Memorable, crazy movie

Don't listen to the negative reviews

It really made me laugh, but for some moments I was tearing up because I could relate so much.

Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

In a post-WWIII future, all wars have been outlawed. The major superpowers have now devised an amusing way of settling differences: putting daring pilots inside massive bipedal robots, which then fight each other in rural settings. In this case, two superpowers clash over control of Alaska. Our hero is Achilles (Gary Graham of 'Alien Nation'), and his rival is the maniacal Alexander the Russian (Paul Koslo, "The Omega Man"). Scientists have also created what are known as "test tube babies", people genetically engineered from birth to be robo-warriors. One of these is Athena (Anne-Marie Johnson, 'In the Heat of the Night'), a challenger to Achilles's throne.While admittedly a minor item on the resume of celebrated director Stuart Gordon ("Re- Animator"), "Robot Jox" is lightly engaging sci-fi entertainment. On occasion, there are flashes of skin, and bits of gore, but it's mostly harmless PG rated stuff. It's nowhere near the brilliance of some of the directors' H.P. Lovecraft adaptations, but it's not exactly trying to be. Enhanced by typically impressive David Allen stop motion effects, it provides a nice diversion for any person eager to see giant robots doing battle. Production design, lighting, costumes, and music are all well done on a low budget. Gordon begins the movie with a bang, and ends it with a similarly rousing big confrontation between Achilles and Alexander.Gordon appreciably finds acting roles for some of his old hands, like Robert Sampson, Jeffrey Combs, Ian Patrick Williams, and his wife Carolyn, although some of them really don't have a lot to do. Michael Alldredge ("The Incredible Melting Man") is good fun as a dude named Tex Conway. "Karate Kid II" villain Danny Kamekona, Hilary Mason ("Don't Look Now"), prolific voice over artist Jason Marsden, and Thyme Lewis ('Days of Our Lives') co-star.This decently paced escapism kills time for an agreeable and painless 85 minutes.Followed by "Robot Wars".Six out of 10.

The antagonism between Haldeman and the director is easily understood: one wanted a thoughtful conjecture about robots, faithfully transposed on screen; the other wanted mindless fun, and the director got his wish fulfilled, won. It was a clash of intentions and views. But regardless, the flick can very well be enjoyed for what it is, a yarn about robot jockeys. In terms of low—budget Sci—Fi, it's likable and exciting. Merely ordinary low—brow Sci—Fi; I used to search for such things. (Remember the Hauer Sci—Fi, the Van Damme Sci—Fi? Well, it's as mindless, and as likable.) Haldeman feels his chance was wasted. So give the director a break. It's not as if he had betrayed some matchless script; anyway, Haldeman's script can still be shot by another director. There are other two robot flicks from the early '90s, unrelated—but enjoyable as well.In his autobiography, 'Interim Report. An Autobiographical Ramble' (which every Sci—Fi fan should read), Haldeman wrote at length about the movie; he seems only moderately grudging. He enjoyed working with the leads—Graham and Mrs. Johnson.

This movie features a quite ridicules concept of a post WW III apocalyptic world in which wars are being outlawed (yeah right, like that will work) and instead nations let huge robots battle each other to settle disputes and to win land from each other, in stadiums with a crowd and referees and all of that. Nevertheless, because of its quite ridicules concept it also is a really pleasant movie to watch. The movie surely brings some good B-movie entertainment.Yes it's ridicules but it's also quite awesome at the same time. Seeing 2 huge robots battle each other with all kinds of different weapons and gadgets is an awesome sight and something that always speaks to the imagination of basically every guy.It's of course a big B-movie with its story and characters and all but it really isn't a bad looking movie. It's special effects, miniatures and its stop-motion effects are all quite good looking, with the exception of a couple of sequences. At least it's all better than your average "Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers", like you would perhaps normally expect from a movie like this.Too bad that the action is sort of being limited. Surely from a movie with such a concept some more fireworks was to be expected. Of course this is mostly due to its quite limited budget of around ten million dollars. Nevertheless it was enough to cause the bankruptcy of its production company. Because of this it also took several years for the movie to be completed and released. When released it also wasn't a great box office success. Nevertheless a sequel got made several years later, called "Robot Wars".It isn't the best written story but its all interesting enough to hold your interest. Of course the movie is quite formulaic, which also makes it predictable but that is also sort of part of its B-movie charm. The story got written by director Stuart Gordon, who also is responsible for the similar genre movies "Fortress" and "Space Truckers", as well as the cult horror classic "Re-Animator". He currently is working on a new Re-Animator movie, called at this moment "House of Re-Animator", which he is attached to, to write and direct.It of course also doesn't feature the best actors. Most actors involved with this movie mostly played and still play in television series and not really any big blockbuster productions. Nevertheless this movie really doesn't feature the worst acting you'll ever see in a genre movie such as this one. I especially liked Paul Koslo, who goes deliciously over-the-top as the movie its very stereotypical Russian villain, with his insane, often random, laugh.Quite enjoyable for what it is.6/10http://bobafett1138.blogspot.com/

Robot Jox tries hard, but is fundamentally a series of fight scenes strung together -- robot against robot, man against man, man against woman. The premise had potential, but it seems the script wasn't really given the couple of more drafts it needed. Still, it was fairly good, for a science fiction action movie. Part of it was because the script was by Joe Haldeman. For those who aren't familiar with the name, Haldeman wrote the award-winning science fiction novel "The Forever War." It's considered one of the very best powered battle armor novels, right up there with Robert Heinlein's "Starship Troopers" and John Steakley's "Armor." And this movie is really more like a giant powered battle armor movie, rather than giant robots. It's closer to what fans would have wanted instead of the travesty that was Paul Verhoeven's "Starship Troopers," which bore only a passing resemblance to the novel it was based on.Despite some assumptions, this really isn't based on Homer's "Iliad." A couple of names are all they had in common. Achilles having his robot's foot blown off had no parallel in the Iliad, which didn't include Achilles' death. Nor was the ancient Achilles a noble warrior. He was the mightiest, but also vengeful and petty. Even the robot jock killed off in the first scene doesn't fit. He was named Hercules, while the Greek Iliad would have had Herakles.The effects were fairly good for the time and the budget. True, it wasn't comparable to "Terminator 2" a year later, but that movie cost ten times as much. The stop motion was almost as good as the robotic walkers in "The Empire Strikes Back" and "Return of the Jedi." Better, in fact, than a lot of Ray Harryhausen animation, which is highly regarded, but quite dated.Don't bring high expectations into this and you probably won't be disappointed. It's better than a lot of other low-budget flicks and even some big-budget blockbuster wannabes that have better effects but far worse scripts.