was murdered, at the hand of Magus no less, and is just waiting to die. Now the bountiful temptress Madame Zelda (Julie Strain) has tried to warn his ass that Magus is out to get him, but he just doesn’t seem to care anymore. At least until his incredibly pesky niece proceeds to bug the hell out of him, forcing herself into his life and giving the old cuss something to live for.

We also see more evidence of how Magus is off his rocker when his hot dominatrix assistant begs him for sex, but like a fighter before a championship fight, Magus

declines and instead uses his magic to give the writhing naked woman in the bed right next to him a rather powerful big O. Now first of all surely using up his magic he’s trying to save up to murderize Felix and them had to more draining than simply rolling over and handling his business, and secondly he’s a bad guy in a movie so the chances of him surviving past the credits are slim at best so what the hell? Go get some.

Anyway as Magus gets closer, Felix and young Claudia are getting really tight with Felix acting as Claudia’s Mr. Miyagi showing her the magic that’s latent inside of her. Eventually the old man and his more powerful adversary will face off in a low budget special effects extravaganza… and though I won’t tell you who will win, one of these two dudes is going to seriously regret that he chose not to have sex with that hot-as-hell, six foot leather clad dominatrix.

Written directed by one John Lechago whose previous film is something called ‘Blood Gnome’ which I hastily placed in my Netflix cue, ‘Magus’ wasn’t all that bad all things considered. Now I have to be honest with you because it did fall short in a number of categories that are usually necessary for us to consider a movie good, such as the acting which in spots was amateurish at best, though John Fitzgerald as the Magus was pretty good. A bit over the top perhaps, but then he is playing evil magician dolled up like Boy George. The narrative as it were was cool in the fact that it was ambitious enough to center itself around magic and wizardry but at it’s core the story underneath the magical pyrotechnics was fairly run of the mill, and to that effect the special effects probably weren’t all that special, especially when you’re showing the film to an audience weaned on ‘Harry Potter’ and Frodo and them.

Now that we’re fully aware of the limitations of ‘Magus’ what this film does well is that it has energy to burn and an infectious charm to it. The special effects might not have been up to ILM spec but director Lechago still had plenty of them in there almost from start to finish, and all things considered, they were reasonably well done. Though most of the actors probably won’t be touring with the Royale Shakespeare Company any time soon, their performances were earnest and heartfelt, and the movie had hot naked chicks in it. Though I would never recommend a movie simply because it had hard working actors, copious low budget special effects and naked women in it, it all kind of came together in a workable package in this one.

If you don’t watch a lot of low budget movies, like I do, then chance are you won’t be too terribly impressed with ‘Magus’. Me on the other hand found it fairly easy to see past the films shortcomings, of which there are admittedly more than one, and still had a good time watching it.