RoboCop
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Robocop (2014)
Sony Pictures
Details
RoboCop
PG13 | In Theaters February 12th, 2014 | © 2014 Sony Pictures 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.
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I will start with the bad:
Now some good things:
In some ways, Padilha tried to pay some homage to the original film (I had a chuckle at “I wouldn’t buy that for a dollar” or “dead or alive, you’re coming with me!”), but it doesn’t exactly capture what made the original film so good. What made the 1987 film, at least for me, was the over-the-top violence and dark humor. Sure, it came off as cheesy, but who cares when there’s a thing called RoboCop!
If you decide to go see the new RoboCop, keep an ear out for the soundtrack. They kept Basil Poledouris’ original RoboCop heroic theme song, but much of the background orchestra were composed by Pedro Bromfman. The more contemporary music stood out in the film, but it made sense where they used it. Excellent usages of Frank Sinatra’s “Fly Me to the Moon”, The Wizard of Oz’s “If I Only Had A Heart”, and The Clash’s “I Fought the Law”.
Anyway, I thought I read somewhere that Padilha was unhappy with the studio’s direction to keep the film at PG-13, so I’m actually curious if he, in fact, cut a film that was darker and more violent? I can’t wait to see if they will release a Director’s Cut on Blu-Ray in the near future, because you know I would buy that for a dollar!
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Another pointless remake. How would you even remake a perfect movie. Not only does the original have an over compassing metaphor for Reaganomics, but it had hyper-violence and dark humor. The original was so badass, and to have it be remade to a PG-13 film is a travesty to cinema. If you can’t make it better than why remake it at all. They should have just called it ROBOT-OFFICER, so it would not be confused with the original RoboCop.