Robot Jox
This movie came from a time long ago when 'Pacific Rim' wasn't even a glint in Guillermo Del Torro's eye and it just can't be helped but to draw comparison to Del Torro's 2013 Robo-blockbuster.
Robot Jox was made in 1989 and is set in the future where humans do battle with each other in giant tower sized robots. War is outlawed and settles are scored by the smashing of metal against metal. The acting and dialogue is woeful but the concept is rather impressive and stop motion effects were pretty good. This film unlike the comparable 'Pacific Rim' didn't have a mega budget and it is commendable how the special effects team have managed to stretch the cash. Made when filmmakers needed to be more resourceful. 'Robot Jox' is lemonade pretending to be Champagne. Whilst the special effects may be ambitious the acting and screenplay certainly are not. Gary Graham stars as our hero. He's a recognisable face but I can't put my finger on just what else I've seen him in. He tries to do his best with the poor script and imitate the whole hero swagger but sadly he's no Eastwood, Stallone or even Van Damme. It comes as a surprise that Director Stuart Gordon almost cast Jean Claude Van Damme in the lead role of Achilles but opted for Graham instead. The fact that the studio went bust half way through filming this movie is just as well they didn't pay big bucks for the muscles from Brussels. Gary Graham is the best of a bad bunch when it comes to the amateur cast. The villain played by Paul Koslo named Alexander is laughably bad but still manages to charismatically add something with his hammy acting and cheesy dialogue. His Russian accent is so over the top that it makes the movie all the more entertaining. Just like this film, he is so bad he's good. This is a movie that can be likened to that old saying "Never meet your heroes!" I loved this as a kid. Robots were big business back then. What with the Transformers cartoon, The Terminator and Robocop. Now as a forty three year old I couldn't help but cringe when I rewatched. That said if like me you can forgive this films flaws there's still fun to be had. Sure it's a product of its time but without this we probably wouldn't have got Pacific Rim. Another interesting fact is that a sequel was planned where Achilles and Alexander team up to take on an invading alien race. Hang on a minute that is the plot of Pacific Rim! Perhaps we did sort of get that sequel after all.
This movie came from a time long ago when 'Pacific Rim' wasn't even a glint in Guillermo Del Torro's eye and it just can't be helped but to draw comparison to Del Torro's 2013 Robo-blockbuster.
Robot Jox was made in 1989 and is set in the future where humans do battle with each other in giant tower sized robots. War is outlawed and settles are scored by the smashing of metal against metal. The acting and dialogue is woeful but the concept is rather impressive and stop motion effects were pretty good. This film unlike the comparable 'Pacific Rim' didn't have a mega budget and it is commendable how the special effects team have managed to stretch the cash. Made when filmmakers needed to be more resourceful. 'Robot Jox' is lemonade pretending to be Champagne. Whilst the special effects may be ambitious the acting and screenplay certainly are not. Gary Graham stars as our hero. He's a recognisable face but I can't put my finger on just what else I've seen him in. He tries to do his best with the poor script and imitate the whole hero swagger but sadly he's no Eastwood, Stallone or even Van Damme. It comes as a surprise that Director Stuart Gordon almost cast Jean Claude Van Damme in the lead role of Achilles but opted for Graham instead. The fact that the studio went bust half way through filming this movie is just as well they didn't pay big bucks for the muscles from Brussels. Gary Graham is the best of a bad bunch when it comes to the amateur cast. The villain played by Paul Koslo named Alexander is laughably bad but still manages to charismatically add something with his hammy acting and cheesy dialogue. His Russian accent is so over the top that it makes the movie all the more entertaining. Just like this film, he is so bad he's good. This is a movie that can be likened to that old saying "Never meet your heroes!" I loved this as a kid. Robots were big business back then. What with the Transformers cartoon, The Terminator and Robocop. Now as a forty three year old I couldn't help but cringe when I rewatched. That said if like me you can forgive this films flaws there's still fun to be had. Sure it's a product of its time but without this we probably wouldn't have got Pacific Rim. Another interesting fact is that a sequel was planned where Achilles and Alexander team up to take on an invading alien race. Hang on a minute that is the plot of Pacific Rim! Perhaps we did sort of get that sequel after all.