Robocop - Criterion Collection
by Paul Verhoeven
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DVD Cover Information
Actor: Dan O'Herlihy, Kurtwood Smith, Nancy Allen, Peter Weller, Ronny CoxDirector: Paul Verhoeven
Cinematographer: Sol Negrin
Cinematographer: Jost Vacano
Editor: Frank J. Urioste
Producer: Jon Davison
Writer: Edward Neumeier
Writer: Michael Miner
DVD: 2 Layers, Region Code 1
Audio: English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround
Format: Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, DVD-Video, Letterboxed, NTSC, Widescreen
Picture Format: Letterbox, 1.66:1
Running Time: 103 minutes
DVD Release Date: 1998-09-30
Audience Rating: X (Mature Audiences Only)
Studio: Orion Pictures Corporation
Movie Reviews of Robocop - Criterion Collection
Movie Review: Robocop Gets The Justice He Deserves On This 20th Anniversary Edition!
Summary: 5 Stars
Back in 1987, I was a fresh High School graduate who already had a vast knowledge of modern day cinema within the Horror and Science Fiction fields. But in that same year I had heard through the grapevine that the company that had released the classic The Terminator was about to unleash another robotic film but with a character on the good side of the Law. And it's title was Robocop. Robocop? Man that sounds corny, my younger self thought. That is until I saw the teaser poster of this half man/half machine getting out of his squadcar, and after that I couldn't wait to see if this film could rival what Orion Pictures accomplished three years earlier with the shaded Arnold.
I was not disapointed.
To put it simply, Robocop was a masterpiece of late 80's Sci-Fi filmmaking. Directed by Paul Verhoeven, at the time an obscure foreign director with a few cult classics under his belt, and starring Peter Weller, who already had an underground classic Sci-Fi film "Buckaroo Banzai Across The 8th Dimension" on his resume, Robocop features Weller as Officer Alex Murphy, a family-man Detroit cop who thanks to the corruption of a weak police force now owned by an evil corporation by the name of OCP, gets gunned down and killed during the line of duty. However, OCP has been toying with the idea of using robotic ways to rule over crime, but with disastrous results in the machine ED-209 created by OCP executive Dick Jones (a surprisingly casted Ronny Cox). But up-and-comer Bob Morton (Miguel Ferrer) feels his design of half-man/half machine might work better for the project, and since when Murphy joined the force signed all his rights over to OCP, and was already dead, to make him the project's first creation. And thus RoboCop was born. Along the way Robo stops crime dead in it's path, becomes self-aware of the life that is now no longer his, runs into the gang that killed him in the first place, and tries to end the hidden conspiracy within OCP once and for all.
Where The Terminator successfully gave us an 80's robot film, it had no heart and soul like the one provided in RoboCop. Murphy/Robo is a hero, full of tangled emotions and an obsession of upholding the Law. Sprinkled throughout is a wonderful sense of humor that it seemed only Verhoeven could provide at the time. There truly isn't one part of Robocop that drags or lets you down. From it's funny modern-day News inserts to it's parodying of it's own Reagan-era greed, Robocop is one film that never gets old and after twenty-years still holds up to today, all without any use of CGI through the special effects of Matte Paintings, Costumes, and Stop-Motion Animation. It's been on DVD several times, through companies like Criterion and MGM, but for it's Twentieth Anniversary MGM pulled out all the stops with an edition that blows away any one before it (including Criterion).
