This RoboCop Trilogy doesn’t look or sound too bad especially when you take each film’s age into consideration, but the fact that MGM left off all the features from the 20th Anniversary Edition (it included a commentary, deleted scenes, featurettes and more) is almost unforgivable.
ROBOCOP TRILOGY
Genre(s): Action/Sci-Fi
MGM | NR – 325 min. – $59.99 | October 5, 2010
MOVIE INFO:
Directed by: Paul Verhoeven, Irvin Kershner, Fred Dekker
Writer(s): RoboCop – Edward Neumeier & Michael Miner (written by); RoboCop 2 – Edward Neumeier & Michael Miner (characters), Frank Miller (story), Frank Miller & Walon Green (screenplay); RoboCop 3 – Edward Neumeier & Michael Miner (characters), Frank Miller (story), Frank Miller and Fred Dekker (screenplay)
Cast: Peter Weller, Nancy Allen, Ronny Cox, Kurtwood Smith, Miguel Ferrer, Tom Noonan, CCH Pounder, Rip Torn, Jill Hennessy
Theatrical Release Dates: RoboCop – July 17, 1987, RoboCop 2 – June 22, 1990, RoboCop 3 – November 5, 1993
DISC INFO:
Features: 3 Theatrical Trailers
Number of Discs: 3
Audio: RoboCop – English (DTS-HD MA 5.1), English (Dolby Digital 4.0), French (Dolby Digital 5.1), Spanish (Dolby Digital 5.1); RoboCop 2 – English (DTS-HD MA 5.1), French (DTS 5.1), Spanish (Dolby Digital 5.1); RoboCop 3 – English (DTS-HD MA 5.1), French (DTS 5.1), Spanish (Dolby Digital 5.1)
Video: Widescreen 1.85
Subtitles: English SDH, French, Spanish
Codec: AVC
THE MOVIE – 2/5
RoboCop (1987) – 4/5
The 1980s was a fascinating and dark time for movies. You had the rise of the buddy-cop subgenre with Lethal Weapon, the introduction of a super action star with Arnold Schwarzenegger starring in Predator (which spawned a volatile franchise) and The Terminator (which has become a volatile franchise as well) and bringing up the rear is RoboCop. What these films have in common is a very dark outlook on society something akin to Frank Miller’s “The Dark Knight Returns” and while it does have its flaws, RoboCop is a fun all-out action flick that is right there with the 1980s action classics.
If you don’t already know, the film takes place in Detroit (talk about dark), a city in turmoil and whose police department is owned by Omni Consumer Products (OCP), a private corporation tasked with keeping the crime-ridden city under control. Officer Alex Murphy (PETER WELLER) has recently transferred to a new division and with his new partner Anne Lewis (NANCY ALLEN) – with a strike looming by the police force – track down a gang led by Detroit crime lord Clarence J. Boddicker (KURTWOOD SMITH). With no backup coming, the two decide to take the gang down alone but things soon turn ugly when Murphy is tortured by Boddicker and his gang being riddled with bullets and mocked throughout the entire ordeal before Boddicker finally puts Murphy out of his misery… or so we think.
Apparently Murphy had signed authorization that if something would happen to him, his body would become property of OCP where the company has been developing various projects including a cyborg program headed by one Bob Morton (MIGUEL FERRER) who, in typical corporate politics, has butted heads with Dick Jones (RONNY COX). Well, this program called Robocop took Murphy’s brain and inserted it into a cyborg body and controlled via a computer mainframe with 3 directives: 1. Serve the public interest, 2. Protect the innocent and 3. Uphold the law. There is also a fourth classified directive that of course will come into play later on.
Now with Murphy as Robocop, he searches the streets as the lone protector of Detroit since the police are on strike, searching for crime, firing his sweet automatic weapon and spitting out catch phrases such as “Dead or alive, you’re coming with me.” There’s really nothing more to this movie or the inferior sequels. I will give some credit to Peter Weller because unlike even the actors who have played Batman, he doesn’t have a whole lot to emote since, after the first 30-minutes and some moments when RoboCop’s helmet is off, we only see his lips and that’s really it, so kudos to him to bring some weight to a character that is fairly thin.
