# Osage's Take On...ROBOCOP (2014; Blu-ray; Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer)



## Osage_Winter (Apr 8, 2010)

[img]http://www.covertr.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=45553&thumb=1&d=1392513166[/img]*Releasing/Participating Studio(s): Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Disc/Transfer Information: Region A; 50GB Blu-ray Disc 1080p High Definition 2.40:1 (Original Aspect Ratio: 2.39:1)
Video Codec: MPEG-4 AVC (26.29 Mbps)
Rating: PG-13
Running Time: 117 Minutes
Tested Audio Track: English DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 (48kHz, 24-bit))
Director: Jose Padilha
Starring Cast: Joel Kinnaman, Abbie Cornish, Samuel L. Jackson, Gary Oldman, Jackie Earle Haley, Jay Baruchel


CRIME HAS A NEW ENEMY.


PLOT ANALYSIS:*

What Jose Badilha’s re-telling of _RoboCop_ for modern-day audiences does right is take a somewhat unknown in Joel Kinnaman and put him in the lead instead of some A-list Hollywood stud that would have otherwise made this remake bomb – but actually in so many ways, this did bomb…and I really didn’t want it to…I was really looking forward to this, especially after seeing the kind of hyper-kinetic trailers depicting the lead character in action, jumping off buildings and landing with authoritative thuds in the style of Iron Man. The final product was far from what I’d call a “must buy” in terms of the Blu-ray (well, the story of the film) and it drags so much before it actually picks up steam that it is painful in some places. Then, there’s the problem with the casting outside of Kinnaman’s lead – we have Samuel L. Jackson in a really, really bizarre role as a quasi-holographic television show host plus Michael Keaton, head of the evil OmniCorp company who puts together the technology and suit Alex Murphy (Kinnaman) ends up wearing after an explosion leaves him disabled and dismembered, but who doesn’t really have the cop or his family’s best wishes in mind. And then there’s great standby Gary Oldman who portrays Dr. Dennett Norton, head scientist at OmniCorp who spends much of the film yelling _”Alex!!! Alex!!! Alex!!!”_ trying to get the newly-dubbed “RoboCop” to focus and listen to his commands. In the end, the film wasn’t nearly as inspiring or engaging as the trailers made it out to be.

In this remake of the underground cult followed classic, the year is 2028 and Detroit cop Alex Murphy (Kinnaman) has seemingly everything going for him in a smokin’ hot wife (Abbie Cornish) and a son, but his job is confounded with underground crime deals that go bad – one of which puts him and his partner in tangles with scumbag gangster Atoine Vallon (Patrick Garrow) and his cronies while also putting his partner Jack Lewis (Michael K. Williams) in the hospital after a shootout. Meanwhile, OmniCorp and its semi-ruthless president Raymond Sellars (Keaton) have been putting their advanced robot technologies to work all over the globe, especially in the Middle East where robotic “policemen” and machinery roam city streets as a beta testing ground; in many ways, this felt ripped off from films like _Elysium, Terminator_ and, through scenes later on, some of the _Resident Evil_ pictures (when they attempt to “shut Alex down;" I’ll get to that). Just when OmniCorp is looking for more headlines for the public by putting an actual man inside a robotic contraption for law enforcement purposes – and this begins to tread on _Iron Man_ territory – using severely injured police officers, Alex Murphy is nearly blown to pieces when his car on his driveway explodes from a bomb placed in revenge by Antoine Vallon’s crew. OmniCorp goes to Clara, Alex’s wife (played by Abbie Cornish), and asks her permission for her husband to be part of this robotic cop program – after all, they tell her, if he survives the injuries he will be little more than an artificially breathing torso. 

