Sometime in the early 90’s (1992 or so), I was visiting with relatives in Oregon, and my cousin and I rented a movie from his local mom ‘n’ pop video store. We probably rented more than one, but the one I remember is CRASH AND BURN (1990), a Full Moon production with a giant robot on the cover. By now, I knew there was some kind of stop motion giant robot thing going on over at Full Moon and its immediate predecessor, Empire Pictures (both helmed by Charles Band). I may have even known, in those teenage years, that Dave Allen was the one doing the animation. Nonetheless, giant robot + R-rating meant that it was an instant rental. I remember as the credits rolled that we both came to the conclusion that it was “pretty good.” I feel this is important to stress. In the early 90’s, CRASH AND BURN was “pretty good.” This may seem impossible to understand now.
Full Moon has just released the film on Blu-ray, and I was eager to revisit it, since I haven’t watched it at all since that initial rental with my cousin. I was happy to find that it was more or less exactly as I remembered it, which makes it a fun, nostalgic Friday night watch: set on a post-apocalyptic-ish Earth run by an authoritarian corporation, the UV levels outside giving severe, skin-swelling sunburn, CRASH AND BURN follows a mulleted freon delivery man (Paul Ganus) who holes up in an old TV broadcast station with an assortment of characters including Ralph Waite (THE WALTONS), horror icon Bill Mosely (THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE 2, THE DEVIL’S REJECTS), and Megan Ward (JOE’S APARTMENT). When someone is murdered, this becomes a locked-room mystery to determine who is the murderer – meaning, in this case, a Terminator-like android. Because of course this movie doesn’t just want to be THE ROAD WARRIOR, it needs some TERMINATOR in the blender too.
If you grew up watching late night cable in the late 80’s and early 90’s, you are very familiar with all the tropes that director Charles Band plays with here. The novelty, at the time, was the stop motion, with which most B-movies couldn’t be bothered. Dave Allen’s work here is fine, but it’s so brief (only used for the climax), that it’s more like a fun little extra topping. Nonetheless, CRASH AND BURN forms an oddball middle entry in an unofficial trilogy with Empire/New World’s ROBOT JOX (1989) and ROBOT WARS (1993), all featuring giant robots in Allen’s stop motion – although narratively CRASH AND BURN is not at all related. The sex and violence in the last act is probably part of why my cousin and I decided this was “pretty good,” along with Moseley’s increasingly unhinged performance. (Did I mention this is also a slasher movie?)
Anyway, yeah. “Pretty good” – if you were a teenager in the early 90’s who took in a regular diet of straight-to-video post-apocalyptic and Terminator-inspired B-movies.
Speaking of which, Richard Stanley’s HARDWARE (also 1990), was very much in my headspace at that time. Consider that one the much cooler, much more stylish version of CRASH AND BURN. I made comic books for my classmates inspired by HARDWARE and shared them with my cousin, urging him to check out that movie because it was similar. He later told me he loved it. In fact, maybe that was the other movie we rented that day…
HARDWARE was just released on 4K from Umbrella in Australia, and it’s now in the “New Releases” section of my basement video store. So is CRASH AND BURN!
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