Plot
In 2028 Detroit, when Alex Murphy (Joel Kinnaman) - a loving husband, father and good cop - is critically injured in the line of duty, the multinational conglomerate OmniCorp sees their chance for a part-man, part-robot police officer.
Storyline
In RoboCop, the year is 2028 and multinational conglomerate OmniCorp is at the center of robot technology. Overseas, their drones have been used by the military for years - and it's meant billions for OmniCorp's bottom line. Now OmniCorp wants to bring their controversial technology to the home front, and they see a golden opportunity to do it. When Alex Murphy (Joel Kinnaman) - a loving husband, father and good cop doing his best to stem the tide of crime and corruption in Detroit - is critically injured in the line of duty, OmniCorp sees their chance for a part-man, part-robot police officer. OmniCorp envisions a RoboCop in every city and even more billions for their shareholders, but they never counted on one thing: there is still a man inside the machine pursuing justice.
Writers: Joshua Zetumer, Edward Neumeier
Cast: Joel Kinnaman -
Alex Murphy /
RoboCop
Gary Oldman -
Dr. Dennett Norton
Michael Keaton -
Raymond Sellars
Abbie Cornish -
Clara Murphy
Jackie Earle Haley -
Rick Mattox
Michael K. Williams -
Jack Lewis
Jennifer Ehle -
Liz Kline
Jay Baruchel -
Tom Pope
Marianne Jean-Baptiste -
Chief Karen Dean
Samuel L. Jackson -
Pat Novak
Aimee Garcia -
Jae Kim
Douglas Urbanski -
Mayor Durant
John Paul Ruttan -
David Murphy
Patrick Garrow -
Antoine Vallon
K.C. Collins -
Andre Daniels
I'm a fan of the original 'RoboCop' movie – I find it to be fun,
satirical, enjoyably violent and overall very good. Naturally, I wasn't
very thrilled when I heard it was getting a remake. I was even less
thrilled when I heard the remake will be rated PG-13. I mean – how can
you make a 'RoboCop' movie without excessive violence and blood squibs?
Now that I have seen the movie, I can freely say that the PG-13 rating
is the least of this movie's problems. Initially, I didn't want to
compare the remake to the original, I wanted to view it and review it
as a stand-alone movie. Now that I have seen it, I think I'll have to
compare the two movies after all, since the remake possesses none of
the qualities that made the original such a classic, and by simple
comparison I can easily explain why the remake is an utterly flawed and
ridiculous movie.
The movie opens with a political show, called the Novak Element, led by
the host Pat Novak (Samuel L. Jackson), during which we see a news
footage of OmniCorp droids (including the famous ED-209 and the freshly
introduced humanoid drones called ED-208) patrolling and inspecting the
streets of some Islamic state. Novak compliments the droids and then
starts attacking The Dreyfuss Act – a law that forbids the deployment
of such drones in the USA. We are then introduced to Raymond Sellars
(Michael Keaton), the CEO of OmniCorp, who is trying to find ways of
tricking The Dreyfuss Act and start deploying his products in the USA.
He gets the idea of incorporating both man and machine into an ultimate
law enforcement product. We are then introduced to our protagonist –
Alex Murphy (Joel Kinnaman) – who is soon heavily injured in an
explosion and is used as a guinea pig in this newest OmniCorp program.
Like I said before: the 'RoboCop' remake lacks everything that was good
in the original movie. First of all, there's no worthy satire in the
movie. Society is sometimes mocked through the character of Pat Novak,
but the satire isn't very subtle nor intelligent – actually, I'd say it
is very primitive and expeditionary. Second of all, the nature of
Robocop's character is very different from the original movie; he's not
a robot, but more a man in a robotic suit, and his family plays a
fairly big role in the movie. And I would be perfectly fine with these
changes if the main actor, Joel Kinnaman, didn't have the charisma of a
paper bag and could, as a matter of fact, act (!), and if Abbie Cornish
(who plays the role of Alex Murphy's wife – Clara Murphy) wasn't so
irritatingly bland. The revelation of the RoboCop suit and the suit
itself were also poorly done. In one scene, Michael Keaton's character
criticizes the suit design that appeared in the original movie by
saying something along these lines: the original suit wasn't tactical
enough. Well, at least the original suit didn't look like a black
dildo!
The villains in the movie didn't get a much better treatment, either.
Among the several villains that appeared in the movie, none was
memorable or even remotely interesting. But, to be fair, not everything
sucks about the 'RoboCop' remake. Some of the acting was OK (mostly by
experienced actors like Jackson, Keaton and Oldman) and the special
effects did look really good. But what's the use of awesome special
effects when the majority of the movie's boring and tedious? Add to all
the aforementioned flaws the PG-13 rating, which destroyed the
potential of some scenes, and you'll get one weak and forgettable
movie. In the original, one of the most memorable lines goes 'I'd buy
that for a dollar'. In addition to butchering everything else, the
remake also butchered this line. In one scene, Jackie Earle Haley's
character Mattox bashes the concept of Robocop saying he 'wouldn't buy
that for a dollar'. As for myself, if I knew upon purchasing my ticket
what horrors were awaiting, I wouldn't have bought it for a dollar.
