As a producer, Saban has always followed a strict "rape-and-pillage" policy when it comes to making television shows. His inexplicably popular "Power Rangers" show has appeared for four consecutive seasons on FOX Television. The show is actually a rip-off of Japanese Sentai TV shows. "Sentai" means simply "team." Sentai shows (of which there are thousands) all consist of a group of teenagers in color-coordinated costumes who pilot giant robots and combat guys in cheap rubber monster suits. Saban, ever the penny-pincher, saw an opportunity. He bought the rights to one of the more cheapjack shows called "Jyu Rangers," cut out all the special effects and edited them together with a few smiling American actors. Voila! A brand new show was born. Apparently kids didn't notice the Power Rangers crunching Japanese pagodas under the feet of their robot "Zords" every time they fought a giant monster. Over the years, Saban has run out of special effects several times. No problem. He just buys more Japanese shows and edits them in. Again, kids didn't seem to notice that whenever it came time to fight the giant monsters, the new White Ranger would mysteriously disappear (he was edited out of another show called "Dai Rangers"). Now Saban is at it again, milking even more money out of America's youth with the second Power Rangers movie. At least he springs for new special effects (as opposed to, say, cutting a few choice scenes out of an old Godzilla movie).

In this latest afternoon babysitting effort, the colorful karate-kicking Power Rangers are called on to save the universe from Divatox, a witchy space pirate with loads of PG-rated cleavage. Right off the bat, Turbo isn't making itself any friends with its Star Wars-style pre-credit crawl explaining the story (some crap about a magic key to another dimension, a kindly wizard named Lerigot and an evil demon named Maligore). Apparently Divatox wants to rule the universe by freeing Maligore and marrying him for his power. Hey, nobody said it was Shakespeare.

To start things off, Rocky (the Blue Ranger, if you're keeping score) unleashes a stunning display of clumsiness and "spinning ankle kicks" his way out of the training ring, breaking his back. The doctors assure him he'll recover quickly, but with the destruction of the universe looming, he is summarily replaced with a 12-year-old kid named Justin. The annoying new Blue Ranger accompanies his fellow leotard clad-teens on a quest through a phony-looking jungle (Saban's backyard perhaps?), past some place called "the Nemesis Zone" and finally to the "Lost Island of Hoo-Ha" or something to that effect. They eventually battle the freed Maligore (who, like all Power Ranger opponents, grows to giant size for the climactic rumble).

The special effects rank somewhere between junky and passable. The film's production designer notes in the press kit that he "wanted to get away from the more high-tech science fiction look we are used to in Star Trek and other movies and use the 'low-tech' look of the '50s." In other words: "Haim Saban wouldn't give me more than 50 bucks to dress this turkey up." Just to make things interesting (or perhaps to offer some lame justification for paying four bucks to see something kids get free on TV), the Rangers are given all new costumes and brand new "Zords" (a word that, if you have kids, I'm sure you've heard ad nauseam). The new costumes look exactly like the old ones except for the goofy headlights on the foreheads. The new Zords are actually cars (including a minivan, a pick-up truck, a sports car, a four-by-four and something that looks like a Geo Metro). I felt bad for the Pink Ranger. Not only is she saddled with the pink spandex, but she got stuck with the Geo Metro.

Though I must admit I was bored hairless by the film, the press kit did provide significant entertainment. Johnny Young Bosch (Adam, the Green Power Ranger) is quoted as saying, "Adam is the sensitive guy." Catherine Sutherland (Kat, the Pink Ranger) observes that her character is "the sensitive female of the group." Meanwhile, Nakia Burrise (Tanya, the Yellow Ranger) sums up her role thusly, "She really cares about her peers." Bet you didn't know the Power Rangers were such a touchy-feely bunch.