When we last saw director Stuart Gordon, he produced 1986’s surprisingly effective horror/fantasy effort Dolls. Three years later, Gordon returned with a mix of action and sci-fi called Robot Jox.

A few decades after a nuclear World War III laid waste to much of the planet, Earth finds itself divided into two superpowers: the Market and the Confederation. Rather than engage in battles of mass destruction, the opponents now decide conflicts via large automatons piloted by human “Robot Jox”.

When the two sides contest ownership of Alaska, the Market sends Achilles (Gary Graham), whereas the Confederation features Alexander (Paul Koslo). Given that Alexander slaughtered his last nine opponents, Achilles finds himself in the fight of his life.

As noted when I reviewed Dolls, Gordon’s initial cult success as a director came via 1985’s Re-Animator. He followed that with 1986’s From Beyond and then Dolls.

All three shared an emphasis on quirky horror and went down a firmly “R”-rated path. That makes Gordon a surprising choice to direct Jox, a “PG”-rated mix of sci-fi and action that seems to embrace the Reagan era’s “rah rah USA” vibe.

Indeed, “the Market” provides a very thinly-veiled stand-in for the States and “the Confederation” offers an equally transparent take on the USSR.

Though it strikes me as a surprise that Jox landed only a “PG”, especially given the existence of “PG-13” in its era. Not only does it feature some naked butts but also one character gets shot in the head and we see the bloody impact.

Perhaps the MPAA viewed the cartoony nature of the movie as more significant than this content. Ironically, Jox evokes a film that had ratings trouble in the opposite direction: 1987’s RoboCop, a flick that required trims to avoid an ”X” rating.

That one came with much more graphic violence, but both share an arch, semi-satirical tone. Though Jox makes its social points less obvious, it still plays as a moderate spoof of the period’s action flicks.

That said, I sometimes find it tough to discern if Jox seems campy because Gordon intended it that way or because it simply followed the traits of the era. So many 80s action movies play as self-parody that it becomes difficult to tell the difference.

Given Gordon’s history, though, I’ll assume the goofier elements here came from his approach to the material and not just our view of the period more than three decades later. Not that Jox goes as far into genre spoof as RoboCop anyway, for a lot of it plays fairly straight.

At least if you approach Jox as a movie meant for kids. A lot of it seems cliché, a choice I think Gordon made as a way to highlight the silliness of the period’s action flicks.

This also means that a certain audience can view Jox without irony. As a basic action flick, Jox actually works fairly well, especially because of its goals.

A pretty obvious precursor to movies like Pacific Rim, Jox shoots for a level of ambition greater than one would anticipate from a fairly low-budget indie flick. This stems from the nature of the visual effects, as those ask a lot given the film’s financial restrictions.

And these components actually fare pretty well. No, they don’t match up to what we would’ve expected from ILM or the like, but again, Jox didn’t enjoy a blockbuster budget, so it does very nicely within its constraints.

The movie also musters reasonable excitement, though I admit it becomes less interesting as it goes. Not that we lose interest, but Jox gets bogged down in fairly superfluous plot threads and the climax seems less impactful than it should.

Though I mentioned the movie’s satirical side, it probably fares best if one attempts to ignore those traits. While it flirts with a cynical worldview, Gordon doesn’t take these concepts as far as he should, so they don’t add a lot to the tale.

And like I said, it’s possible Gordon never intended any of the Verhoeven-style self-parody I interpret. He might’ve simply tried to make a straightforward sci-fi/action flick aimed at kids – though his MO continues to make that seem unlikely to me.

With or without social commentary, Jox turns into a moderately enjoyable romp. Best viewed straight, the movie enjoys good for its budget/era effects and becomes a decent little drive-in effort.

Robot Jox appears in an aspect ratio of 1.85:1 on this Blu-ray Disc. Though the movie betrayed its era, the image worked fairly well.

This meant sharpness that usually appeared pretty well-defined. Occasional soft shots emerged, but the majority of the flick came across as reasonably accurate.

I saw no issues with jagged edges or moiré effects, and edge haloes remained absent. Only minor print flaws occurred – via a couple small specks - and grain seemed fairly natural, though “frozen grain” crept into the opening credits.

Colors tended toward primary hues, with an emphasis on reds. Though the hues could seem a little thick at times, they generally offered appealing vivacity.

