In the spirit and tradition of mindless comic book violence comes the latest project by comics writer/artist Rob Schrab. Schrab, known for his cult hit Scud The Disposable Assassin, this time brings us a new assassin in the form of Robot Bastard. Robot Bastard is a 17-minute short film, which is certainly not short on action. In fact, Schrab seems to show his Hong Kong Action influenced colors in this sci-fi version of what could have happened to Patty Hearst in outer space.

The film opens with the typical intro sort of stuff that just gets your butt in the seat of the roller coaster and then shoots you off on the adventure. Robot (voiced convincingly by Sean McKenna) is our hero in the film, whose assignment is to rescue the President's daughter, Catherine, from the evil Space Mummy, Blood Mamba. The demand by Blood Mamba (who, conveniently, has never been seen) is to trade Catherine (played by the always lovely Robia LaMorte of Buffy The Vampire Slayer fame) for the President. Well, seeing as how that isn't going to happen, Robot is brought in.

The plot of the film is rather thin and not completely unfamiliar, but is extremely ambitious. While there is not too much to the story, it is foreshadowed fairly well by the little dialogue that is spoken. The majority of the film is one giant action sequence in which Robot must fight the Space Mummies. Schrab uses some very fun techniques and "special effects" to push the violence of the action, including a fun little shot where Robot rips off one of the Mummies arms and shoves it through his Skull, very reminiscent of the skull crushing sequence in The Toxic Avenger.

For a first film, Schrab has done an excellent job of bringing his warped vision to the screen. The combination of stop-animation and computer effects mixed with live action makes the viewer feel like they are watching a cartoon more than live action ... it captures the essence of comics reality almost perfectly. In fact, the only reason I say almost instead of absolutely perfect is because those are large shoes to fill and doesn't leave room for improvement. I liked this film quite a bit because of its' Troma feel, because of its' Hong Kong feel, because it's a comic book, because there are a few little surprises and none at all. So, while it lies a little on the strange side, I recommend it as a highly entertaining 17 minutes and can't
wait to see what Rob Schrab decides to do next ... and Robia LaMorte dressed like a school girl while tied to a chair never hurts.

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