It should be noted that RoboCop was directed by none other than Paul Verhoeven who made only his second Western film after Flesh+Blood and making a name for himself, though not always for the right reasons save for Total Recall, Basic Instinct and, in some circles, Starship Troopers, all of which are overshadowed by Showgirls, a film he will not anyone forget about.
RoboCop 2 (1990) – 2.25/5
As with most unnecessary sequels, RoboCop 2 is not unlike Ghostbusters 2 (although I think it’s OK), Predator 2 and Jaws 2 though RoboCop 2 really takes the cake. I knew what I was in for when for our introduction to RoboCop, his cop car comes to a crime in progress, is fired upon with a bazooka, some automatic weapons and then (I think) a grenade launcher. After the bad guys think they’ve done away with the cop, the door is kicked open and RoboCop’s robotic foot stomps on the ground and our favorite cyborg cop comes out of the burning vehicle with nary a scratch on his suit of armor, pristine for a shiny new sequel not to mention fantastic poster shot.
The “story” this go around finds RoboCop still on a crime fighting spree taking out bad guys but the old and nefarious OCP corporation wants to upgrade the program but are having no success, however the company has more plans and one of them is to take over Detroit as the city is in default with OCP owing an insurmountable $37 million (chump change today given some city’s deficits). The city is still crime-ridden and the cops are once again on strike so the criminals are having a field day, and this includes a pack of cub scouts as they rob a store with their adult leader helping out.
Meanwhile, a man named Cain (TOM NOONAN) has taken over as a crime lord-like figure manufacturing and distributing a new drug known as “Nuke” which is infiltrating the streets and hooking a good portion of the population on the addictive and cheap drug. Cain only has one obstacle and that is RoboCop but Cain manages to get the upper hand and they dismantle and discard the cyborg after which OCP takes possession of RoboCop and make him into a peacemaker rather than crime fighter writing in hundreds of directives none of which involve lethal force replaced by lecturing about nutrition or reading Miranda Rights to even corpses. The whole thing is laid out like some kind of laugh riot equipped with a cartoonish chase scene where RoboCop is hanging on the side of a speeding van whose driver side swipes a pole and knocks off RoboCop with a “clank”, arms stretched forward like Wile-E-Coyote.
So the first half is some sort of hybrid dark comedy (there were comedic moments in the first, but this takes it to another level) before turning back into an action flick mixed in with bizarre science fiction as Cain, after being captured, is “killed” by an OPC scientist and his brain is removed to be used in the RoboCop 2.0 program. Why did she choose to use a psychopath to fight crime? I’m not entirely sure even though she does explain her reasoning as she decides to seek out criminals rather than those in law enforcement. Why did the other “volunteers” fail? Again, I have no clue and it was explained but it just didn’t make a whole lot of sense.
But all around not only is this an uneven movie, it’s also poorly written which is interesting since the story and screenplay was written by Frank Miller, though Miller’s foray into the motion picture business and away from graphic novels hasn’t been the greatest save for Sin City. The film was also directed by none other than Irvin Kershner best known for The Empire Strikes Back, so he has the chops to direct but the script fails for him.
With RoboCop 2, the movie is just nonsense through and through. Like I said before, I knew what kind of a movie I was in for from RC’s introduction and it didn’t disappoint unfortunately enough.
RoboCop 3 — 1.5/5
The third and, at the time of this writing, final movie in the RoboCop franchise ends with a whimper rather than a roar. Funny thing is, this entry only serves to highlight the good things from RC2 than anything else and makes that one look like a sci-fi action classic by comparison.
The story and antagonist for our favorite law enforcement cyborg focuses still on the evil OCP Corporation which is going ahead with plans to level Detroit in favor of Delta City by throwing people out of their homes and detaining them at centers to fulfill the corporate utopia. The business’s CEO (RIP TORN) is moving forward with his predecessor’s vision. The dirty work for the evictions is carried out by OCP’s military wing led by Paul McDaggett (JOHN CASTLE).
