Robocop 2 (1990)

[seanotron 2307]

This was just on TV and I had forgotten how awful it was compared to the original.

 

It just has none of Verhoeven's smart satire. All the attempts to match it are too on the nose. It's a real bummer to watch. Apparently Paul Weller and Nancy Allen were both disappointed with the experience, which is why Weller wouldn't do Robocop 3 and Nancy Allen dies about 5 minutes in.

[RyanSz 3140]

I loved this movie for how insane it is. From a psychotic little league team to a robot addicted to drugs, this movie was batshit insane. Frank Miller's original script was actually butchered quite a bit and segments of it were split between this movie and Robocop 3. The whole story was actually made into a comic book by Miller, which is pretty nuts in of itself. The private police force from Robocop 3 was the first phase in the female executive's plan to remove Robocop and improve the city, but most of those guys were murdering lunatics who kill whoever they come across, Robo kills them which leads to the evil robot being made. It basically follows the fight scene from the movie up to the point where the female executive puts her own brain into the robot to fight Robocop. If there was ever a time to think that Frank Miller was on Coke it's this or All Star Batman and Robin.

[RocHoover 400]

Miller comes off as a huge baby in the aftermath of Robocop 2 and 3. He was WAY too hurt by all the changes to his script and was hurt and disillusioned(paraphrasing) resulting in him swearing off Hollywood work for 15 years or so.

How could he be unaware that script re-writing and doctoring is the norm for a movie. Too bad he didnt have a copy of Garant and Lennon's book.

[RyanSz 3140]

Yeah, to be fair, after reading his comic that combined both stories it made sense to break it up into two movies. Even at just over 200 pages, there is a lot crammed into the comic. Miller is probably in the top 3 of legit insane people in the world of comics, along with Grant Morrison and Alan Moore.

[seanotron 2307]

Miller is nuts. He wrote some good stuff at one time, but he's fallen pretty hard. Holy Terror anyone?

[seanotron 2307]

I loved this movie for how insane it is. From a psychotic little league team to a robot addicted to drugs, this movie was batshit insane. Frank Miller's original script was actually butchered quite a bit and segments of it were split between this movie and Robocop 3. The whole story was actually made into a comic book by Miller, which is pretty nuts in of itself. The private police force from Robocop 3 was the first phase in the female executive's plan to remove Robocop and improve the city, but most of those guys were murdering lunatics who kill whoever they come across, Robo kills them which leads to the evil robot being made. It basically follows the fight scene from the movie up to the point where the female executive puts her own brain into the robot to fight Robocop. If there was ever a time to think that Frank Miller was on Coke it's this or All Star Batman and Robin.

 

The problem is all that stuff is pure shock value, it has no meaning or purpose. It's like the 12-year-old psycho kid. He's only there so the audience can be shocked that he murders people and says 'fuck' a lot, but then he dies and we're supposed to feel bad about it? It's a mess.

[RyanSz 3140]

Yeah the change in character tone really affected the Robocop comics as well. In the first movie, The Old Man was a kindly old guy who built a small business into a giant corporation while in the second he was a vicious businessman who sends a giant robot to kill the mayor, which made it hard for Marvel to make comic adaptations of the films.

 

Miller can create a great sense of noir or epic stories, but in recent years he has really gone crazy with his ideology. And remember that Holy Terror was originally going to be a Batman story before DC made him change it.

[jotajota31 4]

Ok, I'm watching this right now and this would be a great HDTGM. It has

• a substantial and crazy plot (OCP wants to privatize Detroit... why?)
  
• Bizzarre shifts in tone (comical satirical commercials segue right into robocop stalking his widowed wife)
  
• Crazy scenes (the lawlessness vignette in the very beginning, other robocops that kill themselves, little league teams robbing stores)
  
• Themes for June - what is self? Are you still human if you can be reprogrammed?
  
• Huge logical flaws (why would you turn a crazed psychopath cult leader drug lord into a giant killer death robot????)
  
• A disturbed 12 year old who murders and takes over a drug gang (that really upset siskel and ebert btw)
  

Plus its a sequel to a beloved movie with a remake coming out

[BasilKarlo 3]

To be fair to the filmmakers, Miller's script was almost untouched. His complaints about Hollywood tampering are almost entirely unfounded. You can find the original script online and compare it to the movie to see how full of crap Miller is.

[PlanBFromOuterSpace 3138]

Miller comes off as a huge baby in the aftermath of Robocop 2 and 3. He was WAY too hurt by all the changes to his script and was hurt and disillusioned(paraphrasing) resulting in him swearing off Hollywood work for 15 years or so.

How could he be unaware that script re-writing and doctoring is the norm for a movie. Too bad he didnt have a copy of Garant and Lennon's book.

I'm just picturing studio execs going "We HAVE to get the guy that wrote 'Robocop 3'!", like Miller was really having to fight them away on a regular basis, and that it was for that alone, not because they were also interested in his significant comic work or anything.

[dlo burns 129]

Some small things I remember about the movie:

--Druggie robot's virtual face reminds me of the Mario64 intro screen, but on SNES graphics.

--What was the new drug supposed to do anyway? All I remember is people running around shouting NUKE! like it was a band people were waiting for.

