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Robocop 3: Collector's Edition - Blu-ray Review and Details

3 beersCue the android ninjas!  Ninjas make everything better, right?!

Peter Weller wasn’t ever going to do RoboCop 3.  That’s a fact.  There was a twisted little movie called Naked Lunch that he was going to do instead.  But that didn’t prevent him from meeting with RoboCop 3’s hired director, cult filmmaker Fred Dekker (Night of the Creeps, The Monster Squad) and discussing the project with him.  That’s respect, right there; respect for the character, the business, and the audience.

The sad thing is that – in spite of this amicable split for the actor from the franchise – far too many people didn’t accept a new actor in the role of RoboCop, which is really fucking weird when you consider how many DIFFERENT actors have played Batman, Superman, and James Bond.  We can accept changes there, but not a change in a robot whose only human feature we usually only see is the bottom half his face?  Sometimes we really suck as audiences.

And, yes, that’s one of the reasons why RoboCop 3 is maligned.  No one saw it out of protest for the change in actors.  I’m pretty sure even some of the critics phoned in their reviews of the movie at the time of its release.  It simply isn't as godawful as it is made to sound; it just has a different lens through which RoboCop is seen.  If you’ve ever seen ANY of Dekker’s other movies, you know he maneuvers his way around genre flicks with the greatest care; he's a solid maker of enjoyable genre films.  Filling his movies with gore and humor, and – yes – kids, he’s always on point.  Which is why he got the gig on RoboCop 3 in the first place.

Orion wanted to tap into the PG-13 market.  They recognized that the majority of RoboCop’s fans were now kids thanks to edited versions of RoboCop being aired on television.

If you can’t handle those changes, then stop reading because you’re not going to like anything else I have to say about the movie.  RoboCop 3 is obviously the weakest one of the three when it comes to bloodshed, but – surprise, surprise – it’s also the most fun, celebrating itself and its franchise as the b-movie it always was.  Yes, ALWAYS.

As written by Dekker and Frank Miller, the idea for Delta City is not dead.  And the poor will once again pay the ultimate price by Omni Corp, who are determined to see Detroit in rubble.  This time city militants called the Urban Rehabilitators are doing the dirty work of the corporation.  Led by Paul McDaggett (John Castle), they invade low-rent areas of Detroit and move the poor people elsewhere, generally pushing and kicking them along the way.  Violence and criminal activity, as a result, is steadily on the rise.

Preteen computer whiz, Nikko (Remy Ryan), finds herself separated from her parents and, as the crowds are intense and whipped up into a frenzy thanks to the brutal techniques of the Rehabs, winds up in the care of freedom fighters Bertha (CCH Pounder) and Coontz (Stephen Root), all of whom Robocop winds up joining in the fight against his makers and their new brand of terror, the Otomo units.

It’s a wild FAMILY adventure that has RoboCop (played by Robert John Burke) siding with a rebel force that wants Detroit to belong to the people and not the corporations.  RoboCop shoots.  And, yes, he even flies.  He saves Anne Lewis (Nancy Allen) at the beginning, but is unable to later on.  And so she dies.  We knew she would.  Allen knew she would before she met with the director.  She was ready.

Unfortunately, no one else was ready to see a muted RoboCop.  Nevermind the fact that its cast – which includes Bradly Whitfield, Rip Torn, Jill Hennessy, Robert DoQui, and Daniel von Bargen – were quite talented and ready to rock it in the b-movie.  Audiences just shrugged.  The director says we should blame him.  No.  He’s wrong.  WE are the idiots.  RoboCop 3 might not be the best thing in the world, but it's a matinee genre romp through and through.  Climb down from the high horse, please. 

Scream Factory presents RoboCop 3 on 1080p in a brand new collector’s edition which features a ton of brand new special features.  It’s time to get with the third installment of this action series or, as Ed-209 says, “Eat lead, suckers.”

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Robocop 3: Collector's Edition - Blu-ray Review and Details

MPAA Rating: PG-13 for violence.
Runtime:
104 mins
Director
: Fred Dekker
Writer:
Frank Miller and Fred Dekker
Cast:
Nancy Allen, Robert John Burke, Mario Machado
Genre
: Action | Sci-fi
Tagline:
Back on line, Back on duty.
Memorable Movie Quote: "What's it like being a rocket scientist?"
Theatrical Distributor:
Orion Pictures
Official Site:
Release Date:
November 5, 1993
DVD/Blu-ray Release Date:
March 21, 2017
Synopsis: Robocop saves the day once more. This time the half man/half robot takes on ruthless developers who want to evict some people on "their" land.

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[tab title="Blu-ray Review"]

Robocop 3: Collector's Edition - Blu-ray Review and Details

Blu-ray

Blu-ray Details:

RoboCop 3: Collector's Edition

Home Video Distributor: Shout Factory
Available on Blu-ray
- March 21, 2017
Screen Formats: 1.85:1
Subtitles
: English SDH
Audio:
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1; English: DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0
Discs: Blu-ray Disc; Single disc
Region Encoding: Locked to Region A

RoboCop 3 is presented by Scream Factory with a detailed 1080p/AVC MPEG-4 encode. With a 1.85:1 ratio and a an excellent DTS-HD MA soundtrack, in either 5.1 surround sound or 2.0 stereo, the blistering griminess of the busted city at the heart of this movie is still present. Talk about an enhancement. The print has been cleaned up to preserve the grain structure and enhance the colors – which pop with dynamics – and the shadows as they are now seen with more purpose instead of murky corners. Thick lines engage the vision with crispness previously unseen in any version. Shot in Atlanta around buildings that were to be blown and scrapped to make way for the Olympics, the transfer presents the city with a nice fluidity of neon and cyberpunk intent.

Supplements:

Commentary:

  • There are two NEW commentaries included with this release.  The first is AWESOME as cult filmmaker Fred Dekker talks about the making of the movie and how it was his best experience behind the camera.  The other commentary features Gary Smart, Chris Griffiths And Eastwood Allen, the Makers Of "RoboDoc: The Creation Of RoboCop" Documentary and is very informative.

Special Features:

Loaded with tons of NEW supplemental materials, the collector’s edition of RoboCop 3 will please genre fans.  The NEW interviews feature Fred Dekker, Actors Nancy Allen, Bruce Locke, Producer Patrick Crowley, Cinematographer Gary Kibbe And Production Designer Hilda Stark.  Also interviewed are FX coordinators Peter Kuran, Phil Tippett, Craig Hayes, Kevin Kutchaver And Paul Gentry.  Actor Felton Perry gets time in front of the camera.  In another, Bruce Locke And Martial Arts Trainer Bill Ryusaki, get to talk about Otomo.  All in all, this is a damn good celebration of the final movie in the original series.

  • Delta City Shuffle: The Making Of ROBOCOP 3
  • Robo-Vision: The FX Of ROBOCOP 3
  • The Corporate Ladder
  • Training Otomo
  • War Machine
  • Theatrical Trailer
  • Still Gallery

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[tab title="Art"]Robocop 3: Collector's Edition - Blu-ray Review and Details

 

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