Robot Jox (1990)

Title: Robot Jox (1990)

Director: Stuart Gordon

Cast: Gary Graham, Ann Marie Johnson, Paul Koslo

Cast:

Robot Jox is one of Stuart Gordon’s most expensive films, but don’t go thinking Robot Jox is a “big budget” movie, in fact it’s quite the opposite, for a movie about giant robots, Robot Jox’s budget is actually quite small. But that didn’t bother director Stuart Gordon, a director who’s always been accustomed to working with really low budgets. I mean here’s a director who’s used to making movies below the 1 million dollar mark. The amazing thing is that for working with shoestring budgets, he’s always made pretty cool movies, movies that have gone on to become cult favorites. For example, he did Re-Animator (1985) with a mere 900,000 and to this day Re-Animator is still considered one of the best zombie splatter fests ever. The ultra gory masterpiece called From Beyond (1986) only cost 4.5 million. Fortress (1992) a science fiction film about a futuristic underground penal colony that cost 8 million dollars to make, yet somehow managed to look better than Robot Joxwhich was made with 10 million! His budgets always went a little higher with each feature he made until he made the most expensive film in Gordon’s career; a science fiction film called Space Truckers (1996), a film about these space truckers who unbeknownst to them carry a deadly cargo on their space ship. Space Truckers was a pretty cool little sci-fi movie that hardly anybody saw. That one cost 25 million, the highest budget that Gordon ever worked with, yet strangely enough, it’s one of his lesser known films! So anyhow, with all the excitement 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, a film that plays with many of the same ideas that Pacifi Rim plays with, but with a  far, far smaller budget.

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

Then again, ten million dollars is about the average budget of a Godzilla movie and Robot Jox definitely plays in the same ball park as a Godzilla movie. I mean, were talking about giant robots fighting each other here! And truth be told, the scenes with the giant robots fighting each other in the middle of an arena in the dessert are the best part of this film. The effects were achieved with a mixture of stop motion animation and traditional miniatures which gives the robots a tangible feel, your brain instantly recognizes these aren’t computer animated images, these guys made these miniatures and these puppets for real, which is something I always admire. The stop motion animation and the miniatures were done by Dave Allen, a guy who did a lot of stop motion animation work in z-level movies like all those Full Moon Pictures that were so popular during the 90’s. I’m talking about films like Doctor Mordrid (1992) and Subspecies (1991). Full Moon pictures we’re popular amongst genre fans during the 90’s because they were cheesy fun. They might’ve looked cheap, but they were also unabashedly geeky, these films displayed a genuine love for genre films. David Allen brought all his low budget know how to Robot Jox, his stop motion animation is a highlight of the film.

      

One of the big problems with this movie is the uneven tone. When studios think of a film about giant robots, their target audience is immediately children, this is the reason why Godzilla films always have ‘Godzuki’, which is like a baby Godzilla, a character deliberately placed in Godzilla films so the kiddies will have something to identify with. Well, at first glance Robot Jox feels like a kid’s film, but then it has many double entendre jokes, harsh language and even some nudity and sex. I hear the writer behind the film, Joe Haldeman, wanted a more serious, dramatic picture while Stuart Gordon was more interested in making it a cheesy, b-movie, akin to a Saturday morning cartoon, so I guess in the end this is why the movie ended up being uneven in nature. The cheesiest thing about the movie though is the dialog which always feels unnatural, in the end, the lines spoken in this picture will more than likely make you laugh all the way through the picture. I know I did! It’s one of those movies that’s funny because it’s bad. But basically, if you enjoy low budget cheesy films, then you are more than likely going to enjoy Robot Jox. I enjoy it because I have high tolerance for cheese, in fact, I love it!

A behind the scenes look at the crew working on the "giant robots"

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

One giant step for humanity! 

