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Feb 22, 2016 Web Exclusive By Austin Trunick

This week brings us a new offering in Shout! Factory’s Double Feature series, which pair two titles and a light smattering of extras on one Blu-ray disc. There are rarely any award-winners on these budget releases—unless you count Razzies—but they’re a great, economical way for genre fans to check out obscure and semi-forgotten titles. Millennium / R.O.T.O.R. serves up a late ‘80s time travel story and a low-low-low-budget Robocop / Terminator knock-off, respectively. Without further mucking about, let’s look at each film individually:

Millennium: Kris Kristofferson stars as an aviation inspector in this bit of time travel silliness from 1989. After a mysterious plane crash leaves behind a black box containing a recording of the pilot’s bizarre final moments, the plainly-named Bill Smith (Kristofferson) is tasked with finding out just what exactly went wrong. Along the way, he has a one-night stand with a comely flight attendant named Louise Baltimore (Cheryl Ladd), whom the airline has no record of actually existing. We soon skip ahead one thousand years to a future where mankind has invented not only the means to travel in time, but the goofiest-looking androids in ‘80s sci-fi cinema. Louise, it turns out, was sent from the future to hook up with the hunky Bill, because that’s apparently the only way to save her future’s continued existence.

Millennium plays out much like someone trying to drunkenly explain the plot of a Doctor Who episode they haven’t seen in several years. The pacing is incredibly slow—a significantly large portion of the runtime is dedicated to Bill and Louise’s awkward first date and their pillowtalk afterward—and the high concept is downright silly, but there are elements where the execution hits its mark. The future-world, or at least the small bits of it we see, is genuinely cool, with lots of interesting touches (such as a birdcage with an airlock, and a leader who seems to only be a nervous system in a glass tube.) This one was directed by Michael Anderson, who also gave us Logan’s Run and Around the World in 80 Days.

R.O.T.O.R.: This no-budget vanity project stars investor/producer Richard Gesswein in his only acting credit, as cowboy/cop/scientist J.B. Coldyron. He’s the head of the Dallas police department’s R.O.T.O.R. unit, which stands for Robot Officer Tactical Operation Research. They’re working on the “police officer of the future,” a robot programmed with a poorly-thought-out prime directive to “judge and execute.” When the corrupt city official funding the project demands they deliver their 25-year-project in 60 days, Coldyron throws a hissy fit and quits. However, a slang-slinging janitor named Shoeboogie accidentally awakens the sleeping monster, who goes on a rampage across the great Dallas region while trying to enforce a speeding violation. It’s up to Coldyron and his lab partner—aspiring American Gladiator, Dr. C.R. Steele—to stop their out-of-control creation.

Giving credit where it is due, R.O.T.O.R. milks what little money it had to make a movie that looks a lot better than other, similarly-homegrown projects from the same era. Existing locations are well-utilized to boost production value (a hotel lobby is almost convincingly transformed into a futuristic police station) and one segment uses some decent stop motion animation to demonstrate how the R.O.T.O.R. was built. Beyond that, though, the film’s bargain bin nature shows through: every cast member appears to either be a first-time actor or a non-actor with a financial stake in the film, with dubbed voices that don’t quite match their dialogue. But, if you can gloss over scenes that suddenly switch from day to night mid-cut, it’s a fun and funny movie (humor mostly unintentional) that’s enjoyable enough if you’re willing to enter without expectations.

www.shoutfactory.com/film/sci-fi/millennium-r-o-t-o-r-double-feature