Giving opinions for several years and showing like a fine vintage
Giving opinions for several years and showing like a fine vintage
Member since:11.07.2000
Reviews:624
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Let's face it, the 80's were crap. The majority of mainstream films made in that decade don't really hold up well now. They're all incredibly cheesy with a bad choice in soundtracks featuring bands who had big hair and loved synth's. You know the kind of songs that end up on those naff compilations that can only be bought via mail order and featured havily on MTV advertising.
However amongst the likes of Teenwolf, Mannequin and 3 Men & A Baby there are the occasional gems and most of them happen to be action flicks where men are men and women are normally nowhere to be seen. I'm talking about the likes of Predator, Rambo and of course Robocop. The first two are pretty mindless action flicks with cool characters. Robocop is that as well but has much more going on underneath the surface.
Thanks to Director Paul Verhoven, this is a film that acts as part action, part comedy and 100% satire. Peter Weller stars as Alex Murphy, a cop who relocates to Detroit. The city is in the midst of crime, most of it stemming from arch criminal and all round bad guy Clarence Boddicker. One day Murphy and his new partner Lewis (Nancy Allen) find themselves hot in pursuit of Boddicker. However what follows is a senseless act of brutality that leaves Murphy for dead. However what is left on him is brought back to life in the form of a cyborg, designed to be a one man crime preventing machine. His name - Robocop.
Robocop frankly takes no prisoners and soon crime in on the decrease. However soon submerged memeories of Murphy's
past come to haunt Robocop and what was once a machine soo rediscovers some human elements. Needless to say the memory of being killed by Boddicker and his gang means it's bad news for Boddicker.
Some may see Robocop as nothing more than mindless violence. In some ways it is but this is also a film that pokes fun at the commercialism that plagued the eighties with the big corporations not letting anything stand in their way of making big money. It also has that dark comedic streak that Verhoven is known for. At one point an employee is literally shot to pieces by ED-209, a robot that goes into malfunction which leads to the birth of Robocop. Here this man collapses, dead and bullet riddled. Amongst the commotion someone utters "call a paramedic!".
Robocop is a film where the effects may be a bit naff in todays CGI realm but they still hold up fairly well. All in all it's a full scale action romp with an idea that must have sounded really bad on paper but ends up being a classic action film.
Robocop comes to DVD in a Special Edition which is marred by a marketing decision that may have looked good on paper to the suits at MGM but doesn't really help the consumer. You see to own the original film you have to buy the boxset for £35, this means that you have to put up with Robocop 2 and if that weren't enough you also have to suffer the embaressment of having Robocop 3 in your collection. Both these sequels are frankly very poor and kill the franchise. The second film has a lot of really bad ideas that are horribly executed. What makes it even worse I think is the fact that it was directed by the same man who done The Empire Strikes Back. Some may enjoy it but to be honest it really has aged very badly. As for the third film, well even Weller dropped out so instead you have someone else playing the title character and a story that is franly plain stupid Add to that some very bad performances from the likes of Rip Torn and you have a film that really isn't worth writing anymore about. You might like to me to actually tell you what the plot's are for both these movies but frankly they're not worth wasting anymore time over.
What MGM have done right is giving us the directors cut of the film as well as the theatrical version. Verhoven's extended version just amps up the violence factor just that extra notch to make it more outrageous to watch. At times you can't believe someone would have the nerve or guts to shoot such things. But this director's cut comes at a price which brings me on to.....
PRESENTATION ------------- All three films are presented in 1.85:1 anamorphic widescreen. The transfers are pretty nice. There is print blemish and some of it looks a little soft but overall this is the best Robocop has ever looked. The sequels also stand up pretty well but I couldn't bring myself to sit through them in their entirety for obvious reasons. The directors cut of Robocop shares the saem disc as the theatrical cut through 'seamless branching'. This is a feature that not many dvd's have yet utilized which allows different versions of a film to be on one disc. The Abyss and Independance Day have managed the technique with flawless results. However Robocop isn't 'seamless' as the packaging suggests. As the film switches to an extended scene you get a layer change in the disc which isn't incredibly distracting but still enough to upset your enjoyment. You can also notice whenever an extended scene is playing as the picture quality isn't as good with a very noticable amount of grain in the image.
The first film also get's a sound remix a'la The Terminator with a full Dolby Digital 5.1 soundscape. What the remix does is bring more of a life to the film with a lot of emphasis on the score and general atmosphere. Overall it's enveloping but at times the gunfire and explosiosn suffer from lacking that extras bit of punch you'd get from modern day soundtracks.
