Franchise Review- Robocop

   The 1980s remake patrol strikes once more on Valentine's Day weekend and the target is another classic Reagan-era creation. You'd be hard-pressed to find a male in my age group that doesn't harbor some affection for Robocop. If you're under the age of 25, you might not understand why I still dust off the DVD once a year without fail, and Hollywood is certainly hoping that history repeats itself. Does this reimaging have any hope of capturing the attention of youngsters already hooked on Robert Downey Jr.'s Iron Man, or will it go the way of 2012's "Total Recall" remake? Does my generation have the nostalgia required to bring Alex Murphy back from the dead yet again? We'll find out soon enough, but first let's recap the big screen legacy of OCP's finest.

"Robocop"(1987)
Dutch director Paul Verhoeven couldn't have picked a better time to unleash his scintillating breakthrough on the American public. Action was the preferred genre in 1987 with "Lethal Weapon" and "Predator" having just blasted their way through the multiplex, leaving a silly grin plastered on the faces of legions of grateful young males just begging for more. They got it in the unlikely form of Peter Weller as the half-man, half-cyborg crime-fighter protecting Detroit in the not-too-distant future from all sorts of vile scum. Kurtwood Smith insured himself a long and healthy career in front of the camera as the memorably nasty, bespectacled gang leader Clarence Boddiker while vet Ronny Cox plays against type as slimy corporate figurehead Dick Jones.

   The target audience was elated by the steady stream of blood-splattering(ratings boards initially assigned the film an X-rating!), but the unexpected doses of heart and social satire turned this seemingly trivial sci-fi shoot-'em-up into something special. Critics joined the general public in embracing Verhoeven's smart, well-executed vision, turning this modestly budgeted affair into a summer smash that would surely lead to a slew of bulletproof sequels. Wait, not so fast...

"Robocop 2"(1990)
After Verhoeven declined follow-up duties to helm Arnold Schwarzenegger's "Total Recall", Irvin Kershner(of "Empire Strikes Back" fame) stepped in to take his place and it seemed like the stage was set for a titanic encore. Sadly, it was not to be. The movie gods were not on Murphy's side as the film dropped in the middle of a sequel-heavy summer to contend with the likes of "Back to the Future Part III", "Another 48 Hrs." and "Die Hard 2: Die Harder" only to draw the short end of the box office stick. It's just as unapologetically violent as the original, but the levity and intelligence is sorely missing.

   Robocop takes on a grungy drug pusher(and his foul-mouthed twelve year old sidekick) and dukes it out with an even bigger OCP robot in the thoroughly anti-climactic conclusion. The tone and sledgehammer-style brutality just feels really cold and unpleasant, even for an R-rated actioner. Weller apparently agreed and turned down the chance to wear the metallic monkey suit in any subsequent installments.

"Robocop 3"(1993)
Robert John Burke(?) replaced Peter Weller in the title role and Fred Dekker(??) directs, but those weren't the only changes that the character's dwindling fan-base had to deal with. The mixed response to the second film led to a PG-13 rating and a conscious effort to make the franchise more kid-friendly, but the removal of all that hard-edged mayhem took away precisely what made the series appealing to preteens in the first place!! It turned out that nobody wanted to see Robocop fly, or fight a cheesy cyborg ninja or defend the forcibly evicted residents of a downtrodden housing project.

   This neutered third entry simply had no chance of impressing audiences in the wake of game-changing epics like "Terminator 2" and "Jurassic Park", and the miniscule box office numbers added up to an early retirement for Detroit's futuristic lawman.

"Robocop"(2014)
While I'm normally allergic to remakes of films that came out during my lifetime, I must admit that Jose Padilha makes a respectable attempt to resurrect the character. The Brazilian director soundly defeats both sequels, but he won't erase the memory of that glorious gore-fest we got in '87. Joel Kinnaman's version of Alex Murphy is a more hardened street cop who is separated from his limbs by an impersonal car bomb rather than a dozen shotgun blasts. Samuel L. Jackson has never been one to turn down a lucrative franchise opportunity, and I appreciate the presence of Michael Keaton, Gary Oldman and Jackie Earle Haley. Murphy's wife(Abbie Cornish) plays a much larger role in the proceedings, but I can't be the only one that wanted Nancy Allen's Officer Lewis called in for backup.

   The lack of a consistent villainous presence is another drawback, and none of the run-of-the-mill action set-pieces matches the original's steel mill fight with Clarence Boddiker and his goons. This new Robocop may be all shiny and new with increased mobility and agility, but the parts that still bring me back to Verhoeven's film after a quarter-century remain stuck on the assembly line.