Robot Jox (1990)

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nTitle: Robot Jox (1990)

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nDirector: Stuart Gordon

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nCast: Gary Graham, Ann Marie Johnson, Paul Koslo

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nCast:

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nRobot Jox is one of Stuart Gordon’s most expensive films, butndon’t go thinking Robot Jox is a “big budget” movie, in fact it’s quite thenopposite, for a movie about giant robots, Robot Jox’s budget is actually quitensmall. But that didn’t bother director Stuart Gordon, a director who’s alwaysnbeen accustomed to working with really low budgets. I mean here’s a directornwho’s used to making movies below the 1 million dollar mark. The amazing thingnis that for working with shoestring budgets, he’s always made pretty coolnmovies, movies that have gone on to become cult favorites. For example, he didnRe-Animator (1985) with a mere 900,000 and to this day Re-Animator is stillnconsidered one of the best zombie splatter fests ever. The ultra gorynmasterpiece called From Beyond (1986) only cost 4.5 million. Fortress (1992) anscience fiction film about a futuristic underground penal colony that cost 8nmillion dollars to make, yet somehow managed to look better than Robot Joxnwhich was made with 10 million! His budgets always went a little higher withneach feature he made until he made the most expensive film in Gordon’s career; anscience fiction film called Space Truckers (1996), a film about these spacentruckers who unbeknownst to them carry a deadly cargo on their space ship.nSpace Truckers was a pretty cool little sci-fi movie that hardly anybody saw. Thatnone cost 25 million, the highest budget that Gordon ever worked with, yetnstrangely enough, it’s one of his lesser known films! So anyhow, with all thenexcitement surrounding Guillermo del Toro’s excellent giant robot movie PacificRim (2013), I thought it would be a good idea to revisit Gordon’s Robot Jox, anfilm that plays with many of the same ideas that Pacifi Rim plays with, but withna  far, far smaller budget.

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n Robot Jox is all about a future in which war has been abolished and countries now settle theirndisputes by having giant robots kick the living shit out of each other. You’dnthink they go for a bigger budget when thinking about making a film about giantnrobots, but nope, they decided to do it anyway with just 10 million.nAs a basis for comparison, Michael Bay made Transformers (2007) for 150 millionnand Guillermo del Toro made Pacific Rim with 180 million!  Yet here’s Gordon, the miracle worker, makingnthis big on ideas sci-fi movie with a mere 10 million. The problem with RobotnJox for me is that its low budget shows. Sets look half assed, miniatures looknunconvincing, and the futuristic wardrobe looks like motorcycle driving gear.nWhy do they always do this in cheap sci-fi films? Got no money for some decentnwardrobe? Hey, it’s okay! We can use football shoulder pads! We’ll make it look futuristic! Problem with that is that I always notice!nWho wouldn’t right? Are all thosencables on their suits RCA cables they ripped out of somentelevision set? Sure they are! All this adds an unexpected level of comedy to the whole filmnwhich some of you might enjoy.

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nThen again, ten million dollars is about the average budgetnof a Godzilla movie and Robot Jox definitely plays in the same ball park as anGodzilla movie. I mean, were talking about giant robots fighting each othernhere! And truth be told, the scenes with the giant robots fighting each othernin the middle of an arena in the dessert are the best part of this film. Theneffects were achieved with a mixture of stop motion animation and traditionalnminiatures which gives the robots a tangible feel, your brain instantlynrecognizes these aren’t computer animated images, these guys made thesenminiatures and these puppets for real, which is something I always admire. Thenstop motion animation and the miniatures were done by Dave Allen, a guy who didna lot of stop motion animation work in z-level movies like all those Full MoonnPictures that were so popular during the 90’s. I’m talking about films like DoctornMordrid (1992) and Subspecies (1991). Full Moon pictures we’re popular amongstngenre fans during the 90’s because they were cheesy fun. They might’ve lookedncheap, but they were also unabashedly geeky, these filmsndisplayed a genuine love for genre films. David Allen brought all his lownbudget know how to Robot Jox, his stop motion animation is a highlight of thenfilm.