Blacks felt largely deep and dense, while shadows showed acceptable clarity. This turned into a mostly positive presentation.

I also thought the movie’s LPCM stereo soundtrack worked pretty well, at least given the tendencies of the era. The soundscape boasted good spread and localization, with appealing breadth to music as well.

Audio quality showed its age, mainly due to a little distortion. That meant some edginess to speech and a bit of roughness to effects.

Still, the lines remained easily intelligible and became largely natural. Despite occasional harshness, effects showed decent range and impact.

Music worked nicely, with a good presentation of the score. This was a more than adequate mix for a movie from 1989.

As we move to extras, we find two audio commentaries, the first of which comes from director Stuart Gordon. Along with moderator Michael Felsher, Gordon provides a running, screen-specific look at the project’s roots and development, inspirations and influences, themes, story/characters, cast and performances, sets, locations and production design, robot creation, music, and connected domains.

Expect a strong discussion here, as Gordon touches on a lot of useful topics. Felsher helps move the track along and this turns into a highly informative chat.

For the second commentary, we hear from associate effects director Paul Gentry, mechanical effects artist Mark Rappaport, and stop-motion animator Paul Jessell. All three sit together for a running, screen-specific discussion of various issues related to the movie’s effects, action and sci-fi elements.

Going into this commentary, I feared I’d find something technical and stiff. While the track leans heavily toward nuts and bolts elements, the participants do manage to make it engaging.

Well, to a moderate degree, as the discussion never really manages to catch fire, and if you’re not enthralled with technical domains, you likely won’t find much to enjoy here. I find this to become a decent chat, if not one that delights.

Four featurettes follow, and Crash and Burn brings a chat with actor Gary Graham. It runs 17 minutes, nine seconds.

Graham covers his work on the film and thoughts about it. He gives us good memories – and even criticizes the movie’s ending, which makes this an unusual chat.

Her Name Is Athena goes for 13 minutes, 25 seconds. Here we locate an interview with actor Anne-Marie Johnson.

She tells us about her work on the film and related memories. Like Graham, Johnson delivers some fun comments about the production.

Next we get The Scale of Battle. It spans 26 minutes, 35 seconds and brings notes from visual effects artists Steve Berg, Yancy Calzeda, Paul Gentry, Kevin Kutchaver, Dennis Muren and John Vincent.

The participants offer an appreciation for the life and career of stop motion animator David Allen. This becomes a nice look at Allen’s work, especially given we find plenty of behind the scenes components.

Looking Back runs 10 minutes, 24 seconds. This archival reel delivers notes from actor Paul Koslo.

He relates info about his time on the Jox shoot. Koslo brings some decent thoughts, though his remarks feel less revealing than those from Graham and Johnson.

Via Salvaged from the Wreckage, we get an eight-minute, 19-second running montage of movie-related from the collection of Paul Gentry. Along with commentary from collector John Torrani, we see models, design art, and other Jox materials in this fun look at Gentry’s goodies.

In addition to the movie’s trailer, we get two separate Image Galleries: “Behind the Scenes” (101 shots) and “Posters and Stills” (113). Both offer quality compilations.

An Original Sales Sheet fills two screens and shows the studio’s pitch to exhibitors. Original Production Notes spans 12 screens and gives us a press kit.

Whether one views it as a satire of 1980s action flicks or a straightforward part of that genre, Robot Jox delivers a fairly entertaining affair. Bolstered by a good concept and pretty solid effects, the movie may not fully connect but it turns into a generally enjoyable effort. The Blu-ray comes with positive picture and audio as well as a bunch of bonus materials. Expect a good release for a mostly engaging movie.

Note that this release of Robot Jox comes only as part of a five-film package called “Enter the Video Store: Empire of Screams”. In addition to Robot Jox, it brings four other movies from Empire Pictures: Dungeonmaster, Dolls, Cellar Dweller and Arena (1989).

The set includes non-disc-based elements as well. According to Arrow, it comes with “double-sided posters featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Ilan Sheady; 15 postcard-sized reproduction art cards; an Arrow Video store "membership card"; an 80-page perfect bound book featuring new writing on the films by Lee Gambin, Dave Jay, Megan Navarro, and John Harrison, plus select archival material.”

My review copy lacked these components. Nonetheless, I figured I should mention them.