CRASH AND BURN (1990)

A Charles Band b-movie about robot warfare in a post-apocalyptic wasteland? I'm in. Or, I would be if the film was anything like what the packaging would have you believe. The cover makes CRASH AND BURN look like a pseudo-sequel to ROBOT JOX, thanks to the prominence of a giant robot on the cover art. In fact, it was actually released in some territories as ROBOT JOX 2: CRASH AND BURN, despite being nothing to do with Robot Jox at all!

Well, there's a robot in it, but for 99% of the running time it lies inert in the dust, then wakes up for one solitary scene. The rest of the film is essentially a bleak, depressing story of humanity's struggle to continue once everything goes wrong.

Computer and robot use by civilians has been outlawed, and the world is run by the Unicom corporation after a global economic collapse, and when a remote TV station is infiltrated by a humanoid robot intent on tracking down insurgents against the corporation, a lowly delivery man must help the employees of the station stay alive.

And then there's a robot for a bit.

Crash and Burn is a film where all the big stuff happens elsewhere and is included in the script as a backdrop rather than much to do with the plot. This is basically a siege movie with a mad cyborg character picking off humans one by one in a variety of ways.

It's cheap and takes a long time to really pick up any pace, but when it does it's entertaining enough, just not as great as the artwork makes it out to be. Starring a young Megan Ward, it's an interesting flick for fans of the era of cheapie post-apocalyptic actioners, but don't be fooled by the cover art's robot action.