Robowar

1988's "Robowar" is an Italian ripoff of 1987"s "Predator". In fact "Robowar" is so shameless in its copying of "Predator" that it borders on outright plagiarism. It was directed by schlock legend Bruno Mattei ("Hell of the Living Dead", "Rats: Night of Terror") from a script by Rossella Drudi who co-wrote the story with her husband Claudio Fragasso ("Troll 2") who also did some additional directing on the film too. "Robowar" while being very bad and cheesy somehow still manages to entertain in great fashion due to how much they obviously cribbed from "Predator". Instead of the villain being an alien, it is a robot which looks like a variation on Robocop but painted all black. Fans of 80's Italian exploitation cinema should find a lot to enjoy here. It is never boring and made me laugh out loud repeatedly with how ridiculous it all is.The film makes its blu-ray debut in style thanks to Severin Films. They did a brand new 4K scan from the original camera negative utilizing the AVC codec in its original 1.85:1 aspect ratio at a bit rate in the mid 30's. While the film starts out looking a bit rough and faded, after the opening credits sequence ends and the film really begins, things improve considerably. The movie frankly looks amazing and more than likely the best that it ever has. Detail is superb along with a natural grain field and accurate contrast levels. Colors look nicely saturated and accurate. Fans should be ecstatic with how terrific the film looks on this disc. I bet the film has never looked this good before even during its original theatrical release in Italy.In terms of audio you get the option of either lossless English or Italian mono which sounds fine and clear overall. Subtitles are provided for the hearing impaired.Extras are surprisingly extensive though the lack of involvement by star Reb Brown ("Space Mutiny", "Uncommon Valor") is a slight bit disappointing. Here is what we get:- Robo Predator: Interview with Co-Director/Co-Writer Claudio Fragasso- Italian Rip Off: Interview with Co-Writer Rossella Drudi- Violence She Wrote: Career Interview with Screenwriter Rossella Drudi- Robo-Lady: Interview with Actress Catherine Hickland- Papa Doc's War: Interview with Actor John P. Dulaney- The Robowarrior: Interview with Actor Jim Gaines Jr.- War in the Phillipines: Interview with Actor/Stuntman Massimo Vanni- Catherine Hickland's Behind The Scenes Home Movies- TrailerI also received the soundtrack CD with my copy which is limited to the first 3000. The blu-ray disc is also region free."Robowar" comes highly recommended for fans of 80's Italian schlock. It transcends its badness to instead be very entertaining to watch for fans of that decade and exploitation cinema in general. Severin Films has given this film a Criterion Collection level of care and attention for its blu-ray debut. Highly recommended!

Major Murphy Black, the world’s greatest shouter of the word ‘Go’ Reb Brown, leads his team of special forces commandos to an unnamed tropical island at the behest of the mysterious Mascher, who looks like an under performing vinyl siding seller. Major Black and his team are called BAM, Bad Ass MFers because of course they are this is seemingly written by 12 year olds. They lay waste to seemingly most of the population in a series of gun battles in the process saving an American nurse given the name, Virgin. Things take a serious turn when one by one they are picked off by a robot who sounds like someone gave the Micro Machines Guy a wheelbarrow worth of speed and told him to perform a livestock auction. Mascher’s scheme is reveled they are trying to retrieve his runaway killer robot. Can Major Black and the perky blonde survive because you know full well everybody else in this are already dead meat in green camo it is just a question of in what order do they end up gory cooked corpses.This is Italian Ripoff cinema at its best in the hands of a master of the genre Bruno Mattei who a year and two movies later would make Shocking Dark, the best ripoff combination of Terminator and Aliens out there. Reb Brown gives his lungs a great workout doing what does best shouting one words commands at the other actors like does in great South African sci-fi masterpiece Space Mutiny. His finest scene in this film, which I think encapsulates the entire ripoff genre is when he hurls his knife into a bad guy pinning him to a wall and says with flat deadpan, ‘Don’t Move’. The entire movie is a Rolex watch with the R backwards but that is what makes it so much fun. As long as you come to this movie with the full understanding this is copying from the smart kids homework and hoping nobody notices by adding another similar assignment to it. You come for the action and see a man spit a mouthful of tomato juice into the camera but you stay to see two of the dead soldiers magically reappear in the next traveling montage. Cheap and rough around the edges, really rough like playing Frisbee with a rusty trash can lid, but so much fun for it. A great film to riff on.

The film Robowar in itself is in a league all it's own, beyond plagiarism or originality, quality or trash; in those terms, there's absolutely no redemption for it or anything Bruno Mattei did on his own, or with Claudio Fragasso and Rosella Drudi. Even though they couldn't even get the names right in the end titles, mismatching Romano Puppo's and Massimo Vanni's aliases, if you are like me, you can't help but to forgive everything seemingly wrong about this movie. After all, the real mistake is taking yourself too seriously. I just wish they had used the metallic, lenticular cover from the Mexican VHS by Videomax instead, which gloriously read "simultaneous with the theater release!!!," or something to that effect. As for the release, I only missed Reb Brown, who for some strange reason is in the extras for Howling II, which is by no means a "better" film than this. Is just strange, since he did any given number of films with "Dawn" and "Anderson." Other than that, it was nice to see than even the actor who played Papa Doc pitched in and beautiful and talented Catherine Hickland went as far as to contribute her home movies to the deal. Drudi, -seating behind her drum set and holding her drumsticks- , and Fragasso are always interesting to listen to; as people, they're quirky and fun, and as a working duo, they're tirelessly creative and have created some of the greatest cult movies ever made. Avoid like the plague if you want "enlightenment." As a kid, I used to go to the video store when school was out so I could wash off some of that "englightment" and "cultural relevance." I still do. Movies are supposed to be fun, first and foremost. For everything else, there's school, family or work... Mattei knew better than to let either cross the line into the other's place and time.