Originally housed in a Steelbook casing (current versions come in a standard keep-case with booklet and middle leaf), Robocop 20th Anniversary is a two-disc set featuring two complete versions of the movie, the theatrical and the directors cut extended. To be honest, the difference in time between the two is less than 30 seconds. But within those lost pieces are even more violent graphicness that Verhoeven couldn't get away with the MPAA at the time. It's surprising he got away with what he did because either way, Robocop is one bloody thrill ride. Strangely though, MGM decided to put the theatrical on one disc and the extended on the other, which for a disc released in 2007 seems excessive thanks to modern-day DVD branching that could of had both versions on the same disc. Because of this, it's special features are spread between the two, but these features are definitely worth the purchase alone, and I'm happy to switch discs to see them all. Along with a new entertaining commentary with the crew (a different recording than used on Criterion's), RoboCop 20th also has over twelve new and old featurettes totalling over two hours long. Along with two original 1987 port-over behind-the-scenes & featurettes, four deleted scenes (shot on video for dumping to film as more News inserts), there's also five 2007 new featurettes ranging from a wonderful reflection of making the movie, a great combined interview of the bad guys of the film, and a quaint look-back of how all the now-outdated matte painting and stop-motion effects were created by the original artists today. These alone make this version truly the only version to own. Interviews with Paul Verhoeven, Kurtwood Smith, Ronny Cox, Miguel Ferrer, Ray Wise, and Robocop himself Peter Weller give great and insightful details what it was like being on this set. Not to mention that this version's print is even more remastered than what Criterion or MGM has provided in the past. Skin-tones and black levels have never looked better, all while retaining it's grainy mid-80's filmstock look. Audio is provided in a variety of ways including the original 4.0 mix and a new 5.1 both standard and DTS. In fact, for those that have jumped on the Blu-Ray bandwagon consider that the BD version only has the extended version, the commentary, and a trailer leaving all these great featurettes behind, so if that shouldn't be against the Law, nothing is.
In conclusion, Robocop 20th Anniversary is a must own for Sci-Fi/Action fans of any age. An amazing and original story with some of the best practical special effects ever captured on film, it will entertain future generations to come. While the original never got toppled by it's two medicore sequels and 90's television series, those will never take away from what Murphy gave us in the first place. Highly, highly recommeded.
(RedSabbath Rating:9.0/10)
Summary of Robocop - Criterion Collection
Called by Ken Russell "the greatest science-fiction film since Metropolis," controversial director Paul Verhoeven's RoboCop is a special effects-laden cult phenomenon. The film features a resurrected and roboticized hero (Peter Weller) in a new, supercharged cyborg body, struggling to reclaim his memory and avenge his own death. Writtern by Edward Neumeier and Michael Miner, this film is a grown-up superhero fantasy come to vivid, bloody life.When it arrived on the big screen in 1987, Paul Verhoeven's RoboCop was like a high-voltage jolt of electricity, blending satire, thrills, and abundant violence with such energized gusto that audiences couldn't help feeling stunned and amazed. The movie was a huge hit, and has since earned enduring cult status as one of the seminal science fiction films of the 1980s. Followed by two sequels, a TV series, and countless novels and comic books, this original RoboCop is still the best by far, largely due to the audacity and unbridled bloodlust of director Verhoeven. However, the reasons many enjoyed the film are also the reasons some will surely wish to avoid it. Critic Pauline Kael called the movie a dubious example of "gallows pulp," and there's no denying that its view of mankind is bleak, depraved, and graphically violent. In the Detroit of the near future, a policeman (Peter Weller) is brutally gunned down by drug-dealing thugs and left for dead, but he survives (half of him, at least) and is integrated with state-of-the-art technology to become a half-robotic cop of the future, designed to revolutionize law enforcement. As RoboCop holds tight to his last remaining shred of humanity, he relentlessly pursues the criminals who "killed" him. All the while, Verhoeven (from a script by Edward Neumeier and Michael Miner) injects this high-intensity tale with wickedly pointed humor and satire aimed at the men and media who cover a city out of control. --Jeff Shannon
When it arrived on the big screen in 1987, Paul Verhoeven's RoboCop was like a high-voltage jolt of electricity, blending satire, thrills, and abundant violence with such energized gusto that audiences couldn't help feeling stunned and amazed. The movie was a huge hit, and has since earned enduring cult status as one of the seminal science fiction films of the 1980s. Followed by two sequels, a TV series, and countless novels and comic books, this original RoboCop is still the best by far, largely due to the audacity and unbridled bloodlust of director Verhoeven. However, the reasons many enjoyed the film are also the reasons some will surely wish to avoid it. Critic Pauline Kael called the movie a dubious example of "gallows pulp," and there's no denying that its view of mankind is bleak, depraved, and graphically violent. In the Detroit of the near future, a policeman (Peter Weller) is brutally gunned down by drug-dealing thugs and left for dead, but he survives (half of him, at least) and is integrated with state-of-the-art technology to become a half-robotic cop of the future, designed to revolutionize law enforcement. As RoboCop holds tight to his last remaining shred of humanity, he relentlessly pursues the criminals who "killed" him. All the while, Verhoeven (from a script by Edward Neumeier and Michael Miner) injects this high-intensity tale with wickedly pointed humor and satire aimed at the men and media who cover a city out of control. --Jeff Shannon
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