RoboCop (2014)

In 2028 Detroit, when Alex Murphy, a loving husband, father and good cop, is critically injured in the line of duty, the multinational conglomerate OmniCorp sees their chance for a part-man, part-robot police officer.

Director:

José Padilha

Writers:

Joshua Zetumer, Edward Neumeier

Stars:

Joel Kinnaman, Gary Oldman, Michael Keaton

4 wins & 1 nomination.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Joel Kinnaman	...	Alex Murphy / RoboCop
Gary Oldman	...	Dr. Dennett Norton
Michael Keaton	...	Raymond Sellars
Abbie Cornish	...	Clara Murphy
Jackie Earle Haley	...	Rick Mattox
Michael Kenneth Williams	...	Jack Lewis (as Michael K. Williams)
Jennifer Ehle	...	Liz Kline
Jay Baruchel	...	Tom Pope
Marianne Jean-Baptiste	...	Chief Karen Dean
Samuel L. Jackson	...	Pat Novak
Aimee Garcia	...	Jae Kim
Douglas Urbanski	...	Mayor Durant
John Paul Ruttan	...	David Murphy
Patrick Garrow	...	Antoine Vallon
K.C. Collins	...	Andre Daniels

Storyline

The year is 2028 and multinational conglomerate OmniCorp is at the center of robot technology. Overseas, their drones have been used by the military for years - and it's meant billions for OmniCorp's bottom line. Now OmniCorp wants to bring their controversial technology to the home front, and they see a golden opportunity to do it. 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 in the line of duty, OmniCorp sees their chance for a part-man, part-robot police officer. OmniCorp envisions a RoboCop in every city and even more billions for their shareholders, but they never counted on one thing: there is still a man inside the machine pursuing justice.

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Plot Keywords:

technology | robot | robocop | police | law enforcement | 

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Taglines:

Crime has a new enemy.

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Genres:

Action | Crime | Sci-Fi | Thriller

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated PG-13 for intense sequences of action including frenetic gun violence throughout, brief strong language, sensuality and some drug material

Details

Official Sites:

Official Facebook Official Facebook [Brazil]

Country:

USA

Language:

English Persian Ukrainian

Release Date:

12 February 2014 (USA)

Also Known As:

OmniCorp

Filming Locations:

Pinewood Toronto Studios, Port Lands, Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Box Office

Budget:

$100,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend USA:

$25,061,581, 16 February 2014, Wide Release

Gross USA:

$58,607,007

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$242,688,965, 5 September 2014

Company Credits

Production Co:

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM), Columbia Pictures, Strike Entertainment

Technical Specs

Runtime:

117 min

Sound Mix:

SDDS Datasat Dolby Digital

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Michael Keaton and Gary Oldman have both appeared in Batman films, as Batman and Commissioner Gordon respectively. Original RoboCop (1987) cast members Peter Weller and Ray Wise played those same roles in Batman: The Dark Knight Returns, Part 1 (2012) and Batman: The Dark Knight Returns, Part 2 (2013), the two-part animated adaptation of Frank Miller's graphic novel Batman: The Dark Knight Returns. Miller was also one of the writers of the sequels to the original Robocop, RoboCop 2 (1990) and RoboCop 3 (1993). A further Batman connection is that Joel Kinnaman played Rick Flag in Suicide Squad (2016), in which Batman made a cameo appearance.

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Goofs

When RoboCop enters the lair of Antoine Vallon, his left hand weapon is the "modified Mk.II Battlerifle". A little later on, it's an H&K MP7. When he shoots Antoine Vallon, the Mk.II pops up again only to disappear in the next sequence.

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Quotes

[last lines]
Pat Novak: [referring to Dr. Norton] The fact that this mother...
[bleep]
Pat Novak: ...is not serving time in some federal penitentiary is a huge, hot, heaping pile of horse...
[bleep]
Pat Novak: Now I know some of you may think that this kind of thinking is dangerous and these machines violate your civil liberties. Some of you even believe that the use of these drones overseas makes us the same kind of bullying imperialists that our forefathers were trying to escape. To you, I say... stop whining! America is now and...

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Crazy Credits

The audio of the MGM logo is replaced by vocal effects generated by Samuel L. Jackson before the film begins with him exercising his voice before going on air.

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Connections

References Star Trek: First Contact (1996)

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Soundtracks

Hocus Pocus
Written by Thijs Van Leer (as Thijs van Leer) & Jan Akkerman
Performed by Focus
Courtesy of Red Bullet Productions BV

User Reviews

Comparing with Paul Verhoeven's 1987 original version is unfair, but the new ROBOCOP here manages to stand on its own as a reasonably engaging effort.

In 2010, acclaimed director Darren Aronofsky (THE WRESTLER, BLACK SWAN) was originally attached to direct the ROBOCOP reboot. Frankly, I thought he was the right choice to reboot the once-popular franchise back in the late '80s. Unfortunately, he quits the project and Brazilian director Jose Padilha (ELITE SQUAD, ELITE SQUAD: THE ENEMY WITHIN) was brought in as his replacement. WHAT IS IT ALL ABOUT? When police detective Alex Murphy (Joel Kinnaman) is critically injured during a car explosion in front of his home, CEO of OmniCorp Raymond Sellars (Michael Keaton) sees him as a golden opportunity to make him feel alive again by turning him into "Robocop" -- a cyborg police officer which is touted as the future of law enforcement in America. However, OmniCorp doesn't realize that Murphy still has a personal vengeance in his mind to pursue the criminals who nearly caused him dead. THE GOOD STUFF Like the first two ELITE SQUAD movies, director Jose Padilha delivers the same raw intensity that gives ROBOCOP a quasi-documentary feel to the action sequences. Even though Padilha utilizes shaky camera-work, at least he doesn't make the scene so wobbly until the viewers unable to see what's really going on. The special effects are spectacular, while the costume design for the all-new Robocop in a black tactical body actually looks quite nifty. Swedish-American actor Joel Kinnaman (best known in the US for TV's The Killing) delivers an emotionally engaging performance as Alex Murphy and Robocop, while Michael Keaton steals most of the spotlight as the slimy CEO of OmniCorp Raymond Sellars and Gary Oldman gives a perfectly restrained performance as the sympathetic Dr. Dennett Norton. Other minor roles -- including Abbie Cornish as Murphy's wife, Clara; Jackie Earle Haley as the military tactician Mattox; and Samuel L. Jackson as the media host Pat Novak -- are all equally impressive. MOST MEMORABLE MOMENT(S) The brief but intense battle between Robocop and a small army of ED-209 during the climactic finale. THE BAD STUFF The biggest weakness in this ROBOCOP reboot is Joshua Zetumer's captivating but bloated screenplay. First of all, the story drags too much with Murphy's personal family matter with his estranged wife Clara (Abbie Cornish) and son David (John Paul Ruttan). Then there's the underwritten plot involving Murphy's personal vengeance against Antoine Vallon (Patrick Garrow), who is responsible for the car explosion. Even the so-called social commentary involving the "robo-phobic" issue quoted by Samuel L. Jackson's Pat Novak doesn't really say much that worth a debate. FINAL WORDS While the new ROBOCOP is far from a genre classic by any means, at least Jose Padilha's version isn't as bad as most people might have expected. Just put your mindset of the Paul Verhoeven's original 1987 version aside, and treat this as an entirely new movie altogether.