EDITOR’S NOTE: You can read another review of this movie here.

I can’t even tell you how excited I was about Robot Jox in 1990. It seemed like it was in every issue of Starlog and I kept wondering, when would one of the video stores in my hometown get it? It seemed like a live action Transformers movie and according to director Stuart Gordon, that was the idea: “While there have been animated cartoons based on these giant robots, no one has ever attempted a live-action feature about them. It struck me that it was a natural fantasy for the big screen–and a terrific opportunity to take advantage of the special effects that are available today.”

Gordon worked with special effects artist David W. Allen to create test footage for the investors for this movie and that ended up becoming the opening title sequence. Initially budgeted at $7 million — it grew to $10 million — Robot Jox was the most expensive film Empire Pictures production.

Science fiction author Joe Haldeman wrote the story with Gordon but the two battled throughout. The writer wanted a serious movie about embattled soldiers and the director wanted a Cold War movie with big special effects. Even the title was debated, as Haldeman wanted The Mechanics and Gordon wanted Robojox.

Haldeman wrote that Gordon later recognized that the author was “writing a movie for adults that children can enjoy” while Gordon had been “directing a movie for children that adults can enjoy.”

Despite those issues and Empire’s bankruptcy causing delays, I still fondly remember this film, as when I finally got to see it, I really enjoyed it. Obviously, Guillermo del Toro did, as the way the robots are controlled and how the pilots are trained are so close to his Pacific Rim.

Only the American Market and the Russian Confederation have survived fifty years after a nuclear war. They decide all conflicts by having giant robots battle as robot jox control them. Alexander (Paul Koslo) is the villain and has murdered his last nine opponents thanks to a spy giving him special weak points. But now he comes up against another fighter who is at his tenth match — when robot jox can retire — Achilles (Gary Graham). Their battle will be for the rights to Alaska and there’s plenty of pressure.

Achilles trains while studying with robot designer Doc Matsumoto (Danny Kamekona, Sato from The Karate Kid Part II) and strategist Tex Conway (Michael Alldredge), the only robot jox to win all ten of his fights. There’s also an entire training center where new genetically engineered robot jox like Athena (Anne-Marie Johnson) are training to replace Achilles.

During the battle, Alexander goes wild and fires a weapon into the audience. Alexander tries to stop it but his mech crashes into the stands, killing three hundred or more of the fans. Shaken by this, he refuses to come back and fight again when the match is ruled a draw.

All sorts of chicanery ensures and Athena drugs Achilles, who comes back for that one big fight, and she gets decimated by Alexander. That leads to a second battle between Alexander and Achilles, who comes back. It even ends up in a one on one fistfight and after all the horror that the Russian pilot has visited on, well, the entire cast of this movie, they bump fists to show sportsmanship.

This was followed by Robot Wars and footage — Full Moon is big on recycling — is also in Crash and Burn.

In the world of Robot Jox, you never say “Good luck.” You say, “Crash and burn.”

I just want 15 year old me to know that in the future, I own this movie and we can watch it any time that we want.

Robot Jox is part of the Enter the Video Store — Empire of Screams box set. Extras include two archive audio commentaries (one with director Stuart Gordon and a second with associate effects director Paul Gentry, mechanical effects artist Mark Rappaport and stop-motion animator Paul Jessell), new interviews with Gary Graham and Anne-Marie Johnson as well as a new appreciation of stop motion animator David Allen, an archival interview with actor Paul Koslo, the original sales sheet and production notes, a trailer and image galleries, including behind-the-scenes stills courtesy of associate effects director Paul Gentry. You can get this set from MVD.