--I still love that part where the new cyborgs kill themselves.

--It seemed too long

 

Also I saw the third more recently and that thing is a real turd, it seemed more child-focused than the cartoon

[seanotron 2307]

Some small things I remember about the movie:

--Druggie robot's virtual face reminds me of the Mario64 intro screen, but on SNES graphics.

--What was the new drug supposed to do anyway? All I remember is people running around shouting NUKE! like it was a band people were waiting for.

--I still love that part where the new cyborgs kill themselves.

--It seemed too long

 

Also I saw the third more recently and that thing is a real turd, it seemed more child-focused than the cartoon

 

The 3rd one is admittedly pretty terrible, though I think it's almost unwatchable whereas this one isn't as hard to sit through but is still full of WTF.

[seanotron 2307]

I want to bump this one back up because I still feel like this would make for a legitimately fun episode.

[RyanSz 3140]

Most definitely. Would love this to be a live double feature with either Robocop 3 or Highlander 2.

[IHugKittens 53]

Listen. You can't fool me with your arguments, my position on this movie stands and it is that it is fucking awesome. Not as good as the original, yeah, but which movie is really? So yeah, Robocop 2 is a pretty awesome movie. There's the failed prototypes, there's the child drug lord wannabe, there's the drug addicted robot villain with the mario 64-like facescreen thing, I can go on an on, I can write a whole 6 pages long essay on why this movie is awesome.

[seanotron 2307]

Listen. You can't fool me with your arguments, my position on this movie stands and it is that it is fucking awesome. Not as good as the original, yeah, but which movie is really? So yeah, Robocop 2 is a pretty awesome movie. There's the failed prototypes, there's the child drug lord wannabe, there's the drug addicted robot villain with the mario 64-like facescreen thing, I can go on an on, I can write a whole 6 pages long essay on why this movie is awesome.

 

All of those things are also why it would make for a good episode.

[Blast Hardcheese 636]

There are so, so, so many reasons why RoboCop 2 is a horrible movie, but here is a whittled-down list of 10:

 

1. RoboCop going back to being robotic despite regaining his humanity (and name) by the end of the first film.

 

2. Blue armor.

 

3. That tepid and cheesy theme music noodling.

 

4. The Old Man switching from being “ …a sweet old man… ” who means well, to a cutthroat corporate raider who sends a robot to kill elected officials.

 

5. Robo stalking his wife, only to have that thread dropped before the beginning of the second act (seriously, you could edit these scenes out, and it wouldn’t make any difference to the story at all).

 

6. Odd, jarring tone shifts that trade mind-numbing violence for forced comedy, minus the sly satire and commentary of the original.

 

7. The novelty kid criminal we’re supposed to be shocked by, and his laughable, undeserved death bed scene.

 

8. RoboCop on a motorcycle. A motorcycle!

 

9. The designer drug set to sweep the nation that Cain has a monopoly on? It has a cool neon skull logo.

 

10. The completely unsatisfying ending complete with nonsensical line closer: “We’re only human”?!? What does that even mean within the context of this movie??? Robo talks like a robobot. He forsakes his wife. Even when the kajillion prime directives are purged from his system via electric shock, he still walks and talks like a robot. This film threw away that conceit the moment Robo emerged from his bullet-and-missile-ridden patrol car.

 

I LOVE the first RoboCop, but this sequel is a piece of shit; double that sentiment for the third film.

[Blast Hardcheese 636]

I forgot the one cool tidbit I liked from this film: RoboCain's operating System is based on iOS, but with a tiny skull in the upper right hand corner of his screen instead of an Apple logo. So, there's that.

[WayneMiller 37]

There's an episode of F This Movie! on Robocop 2. http://www.fthismovie.net/2014/12/f-this-movie-robocop-2.html

 

I remember loving this when it came out, and watching it recently, I saw how disjointed a mess it was.... Nancy Allen was treated very poorly by Irvin Kirshner, the movie has too many threads, and drops them without cause or reason... Also, the scene in which Hob dies, tries to to make us feel sorry for a snotty little psychopathic brat who killed indiscriminately in the first reel....

[Ribelin2000 23]

I think with the kid in this movie, the filmmakers were aiming for a preteen Tony Montana, and his death was supposed to teach him the lesson that "crime doesn't pay". Yawn.

[RyanSz 3140]

I think with the kid in this movie, the filmmakers were aiming for a preteen Tony Montana, and his death was supposed to teach him the lesson that "crime doesn't pay". Yawn.

I think the real message is "getting hit with bullets doesn't pay" because that kid made bank. Did you not see how much loot was in that truck?!

[PlanBFromOuterSpace 3138]

 

I think the real message is "getting hit with bullets doesn't pay" because that kid made bank. Did you not see how much loot was in that truck?!

But dying sucks, y'all. Dying sucks...

[RyanSz 3140]

But dying sucks, y'all. Dying sucks...

Yes...

 

Dying....

 

 

Does...

 

Suck...

 

 

[Blast Hardcheese 636]

Yes...

 

Dying....

 

 

Does...

 

Suck...

 

 

 

I'd buy that for a dollar!

[RyanSz 3140]

Seeing these gifs remind me of how shitty that remake was.