Stevecorp Don't listen to the negative reviews

Dynamixor The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.

CrawlerChunky In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.

StyleSk8r At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.

clarenceporter This is a delightful little movie in the science fiction genre. Not that well known but still a cult hit for those that matter. Chopping Mall, as you righty guessed takes place entirely inside a mall. A group of horny teenagers romp in a mall and get left inside after shut down. The mall has recently installed high tech cameras and giant robots to safeguard the mall (!!!) and on the night the kids are locked in there happens a thunder strike that takes out all the computer boards. The Robots come alive, kill their caretakers and start hunting the mall. This is a fun flick that undeservedly got forgotten on release. Great performances from the young cast must be mentioned.

romankirby-42633 This film is not even remotely fun. It's cheesy and not in a loveable way. It is trash and it's not worth watching for any reason.

bensonmum2 With a name like Chopping Mall and the poster and box-art I'd seen for years, I've always assumed that the film was a cheap slasher. I'm shocked to discover that, instead, it's a cheap killer-robot movie. In Chopping Mall, the owners of the titular mall have decided to install robot security guards to patrol the building overnight. A freak lightning storm, however, fries the robots' main computer. The robots that were originally designed to protect and defend have been turned into unstoppable killing machines. As luck would have it, a group of teens is having an unauthorized after-hours party in the mall. The party comes to an abrupt end, however, when the teens are interrupted by the trio of killer robots. Can the teens make it through the night and escape?Chopping Mall is a tough one for me to rate. In all honesty, it's a pretty bad movie. It's got all the problems I've come to associate with a low-budget 80s horror film. And while I could go on and on about the issues I have with the film (acting, dialogue, stupid characters, etc), it's too much fun not to enjoy. Chopping Mall is fast-paced, filled with plenty of action, and includes a couple of fantastic special effect shots - including an amazing head explosion. I got a real kick out of seeing the cameos from Paul Bartel and Mary Woronov in the opening scene. And the whole 80s-vibe to the film is really appealed to me. The opening montage is like a documentary look at 80s mall culture. All of this leads to a fairly entertaining experience. The film, however, is far from perfect. I've listed a couple of issues I have with Chopping Mall, but my biggest complaint is the logic behind these robots. Unfortunately, I couldn't get this logic issue out of my mind the entire time I was watching the movie. This mall appears to be a fairly typical 1980s-era suburban mall. I can't imagine that a mall like this had very much overnight crime. At least not enough to warrant the cost of putting in this incredibly elaborate security system. A system like this one - complete with three combat-ready robots, a giant supercomputer, locking steel doors, and a couple of full-time computer programmers - would most likely cost more to install and maintain than it did to build the mall in the first place. It's completely ridiculous.

Leofwine_draca CHOPPING MALL is a surprisingly good little B-movie from a director hardly known for making films of cinematic excellence. It's a simplistic thing, as short as you'd expect, but having the appearance of a decent budget for once as the film is chock full of laser and electric effects and the like which stand up with the best fare from the decade.The great thing about this film is that it gets to the point straight away. A bunch of big-haired teens are locked inside a shopping mall at night with three security guard robots that have become murderous due to a short circuit caused by a lightning strike. Madness and mayhem follows, with an exceptionally fast pacing and a decent round of special effects to keep the viewer entertained throughout.Like Fred Olen Ray, director Jim Wynorski has spent decades cranking out one cheap B-movie after another for seemingly a few bucks at a time. Like Ray before him, his most interesting works are the ones he made at the beginning of his career, and CHOPPING MALL might be the best of the bunch. The cast isn't too shabby either, with Barbara Crampton one of the imperilled teens and cameos for the likes of Mary Woronov, Paul Bartel, Gerrit Graham, and Dick Miller. Horror fans will lap it up.