Clara reluctantly agrees, and Dr. Norton (Oldman) goes to work fitting the technologically advanced suit around Alex’s destroyed and blown-off body parts. What’s strange is that when the OmniCorp people originally told Mrs. Murphy about her husband’s injuries and displayed them on a holographic monitor, it seemed like all he had was one leg blown off and some other severe injuries – but when we actually see what Alex looked like before OmniCorp and its doctors got to work on him, it’s a different story. It seems the cop was little more than one human hand, a head and face and barely-working lungs (the CGI used in these scenes to depict the body-less Murphy as “it” talks to Norton and the staff were pretty graphic and tough to watch, if not really expertly pulled off by the artists). Be that as it may, that inconsistency sets us up for what comes next – fitting Murphy into this new suit that basically keeps him alive through artificial nutrition and supplement exchanges, brain reconstructions and technologically advanced mind algorithms that allow him to “see” superimposed images before him like in the aforementioned _Terminator_ films. As Murphy is first horrified to see himself in the new body suit after being awoken from his tumultuous coma-like sleep and learns to command his suit to walk and carry out basic routines, OmniCorp gears up to do what they set out to – make a robotic “super cop” that is part man, part machine. Alex is put through a battery of tests to analyze his skills in controlling the new suit and firing weapons made for it by the creepy Rick Maddox (Jackie Earle Haley), basically Raymond Sellars’ engineering bulldog responsible for weaponizing these robotic contraptions of OmniCorp’s. 

Things begin to go wrong when Dr. Norton downloads police files of unsolved Detroit Police Department cases into Murphy’s brain algorithms, causing the newly-dubbed “RoboCop” to basically haywire and go nuts attempting to track all these criminals down, dead or alive. Complicating matters is OmniCorp’s decision to let Murphy see his wife and child again, in his new life-saving suit, after spending all his time at the company’s lab to be tested; Clara doesn’t really know how to react to Alex’s new image but seeing that most of his thoughts and memories are his own, she accepts him in the scheme of things. The bigger picture, however, didn’t play out yet – and that is Murphy’s willingness to somehow override the systems of his suit to allow himself free thinking, thereby being able to solve the case of the attempt on his own life. This isn’t a thing that goes over well at his ultra-corrupt police precinct, headed by Chief Karen Dean (Marianne Jean-Baptiste), or with OmniCorp, who realize they have a loose cannon on their hands…i.e. not good for publicity. As RoboCop goes after Vallon and his crew for revenge, Sellars orders Murphy terminated for good. 

However, Alex has an ally in Dr. Norton, who desperately tries to explain to him, in one scene back at the OmniCorp labs, that Sellars and his men want him dead. Again, Alex fights against his suit’s conditioning and makes his way to the hideout where Vallon and his fellow dirtbags seem to be waiting for him. An ambush on RoboCop ensues, complete with infrared goggles on Vallon’s men so they can attack the super-strong robotic cop in the dark with machine gun fire. To be honest, I don’t even know what became of Vallon after this shootout sequence there was so much chaos taking place, but Murphy gets injured in the maylay, including vicious damages to his suit and helmet/face shield. A final battle between OmniCorp robots (a la _Terminator 3_) and RoboCop ensues back at the company’s Detroit offices, with Murphy’s own Detroit policemen stepping in to help him out against the giant rampaging machines. 

On a rooftop attempting to escape, OmniCorp’s Raymond Sellars is confronted by a badly-damaged Murphy, who has severed one of his own robotic arms to escape the clutches of the attacking machines in the lobby of the building; of course it is here that we learn just how big of a scumbag Sellars is, and how he never had Alex or his family’s well-being in mind when he began this project in the first place. For those of you who haven’t seen this yet, I won’t divulge the rest but keep in mind it doesn’t seem like this will be the last time we will see Alex Murphy up on the screen as RoboCop. A new franchise in the works? I can’t tell, but the following films will have to be somewhat more interesting that this mediocre “hero-versus-villain-film-in-disguise” project.

[img]http://cdn.screenrant.com/wp-content/uploads/RoboCop-2014-Grey-Suit.jpg[/img]*VIDEO QUALITY ANALYSIS: HOW DID THE DISC LOOK?*

There were no real problems I could detect with MGM’s Blu-ray transfer of the _RoboCop_ remake; from bright, crisp outdoor sequences to essentially noise and blemish-free interior shots, the 1080p image remained stable and solid. Flesh tones appeared accurate and I noted no blooming or bleeding in richly-rendered colors. The blacks and grays of RoboCop’s suit looked appropriately striking and rich in their metallic bling, while the somewhat dismal hues of Detroit’s crime-ridden streets in the film were accurately executed. 
















