Les gladiateurs de l'apocalypse

This was a great movie. There wasn't one minute this movie was on when I wasn't laughing. This movie wasn't supposed to be a comedy, but that's what it ended up being. The one liner's, particularly the one where the Russian says "This time next week, I kill you dead", and just the crappy effects were enough to make this movie great. My favorite part of this movie is when the giant chainsaw comes out of one of the robot's crotch. I mean, come on. How can they be serious. And then you have the fat cowboy who is exactly like Joe Don Baker killing Chinese people. It's great. If you've never laughed at anything, rent this movie, or if possible buy it. Please.

While this movie in no way could be compared to the greats like Godfather or Star Wars, keep in mind that it had very little money. Stuart Gordon does a spectacular job of trying to maintain a big-budget realism with a very small budget. Not only does he do that, but he also makes a fairly entertaining film as well.

I saw this one a long time ago, and have since bought the tape. It really is a true guilty pleasure. While this is not as good as Stuart Gordon's other movies such as Re-Animator, it does beat out the awful Castle Freak. While many say that this is possibly the worst ever, they have obviously never seen a really bad film before.

The plot, which is actually fairly original, focuses on a "Robot Jock (Jox)" that is torn between retiring or continuing to fight for his country in a giant man made robot with specially made weapons to against the interesting, although cliched, Alexander. Add in genetically engineered fighters, and you have yourself one heck of a final fight royal.

The music score, done by some no name composer I have never heard of is actually quite good. I was very very impressed. The score really cought the mood of the action to me.

Overall, it's worth a rental, and if you like it, buy it on tape. I love it, but can see why others would call it average fair. But considering the budget and the company (It was made by the same guys who made Full Moon Studios) it scores pretty high on the zombie meter- 3 1/2 out of five

I read somewhere (in a fairly panning review) that this is something of a live-action mecha anime, and I think they're on the right lines. I first watched this movie when I was very young and I've been dying to see it again, and when I finally did just recently all the memories came flooding back. I don't think this is to be taken too seriously - it's just a bit of good old 80's almost-a-TV-movie fun (it is set against the backdrop of a fairly dark future, although this point isn't stressed too much). What I admired most about this movie was that the dialogue didn't sound generic - no clichés, no predictable lines - all in all just good fun! Maybe time hasn't been kind to this little movie, but still I can find appreciation for it in me. It's by no means perfect, but it's entertaining and doesn't try to be anything other than that. Let the nerds and comic-store-guys worry about technicalities - who cares? See it for yourself and make your own decision. No-one else's opinion matters.

If you like mech war games it's pretty good. Some of it is cheap but the robot fights is worth seeing. I've enjoyed the mech war field for some time and this is pretty much the only movie I've ever seen that come close to that feeling of what it would be like to pilot one of those huge mechs. If you like the genera then games you like are Mech Warrior Three and four and if you have an Xbox and $350 to spare Steel Battalion. The movie is worth seeing at least once. There really needs to be some more movies on the same theme out there. Less remakes and more original works.

Enjoy

In the future all national battles are settled on the robotic battlefield by ten story robots commanded by human robot jox. The battle is on for Alaska's resources and it is up to USA's Achilles (Gary Graham) to take it to the evil Russian rep and dirty fighter Alexander (Paul Koslo). This was Stuart Gordon's fourth film for Charles Band's Empire and the most expensive (rumored to be $10 million) in the company's short history. Was it the film that broke Band's bank? Possibly. It was filmed in 1987 but didn't get released until 1990 (via Triumph theatrically and RCA/Columbia on video) after Empire had gone bankrupt in 1988. Regardless, it is still a pretty entertaining film and - even though I've never seen a single second of Michael Bay's TRANSFORMERS films - I know it is a better film. The screenplay by sci-fi author Joe Haldeman touches on some good stuff, like genetic engineering and the gladiator mindset. Sure, there is some really cheesy stuff ("we can live"), but the cast is all game and you have to love Koslo's villain. The stop motion effects by David Allen are the real showstopper and they hold up pretty well. The miniatures are great too. Look for Stuart Gordon in a cameo as a bartender and Jeffrey Combs as an overly excited bystander. Crash and burn, my friends, crash and burn.