Crash and Burn.

Now the mid-week TV clusterfuck is over, I think we should take a look at the other film marketed as a Robot Jox sequel, despite being nothing of the sort. Enjoy!

Technically this film came out before Robot Wars, as this came out only a year after Robot Jox. And yes, even given the title, cover art and the opening theme - this has fuck all to do with Robot Jox. Although Charles Band did direct this one, yay!

Also as an aside, I'm watching this on a really shitty VHS tape - as you can see by the screen grabs I made. If you're wondering why...well it's all I could find, with MGM taking over Empire Pictures it's been really hard for Full Moon to get this out on DVD, I mean it is out there...but good luck finding that in the UK. I bring this up because the quality of the VHS was so bad I could barely make out the credits - let alone anything else and the sound quality was atrocious with some moments so fucking quiet I had to ram up the volume only for the next scene to be so fucking loud I'd have to make an epic dive to turn the volume down before my head exploded. Then again I'm not entirely sure it's the VHS' fault, there is at least one scene where an actor screams over the lines of another. But either way my reaction, enjoyment and criticisms may be impacted by the format and I wouldn't even know it. I definitely would like to see this on DVD.

Hey you remember Megan Ward from the Trancers series? Yeah, she sucks in this just as much as she does in those other films. What is it with Band and Full Moon giving her lead roles? She is a truly terrible actress. And guess who else is in this? The awesome Bill Moseley! Admittedly having Moseley in a film about a killer who could be anyone does kind of spoil the mystery somewhat... then again, Moseley as Terminator rip off is fucking awesome, this guy is fucking awesome in everything.

Crash and Burn is even less like Robot Jox than Robot Wars was. Honestly it feels much closer to a horror film than it ever does a Sci-Fi one. In places it's extremely tense. A bunch of people all huddled inside of creepy ass power plant, trying to survive as a crazy ass storm rages outside while all the while a mysterious slasher, that could be anyone in the group, begins to pick them off. Hell 'Crash and Burn' isn't even a Robot Jox reference, it's its own completely unique thing for this film.

Plus, although nothing new, the whole there is a killer amongst us and it could be any one is a plot cliché for a reason...mainly because if done well (and it is in this film) then it's a great device to keep the plot moving and to keep the audience hooked. This film just has such a great sense of flow and pace, because we have a overarching mystery to keep it all going.

The backdrop for Crash and Burn is almost frighteningly accurate. I mean I don't think this will all happen over the next twenty or so years, but with the direction our world is going in, I could very much see a future similar to this ahead of us. It's a dystopian future ravaged by a severe lack of an ozone layer where a Big Brotheresque corporation called Unicom is at war with a bunch of rebels called the ILU. Unicom banned the use of robots and computers by civilians blaming the public for the fucked up state of the world, using the bible to back up their claims. Unicom uses things called Synthoids, robots that appear human, to infiltrate and eliminate units of the ILU.

Crash and Burn's immediate, central plot, is about a motorcycle courier fighting a Terminator Rip-Off, all the while trapped in a power plant as a Sci-Fi jargon storm rages outside. As it turns out though, Crash and Burn is a pretty great slasher film and although nowhere near original, combining a Terminator and a Replicant into one thing and have it played by Bill Moseley is a mouthwatering recipe. The film really uses its concept well too, the tense scene as the group sit around and test one another by cutting their flesh to work out who the Synth is, as Synth's don't bleed, is a really exciting and tense moment. Once again, not exactly original, sure but it's still done well enough to be enjoyable (well aside from the boom mic dangling in at the top of the shot). Plus those films didn't have one of the robots getting stamped on by an even bigger robot, either!

And you guys remember this is a Full Moon production, right? It's been a while since I've noticed boom mics in shots, but we got them here, stay classy Full Moon! Despite this though, Crash and Burn has some pretty great special effects.

So do I recommend it? Although it has even less stop motion robot action than Robot Wars did and has practically no new ideas of its own, I found Crash and Burn an extremely enjoyable little Horror Sci-Fi film and as far as the low budget scene goes, you could do hell of a lot worse than this film. Plus, Bill Moseley is as consistently fantastic as always, if nothing else, you need to watch this for the last half an hour or so for his performance and an absolutely awesome third act.

Think About It!

-Locke