Somewhere between Peter Weller deciding to hand over the RoboCop suit to Robert John Burke, the big wigs at OCP, or whatever big business in charge, decided that RoboCop needed to be more family friendly, thus leading to the first PG-13 film in the series. Never mind the fact that the original is a gory mess, even for an 80s movie, and the sequel probably expended more rounds than the Persian War, some damn parental board decided RoboCop should be a corporate product complete with action figures and cars and even it’s own spin-off TV show not too much later. Hence: RoboCop 3.
Since the last installment, old Detroit has gone to shit even more, OCP has merged with some Japanese company, and a military-esque team is brought in to force them damn ghetto people out by force for the construction of OCP’s idealistic Delta City. Luckily the ragtag team of CCH Pounder, Stephen Root, Daniel von Bargen, and a cute, smart displaced girl with uncanny computer skills decide to fight the proverbial power. While Lewis is in hot pursuit of the van of ne’er-do-wells, she gets cornered by The Splatter Punks, which appear to be some rock band in pursuit of another hobby. Of course Robo comes to the rescue with his newfangled detachable arm that fires an automatic machine gun. And naturally, his insubordination doesn’t go over well with boss Bradley Whitford (what, there are a shit load of decent people in this movie) who wants the Murphy-part of Robo erased.
In spite of Lewis’ selfless act of heroism (which damn whoever was responsible for killing Nancy Allen), the mercenaries close in the on the remaining survivors and with Robo suffering damage in the attack, he is off little use … until the little girl why uncanny computer skills comes to to the rescue with Doctor Lazarus and her mystical power. But even that is little use until the Japanese send katana-wielding robots to clear things up.
All in all, RoboCop 3 wasn’t as bad as I remember even if poor Frank Miller’s script got butchered again. The concept of a decrepit and bankrupt city (shocking for Detroit, I know), mercenaries who don’t give a damn about collateral damage, and those that are willing to stand up against BIG GOVMINT, there are a lot of positive ideas to come from this. But RoboCop driving in a pimped out pink Cadillac, a cheesy CGI scene of Robo flying on his jet pack, and the little computer illiterate girl saving the game really sticks out as quite silly to a series that had hands, arms, and other innards strewn about to attack a bigger audience than previous. At the very least, maybe it’ll be better than the reboot.
P.S. How the hell did all of these otherwise quite talented actors get roped into this? A better starting script? Gas money? If I ever see Stephen Root, that’ll be a question I ask, as well as about the red Swingline stapler.
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