I don’t think it’s a controversial opinion to state that, of all the RoboCop movies, only Paul Verhoeven’s original 1987 film deserves to be called a classic. However, a lot of us have always thought that the ultra-violent sequel, RoboCop 2, was better than its reputation suggests. I know from our Original Video on the movie that it has more than a few fans, so it’s exciting to reveal that RoboCop 2 is finally getting a 4K Blu-ray release via Scream Factory.
The news was broken by our friends at Blu-ray.com. The company has also licensed José Padilha’s 2014 remake for release. No RoboCop 3 yet. I suppose the company just decided to let that one go, and you can’t really blame them, as it just might be one of the worst sequels of all time.
No news yet on whether RoboCop 2 will contain any special features. I’d kill for a commentary track by writer Frank Miller, who infamously worked on both sequels, only to have his work largely discarded. RoboCop 2’s journeyman director, Irvin Kershner, director of a little movie called Empire Strikes Back, made a darkly comedic follow-up to Verhoeven’s classic. While it lacked the pathos and style of that film, there were some ballsy, ultra-violent moments included, including a sociopathic child henchman for the movie’s big bad, Tom Noonan’s Cain. It also has an amazing final battle between RoboCop and Cain, plus a grim moment of body horror when OCP reviews tapes of their failed RoboCop 2 experiments. Plus, it had Peter Weller reprise his role as Murphy aka RoboCop, with him getting to show off some comic chops when he’s reprogrammed to be ultra-family friendly. It’s a nifty movie.
RoboCop 2 and RoboCop 2014 are both set to hit 4K Blu-ray on June 18th. I’ll definitely be buying RoboCop 2, that’s for sure.