Personally, I enjoy Robot Jox because it’s a film I’ve been watching since it was first made, and at the time, these kinds of films were a rarity. True, there were cartoons about giant robots, but nobody was making motion pictures about giant robot like this one. There were no films like Transformers(2007) or Pacific Rim (2013), so I guess in its own small way, Robot Jox was a pioneer in American science fiction cinema. Strangely enough, it was the Transformers cartoon show which inspired Stuart Gordon to make this film, Gordon’s intention was to capitalize on the success of the cartoon show, unfortunately, by the time Robot Jox was released in theaters the popularity of the cartoon show had faded and so, the film tanked. It did poorly in theaters and received bad reviews, but it later garnered cult following and found its audience on home video, I know that’s where I discovered it. It was followed by a series of films that were sometimes marketed as sequels to Robot Jox, but in reality weren’t. These films were Crash and Burn (1990), which actually borrowed its title from a line from Robot Jox and then there was Robot Wars (1993). I never saw either of these, but I’ll see if I can my hands on them for review. Bottom line with Robot Jox is that it’s not a terrible film, it has its entertaining moments, especially those robot fights that while dated when compared to films like Pacific Rim, are still fun to watch in my book.

Rating: 2 ½ out of 5

Crash and Burn!

H.P. Lovecraft's From Beyond (1986)

Title: From Beyond (1986)

Director: Stuart Gordon

Writers: Dennis Paoli, Brian Yuzna (based on short story by H.P. Lovecraft)

Cast: Jeffrey Combs, Barbara Crampton, Ken Foree

Review:

From Beyond was Stuart Gordon’s second feature film, it’s the one he made after Re-Animator (1985). Usually when a director is given the opportunity to direct a second film, they will try to do everything better than they did in their first film. The second film is a directors opportunity to wow audiences a little more, and say “see? I know how to do this! I can do it on a regular basis!” And essentially, this is exactly what Gordon did with From Beyond. With this film Gordon was trying to be gorier and scarier. He tried having more action, more special effects. And for all intents and purposes I think Gordon achieved this with From Beyond. There is this ongoing debate amongst horror fans to try and decide which of these two films is Gordon’s best, as much as I love Re-Animator to death, I lean towards From Beyond being Gordon’s best film and I’ll state my reasons why during this review.

Dr. Tillingast working on The Resonator

From Beyond is a film based on H.P. Lovecrafts short story of the same name. It tells the story of Dr. Crawford Tillingast (Jeffrey Combs) who is a laboratory assistant for one Dr. Edward Pretorious, a mad scientist of sorts who has built a machine called The Resonator which stimulates your pineal gland and enhances your emotions and feelings. Suddenly, you feel everything that much more acutely. So you can imagine what this machine will do to your sexual desires! It enhances them to uncontrollable levels. The Resonator has many other side effects. For example, you will see creatures from other dimensions suddenly appear before you and trust me, they are not very nice! In fact, they are hungry for human flesh and will have no problem taking a bite right out of your face! . The use of The Resonator to stimulate the pineal gland will also turn you into a junky! You become addicted to the machine and will want to experience the intense wave of emotions and pleasure over and over again. One final detail, using The Resonator will also make you hungry for human brains! Will anyone ever destroy the damned thing?

Great thing about From Beyond is that it reunites the same creative team that brought us Re-Animator. Stuart Gordon as a director and Brian Yuzna producing. These two guys worked together on many horror films after this one, they brought us films like Dagon (2001) Dolls (1987) and Castle Freak (1995). Can’t blame them for wanting to exploit the greatness of H.P. Lovecraft’s horror stories. They are perfect for translating into horror films because they always play with the idea of the unknown. The supernatural, the horrifying. Many of his stories talk about creatures from other dimensions that defy descriptions. “Old Gods” and things that are beyond our human comprehension. Stuart Gordon and the rest of his creative team obviously love Lovecraft’s universe and have dived into it on more than one occasion. So we got a movie here that’s made by Lovecraft fans for Lovecraft fans. From Beyond also brings together two Stuart Gordons regulars: Jeffrey Combs and Barbara Crampton, who would get to work together yet again in  another excellent Stuart Gordon film: Castle Freak. To top things off, Gordon is a horror director known for some of the grizzliest moments ever commited on celluloid, so rest assured my gore loving friends, you will be pleased in that department!

One of the side effects of using The Resonator, you have to eat brains!

