It's entirely possible that sending the audience out feeling lousy was intentional

I really wanted to like this movie. I feel terribly cynical trashing it, and that's why I'm giving it a middling 5. Actually, I'm giving it a 5 because there were some superb performances.

This film is so real. It treats its characters with so much care and sensitivity.

It's a good bad... and worth a popcorn matinée. While it's easy to lament what could have been...

The first thing I ever heard about this movie was the soundtrack. That first thirty seconds is one of the most triumphant themes I think I've ever heard in movies. The rest of the soundtrack (for the most part) never really lives up to those first few moments. It's never bad, but never that memorable again. The movie itself is really enjoyable, with cheesy dialog and giant robot fights that look like stop motion. The film itself takes place in the future where all conflicts are decided by giant robot battles, and it follows the story of a character named Achilles who fights in these battles. The ongoing conflict between Achilles and the main villain of the movie, Alexander, seems to symbolize or represent the conflict between the Soviet Union and the United States during the Cold War. There's nothing in the movie that is really bad film-making, but it's obviously not a masterpiece. The movie seems to know what it is and if you go into it with the right mindset then you'll probably enjoy yourself. If you're a fan of giant futuristic robot fights with cold-war type undertones, then this is the movie for you.

"Robot Jox" taps into that great childhood love of seeing giant robots wail on each other (does a more pure joy exist?). A 1989 production means that that was realized through models and stop-motion - which to this day looks pretty good. Obviously, the fights were my favorite part of the movie, but it does suffer the same problem plaguing old Godzilla movies: they had to pad out the monster battles with humans (and who cares about their story?). When it's just the actors on-screen, the clunky melodrama really weighs things down.Still, beneath the cheap production values, there's imagination and thinly veiled American chauvinism. "Robot Jox" has a certain negative reputation, but I enjoyed myself. Completely disposable, but good harmless fun.6/10

It is post-World War III. War is outlawed. In its place, are matches between large robots called Robot Jox. These matches take place between two large superpowers over disputed territories. The main character Achilles is a pilot in one of the large Robots. The plot revolves around him and a match for the state of Alaska.Although I would consider myself a bigger than average Stuart Gordon fan, this was a film I never got to see until now (2015). And what a strange addition to his career. The robot fights, though perhaps "retro" or dated, are pretty great, and indeed the highlight of the film. (Why they start off just punching when we later see them fighting in space is unclear.) The acting is pretty cheesy, especially the actor who plays Tex. I would love to have seen more of the robot fights and less of the human interaction, which seemed forced. None of the people are particularly likable. How the female lead went on to be as big as she is after this is unclear.The film began shooting in Rome in 1986, inspired by the Transformers and Macross, as well as "The Right Stuff" (which Gordon used for visual cues). The plot mixed in aspects of the "Iliad" and the story of Achilles, and the cast included Robert Sampson ("Re-Animator"), Hilary Mason ("Dolls"). This was a mix of classic Gordon elements and something all too futuristic. For the fans of this (or Gordon's career in general), Shout! Factory has packed their new Blu-ray so full they did not even have room to write on the case what it contained. It says "two audio commentaries" and "new and archival interviews", which does not really sum up just how much is on here... you can hear some incredible stories from Gordon, Band, Koslo and others about the Italian crew, the budget issues, and the limits of pre-digital technology. Although the movie itself is not my favorite, the disc is a must-own for any fan.Perhaps most interesting is the story about the bank that financed all the failing companies (including Empire and Cannon). The financial difficulties of Empire, Wizard and more or less everything Charlie Band touches are legendary. But who knew the problems were tied in with European finance and a handful of other seemingly-unrelated movie companies?Pick up this disc from Scream! Factory, watch the heck out of it, and then watch "Pacific Rim". Gordon thinks the way the robots are controlled has been borrowed by others, including "Pacific Rim", and when seen side by side it is hard to argue with him. Although largely forgotten, "Robot Jox" is more relevant than ever and it is time to give it the place in science fiction history it deserves.

I don't see how anyone that is an adult can find this movie to be entertaining. It might have worked as a comedy, but it goes in a serious direction but it's super lame and comedic. And the acting is just plain atrocious and laughable. On the bright side though this movie is only a hour and 24 minutes. There is just so many obvious plot-holes in this movie and the premise is just ridiculous, well at least how this movie executed it all. This movie can get more corny than the Power Rangers and the special effects is even worse. You can literally tell it's robot action figures on screen that duke it out. Even the fight sequences is so cheesy and super choreographed to the point it almost unbearable to watch. This is one of those movies you pop in and nit pick it to death and constantly bash on it while watching, at least than you can get some amusement out of it. Cause sometimes this movie is so bad it can get slightly funny. One of the female character and another male character looks so similar it can get distracting, I don't know I guess I really didn't like that female character in this movie for some reason. I am doing a lousy job of reviewing this movie to some degree cause this movie was lousy and was a waste of time. For a movie that came out in the early 90's this one could have done better in almost every way. The story is basically about robots fighting in a tournament in the future like gladiators except the fighters use robots to fight each other. Anyways during one of the fight Achilles gets in a fight with a cliché villain and by accident ends up hurting 300 spectators while trying to protect them and he goes on a guilt trip. The cowboy sidekick in this is annoying and the dialogue is just corny...Plain and simple. So yeah I give this movie a 3/10 which is being super generous, cause it's unintentionally funny sometimes and might get a few chuckles out of it. Watch this movie with movie friends and bash this movie while watching and you might get something out of it. I try to be open-minded but I really can't understand how anyone can give this movie above a 7. I don't know if they are trying to stand out or something cause this is obviously a terrible movie. And it isn't so bad it's good either, it's just plain crap.3/10