ROBOCOP (2014) MOVIE NEWS & REVIEW

robocop (2014) movie

Genre              |   Science Fiction

Classification   |   MA 15+

Running time   |   121 minutes

Released         |   12 February 2014

cast

Joel Kinnaman ... Alex Murphy / RoboCop
Gary Oldman ... Dr. Dennett Norton
Michael Keaton ... Raymond Sellars
Abbie Cornish ... Clara Murphy
Jackie Earle Haley ... Rick Mattox
Samuel L. Jackson ... Pat Novak
​Jay Baruchel ... Tom Pope

director

​José Padilha

writer

​Joshua Zetumer ... (written by) and
Edward Neumeier ... (written by) &
Michael Miner ... (written by)
 
Edward Neumeier ... (1987 motion picture) &
Michael Miner ... (1987 motion picture)

cinematographer

​Lula Carvalho ... director of photography

music

​Pedro Bromfman

film editor

​Peter McNulty
Daniel Rezende

---

box office result

Worldwide               $242,688,965  

Australia                 $​6,317,302

North America        $​​​​​​​58,607,007

---

movie minuitae

Jackie Earle Haley as Rick Mattox at one point says "I wouldn't buy that for a dollar". This is a reworking of a line in the ROBOCOP trilogy during a fictional sitcom, wherein the star of the show regularly uses the catchphrase "I'd buy that for a dollar!"

​The face-off between Mattox (Jackie Earle Haley) and RoboCop (Joel Kinnaman) ocurrs at the R.L Hearn Generating plant in the Toronto Portlands. It was decommissioned in 1983, and has been used for numerous film shoots. The exterior shot of the plant was digitally altered to show buildings and fields surrounding it, when in actuality, it sits in the middle of an industrial area close to the Keating channel railways and the elevated highway Gardiner Expressway. This location is popular with urban explorers, but it should be noted, that due to the degradation and age of the plant, it is quite dangerous to explore. At two hundred fifty thousand square feet, and twenty stories high, it remains one of the largest abandoned properties in Toronto.

​During production of the film, José Padilha phoned friend and fellow Brazilian Director Fernando Meirelles to confide in him his frustration in the lack of creative control he was allowed by the studio for the project. Padilha estimated that for every ten ideas he brought to the project, the studio refused nine, and went on to the describe the making of the film as "The worst experience of his life". When word of this conversation became public, in an effort to appease the studio, Padilha released counter statements expressing satisfaction with the film.

---

RELATED MOVIES

ROCOCOP (1987)

ROBOCOP (2014) MOVIE IMAGES

Images

Posters

Images

Posters

ROBOCOP (2014) STORY SYNOPSIS

In RoboCop, the year is 2028 and OmniCorp – the world’s leader in robot technology – sees a golden opportunity to reap billions for their company.  When Alex Murphy (Joel Kinnaman) – a loving husband, father and good cop doing his best to stem the tide of crime and corruption in Detroit – is critically injured, OmniCorp grabs their chance to build a part-man, part-robot police officer.  OmniCorp envisions a RoboCop in every city and will stop at nothing – no matter the cost to Alex – to make sure the program succeeds.  But OmniCorp never counted on one thing: there is still a man fighting inside the machine. 

ROBOCOP (2014) MOVIE REVIEW

Reviewed by Mark Geraghty   |   Review date 11 February 2014

Pop ​Movee Rating

The 2014 version of ROBOCOP is a mixed offering and will suffer from being unfavourably compared to the original 1987 film. Jose Padilha’s update on Paul Verhoeven’s science fiction cult classic is a surface-level makeover and is unable to capture the tone, spirit and social commentary of the earlier film. The absence of these critical elements is due to Joshua Zetumer’s uneven screenplay. The story struggles to find a balance between all-out-action and policeman Alex Murphy’s journey as he is transformed into the cyborg cop and lacks the dark satirical humour that was so prevalent in the original.

In the 2014 version, Murphy, played by Joel Kinnaman, is still a Detroit police officer, but this time he is maimed beyond recognition and left in a vegetative state after a car bomb explodes in his driveway. His wife Clara, played by Abbie Cornish, allows her husband to be used to create a new type of law enforcement officer, blending the efficiency of computer software and the judgement of a human. Behind this advancement is Omni Consumer Products, with its brilliant scientist Dennett Norton, played by Gary Oldman, and scheming owner Raymond Sellars brought to life by Michael Keaton.

One of the big challenges with ROBOCOP, besides the uneven story, is the performances from the cast..

With the exception of Abbie Cornish, everyone seems slightly ‘off’. Joel Kinnaman as the human Murphy isn’t really a likeable character and is portrayed more as a “bad boy” cop; so, when he is nearly killed there’s minimal investment by the viewer into his character. As Robocop, Kinnaman doesn’t fare much better. His performance is driven by CGI and there’s very little focus on him. Not surprisingly, the character of Robocop works best when the camera is up close on Kinnaman’s face, just capturing his performance.

Besides Kinnaman, Gary Oldman and Michael Keaton are wasted.

Oldman is a great actor, but his performance is so wildly varying from scene to scene, it’s hard to know whether he’s for or against Robocop. Keaton, as Raymond Sellars, is more balanced, but he becomes the victim of a poor script, as his character starts off as interesting and falls away into being a one-note villain.

Samuel L. Jackson is fun as the TV personality/commentator who peddles the OCP agenda and his expletive-laden outburst towards the end of the film brings some welcome humour to an otherwise humourless two hours.

Jackie Earle Haley as OCP’s resident war expert Rick Mattox is one-note in his role, serving to question the value of OCP’s decision to develop Robocop by trying to kill him at every turn. It seems a little counter-intuitive, given one of the under-lying story objectives is for OCP to get a ‘human’ version of their machines on the streets of America. As previously mentioned, Abbie Cornish, as Clara Murphy, turns in the film’s best performance. Like Nancy Allen’s character in the original film, Cornish are the most relatable character in this version and her acting range is significantly better.

Ultimately, the 2014 version of ROBOCOP lacks a point-of-difference to the original film and ends up looking like a poor, humourless imitation. The great majority of the characters lack warmth. It tries to compensate with over-the-top set pieces, but even these seem poorly executed. Much of the action is done with camera angles that don’t do the scene justice and one is even done in the dark. In staging a scene like this, Jose Padilha and his team completely miss the point. The audience want to see Robocop dispensing justice. They’re not interested in ‘night vision’ point-of-view. To cap it all, ROBOCOP has one of the worst film scores ever. When it’s audible, it sounds terrible and even manages to make the original Basil Poledouris ROBOCOP theme sound bad. 

It’s always hard to reimagine something great and the 2014 version of ROBOCOP is a good example of how not to do a reboot. It’s a serviceable action film and would have been fine had it not used the word ROBOCOP in the title. By adding that word, audience expectation escalates to a different level and expectation. Unfortunately, for the 2014 version of ROBOCOP is not the future of law enforcement. 

ROBOCOP (2014) USEFUL LINKS

RoboCop (2014 film) - Wikipedia
​RoboCop (2014) - IMDb
​RoboCop (2014) - Rotten Tomatoes​

digital updates delivered

facebook

instagram