(This movie is totally unrelated to the BBC combat robot competitions, the incorrect DVD cover being shown above.)All in all, this is the sort of production I would have expected to come from the 1970s, as a cheap, time-slot alternative to something like Six Million Dollar Man, not something made in 1993. The technology they used to put the movie together must have been picked up cheap at another production house's clearance sale, allowing them to do more than they could have with modern equipment, while staying within their shoestring budget. For sets, there was the usual use of pipe-filled basements, panels of unlabeled, illuminated switches, and lots of camera shaking to simulate movement. Due to the cheapness of the sets, doors for elevators, or passenger compartments always opened and closed off-screen, with the exception of one special effect.The plot was disjointed, but if you ignored the unexplained, and great leaps of faith, it more or less held together, although it certainly could have done with a lot more robots to qualify as a war. If you like a "good" B movie, this one qualifies.
... View MoreThis is not a sequel to Robot Jox. Repeat. This is not a sequel to Robot Jox.In the future, there are warring factions that use robots for transportation because there are terrorists that attack them. A bad guy from the other side takes over the transporting robot and our hero has to fight him with a older robot. Other stuff happens but you really don't remember because the main character's acting is so distracting and the plot is so muddled its hard to figure out the who, what, where and why. This movie was trying to be more complicated then it should and the whole time we are waiting for robots to fight. The robot "fighting" is maybe seven minutes throughout the entire film. You see them walking around here and there but i needs that robot action. Once you see the action, you think to yourself, that was OK, I guess. It was a pleasure seeing Barbara Crampton in this film. You might remember her from Re- animator and From Beyond, two of her earlier better films. Even her acting dragged and fell flat just because she was playing opposite Don "The worst actor ever" Michael Paul. His machoness and blatant harassment of Barbara Cramptons character is very awkward and uncomfortable. If there were classes about overacting, I am pretty sure "Robot Wars" would be on the final. Don Michael Paul is simply bad. This film is boarder line "so bad its good". Good - no, bad - yes, Entertaining - kind of.For more of my reviews you can visit my Youtube Page at: http://www.youtube.com/channel/UCtYHmNjwzVt9E0KUTrELbtA or visit my Blog http://logantoxic.blogspot.com
... View MoreFor years I've searched for this movie only remembering a couple scenes from it, because I always found it on TV right about in the middle, and I'd realize "hey...it's that one movie I like I never get to see all of" and watch the rest of it never even knowing its title...until a couple years ago. I finally was able to watch it from start to finish today, and I must say, it was hilariously bad. Yet they tried to make it good, they had good little details and nice little gags, and the robots are awesome, but there is NO characterization at all. Literally, every character is just an action film stereotype. The acting itself is horrid. The lines border on obnoxious to just plain why on this Earth would anybody say that? Set in 2040, which they eventually get around to after noting a toxic scare in 1993, a weapons/huge killer robot ban in 2015, and some other craziness. There's one big armed robot left, and it looks like a scorpion. It takes tours across the American desert to a modern ghost town (modern as in 1993) so people can see how life was like in the 1990s...when there was still a United States (they call where they're at North Hemi, which I eventually realized was short for Northern Hemisphere...uh huh...yeah right...). The bad guy is an oriental general from the "Eastern Alliance" who takes over the giant robot with the help of "Centros" (pretty much Mexicans, or Latin Americans, you get the picture though...). Then the hero and his sidekick ace mechanic "Stumpy" find a giant robot in good condition buried underneath the supposed 1993 abandoned city...and they fight! Throw in a very incomplete love story, and wondering what happens after the robot fight, like what happens to the hostages that seemed to be running out of air and got tossed like footballs during the big fight, and you've got a great movie to make fun of while watching! Oh yeah, and they never explained how Drake (the hero) knew the villainous General Wally either. I mean, Drake didn't seem to have any quarrels with the General, but the General definitely wanted him dead...for no apparent reason...maybe his "hero sense" was tingling? When you think 1993 you think Jurassic Park, Star Trek The Next Generation had been on for awhile, but when you see this movie, it's like that never happened and we're still in a 1985 rendition of the future...trying to use early 90s slang...seriously, if you like bad movies, this one will give you plenty of ammunition.Sincerely, Exchronos
... View MoreThere's nothing quite like watching giant robots doing battle over a desert wasteland, and Robot Wars does deliver. Sure, the acting is lousy, the dialogue is sub-par, and the characters are one-dimensional, but it has giant robots! The special effects themselves are actually quite good for the period. They are certainly not as polished as today's standards, but it contains a minimum of computer graphics and instead uses miniatures, so it has aged fairly well. Its shortcomings are easily overlooked given the films short runtime, and it does have a certain tongue-in-cheek humour in parts that make it quite enjoyable. I would recommend this to any fan of giant robots or cheesy sci-fi who is looking for a lighthearted hour of distraction.
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