Another release from the prolific B-moviemaker Charles Band, CRASH AND BURN has a lot of the usual suspects involved: Band himself directing this time; Joe Cardone (SHADOWZONE) writing; Ted Nicolaou (TERRORVISION) as editor; Richard Band (darned near every Band film) composing the music;
and special effects maestro David Allen (PUPPET MASTER II) handling some of the visuals. Not surprisingly, the film turns out to be a typical Band product, great to look at, almost thought-provoking and too poorly plotted for most viewers to care.
It's the year 2030 and the future looks bleak. America is an environmentally devastated region dominated by Unicom, a ruthless corporate entity dedicated to "Life, Liberty & the Pursuit of Economic Stability." To this end Unicom has banned many basic freedoms, most significantly private use of
computers, and wages guerrilla war against flourishing dissident groups. Lathan Hooks (Ralph Waite) is one of the last independent broadcasters, working out of his own station in the remote desert, and his acerbic TV commentaries support the rebel cause.
Hooks suspects that despite a government prohibition on robots, Unicom uses manlike "synthoids" to infiltrate and terminate political opposition. His suspicions are soon confirmed, when a storm traps a handful of visitors at the station; among them is a synthoid who kills Hooks. The survivors
determine that the deadly imposter is station engineer Quinn (Bill Moseley), who goes on a murderous rampage, surviving point blank gunshots and the loss of various limbs. Arrin (Megan Ward), Hook's computer-savvy teenage daughter, finally activates her own ultimate weapon, a colossal, discarded
DV-8 mining robot she's secretly been tending. The sputtering DV-8 crushes Quinn like a bug, and promptly falls to pieces. Suddenly another synthoid is unmasked, but a single bullet stops it--a wee inconsistency considering how much time and effort went into destroying the first one.
CRASH AND BURN and SHADOWZONE, another recent Band release, both follow the same dreary narrative arc: a decent sci-fi premise devolves into the standard mad-slasher tableau, with assorted dunderheads in a confined area stalked and killed one by one. CRASH AND BURN even serves up a slaughter in
the shower, for those fans who haven't seen that one for a few hours. There's ample evidence that the filmmakers are smarter than that. The title, in fact, refers to a computer virus Unicom uses to trigger its synthoids' homicidal acts. It makes their programming "crash and burn," and only in this
uncontrollable state can they harm humans. Give Cardone credit for mentioning Asimov's First Law of Robotics.
Another neat touch is the way the evil government convinced Americans to surrender their computers--by promoting a warped interpretation of the Bible. The notion that computer literacy equals democracy remains unpersuasive, however. In fact, the whole subplot about the DV-8 deus ex machina
becomes a giant letdown when the 40-foot tall hulk (stop-motion animation by David Allen) collapses into rust after a brief screen time. Needless to say, the DV-8 starred prominently in the film's advertising.
The cast is okay, with the paternal Ralph Waite (John Walton on TV's "The Waltons") a good choice for the crusading TV personality. The real scene-stealer though, is Jack McGee as a rotund trash-talk-show host who relentlessly toadies for Unicom. The guests on McGee's program are a couple of
prostitutes; they and co-starlet Elizabeth MacLellan provide the sleazier thrills in CRASH AND BURN. Charles Band undoubtedly makes some of the sleekest low-budget fantasies around, but one hopes the scripts will someday match the surface gloss. (Violence, profanity, sexual situations, nudity.) leave a comment