"It's your job, right? You know, the guy who kills me, I hope he does it 'cause he hates my gut...
"It's your job, right? You know, the guy who kills me, I hope he does it 'cause he hates my guts. Not 'cause it's his job" - Sonny (Al Pacino) in 'Dog Day Afternoon' (1975)
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RoboCop 3 is the second sequel in the RoboCop franchise. It seems that over the years the RoboCop films went from retro classic to abismal cash cow.
The film is still set in good old Detroit where the massive, capitalist corporation OCP (Omni Consumer Products) owns Detroit and is planning to destroy the old lawless neighbourhoods to make way for the 'New Detroit'. (This premise is in all three movies, this moive is based on them actually doing something about it instead of just talking about it) Mercenaries headed by a heatless captain have been throwing people out of the homes and packing them onto buses to make way for the demolition crews.
But RoboCop, programmed to protect and serve the public, joins forces with a small rebel alliance of evicted residents of the neighbourhood that's about to be destroyed. After battling a lethal ninja android from a corpotration who will profit from OCP's dealings, RoboCop and the brave residents take on OCP's recruited private army, it is all out war...
This film has put the franchise downhill. Despite there being no Peter Weller or Paul Verhoeven, the film has a lack of violence in an attempt to gain a new, younger audience. The original (and far superior, see review) movie was infmaous for its graphic violence and dipiction of a realistic future. The second one surpported this but wasn't as succesful. This film has the futuristic concept (as this doesn't affect the certificate) but had none of the blood and violence that you would've expected from RoboCop.
The action was there and is entertaining to watch, but this movie turned into a more audince friendly movie and the violence isn't fully appreciated.
Performances from the cast are not bad, Robert John Burke had to fill in the shoes of Peter Weller who did it so well in the last two films. Burke however, wasn't particulary spectacular in his performance. The surporting cast (appart from Nancy Allen who makes a third appearence as Louis) all look like they were dragged away from a national talent contest. Rip Torn is the new head of OCP and does have the look of an executive chairman, but I would have personally cast someone different.
The story (see above) has been engineered to make us the audience have more sympathy for characters that we don't know alot about. Ideed, this film is a far more pussier version than the other two prequels.
You'll watch this the once just to say that you've watched it and probably won't ever again.
The whole ninja android thing ammused my brother (as he's a kung fu fanatic) but to me, I thought it was quite laughable. The ninja was merely a more athletic version of the Terminator but played by an aisian.
If you really do want to watch this then buy the trilogy. If you watch it in chronelogical order you'll realise that the franchise has more or less plumetted off a cliff when the first film ends. Its not the worst sequel i've seen (cough- "Speed 2" - cough) butn it certainly ain't "T2". Although with no original star or director, what do you expect?
(read my other RoboCop reviews)
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