Bullet Points: RoboCop 3
Like many RoboCop fans, the third installment of the franchise raised some immediate red flags for me. First, there was no Peter Weller… not just the star of the franchise, but one could argue the heart and soul and the man who brought humanity to the RoboCop character. Second, a PG-13 rating… it’s bad enough they had to replace the star, now you are going to have to tone down the content as well!?!? The final nail in RoboCop 3‘s coffin was the less than stellar world of mouth about the movie.
Even after I sat through most of the Prime Directives mini series and even worse sitting through the disappointment of reboot, I still never went back and watched RoboCop 3… until now.
- The More Things Change: Big corporate news… OCP is about to be acquired by the Kanemitsu Corporation of Japan. Gone is Dan O’Herlihy’s Old Man and in his place as The CEO is the always delightful, Rip Torn. Not only does The CEO have to help in the ownership transition, he has to make sure the Cadillac Heights neighborhood is vacated for the long talked about Delta City project. To assist in this process, OCP has hired a private security force led by Paul McDaggett (John Castle) known as the Rehabs to “relocate” residents… but some of the citizens of Cadillac Heights are fighting back, they see through the corporate BS and have seen first hand the methods the Rehabs are using to “relocate” the citizens of Cadillac Heights.. The movie begins with a young tech whiz named Nikko watching Media Break with her parents and wondering if her family will be evicted like so many others… Nikko’s father assures her that won’t happen and seconds later a wrecking ball crashes through their apartment. The residents of the apartment building now have no choice but to evacuate and during that chaos, Nikko is separated from her parents as they are forced on a bus. Nikko ends ups in the care of the resistance movement led by Bertha (CCH Pounder).
- Fight Fire with Fire: Bertha and her team, that includes Zack, Coontz and Moreno (Daniel von Bargen), have a plan to rob the police armory so they will be better equipped to take on the Rehabs… there’s one problem though, the armory is protected by an ED-209. And this is where Nikko and her laptop computer come to the rescue as she re-programs the ED-209 on the spot and allows Bertha and the boys to grab an entire arsenal and another item that they aren’t even sure what it is and grab it because it looked expensive. The police are alerted to the break in and the beat up yellow van that was seen leaving the armory. Among the officers who respond to the call is the returning Anne Lewis (Nancy Allen)… the chase takes Lewis and two other cops into the roughest part of town… the Splatter Punks’ turf! Instead of catching up with the yellow van, Lewis finds herself in a firefight with the Punks. Meanwhile, RoboCop (yep, he’s in the movie) is now in hot pursuit of the yellow van but when he hears Lewis’ call for back up, he stops his pursuit against orders and DROPS IN (literally) to save Lewis and we officially get our first taste of RoboCop justice!
- Anne Lewis Can Lose: That stunt Robo Cop (Robert John Burke) pulled pissed off OCP, but that was nothing compared to standing up to McDaggett and the Rehabs. This act of defiance makes Robo public enemy number one… it also gets Officer Anne Lewis killed and Robo all shot up. Now a badly damaged RoboCop finds himself against his creators at OCP and on Team Bertha, wanting nothing more than to avenge the death of his friend Lewis. It may be all for naught if RoboCop isn’t repaired… fortunately OCP decided to fire the lead scientist who was assigned to RoboCop, Dr. Marie Lazarus (Jill Hennessy, Exit Wounds) and gladly accepts Nikko’s invite to join the resistance and to help get Robo not just back on his feet… but in the air! That’s right, that expensive item that Bertha and her team stole from the armory, was a jetpack that Dr. Lazarus created for RoboCop that OCP shelved before it could be tested out.
- The Battle for Cadillac Heights: A fully functioning RoboCop (with the ability to fly) is good news for the resistance. As is the fact that Sgt. Reed (Robert DoQui reprising his role from the first two films) and some of Detroit’s finest have sided with them after refusing to evict innocent people from their homes. But there’s plenty of bad news too… like a Benedict Arnold in their ranks, an increasingly desperate and unhinged McDaggett, the Splatter Punks… AND an android ninja named Otomo (Bruce Locke, Angel Town)!
Waiting so long to finally watch RoboCop 3 from start to finish reminds me a lot of waiting decades to watch Halloween III. I let preconceived notions and others’ opinions deter me from experiencing the movie for myself. Unlike Halloween III, I do not in anyway believe that RoboCop 3 is the best movie in the franchise, but I enjoyed it a lot more than I thought I would and while it may not be saying much… I would rank it above the reboot and the Prime Directives TV movies.
With its PG-13 rating, RoboCop 3 felt more like a superhero movie, which was further accentuated by Robo’s ability to fly. The McDaggett character continued the RoboCop tradition of strong villains (something the reboot totally forgot).With Weller out, it seems like there was a concerted effort to not overexpose the new RoboCop and try to maintain as many elements and characters from the first two films that they could.
I am now going to maintain the Bonus Bullet Points element of my reviews…
- Familiar Faces: Felton Perry was back as OCP corporate stooge, Johnson. The man knows how to hold on to a job, that much is for sure… Mako (Conan the Barbarian and The Perfect Weapon) played Kanemitsu, the new owner of Omni Consumer Products. He didn’t get much screen time here, but I always enjoy when Mako pops up in anything.
- If You Ever: …wanted to see newscaster Casey Wong pick his nose, then RoboCop 3 is the movie for you.
- Directed By: RoboCop 3 was directed by Fred Dekker, who also directed one of my all-time favorite horror movies, Night of the Creeps!
- If You Ever: …wanted to see Eva LaRue (The Barbarians) play a newscaster who quits her job in the middle of a broadcast because she doesn’t want to report an obvious bullshit story, then RoboCop 3 is the movie for you.
