Robocop Limited Edition [Blu-ray]

If you love really violent, really bloody 80s movies that don’t dote on people’s sensitivities while providing some social commentary, then this is for you. Want cybernetic cops out for revenge? Then this is EVEN MORE for you.Director Paul Verhoeven (Total Recall, Starship Troopers, Hollow Man) delivers us to a dangerous Detroit. Known for using media and commercials in his films, Verhoeven stylishly paints his dystopian near-future with news clips of foreign conflict and violence against police, as well as commercials about medical breakthroughs in artificial organs to set his stage for the future in law enforcement.As we’d later see in Total Recall (1990) and Starship Troopers (1997), Verhoeven loves co-ed locker rooms and showers and, likewise, is an equal opportunity presenter both male and female nudity. Not only that, Verhoeven is all about tough-as-nails women. Starship Troopers (1997) had Dina Meyer, Total Recall (1990) had Sharon Stone and Rachel Ticotin, and here we have officer Lewis (Nancy Allen; Carrie, Strange Invaders, Poltergeist III) credibly kicking the crap out of a perp in the police station lobby.With the development of “Delta City” underway, Dick Jones (Ronny Cox; The Car, Total Recall) has big plans for a privatized police force: ED-209, a menacing stop-motion law enforcement droid. The violence and blood run HEAVY in this movie! ED-209’s first kill is brutal. A fellow suit, Bob Morton (Miguel Ferrer; DeepStar Six, The Guardian) has his own ideas for a RoboCop program, but it requires… volunteers.So enters the savage Clarence Boddicker (Kurtwood Smith; Amityville: The Awakening, Boxing Helena) and his gang of criminals (including Ray Wise; Chillerama, The Rift, Twin Peaks, Jeepers Creepers 2). When officer Lewis and new Detroit cop Alex Murphy (Peter Weller; Of Unknown Origin, Leviathan, Screamers) step onto the scene, these criminals destroy poor Murphy—like, literally. When Murphy’s hand is blown off it splatters (explodes really) and leaves a chunky stump. Then they blow off his arm leaving flesh shrapnel and they blow out his brains in a sloppy exit wound. But now Morton has his volunteer!The RoboCop design is sleek and a bit Vader-esque, his movement is robotically rigid and his vision is a lot like the T-800 (i.e., The Terminator). Watching him work the streets is violent 80s bliss. He shoots a guy in the crotch, punches through walls and throws someone out a second story window.Despite allegedly having no memory of his life, RoboCop has bad dreams echoing his murder and his family. Eventually he seeks revenge.The performances in this film were on point. Kurtwood Smith brings his stone-cold, no-nonsense A-game as a criminal who shoots first and sometimes even kills before idle asking questions later. Miguel Ferrer is delectably corporate-slimy down to his habits for snorting coke off bimbos’ cleavage. And Ronny Cox has that OG emotionless game face. Their an admirable line-up of bad guys.And when these bad guys get theirs, they really get it. I love when the dude’s flesh melts from the toxic waste. The make-up work is great; he looks like an absolute monster. Then he about disgustingly liquefies when hit by a car. LOL. Awesome death scene.Moreover, despite being an armored cybernetic cop, RoboCop gets the crap kicked out of him much like Bruce Willis in Die Hard (1988). By the end, RoboCop is covered in armor-piercing round holes, cracks, black powder scuffs and blood.My favorite thing about this film (as opposed to the ultra-soft 2014 remake) was how it didn’t try to please everyone. Outside of his memories viewed in first-person, we never see Murphy with his family or try to reconnect with them.They explain why, and it makes perfect sense. And after Murphy exacts his revenge there is no attempt at verbal reconciliation of his catharsis. It’s simply done. He shot the crap outta the guy one minute. RoboCop starts identifying himself as “Murphy” the next minute. The end. It’s a good “tough guy” ending a la Schwarzenegger.

