If you know your Italian low-budget cinema during the seventies, you should have a pretty good idea of what this movie, WAR OF THE ROBOTS, should contain. Ripping off other movies? You bet. Lots of sound effects, costumes, and set pieces decorate this flick, all taken right out of the popular culture of the time. Sometimes it's hard for me to believe that this was the image of the future held by many Americans and Europeans at the time. I can't even imagine what function the wall-to-wall flashing lights and those over-the-top monotone robot voices could have been thought to have served.<br /><br />Fans of classic science fiction cinema should get a kick out of this movie, but be warned: it's not one of the most well-made of its type. You'll notice during the opening credits; the camera work is very shaky for the first five minutes or so. The robots of the title are actually a bunch of guys wearing silver outfits and funny shoulder-length blonde wigs. Nevertheless, there are a number of interesting aspects to this movie. Kuba the Alien (Aldo Canti), for example, is an oddity that almost demands a cult following of some sort, or at least to be confused for Michael Berryman. The plot twists and turns as characters are either assimilated (or something) by the robots or just show their true colors as total sleazeballs (that Professor is one bad dude), so there is some meat mixed in with all of this cheese.<br /><br />In terms of plot, the movie begins with the kidnapping of a brilliant Professor (Roberto Bianchetti, I think), who has developed an artificial means for creating life. His abductors, the aforementioned robots in silver who are called "Goldmen," run off with him and a young woman named Lois (Malisa Longo), and it is up to the local heroes, led by Captain John Boyd (Antonio Sabado) to rescue them. Nothing goes as planned, and the plot features as much betrayal and murder as any Shakespeare play, except far less bloody.<br /><br />WAR OF THE ROBOTS is, for some reason, included with Mill Creek's "Chilling Classics" 50 movie boxed set, rather than the "SciFi Classics" (which makes more sense to me), so it is available fairly cheap. Chances are that this is also available online for free, so those interested might consider that as a less expensive alternative.