The inferior sequels just contain stereo soundtracks and let's be honest who'd want full 5.1 tracks on a film they're not going to watch anyway.
Not to be content with a directors cut of the film, we also get an array of extras that are very enjoyable.
The first of which is an audio commentary with Verhoven, writer Ed Neuimier and producer Jon Davison. All three men are in the same room and it leads to some great stories about the film and also some disagreements. Those who've heard the Starship Troopers commentary track should know what to expect.
'Flesh and Steel' is a documentary on the film that features interviews with the main people in the crew looking back on the film. It paints the production as one that was never plain sailing and always full of problems. Overall it covers a lot of interesting ground and it's only downside is that it doesn't feature any contributions from the cast.
But then again the cast get more of say in two original featurettes from 1987 that sell the film, these are pretty much promo pieces used to sell the film but still feature some good behind the scenes footage.
The deleted scenes section offers up some very brief and not that revealing moments. Overall they are moments that have no real place in the story and besides we have the directors cut of the film as well which makes up for it.
Another features looks at the storyboards for some of the film's more elaborate moments with commentary from SFX supervisor Phil Tippett. The feature plays with a comparison to the final cut and these things are always interesting to me.
Finally you have a photo gallery as well as trailers and TV spots for the trilogy.
Overall Robocop is a disc worth getting but only if you can get it on it's own. The fact that you have to fork out for two sequels that frankly suck is a smack in the face. I'm sure many more would buy the first film on it's own but are now just biding their time in the vain hope that it'll get an independant release soon.
How helpful would this review be to a person making a buying decision? Rating guidelines
Production Year: 2002 - Action/Adventure - Director: Vincenzo Natali - Original Language: English - Classification: 15 years and over - Starring:Lucy Liu, David Hewlett, Anne Marie Scheffler, Joseph Scoren, Matthew Sharp, Jeremy Northam
Production Year: 1964 - Action/Adventure - Director: Cyril Endfield - Original Language: English - Classification: Parental Guidance - Starring:Stanley Baker, Jack Hawkins, Ulla Jacobsson, James Booth, Michael Caine, Nigel Green
Production Year: 1977 - Action/Adventure - Director: Clint Eastwood - Original Language: English - Classification: 18 years and over - Starring:Clint Eastwood, Sondra Locke, Pat Hingle, William Prince, Bill McKinney
Thanks for an entertaing read. I was seriously thinking about buying the boxset on DVD but now I'm not too sure, as you mentioned, Robocop 2 and 3 aren't really that good to spend £35 on! :)
Howiemon 13.04.2002 20:31
Another top review Ute', well done. BTW - Asda were offering the box-set at £24.99, but think yourself lucky that you didn't fork out £34.99 for the single-disc Criterion version of Robo 1. No 5.1, no anamorphic print and fewer extras, but at least you don't get the 'layer change' with the director's cut footage. cheers blokey.
purebitch 31.03.2002 19:28
I think i might buy the box set for my boyfriends birthday. He loves these films. Another good op.
When it arrived on the big screen in 1987, Paul Verhoeven'sRoboCopwas like a high-voltage ... more
jolt of electricity, blending satire, thrills, and abundant violence with such energized gusto that audiences couldn't help feeling stunned and amazed. The movie ...
Postage & Packaging: £1.21 Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days...
When it arrived on the big screen in 1987, Paul Verhoeven'sRoboCopwas like a high-voltage ... more
jolt of electricity, blending satire, thrills, and abundant violence with such energized gusto that audiences couldn't help feeling stunned and amazed. The movie ...
Postage & Packaging: Free! Availability: Usually dispatched within 24 hours...
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wave is sweeping across America. In Old Detroit the situation is so bad a private corporation Omni Consumer Products (OCP) has assumed control of the police fo...
Postage & Packaging: £0.00 Availability: 3-5 working days
There's a new law enforcer in town...and he's half man, half machine! From the director of ... more
Total Recall and Basic Instinct comes a Sci-Fi fantasy witha sleek, high powered drive about an indestructible high-tech policeman who dishes out justice at ever...
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EnglishPatient 22.01.2001 ·
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful
Review of Robocop (DVD)
Advantages: A classic - touching, shocking, funny, - a different kind of action movie. Disadvantages: A bit too violent for some - and lots of swearing.
DanClegg 07.02.2001 ·
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful
Review of Robocop (DVD)
![Robocop [1988] [DVD]](http://picnicb.ciao.com/uk/78519459.jpg "Robocop [1988] [DVD]")
Mar 23rd, 2002
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![Robocop [Special Edition]-DVD](http://picnicb.ciao.com/uk/103203131.jpg)