From Beyond reminded me a bit of Frank Henenlotter’s Brain Damage (1988) because it plays with themes of drug addiction and loss of control over ones actions. In Frank Henenlotter’s Brain Damage the main character encounters a small creature that injects an addictive blue liquid into his brain that gives him intense sensations and makes him experience the world just a bit differently. Unfortunately, the creature has to feed on human brains! From Beyond is a lot like that. You have a machine that when turned on will give you intense pleasure, will make you do things you would normally never do, and when you turn it off, and come off the high, you feel used, dirty and ashamed of yourself. This is what happens to Barbara Crampton’s character: Dr. Katherine McMichaels. She starts out all nerdy and clean cut, but when out of curiosity she decides to experience The Resonator, well, then we see her turn completely slutty and overtly sexual. In one scene, while still under the influence of the machine, she dresses up in S&M gear and starts to seduce Jeffrey Combs. When she snaps out of it, she can’t believe what she’s done and ends up being ashamed of her actions. So what we have here is a film that talks about addiction, and how it can change a person. One moment you are a fully functional thinking human being and the next you are a person who can only think about your next fix!

But don’t take From Beyond for a preachy film, because it isn’t. Its main purpose is to entertain us with its fantasy, and with its gore and effects, and there are plenty of those! You see, Dr. Pretorious, the creator of The Resonator gets taken to another dimension when a creature bites of his head! His head melds with a creature “From Beyond” so Dr. Pretorious suddenly becomes two beings in one. And every time Pretorious returns from the other dimension, he looks less and less human, which basically means we get to see a bunch of cool transformations, creatures and make up effects! This is one of those movies that was made when latex and make up effects reigned supreme, so every time Dr. Pretorious comes from his dimensional travels, he looks more monstrous!

Dr. Pretorious after returning from another dimension

My only gripe with this movie is that sometimes, the Pretorious creature wasn’t pulled off so well. This is a problem that the filmmakers of Slither (2006) also had. In Slither we encounter a creature called the Grant Grant monster, a giant fleshy mess of a creature that looks cool but is ultimately not that menacing because it looks so static. Same thing happened in From Beyond. The Dr. Pretorious creature looks cool, but it doesn’t look like it can move, it looks like a puppet that doesn’t have much mobility and as a result, the performance of the creature looks stiff and clunky, not like something that is alive, not like something that can hurt you. This translates to loss of believability to me. You kind of disconnect because you know you’re just watching a clunky looking puppet. But the thing with this movie is that I’m having so much fun with it that I don’t care, I love the make up effects and the gore. I just wish they had pulled off that creature slightly better. Other creatures look awesome, like this giant worm thing that Dr. Tillingast and Bubba (Ken Foree) have to fight off in the house’s basement, while trying to turn off The Resonator. The worm thing looks like one of the worms from Dune (1984) only smaller. This giant worm thing grabs Dr. Tillingast by the mellon and sucks on his head! Pretty cool sequence! Like I said, there’s lots of gooey fun in store for you guys if you like that sort of film with lots of monsters and creatures coming from other dimensions.

"Humans are such easy prey..."

This is one of those movies that’s constantly trying to wow you and amaze you and I love that about it. Stuart Gordon knows that the worst thing a horror movie can be is boring, so he always builds his horror movies on a frenetic pace. From Beyond is never boring, and its always going over the top with everything! One of the many things that is over the top about this movie is its performances. Jeffrey Combs once again plays the crazy scientists searching for that truth, that new experiment that will put him on the map. Unfortunately, with Dr. Pretorious’s Resonator machine he seems to have bitten off more than he can chew. He plays the wacky crazy doctor, his transformation is extremely grizzly, not gonna spoil it for you. But it’s always a treat to see Jeffrey Combs playing the crazy guy in a horror movie. Check out The Frightners (1996) if you don’t believe me! Barbara Crampton plays a nerdy doctor, who’s curious for the machine and its effects. Once she gives the machine a try, she goes from nerdy to slut in 0.5 seconds! She shows a little more skin than she did in Re-Animator, but in the movies defense I will say that her nudity actually goes with the story, because The Resonator enhances your sensual side. Finally, we got Ken Foree who plays the conscience of the team, the one trying to make sense of it all, always trying to do the right thing. So we got a good cast rounding up the film.

The Resonator reminded me of the dimensional portal in the Phantasm films because they also worked with sonic vibrations. Cool thing about The Resonator is that whenever it was turned on, it cast these purple flashes of light that gave the film its own unique color palette, appropriately otherworldly. Everything is made that much more exciting thanks to the musical score composed by Richard Band. It is a very cinematic score and reminded me of the good old days when films had that kind of music to them. In closing I’ll just say that there are many gory delights in store for you in this film. It is fast paced, over the top and simply put: tons of fun! I wish Stuart Gordon would give us another gory film sometime soon!

