Robocop 2 (1990)

Studio: MGM
Theatrical Release: June 22, 1990
Blu-Ray Release: January 31st, 2011
Rated: R
Review by Craig Sorensen

Detroit is in turmoil.  Crime rules the streets.  The cops are on strike and the only thing standing between decent, law abiding citizens and the chaos of multi-ethnic street gangs is Robocop (again).  This time the streets have been flooded by a new designer drug called ‘nuke’ (that is stored in nice, plastic cassette tape cases) created by the hippie drug lord Cain.  Robocop becomes obsessed with stopping this scourge.  Through some kind of convoluted plot OCP has left the Detroit Police Department to go on strike so that they can use the city’s unpaid debts to buy the city.  But without a police force, they need a way of keeping the peace.  Enter ‘Robocop 2’.

Kirshner doesn’t seem like a good choice for this kind of tone.  I know that he directed The Empire Strikes Back but that doesn’t mean that he’s going to be a good choice for every sequel.  I’m not bashing Kirshner as I think he’s done some good films (I’m a fan of S*P*Y*S).  He just doesn’t have anything in his oeuvre that would suggest that he could handle the pitch black humor of something like Robocop.  I don’t know, maybe it’s the studio.  Maybe it’s the story (by Frank Miller).  I don’t know.  Maybe it’s a combination of the three (probably).  Whatever the reason, the tone is all over the place, and tone in a Robocop movie is everything. Some scenes are straight comedy, some are just out of a generic 80’s action movie.  Some scenes seem overly sentimental where they should be kind of funny (such as Gabriel Damon’s death scene laying in the back of an armored car surrounded by stacks of cash).  With something like this you have to embrace the ridiculousness of the premise, you have to follow through.  Robocop 2 just seems to be pulling it’s punches.

There are a lot of great actors in the film.  Unfortunately most of them aren’t given a whole lot to do.  Peter Weller and Nancy Allen barely have anything to do.  They are almost bit players.  They both do a good job with what they have of course, it’s just that there’s not much of it.  Nancy Allen is the worst off though.  There isn’t much for Tom Noonan to do either really.  I don’t know if it’s intentional but Noonan seems like he’s stoned through the whole thing.  Which should be kind of funny but in this context he just seems bored.  Most of the film is given over to the OCP crew of Dan O’Herlihy, Felton Perry & Belinda Bauer, who all do a good job basically carrying the film.  And of course I have to mention Willard E. Pugh as Mayor Kuzak, who for me steals the whole film.
Robocop 2 does still hit a nostalgic soft spot for me despite the problems that I listed above.  It’s not necessarily a good film, and it sure as hell doesn’t stand up against the original Robocop but as a big budget 80’s action movie it does entertain.  It can be fairly violent and earns it’s R rating.  The action scenes are well staged as well.  And the stop motion animation by Phil Tippet is fantastic.  Also, it’s reassuring to know that in the future I’ll still be able to go to an arcade and play Bad Dudes while listing to heavy metal music.

Robocop 2 looks good on Blu-Ray from MGM.  It’s presented in it’s original aspect ratio of 1.85:1 and is dual layered so you are getting a pretty high bit rate.  Of course, there are the limitations of the film stocks at the time but the blu ray gives, I think, an accurate presentation.  Sound is also pretty good.  The DTS Surround Sound mix sounded great to my ears.  Of course this disc really falls short in the extras department.  All you’re going to get is a few trailers.  I guess you should feel lucky with that though, as the Hannibal disc didn’t even have those.  Still, if extras aren’t that big of a deal to you then you’ll probably be pretty happy with the presentation here.