Having seen a lot of movies about the future, whether it be evil corporations taking over, the development of killer robots, or an environment ruined by man's hubris. Unfortunately for the people inhabiting this movie, all three have happened; it has been a bad century.
From the start, the movie feeding us morsels of details about how this world works and introduces us to our hero Tyson Keen (Paul Ganus). Tyson is making a delivery to a local TV station run by Lathan Hooks (the late great Ralph Waites of The Waltons and Carnivale), a vocal dissident of Unicom and their fascist ways. Tyson buddies up with Lathan’s 16-year-old grand-daughter Arren (Megan Ward), a tech wizard who instantly develops a crush on him. The rest of the cast of characters include Parice (Eva LaRue), a teacher who does an educational program; Winston Wickett (Rescue Me’s Jack McGee), a sleazy talk show host who only has a show because his father owns the station; Quinn (Bill Moseley), the company’s workman; and Sandra (Elizabeth Mclellan) and Christie (Katherine Armstrong), two prostitutes that are guests on Winston’s show. They all end up staying the night in the station (actually an old power station converted into a TV station) as a thermal storm comes in making it unbearably hot and dangerous to be outside.
During the night, a mysterious stranger kills Lathan and the group realizes one of their number might be a ruthless synthetic human. To find out who's who, they rip off of John Carpenter's "The Thing." That is right, cut everyone's finger to see who bleeds oil, but it does not work since the synthoid are full of fake blood. They could find an easier way, like noticing the two characters who never sweat in a hot ass station, even when everyone else is dripping wet! I noticed it, probably half the viewers noticed it. So, why didn't Tyson or Arren not notice it?
They finally catch on to the fake people and soon a game of cat and mouse is played out through the station's dark corridors. None of it should surprise you, especially not one of the hookers deciding to take a shower and being killed. Only when things look hopeless does our heros play their trump card, the DV-8. You know, that big robot featured prominently on the DVD cover. You spend the entire movie waiting for the DV-8 to do something cool, but soon become very disappointed. It walks about a hundred yards, lifts up a fallen girder, steps on the synthoid, then falls to pieces.
All signs indicate "Crash and Burn" should be a forgettable, disposable movie, but in spite of its flaws, it works quite well. It's a solid mix of cheese and moderate suspense, steals some concept elements from Class of 1999, The Terminator, Robocop, Blade Runner and The Thing to name a few. Oddly dubiously marketed as Robot Jox 2 (don't expect the fights of Jox) as it contains less than a minute of giant Robot action. "Crash and Burn" is a solid purchase for a b-movie freak, and a solid rental for everyone else.
Now with all that being said, I might be a bit bias because of real reason I watched this. Namely one Jack McGee who makes this movie for me. Jack's a lot heavier in this flic with nice shots of his sweaty chest and belly.
The scene where he's awakened by emergency alarms after sleeping with some hookers all sweaty and plump was nice.
And another plus for the film is it has an appearance by ole pa Walton.
My only problem with the film was that it was made in in the early 90s. So the video quality isn't all that great. But if you look around, you can find some copies that have OK to good video quality. Strangely enough, the blooper reel on my copy has a better video quality than the actual film. Speaking of which, highly recommend watching if your a McGee fan (you probably are if your reading this) especially a heavier McGee fan. Well the entire film is for a heavier McGee fan.
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