Chopping Mall

Well, there is a whole lot of cheese in Chopping Mall. Remembering this movie from my childhood, I was compelled to rent it last night. Well, I am glad I did! Yeah, there isn't anything spectacular about the movie...There is a lot of Cheese (Automatic Rifles in a Mall?), but it still stands out as one of the better B-movies of the 80's.

The Robots are pretty decent looking. The acting is typical for the genre and timeframe. The head explosion scene is just classic.

I now feel compelled to track this down on Ebay, since I don't see an American DVD release anytime soon...

Rent it and just enjoy the actual quality to this b-movie. I don't mean the acting, but the scenery and the robots. The CGI is laughable...but, that is another topic...

7 out of 10

A treasure trove of teen movie clichés and outlandish murders, Chopping Mall is - and I'm as surprised as anyone - a lot of fun! It's well-paced, the action's good and these are likable characters. Not only that, but the Kill Bots themselves are kinda cool. You can tell pretty quickly which of the teens will step in at the last minute and be the hero, yet I was engaged throughout.

Part of the appeal is the setting; They used an actual location during production (the go-to Sherman Oaks Galleria in this case), so the mall culture is legitimate. It's a snapshot as well as the wish-fulfillment of having free rein in a mall after-hours. That can't be just me, right?

The premise is absurd and characteristically naughty, and that's all part of the charm.

Had all the boxes checked: cheesy dialogue, campy feel, bad acting, silly villain(s), gratuitous boob shot. It was just an entertaining 80 minutes. Please don't expect more out of that and I don't think you will.

Security robots at a Los Angeles mall malfunction after a lightning strike and become a deadly threat to a group of youths partying at a furniture store after hours.

"Chopping Mall" (1986) takes the malevolent robot idea of "Westworld" (1973) and places it in the mall setting of "Dawn of the Dead" (1978) with robots that look like malicious versions of "Short Circuit" (1986) and R2D2. "RoboCop" didn't debut until the next year.

Winsome girl-next-door Kelli Maroney is a highlight as protagonist Alison while Russell Todd from "Friday the 13th Part 2" (1981) is stalwart as Rick. Suzee Slater as Leslie is a'right. This is a spirited Grade B flick but at the end of the day it's a throwaway; it's fun and well-executed, but somehow hollow and forgettable.

The movie runs 1 hour, 17 minutes, and was shot in Los Angeles at the Sherman Oaks Galleria, which was also used in "Fast Times at Ridgemont High" (1982) and "Terminator 2: Judgment Day" (1991).

GRADE: B-/C+

Teenagers are partying in a shopping mall late at night, and find themselves having to escape the latest in mall security: the Killbots. Sucks to be them, since the Killbots are armed with laser beams and C4 (in case some military commandos break in, I guess). I started laughing at the hilarious facial expressions of the second guy to get killed, and from that point on the movie was pure comedy. The silliness factor is out of control, with such things as a sporting goods store that just happens to have a few M-16s in stock, a couple watching TV while 6 people have sex in the background, a girl who wears her pants so tight that she has a huge you-know-what throughout the entire movie, a soundtrack inspired by Atari, a cameo by Dick Miller (whose entire career seems to be based on making cameos in B-movies), an exploding head, etc. Pretty crazy stuff.