Rating: 4/10 Read more reviews at http://passpopcorn.com/
Plot
In a dystopic & crime ridden Detroit, a terminally wounded cop returns to the force as a powerful cyborg with submerged memories haunting him.
Release Year: 1987
Rating: 7.5/10 (77,575 voted)
Critic's Score: 67/100
Director:
Paul Verhoeven
Stars: Peter Weller, Nancy Allen, Dan O'Herlihy
Storyline Detroit - in the future - is crime ridden, and run by a massive company. The company have developed a huge crime fighting robot, which unfortunately develops a rather dangerous glitch. The company sees a way to get back in favour with the public when a cop called Alex Murphy is killed by a street gang. Murphys body is reconstructed within a steel shell and named Robocop. The Robocop is very successful against criminals, and becomes a target of supervillian Boddicker.
Writers: Edward Neumeier, Michael Miner
Cast: Peter Weller
-
Officer Alex J. Murphy
/
RoboCop
Nancy Allen
-
Officer Anne Lewis
Dan O'Herlihy
-
The Old Man
(as Daniel O'Herlihy)
Ronny Cox
-
Dick Jones
Kurtwood Smith
-
Clarence J. Boddicker
Miguel Ferrer
-
Bob Morton
Robert DoQui
-
Sergeant Warren Reed
Ray Wise
-
Leon C. Nash
Felton Perry
-
Johnson
Paul McCrane
-
Emil M. Antonowsky
Jesse D. Goins
-
Joe P. Cox
(as Jesse Goins)
Del Zamora
-
Kaplan
Calvin Jung
-
Steve Minh
Rick Lieberman
-
Walker
Lee de Broux
-
Sal
(as Lee DeBroux)
Taglines:
Part man. Part machine. All cop. The future of law enforcement.
Trivia:
The shoot-out at the cocaine factory was not originally intended to be so fast-paced. The automatic guns used in the scene kept malfunctioning during filming. Most camera shots didn't provide more than three seconds of usable footage, because most guns were usually jammed by that time. This necessitated quick cuts during editing, which proved to be advantageous for the scene.
Goofs:
Revealing mistakes:
When Robocop is having his "nightmare", he thrusts his head backward several times, during which you can see the actor's neck between gaps in the neck-piece, rather than the pistons we see later in the movie (when he takes off his helmet).
Quotes: Clarence Boddicker:
[stabs Robocop in the chest with metal rod]
Sayonara, Robocop!
[Robocop stabs him in the throat; Clarence screams in pain as he staggers away and collapses]
User Review
The mix of science-fiction, action and social satire is just brilliant!
Rating: 10/10
The success of this movie can be credited to one man; Paul Verhoeven.
His special touch of violence, gore and social satire make the movie
more than just your average B-movie, with a lame title and simple story
and characters. Yes, without Verhoeven this movie seriously would had
been nothing more like another B-movie on par with
science-fiction/action movies like "Timecop" and Albert Pyun movies.
The main story of "RoboCop" itself is simply and not that complex,
however Verhoeven manages to put many different layers for the story as
well as the characters in the movie. The social satire in the movie
works out brilliantly and is what makes the movie perhaps more
entertaining than thrilling or tense. Especially those typical
Verhoeven news sketches are brilliant! But also those who will not be
able to understand or fully appreciate the social satire elements in
the movie, will have plenty to enjoy while watching this. The action
itself is top-class and the characters are fun as well as cool. RoboCop
himself looks awesome, both in his movements and the way his costume
looks. Oh and of course I may not forget his awesome gun!
The movie is not only filled with some typical Verhoeven social satire
elements but also with some trademark Verhoeven gore and violence. The
way Murphy gets killed is very graphic and disturbing. But as always in
most Verhoeven movies is the case, the violence is so over-the-top that
it's not really shocking to look at but almost more comical like
because it's just so over-the-top. Especially what happens to Emil at
the end, the gore is way over-the-top there and I absolutely love it!
In a movie like this the characters are also always important.
Especially the villains and yes, "RoboCop" has some highly entertaining
and good villains. The group of Clarence, Leon, Joe and Steve are a
bunch of entertaining, charismatic stereotypical villains. But also the
more educated villains like Dick Jones (Ronny Cox) and Bob Morton (a
very young Miguel Ferrer) who also isn't a very nice person. But also
the mechanical villain ED-209 is extremely cool and dangerous looking.
The stop-motion effects for him are of course heavily outdated this
days but it takes away nothing of his threatening appearance. All of
the character are entertaining and well developed. Characters also
worth mentioning are The Old Man (Dan O'Herlihy) who plays the
president of OCP and you can tell by his face gestures that he's not
very pleased with the direction Dick Jones is heading towards with the
company and Johnson who is always smiling. And of course let's not
forget Bixby "I'd buy that for a dollar!" Snyder, he's a real classic!
They should given that guy a real show on TV.
Also the musical score by Basil Poledouris is what helps to make this
movie a very memorable one. Poledouris delivers one of his best works.
When will he finally get some more attention from the big awards? He
has made some great stuff but he rarely has won anything of importance
with it. A bit of a disgrace for such a wonderful composer.
All in all this is a brilliantly entertaining science-fiction/action
movie that simply is perfect in every way, mainly thanks to Verhoeven
his input.
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