[img] http://assets1.ignimgs.com/vid/thumbnails/user/2014/01/14/url.jpg[/img]*AUDIO QUALITY ANALYSIS: HOW DID THE DISC SOUND?*

The English DTS-HD Master Audio track accompanying _RoboCop_ was a pretty solid affair as well, with nice enveloping elements, hefty bottom end and clear dialogue. While nothing really made it stand out as sheer reference material – there were some moments in the next Blu-ray I reviewed like that, Peter Berg’s _Lone Survivor_ – the track was nonetheless appropriately satisfying for a new action flick from start to finish. 

































[img]http://i2.wp.com/www.cgmeetup.net/home/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/Making-of-RoboCop-3.jpg?resize=960%2C540[/img] *FINAL THOUGHTS:* 

From the strange music throughout (even taking a rendition of “If I Only Had a Brain” from _The Wizard of Oz_ at one point to connect Alex Murphy’s RoboCop to what his “trainer” called “Tin Man”) to the lack of kinetic action for a good long while (instead concentrating on a great deal of rather disturbing medical elements of the Murphy character’s condition), there was something that was missing from this remake of _RoboCop_; I can actually understand attempting it, especially in the light and shadow of such robotic-esque modern films like _Iron Man_, but this wasn’t nearly as entertaining as I hoped it would be after seeing the trailers (in my opinion). It was kind of a strange fusion of _Terminator, Resident Evil: Extinction_ and _Iron Man_ but I can’t see this as a buy. I can, however, recommend a rental.

I’ll be putting up a review of _Lone Survivor_ just as soon as my work load lightens; thank you, friends.


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## ericzim (Jun 24, 2012)

Hello Osage, its been a while buddy. I had a chance to see this on digital download back in April while I was in the hospital and agree with you on every aspect of this movie, even though I did watch it on a 7 inch Samsung tablet that was fine by me. This movie is destined to become at Walmart of the 5 dollar variety  If you have to rent it share the cost of the rental with a friend. LOL


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## Osage_Winter (Apr 8, 2010)

ericzim said:


> Hello Osage, its been a while buddy.


Hey Eric; indeed it has been, my friend...I have been crazy busy and haven't gotten many titles to review directly lately. 



> I had a chance to see this on digital download back in April while I was in the hospital


Oh no -- are you okay? What did you go in the hospital for? My best wishes are with you...



> and agree with you on every aspect of this movie, even though I did watch it on a 7 inch Samsung tablet that was fine by me. This movie is destined to become at Walmart of the 5 dollar variety  If you have to rent it share the cost of the rental with a friend. LOL


LOL...can you tell me exactly what it was you didn't like? Just curious if you were referring to some of the same elements I was...


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## ericzim (Jun 24, 2012)

Why was I in the hospital?
I had surgery to remove a baseball sized tumor from my bladder. Yup, its malignant and yup, just completed the 6th week of chemo on Wednesday afternoon.

What didn't I like about the movie?

The new story line took way too long to get going for me and than dragged on some more. Unlike the original where in the first 15 minutes you were already with Murphy and Lewis closing in on Boddicker and his band of bad guys, too bad for Murphy. Other than that I really liked the new Robocop design and its development as per the movie, especially the segment you have a screen cap example of in your review of the living man parts encased in a plastic shell. The stuff my nightmares are made of. 
I had to start and stop the movie a lot due to the bandwidth at Bellin Hospital so the movie seemed like it ran for 4 hours. I also happened to catch I, Frankenstein during the same time. I should have just brought a scrabble board with me and had a spelling contest with the pretty nurses. On the third day at the hospital I had time to watch my favorite version of Superman again, so the time wasn't a total doodoo fest.


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## Osage_Winter (Apr 8, 2010)

ericzim said:


> Why was I in the hospital?
> I had surgery to remove a baseball sized tumor from my bladder. Yup, its malignant and yup, just completed the 6th week of chemo on Wednesday afternoon.