A rebel group has formed to oppose OCP who work underground and try to disrupt the evictions for a few days because afterward the company would go into default and lose out… or something along those lines, I wasn’t entirely clear on how that all would work out. The rebels are headed by Bertha (played by the underutilized CCH POUNDER) and her purpose is saving a young girl named Nikko (REMY RYAN) whose mom and dad are captured but she has her own value as she’s a cracker computer genius and is able to hack an ED-209 as well as a new Japanese model towards the end of the film. Of course, since they made RoboCop fly, that little golden nugget wasn’t a big deal as a whole.
Oh, I forgot about RoboCop, didn’t I? Yeah, the title character is actually in the film and although he doesn’t appear in full until the 20-minute mark – and in most ridiculous fashion shooting through the top of his car rather than just opening the driver-side door – but he spends most of the movie getting his ass whooped than fighting crime. Yeah, he blows away a few bad guys but since this was a PG-13 rated picture, the violence was toned way down and thus the body count was also lowered. And you know what? PG-13 is fine so long as the script came through as many movies with that rating have succeeded (see: The Dark Knight and the Bourne franchise) but as it was with RoboCop 2, the screenplay does the film no favors.
This is also not to mention that Peter Weller, due to other obligations (and I doubt he wanted to do it anyway) did not reprise his role and it was instead played by Robert Burke. However, really outside of a few minutes I’m not sure if I really missed Weller as RoboCop primarily appeared with his helmet on, so outside of continuity, I can’t think how even someone with Weller’s presence could have saved RoboCop 3.
Overall, the first part of the film wasn’t too bad and there are some nice moments but the ridiculousness of certain scenes vastly outweighs any good from RoboCop 3. With its PG-13 rating and the fact it was filmed in 1991 (a year after the sequel), this was yet another project more concerned with grabbing money than putting out a quality project.
SPECIAL FEATURES – 1/5
The three-disc set is contained in a standard sized HD Slim case housed in a reflective slip case.
All that’s offered for all three movies are the theatrical trailers for each. Yep, that’s it. They didn’t even bother porting over the features from the RoboCop special edition DVD.
VIDEO – 3.5/5
RoboCop – 3.5/5
The film is presented with a 1.85 aspect ratio and in 1080p high-definition. The movie is now 23 years old and kind of looks that way. I wouldn’t expect MGM to put up more money to give this a complete restoration (a la Psycho) so there are some limitations with this transfer as there isn’t a whole lot of good detail levels and there is also quite a bit of grain throughout (though I like that they seemed to lay off the DNR machine).
RoboCop 2 – 3.75/5
For the 1990 sequel, the picture actually doesn’t look too bad. Once again, this release is presented with a 1.85 aspect ratio and 1080p high-definition and has a discernable amount of noise and grain throughout yet at the same time the detail level looks good as do the colors which, while tipping on the oversaturated side, is decent enough.
RoboCop 3 – 3.75/5
The second sequel to RoboCop sticks with the same 1.85 aspect ratio and 1080p high-definition and since this is the newest of the three (17 years old) it also probably looks the best. There is some noise and grain but it only helps to enhance the crispness and detail level for the video especially on close-up and medium shots. Colors also look good and natural without looking too pumped up for the HD market.
AUDIO – 3.75/5
RoboCop – 3.25/5
The 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio track is fairly low key overall that although the dialogue sounds OK, any sound effects like gunfire and explosions (which you know there is plenty of) has little or no depth to it.
RoboCop 2 – 3.75/5
In contrast, the DTS-HD MA track featured for the sequel does have much more depth to the explosions while also having strong levels through the center channel for the dialogue. The side channels also get some use for the action scenes. This isn’t an incredible sounding audio track, but certainly better than its predecessor.
RoboCop 3 – 4/5
The DTS-HD MA track is notably stronger than the other two especially in the bass department where from the beginning we get a little depth during the car chase and gunfire. The rear channels also seemed like they got used more to go along with a center channel that is used for the dialogue.
OVERALL – 2.5/5
This RoboCop Trilogy doesn’t look or sound too bad especially when you take each film’s age into consideration, but the fact that MGM left off all the features from the 20th Anniversary Edition (it included a commentary, deleted scenes, featurettes and more) is almost unforgiveable. I place the “almost” in there only if you can get this set for around $20.
Brian Oliver, The Movieman
Published: 10/21/2010
Check out some more screen caps by going to page 2.