ALL SCI-FI

[Bogmeister]

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This is the sequel to the 1987 Robocop.

Famous comic book writer/artist Frank Miller (Daredevil and The Dark Knight Returns) contributed the screenplay, emphasizing dark satire, mostly in regards to child criminals.

As before, crime is out of control in the environment of this near-future, and Robocop (Peter Weller reprising) has his mechanical hands full, still teamed with Nancy Allen as officer Lewis. Also back is Dan O'Herlihy as the head of the ambitious corporation OCP, which now owns the whole city government, not just the police force.

The new criminal is Cain (the usually creepy Tom Noonan), a radical drug dealer whose brain ends up in the body of a super robot (also perhaps the actual 2nd Robocop referenced in the title). Another one is Hob (Gabriel Damon), a kid who is more ruthless and more sharp than all the other criminals.

This aims for the same dark comedy as the first film, but it's much less elegant and simply crude in its efforts, which is a surprise considering the director. I figured Irwin Kershner would have tempered the usual extremes employed by Paul Verhoeven.

There was one more in the film series, the delayed Robocop 3 in 1993, without Weller, followed by a short-lived TV series. Then, a remake in 2014.

BoG's Score: 6 out of 10

_______________ RoboCop 2 - Official® Trailer


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BoG
Galaxy Overlord Galactus

[Bud Brewster]

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IMDB has several interesting trivia items for this production.
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~ The shootout scene at the nuke labs is the Budweiser brewery. The same setting was used in Star Trek (2009) for various engineering areas of the Enterprise.

Note from me: I hated the fact that the studio used the brewery as the engineering section of the Enterprise. It seemed like such a "cheat". The engineering sections in TNG and Voyager are beautifully designed.

~ The City of Detroit is depicted as being cash-strapped where OCP owns the entire metropolitan area - as life imitating art, the City of Detroit filed for Chapter 9 Bankruptcy on July 18, 2013 with an estimated $18 - $20 billion debt.

Note from me: It must be rough to be a policeman or a fireman if you're working in a city that's declared bankruptcy!

~Michael Medeiros who played 'Catzo' (the Elvis-looking one of the gang) recalls Irvin Kershner literally ripping pages from the script every morning, calling it awful while screenwriter Frank Miller would look on mournfully.

Note from me: I'm no film historian, but it seems to me that a director ought to be sure he likes a script before agreeing to direct a film his name will be on. I seem to remember a Hollywood saying: "You're only as good as your last film."

~ Miniature stop-motion models of RoboCop 2/RoboCain were used for most of the shots. Eight separate miniature teams had to work around the clock to meet the tight production schedule.

For close-ups, a full-size head and torso were built, weighing almost 800 pounds. It was operated with long poles attached to the areas that had to move, by operators who were dressed in all black so that they would not show up on screen.

__________ RoboCop 2 (1990) - Robo Rampage

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Note from me: That's some mighty good stop motion, and quite a lot of it, too!
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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)

[Krel]

Hob's submachine gun was a prototyped, one of two. It was designed as a discrete SMG for plainclothes protective units. It never went into production due to lack of interest.

David.