The 1987 classic "Robocop" is one of my top ten favorite films of all time as well as my favorite Paul Verhoeven film to date as well. I can't say much more about this excellent film that hasn't already been said but if you are one of the very few that hasn't checked out this amazing film yet that has aged like a fine wine, then the new remastered blu-ray is the perfect way to do just that.MGM originally released Robocop as a bare bones blu-ray all the way back in 2007 in the unrated director's cut form. There had been a previous blu-ray prepared by Sony I believe that actually got released to some DVD/blu-ray review sites but the picture quality was horrible and that led to MGM releasing their own blu-ray with better picture quality. While that 2007 blu-ray did look better than the last DVD, it was lacking in a lot of areas not the least being that it had none of the extras from any of the prior DVD special editions. They eventually released Robocop 2 & 3 in a trilogy box set along with the original film but that set also featured that original MGM blu-ray while Robocop 2 & 3 looked considerably better as they were much newer HD masters done at that point and time. A year or two ago, it was announced that a new fully restored & remastered at 4K resolution print had been prepared under direct supervision of director Paul Verhoeven and the original cinematographer. This new print of the unrated director's cut made the rounds to various major cities in which cast & crew Q&A's occured after the film was shown. It is this same restored print that made its way to this new blu-ray.How does it compare to the older blu-ray? In a nutshell, it blows it away without even trying. I saw Robocop in theaters back in 1987 and even though my memory might not be the best it used to be, I don't remember this movie looking this amazing during its original theatrical run. It's very obvious that a lot of care and attention went into this new HD remaster and restoration of this classic film. The film retains a very nice filmic grain structure and I saw no instances of any digital noise reduction (also referred to as grain scrubbing) done to the film. The flesh tones in particular are much warmer and the colors (in particular the copius amounts of blood) have greatly improved as well. The film is presented in a 1.85:1 aspect ratio. This might upset purists a bit as director Paul Verhoeven has stated that his preferred aspect ratio for the film is 1.66:1. The old non-anamorphic Criterion DVD is the only release so far to present the film in a 1.66:1 aspect ratio. In Europe back at that time, 1.66:1 was considered the normal matted theatrical exhibition aspect ratio while in the U.S., 1.85:1 was the norm. Even though the 1.85:1 matting is just a wee bit tighter, at no point did I notice any information on the top or bottom seeming cramped or cut off. Essentially, the film looks absolutely breathtaking on this new blu-ray and I doubt that we'll ever see it look any better than it does here. One thing though that I do need to mention is that some of the additional unrated violence footage does look a bit softer and more washed out compared to the rest of the film but this has always plagued the unrated version even going back as far as the non-anamorphic Criterion DVD. I'm not sure if the original negative elements were lost for these additional shots that the MPAA forced them to trim out to avoid an X rating at the time but while the change in quality is noticeable, it isn't drastic enough to pull you out of the film and only amounts to less than a minute of footage.I compared it to the older blu-ray (as well as the even older 2 disc special edition DVD) and in my eyes, it was like night and day. The audio is presented in multi-channel lossless HD audio too and will really shake your housing foundation if you have a great sound setup.MGM this time saw fit to port almost every single extra from the previous DVD sets with the only exception being a photo gallery that I could notice. That means you get the commentary from the 2 disc MGM DVD special edition, all of the excellent making of documentaries and some deleted scenes. There is a great new extra that was added to this release in the form of a cast & crew Q&A from 2012 that runs a little over 42 minutes. There's a ton of great information contained in this new extra and it's great that MGM saw fit to add something of great value to this release in addition to porting over the majority of the prior extras from the DVD sets.At the time I am writing this review, Amazon and retailers like Best Buy are selling this new blu-ray for only 7.99. That is a steal as I would have happily paid 15 bucks for it. This is easily one of the best HD restorations of a classic film done to date and is the best that Robocop has ever looked or sounded. I can't recommend it enough. I'd buy that for a dollar!

It's a lovely looking set. Hard protective box, perfect-bound book, attractive (if rather redundant) poster, and some other bits 'n' bobs to boot.And yet....I can't help feeling that for the asking price of £25 it is *seriously* overpriced.Bear in mind that a Director's Cut blu-ray of this film has been available for several years and can be easily obtained for around £7 or less. Sure, the re-mastered film in this package may look a tad sharper - but £18-worth sharper?Now, if this set had included a 4K UHD of the film rather than (or in addition to) the blu-ray - that WOULD have been a 5-star package :)

This is for the LIMITED EDITION ARROW release of RoboCop. Just in case this shows up elsewhere.Have always been a fan of the movie and most of us have already seen it by this point. It's a solid science fiction action/horror and one of the very finest to ever be created.The bad:This is the same master that already exists at a less expensive entry point. Minor clean up aside.The good:New extra features alone are worth the price of admission.You also get the Theatrical cut of the movie along with the full length "edited for TV" version, which is still hysterical and fascinating that the producers shot so many alternate takes to replace the violence. ED-209 gunning an exec down with no blood anywhere is hilarious.If you're a fan of RoboCop then this is well worth the money. Also includes a set of postcards, poster and new booklet on the making of process.

Another great release from Arrow Video, awesome poster ( which I might get framed and put on wall) and Booklet full of information about the movie (79 pages) comes with cool cards as well and a set Full of extras over 2 Blu-Ray discs , hours worth of extras for fans of the movie this is an brilliant set, Directors cut of the movie which is my fav to watch, the Theatrical version of the movie and also an edited for TV version of the movie which i have not watched yet in this set but I seen few versions of this movie edited on tv with swearing cut out and replaced with some funny words can be fun to watch for a laugh. All in all this set is great and I hope arrow do a Robocop 2 in this type of set not bothered about the 3rd movie though

Another excellent release from Arrow again proving that they are the best video company in the UK at the moment. This includes a beautiful transfer of the uncut version with three audio options. This disc also has a massive amount of quality extras both old and new. The second disc contains the theatrical film and the TV version in a surprisingly high quality transfer. This disc also has interesting comparisons of the different versions. There is a glossy and informative book and poster all in a robust box. This is how a film of this very high calibre deserves to be treated.

This is by far the best looking version of Robocop that I have seen and includes both the director's cut and the theatrical cut of the movie. The limited edition box set includes a lot of extras as well as a very nice booklet, a poster, plus a few postcards, all packaged in a very sturdy, good-looking and practical slipcase. Arrow once again delivers!It is a good thing that the slipcase is sturdy, otherwise this blu-ray box set would have ended up looking less than pristine due to poor packaging.