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nOne of the big problems with this movie is the uneven tone.nWhen studios think of a film about giant robots, their target audience isnimmediately children, this is the reason why Godzilla films always have ‘Godzuki’,nwhich is like a baby Godzilla, a character deliberately placed in Godzillanfilms so the kiddies will have something to identify with. Well, at firstnglance Robot Jox feels like a kid’s film, but then it has many double entendrenjokes, harsh language and even some nudity and sex. I hear the writer behindnthe film, Joe Haldeman, wanted a more serious, dramatic picture while StuartnGordon was more interested in making it a cheesy, b-movie, akin to a Saturdaynmorning cartoon, so I guess in the end this is why the movie ended up beingnuneven in nature. The cheesiest thing about the movie though is the dialog whichnalways feels unnatural, in the end, the lines spoken in this picture will morenthan likely make you laugh all the way through the picture. I know I did! It’snone of those movies that’s funny because it’s bad. But basically, if you enjoynlow budget cheesy films, then you are more than likely going to enjoy RobotnJox. I enjoy it because I have high tolerance for cheese, in fact, I love it!

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nProduction wise this movie has a sad story because it’s thenfilm that put an end to Empire Pictures which went bankrupt while making this movie.nTo give you an idea of the troubled path that Robot Jox had to go through tonget released, the film was completed in 1987, but the whole thing with thenbankruptcy held its release in theaters all the way back to 1990! At the time, thisnhad been Empire Pictures most expensive movie yet! This film was certainly anrisk for them, but I’m willing to bet it’s one they were willing to takenbecause of the whole popularity with the Transformers cartoons. They thoughtnthey had a potential hit in their hands because of this! Unfortunately fate hadnother plans for it and so the film ended up being released in 1990, when the Transformersncartoon show had faded away. Empire Pictures was the company behind such lownbudget sci-fi/horror fare as Spellcaster (1988), Creepozoids (1987), MutantnHunt (1987), Terrorvision (1986), Zone Troopers (1985), Trancers (1985),nGhoulies (1985), Troll (1986), Rawhead Rex (1986), and many of Gordon’snprevious horror films like Dolls (1987), From Beyond (1986) and Re-Animator (1985).nBasically, if it was the mid eighties and it was low budget direct to videonhorror/science fiction, these guys were behind it. Sadly, Robot Jox brought allnthat to an end; I guess they bit more than they could chew. Too bad because Inactually liked all those cheesy low budget movies they helped produce andndistribute during the 80’s, they were cheap low brow fun, I still find myselfnrevisiting many of their films.

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nPersonally, I enjoy Robot Jox because it’s a film I’ve beennwatching since it was first made, and at the time, these kinds of films were anrarity. True, there were cartoons about giant robots, but nobody was making motionnpictures about giant robot like this one. There were no films like Transformersn(2007) or Pacific Rim (2013), so I guess in its own small way, Robot Jox was anpioneer in American science fiction cinema. Strangely enough, it was thenTransformers cartoon show which inspired Stuart Gordon to make this film, Gordon’snintention was to capitalize on the success of the cartoon show, unfortunately, bynthe time Robot Jox was released in theaters the popularity of the cartoon shownhad faded and so, the film tanked. It did poorly in theaters and received badnreviews, but it later garnered cult following and found its audience on homenvideo, I know that’s where I discovered it. It was followed by a series of filmsnthat were sometimes marketed as sequels to Robot Jox, but in reality weren’t.nThese films were Crash and Burn (1990), which actually borrowed its title fromna line from Robot Jox and then there was Robot Wars (1993). I never saw eithernof these, but I’ll see if I can my hands on them for review. Bottom line withnRobot Jox is that it’s not a terrible film, it has its entertaining moments,nespecially those robot fights that while dated when compared to films likenPacific Rim, are still fun to watch in my book.
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