Are you _kidding me?_ Well, of course you're not...but I didn't know how else to react...

Oh man, my friend...I am so saddened to hear that...did the surgery at least go okay?

My thoughts and best get well wishes and prayers are with you...:T



> What didn't I like about the movie?
> 
> The new story line took way too long to get going for me and than dragged on some more. Unlike the original where in the first 15 minutes you were already with Murphy and Lewis closing in on Boddicker and his band of bad guys, too bad for Murphy. Other than that I really liked the new Robocop design and its development as per the movie, especially the segment you have a screen cap example of in your review of the living man parts encased in a plastic shell. The stuff my nightmares are made of.


I hear you...I thought they could have cut this one down so much with all the medical stuff going on, instead going into the revenge fantasy angle, with Murphy going after the people responsible for his explosion, right out of the gate...there was something that held this back, and I don't know if it specifically was the acting on behalf of Jackson and Oldman or the pacing we have been speaking of...

As I said, I REALLY wanted to like this -- I thought for sure it would be a buy when I saw the trailers. Alas, it was yet another "rental at best"...

Who played the lead role in the original, refresh my memory (it's been some time for me)...Peter Sellers was it? 



> I had to start and stop the movie a lot due to the bandwidth at Bellin Hospital so the movie seemed like it ran for 4 hours. I also happened to catch I, Frankenstein during the same time. I should have just brought a scrabble board with me and had a spelling contest with the pretty nurses. On the third day at the hospital I had time to watch my favorite version of Superman again, so the time wasn't a total doodoo fest.


LOL...I hear ya; did you agree with my findings on I, Frankenstein, which I reviewed here? And which Superman are you referring to -- the Richard Donner Cut of II?

Now...tell me about these "pretty nurses"...:bigsmile: :T :unbelievable: :yikes:


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## ericzim (Jun 24, 2012)

Well, I have 5 weeks to wait and find out about whether or not the chemo has done any good.

The lead roll of the original and Robocop 2 was Peter Weller. He bowed out of the third installment citing creative differences but I think he was worried about type casting. Robocop the unrated version is my favorite in the series and highly recommended over the theatrical with Robocop 2 a close second.

Give the man a cigar, Richard Donner cut Superman II is my favorite indeed. I haven't read your take on I, Frankenstein yet. Just getting back on here after a while away. 

At Bellin Hospital all the nurses are very nice which makes them also very pretty in my book. Just happens to be where I had quadruple bypass surgery last year and where my lovely wife spent her final days this past February. So I am very well versed in Bellin nurse. :T


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## Osage_Winter (Apr 8, 2010)

ericzim said:


> Well, I have 5 weeks to wait and find out about whether or not the chemo has done any good.


Please keep me informed, my friend...



> The lead roll of the original and Robocop 2 was Peter Weller. He bowed out of the third installment citing creative differences but I think he was worried about type casting. Robocop the unrated version is my favorite in the series and highly recommended over the theatrical with Robocop 2 a close second.


Oh, RIGHT -- Peter WELLER...I was thinking of Pink Panther for some reason...lol...

Weller was also good in "Leviathan"...you ever see that? The horror film about the alien bacteria that gets found on a Russian ship that's sunk? Pretty good...



> Give the man a cigar, Richard Donner cut Superman II is my favorite indeed. I haven't read your take on I, Frankenstein yet. Just getting back on here after a while away.


I see you replied to the review; I'll comment there...thanks! 



> At Bellin Hospital all the nurses are very nice which makes them also very pretty in my book. Just happens to be where I had quadruple bypass surgery last year and where my lovely wife spent her final days this past February. So I am very well versed in Bellin nurse. :T


I see...I am so sorry for you, my friend...please let me know if there's anything I can do. :T


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## ericzim (Jun 24, 2012)

Leviathan was quite good especially at the end when Wellers character clocks Meg Fosters character in the face. Peter Weller in 1995s Sci-Fi, Screamers was one of his best movies.


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## Savjac (Apr 17, 2008)

I truly loved this movie, probably even more than the original. I am not so big on gore so this fit in well here and for me the story was very human. I am glad I got it. Will re-watch for sure.


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