Crash And Burn

The Details:
Directed by: Charles Band
Runtime: 85 min
Country: USA
Language: English
Color: Color
Sound Mix: Stereo
Certification: Iceland:16 / Finland:K-16 / UK:15 (video premiere) / USA:R

The Review:
Don't let this poster fool you, it's not a romantic comedy. Crash and burn is a so-so little movie from the Mech-age. It combines pretty decent visual effects, a few genuine creep-out moments, and a wacko terminator-style villain. Overall though, the movie comes across as just a little too decent. If it were any worse or any better it might be worth mentioning. I must say, though, that if you aren't a huge film-buff you might be able to enjoy this movie.

The setup of C&B is quite simple; the world is run by corporations, most notably the horribly logo-ed UNICOM, the corporations have cyborgs everywhere spying on the public, and they can be ordered to kill at any time by use of a special virus called Crash and Burn.

Megan Ward gives a pretty decent first-film performance as our female lead, Arren. She plays a 16-year old computer hacker and granddaughter to Lathan Hooks, owner of a small independent television station (and possible member of an underground organization who wants to bring down the corruption that is UNICOM). The movie does a decent job of building up the history of this possible future, set in the year 2030, although we see virtually no evidence of the outside world as the budget obviously couldn't afford it.


The performances from nearly the entire case are decent, and that may be another one of Crash and Burn's problems. The dialogue is pretty damn good and it's delivered pretty damn good. damnit!

Also, there are a few scenes with the Behomoth Mech, you see it up on the cover there, and the thing looks great. The use of trick photography called forced perspective allows the performers to interact with the gigantic robot live, making both the lighting and tone match up perfectly. Otherwise, the puppetry comes across smooth and somewhat convincing. Nothing to laugh at here.

Aspects you should still be able to laugh about: the hilariously small satellite dish attached to the television station, the robot's silly Jiminy Cricket speech and the following delivery of the titular line, and also the terrible wardrobe. Everyone looks uncomfortable in what they have on.

Overall, the lack of budget was nearly overcome, but there just isn't enough variation or originality there. They probably thought that Megan Ward in a bra and rib-cage high jeans was enough.... and they were almost correct.





Gore: Light dismemberment and bot-gore (blood and wires).
Nudity: Light Shower scene with naked-bot (sex and wires).
Mech Action: Not nearly long or cool enough.