RoboCop

Jor el · February 12, 2014, 07:18:33 PM

Aboot as bad as I expected.

C-

Narco Pollo · February 12, 2014, 09:00:03 PM

That's what I've been hearing. No real surprise though.

Jor el · February 12, 2014, 09:15:07 PM

There were some cool visuals here and there...but meh.
I'm tired of the 'hand held action cam' shenanigans.

Jor el · February 12, 2014, 09:16:40 PM

And the music was terrible.

bitter · February 12, 2014, 11:26:00 PM

ez · February 13, 2014, 06:30:11 AM

You paid money to go see a PG-13 remake of Robocop? What the fuck is wrong with you?

Jor el · February 13, 2014, 09:19:19 AM

It's a remake?

ez · February 13, 2014, 10:05:31 AM

seriously? holy shit.

jmucke · February 13, 2014, 10:50:51 AM

With more screen time for the wife and the son - it must be better.

Jor el · February 15, 2014, 09:50:46 PM

After having a couple of days to think about it, I am raising the grade to C+

The Bandit · February 16, 2014, 10:18:27 AM

That's a relief.

Jor el · February 16, 2014, 11:23:55 AM

Well, the original was a D-, possibly an E, so....

Narco Pollo · February 16, 2014, 11:54:33 AM

Those are some sinister letters.

Jor el · February 16, 2014, 12:24:15 PM

You're right -

I better change it to an F

boltthrow · February 16, 2014, 10:43:18 PM

It was... whatever.

Production design was good, CG was terrific and fairly seamless (the new Spiderman trailer played before it and looked like shit), the shoot 'em up action was bloodless and mind-numbing, some of the political updating was clever, the Sam Jackson Pat Buchanan/Robert Novak aspect was dumb, it's always nice to see real actors like Gary Oldman and Michael Keaton and Jackie Earl Haley and Jay Baruchel making rote roles at least watchable, Jennifer Ehle was the icy bitch she is in real life (she was the ghost on A Gifted Man), the back and forths from the lab to the squad to the boardrooms were incessant and confusing as was Robocop's ability to piece together CCTV stuff and revisit plot points.

The biggest problem was the filmmakers obviously wanted to make a more thoughful movie with all the man/machine/soul/free will/loving family stuff... but ultimately the audience just wants to see Robocop shoot bad guys and give quips and there was way too little of that. It all devolved into inside baseball corporate politics stuff. The bad guy who tried to kill Robocop was forgettable and even the way they tried to kill him (blowing him up) was impersonal and therefore you didn't really care if he lived or died.

In some ways it's like they had to get all this origin story stuff out of the way and the NEXT movie will hopefully be more like the one this should've been (not that I'll see the next movie).

CanookieWookie · February 17, 2014, 08:40:54 PM

Quote from: Jor el on February 12, 2014, 07:18:33 PM

Aboot as bad as I expected.

C-

Why brother, why? The original could never be duplicated.

Jor el · February 18, 2014, 08:34:22 AM

The original is horrible.

boltthrow · February 18, 2014, 09:37:32 AM

Exactly. Or close. The original had some charms but it's not like it's some classic of cinema that can't be touched. Problem is, the remake didn't seem to understand what charms an audience might want to see again.

Jor el · February 18, 2014, 09:38:37 AM

Exactamundo

gritty_fingers · February 18, 2014, 10:21:04 AM

I have fond memories of the original. I thought there were some very clever story telling. The hardcore violence was used effectively and there was some interesting commentary of 80s culture (which sadly did not age well). I thought the villain (the dude from 'That's 70s Show') was really good.

Also I like the slow-moving original bulky design as opposed to the fast moving Robocop in the remake.

In all honesty, I have no interest in watching the remake. Judging by the comments here, I don't think I'm missing anything.

CanookieWookie · February 18, 2014, 05:34:00 PM

Quote from: Jor el on February 18, 2014, 08:34:22 AM

The original is horrible.

This should never be written.

CanookieWookie · February 18, 2014, 05:37:04 PM

Quote from: boltthrow on February 18, 2014, 09:37:32 AM
Exactly. Or close. The original had some charms but it's not like it's some classic of cinema that can't be touched. Problem is, the remake didn't seem to understand what charms an audience might want to see again.

It was impossible to make a remake of this movie, and make it better. No one is clever enough to do it.

Jor el · February 18, 2014, 09:08:57 PM

The remake is better...which means it's only slightly less horrible.

CanookieWookie · February 18, 2014, 09:25:02 PM

Impossible. I'm sorry, I just can't believe the remake is as good as the original. It just doesn't make sense.

Now, I'm not saying the original was a fantastic movie, but it had something, something that made it decent. When I see the trailer(s) for the new one, it looks typical of a shitty Hollywood remake.

Lumpy · February 18, 2014, 09:46:57 PM

The original is relatively low-budget, but has a lot of good things going for it. Don't make me start listing them.

Hollywood needs to come up with new material, the remake trend is shit. It just shows that some people are all out (or incapable) of new ideas, in which case they need to GTFO of the movie business.

There are no more good ideas left to explore, said no one with a brain ever.

RoboCop

The Bandit