5 Questions: Android Cop

The folks over at Asylum don’t try to hide from the fact that they go out of their way to capitalize on the popularity of major studio releases and piggy back off the built in audience those movies have (or are expected to have). Many have referred to these Asylum films as “mockbusters”.

American Warships was released in conjunction with Battleship, Mercenaries was released in conjunction with The Expendables 3, Road Wars was released in conjunction with Mad Max: Fury Road and so on.

While I can’t question the business logic behind what Asylum does, I do have a few questions regarding another of Asylum’s mockbusters, Android Cop. The movie stars Michael Jai White of Falcon Rising and Blood and Bone fame, Kadeem Hardison and Charles S. Dutton.

1. Who said it better?

Obviously Android Cop was developed to tie in with the reboot of Robocop in 2014. But when Android Cop utters the words “Dexts Muldoon, you are under arrest.” it took me back to the original Robocop (1987), when Robo delivers the line “Clarence Boddicker, you are under arrest.” But who said their line better? There’s no debate here… Robocop’s delivery of his line is far better than that of Android Cop.

2. Who knew Kadeem Hardison had such a robust action entertainment resume?

I was surprised when I first saw Kadeem Hardison in the Mark Dacascos film, Instinct to Kill, I was even more surprised to learn that he and Dacascos did another action movie called Drive (which is awesome by the way). He was also in Gunmen with Christopher Lambert and Mario Van Peebles, Face of Terror with Rick Schroeder and Eric Balfour just to mention a few. Hardison is also in Android Cop and I would like to go on record that I prefer my Kadeem Hardison in action movies to be on the side of good and not like his character in Android Cop, Sgt. Jones, the corrupt cop.

3. Is Andy iPhone compatible?

One of the interesting features that Android Cop, or Andy as his partner Hammond (Michael Jai White) refers to him, can send texts to people and it looks like it came from someone they know. For example, there’s a distraught guy who is about to jump to his death from a tall building, but Andy manages to send a series of texts that brings the woman this suicidal soul is in love with to the roof and instead of jumping, he goes home with his lady. My question, since Andy is an ANDROID Cop, is this texting feature iPhone compatible? If that guy or his girl had an iPhone and not an Android phone, would there have been a scene of the sidewalk below being hosed down?

4. Why does the monitor explode?

At one point in the film Sgt. Jones (Kadeem Hardison) has his tech guy back at police headquarters try to override Android Cop’s program. After the tech guy goes all Scotty in Star Trek and gives it all she’s got, it is Android Cop who overrides the computer that is trying to override him. But why does this cause the monitor to explode and the tech guy to all but crap his pants!?!? I suppose the hard drive might be fried after this computerized battle, but what exactly causes the monitor to explode.

5. Was anyone else reminded of the Troy McClure song from Planet of the Apes: The Musical during the plot twist involving Michael Jai White’s character?

For much of the movie Hammond (Michael Jai White) has a general dislike for robots. This stems from an incident early on in the film where his partner on the force is gunned down by an automated robotic machine gun. So needless to say after he is partnered with an Android Cop, Hammond is not shy about vocalizing his displeasure. To avoid any specific spoilers I’ll say that something happens later in the movie that causes Hammond to have a change of heart and it was at that point that I was almost expecting him to break out into “Oh my God! I was wrong!” For those of you unfamiliar with the Troy McClure song, check out the video below…