CRASH AND BURN (1990)
Label: Full Moon Features
Region Code: Region-Free
Rating: Unrated
Duration: 84 Minutes 47 Seconds
Audio: English Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo, 5.1 Surround with Optional English Subtitles
Video: 1080p HD Widescreen (1.78:1)
Director: Charles Band
Cast: Paul Ganus, Megan Ward, Ralph Waite, Bill Moseley, Eva laRue, Jack McGee, John Davis Chandler
In the Charles Band directed Crash and Burn (1990), a low budget sci-fi flick that channels elements of Alien, The Thing and The Terminator it's the year 2030, the world is a post-apocalyptic wasteland where ultraviolet rays have decimated the ozone layer, and Unicom, an evil corporate empire has taken control of pretty much everything. Enter our deluxe-mulleted hero Tyson Keen (Paul Ganus, Lethal Weapon 3), an Unicom courier who arrives at a junkyard TV station to make a delivery and ends up hunkering down there overnight to wait out a sever solar storm. We discover that the TV station voices dissent against the Unicom corporation and is operated by Lathan Hooks (Ralph White, The Waltons) and his scrappy teen granddaughter Arren (Megan Ward, Joe's Apartment). Also hunkered down there for the night are the station's engineer Quinn (Bill Moseley, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2), the station's sleazy tabloid talk show host Winston Wickett (Jack McGee, The Hidden) and a pair of his recent guests - adult film stars Sandra (Elizabeh McClellan, Puppet Master 2) and Christie (Catherine Armstrong, The Arrival), as well as the schoolteacher Parice (Eva LaRue, The Barbarians) who is the host of the station's educational programming.
Over the course of the night Lathan is murdered by an unseen assailant, having been thrown to his death from a height, with some of the the survivor's suspecting that a "synthoid" may have killed him - which is pretty much a human-skinned Terminator-esque killbot programmed to kill all who pose a threat to Unicom. This leads to a paranoia about one of the gathered people being a secret robot assassin, complete with a very The Thing-esque blood-test, and a finale with full-on Terminator vibes as the robot-assassin in identified.
Band's low-budget sci-fi horror romp certainly feels cheap with it's anemic production design and special effects, and lackluster direction, but it is not without it's charm. As a Terminator knock-off there's certainly fun to be had, there's a bit of nudity, and how could I also not to love how he crams in a Robot Jox sort of giant-robot component by way of a "DV-8" robot, with stop-motion animation by David Allen (The Primevals), it's just a bit bananas with how many other better films it's channeling. The giant robot, which is actually very little seen in the film, was used to sell the flick as a sequel of sorts to Stuart Gordon's Robot Jox, even thought the two films have nothing to do with each other, even having been released in certain territories as Robot Jox 2: Crash and Burn.
Honestly, Crash and Burn is not a terrific watch, it's a poorly directed, cheap, and uninspired, but if the idea of a low-budget Terminator knocks off with elements of Alien dystopia and The Thing type paranoia, all filtered through the low-budget genre-grinder of Full Moon, well, there's cheap thrills to be had here for sure. I would think that if you're a Full Moon fan and/or if you like those Italian knock-off flicks directed by Bruno Mattei like Terminator II, Cruel Jaws, or Robowar this should be a fun watch.
Audio/Video: Crash and Burn arrives on Blu-ray from Full Mood in 1080p HD widescreen (1.78:1), advertised as being "presented here for the very first time in HD, remastered from the recently unearthed negative". The source is in solid shape, however, the image look very digital to me, sharpened and/or manipulated artificially, with weird looking grain structures. It's certainly not HD perfection, but generally colors look good, darker scenes fare well, and detail and texture in close-ups are solid. Audio comes by way of English Dolby Digital 2.0 stereo or 5.1 surround with optional English subtitles. The lossy tracks sound fine, dialogue, score and sound effects all register well, though I preferred the 2.0 option.
Extras start off with a New Audio Commentary with Director Charles Band and Actor Bill Mosley. Band discusses finding the long thought lost film negative at Deluxe Labs, the casting of Megan Ward, and making fun of the cheap sets. It's a very casual track, not particularly informative or well-researched, and mostly just them commenting on the action happening onscreen, taking a moments to appreciate the stuntmen and make-up FX work. we also get a selection of archival extras by way of the 1-min Original Trailer; 7-min Making of Crash & Burn; a 6-min Blooper Reel, and a selection of Full Moon Trailers.
Special Features:
- Original Trailer (1:05)
- Making of Crash & Burn (6:59)
- Blooper Reel (6:00)
- New Audio Commentary with Director Charles Band and Actor Bill Mosley
- Full Moon Trailers; Deathstreamer, Quadrant, Bad Channels, Subspecies 5, Bad CGI Gator
Screenshots from the Full Moon Blu-ray;
Extras:
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