Rating: 4 out of 5

 

 

Dolls (1987)

Title: Dolls (1987)

Director: Stuart Gordon

Cast: Carolyne Purdy Gordon, Guy Rolfe, Hilary Mason, Stephen Lee and Carrie Lorraine

Review:

Stuart Gordon. The name is synonimous with gruesome acts of myrth, gore, violence and other forms of on screen mayhem. Normally his films are loaded with buckets of blood and gore, yet somehow in the middle of all the gory mayhem he manages to maintain a nice level of drama and character development. Here he decided (along with writer Ed Naha) to go a different rout. Something more along the lines of a fairytale. A horror film with a child like sensibility.

The story is about these two rich snobs who go on vacation with their daughter. Along the road they are encountered by a storm that makes their car sink in the mud. So they decide to try and see if they could stay for the night at a nearby old mansion that they see from the road. A few minutes later three other people wonder into the house: Ralph a man who is a child at heart and the two punk rock girls who he gave a lift to. Unbeknownst to them, this is a spooky old mansion that has dolls that come to life. And kill.

Dolls came out around the time in wich killer doll movies were extremely hot in movieland. Stuart Gordon's Dolls was the first in this new batch of killer doll movies. It was released in 1987, one whole year before Childs Play did in 1988. After that in 1989 the Puppet Master series from Full Moon began, and after that Demonic Toys. But just because it was the first of the bunch and because it comes to us from veteran horror director Stuart Gordon, Dolls is worthy of mention. What I like about this movie is that even though it is a low budget production, it doesnt feel like it. Gordon somehow managed to make the film look more expensive then it really was. So kudos for that to Gordon. Right off the bat this movie got some things right. First off we get a real nice setting, perfect for this sort of horror film. Atmosphere is a must, and we get tons of that! There is a storm that never stops through out the whole movie. Its thunder and the lightning through out 90% of the film! We get a huge mansion with dark hallways and rooms filled with creepy looking old dolls and antiques. To top all that we also get two cooky and weird old folks who are the owners of the mansion and also happen to be doll makers. Could they also be sorcerers? Hmm... So as you can see, we get a nice setting for a spooky old fashion film, wich in my opinion is exactly what Dolls is . An old fashion dark fairy tale.

And thats exactly one of the things I liked about this movie. How it emphasized the fact that it was a fairy tale. At one point the old man starts talking about magical nights that go on forever and never stop. That whole conversation right there kind of like gets you in the mood for this kind of film. When a character starts a conversation that way, you just know your in for a spooky old time. Since the movie is about toys that come to life (and kill) its only fitting that we see most of the film through the eyes of Judy, the little girl. And since its told from her point of view, its only fitting that the movie is told in the manner of a fairy tale. What we have here is a nice movie to get your little brothers, cousins, nephews etc. all scared with. Id put in the same category as films like Monster Squad, Invaders from Mars, Troll and The Gate. You know, kiddie horror. And that doesnt lessen to the coolness of the movie for me. This film does manage to be a creepy flick inspite of its child like atmosphere. In fact the movie does manage to squeeze in a gory scene or two in there, just so you dont forget that this is a Stuart Gordon film you are watching.

The special effects are pretty good. Its a mixture between stop motion animation (like the one seen on the Puppet Master movies) and the use of puppets. I think it was very well achieved for a low budget horror flick. Because of the nature of stop motion animation, the dolls end up looking really creepy, specially in one scene where they all suddenly come to life and turn their heads. That scene was priceless for me. All in all, this isnt the type of film youd normally expect from Gordon since it does have a certain innocent charm to it. Its sort of a big departure from his previous gore fests like Re-animator and From Beyond. Those films were drenched in blood and gore. Dolls is not as gory or violent (though it does have its moments) but its creepyness still makes it quite effective. Good thing it is finally out on DVD with a couple of cool extras like a commentary with Stuart Gordon and storyboard to film comparisons. Recommend it for a night of spooky old fashion fun.

Rating: 3 out of 5