Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Daring Dark Satire: Live Like A Machine, Die Like A Machine, August 10, 2000
By A Customer
In contrast to many other reviewers, I happen to think R2 has an astonishingly inventive script brimming with daring, dark satire. The satire is so dark however, that it challenges a viewer not to be merely "entertained", but enter into a dialogue with the film. I contend that R2 is in the tradition of such apocpalyptic satirical art as CLOCKWORK ORANGE and NAKED LUNCH which serve to warn humankind just where in hell its crazed heart may lead. Unlike most mainstream Hollywood films, R2 is deeply critical of humanity and its resulting civilization -- starting with the harsh market-driven economy of winners and losers (it is no coincidence that both the drug trade and OCP bow to the same economic models). By depicting a world of such dire human/social affliction coupled with all the high-tech tools required to increase its profit (and anguish), R2 challenges the viewer to separate from this "humanity". Like the best satire, R2 exists to crack our rose-colored glasses, bloody our noses, and tell us what's wrong, so there is precious little "good" to root for in either old or new Detroit. What's at stake in R2 is simply keeping the flood of evil from drowning everything all at once. The film's sharp satirical touches include: expanding the Reagan-era "privatizing" mania to that of OCP "owning" Detroit as a merciless send-up of free market philosophy; the 12-year old drug kingpin just a few tweaks from today's gun-toting teenaged gangbangers as a potent symbol for a suicidal civilization's nihilistic future; the telethon to "save" Detroit as a chilling parody of the fiscal/civil tensions between Democracy and Capitalism (in which, tellingly, the 12-year old drug dealer purchases Detroit's "freedom"); the designer drug, Nuke, as the corrupted escape-valve for society's traumatized, post-Ritalin citizens (and just wait until human genome research trickles down to the greed of the street); the domestication of Robocop into a platitude-whining ninny as a ridicule of pie-in-the-sky suburban values failing in a battlezone of urban realities (which the suburbanites' defection from the inner-city helped to create); and the Robocop 2 cyborg who sports a criminal mind determined as the best fit for our high-tech future. These and other barbs all serve to criticize society's faith that higher and higher technology will save us from human folly instead of high-tech being correctly seen as just the latest edition of that same human folly. Yes, the script may superficially suffer from its demanding ambitions with perhaps one-too-many a sub-plot (screenwriter Frank Miller's graphic novel background pushes the envelope here), but R2's postcards-from-hell humor and prescient social criticism are the diamonds wrought from such risk. R2 is a wake-up call for a society increasingly divorced from nature: he who lives like a machine will die like a machine.
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9 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
What Went Wrong?, May 1, 2000
RoboCop 2 is a serious dissapointment. Director Irvin Kershner who directed an excellent sequel (The Empire Stikes Back), does his best here but is just saddled with a script that is pretty much a disaster. Writer Frank Miller had the right idea but went about it in the wrong way.The story about a drug lord who is later created as a bigger and more dangerous robot that feeds on it's own drug supply has a great Frankenstein quality to it. The biggest problem with the film ..The mind numbing violence and a sadistic and scheming 12 year old boy is ugly and in poor taste. The biting sense of humor is scattershot but there a couple of real zingers. Tom Noonan as the drug lord is all but wasted, he could have been an interesting and scary character, but just walks around looking stoned out. Belinda Bauer as the scheming and zealous OCP scientist, fares a bit better. Willard Pugh as the mayor of Detroit is a painful to listen stereotype. Gabriel Damon is the infamous 12 year old criminal. Really poor taste there. Peter Weller is back as the heroic Cyborg, showing a funny side as well, after he's been reprogrammed to be more "human friendly" The music of Basil Poledoris is sorely missing here. The Special Effects are the saving grace of the film. The design of the RobCop 2 machine is a frightening entity, and Phil Tippett creates an epic battle between the two RoboCops. RoboCop 2 could have been a pretty good film. The story idea itself was good but too many ugly and unneccessary ideas were added to the story. Reserved viewing at best.
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Almost as good as the first, September 12, 2005
Robocop 2 is an underated movie that is one hell of a fun movie. Like the first, there is nonstop action and explosions everywhere and it still keeps the same savage dark humor of the original. This dark humor is one thing that always had me fixated on the screen. My personal favorite scene is when they change Robocop from a criminal stopper to a kind weird robot applying no violence whatsoever. Just check out what he says: "and now for a word on nutrition" I was laughing so hard that I couldn't stop. It still has the silly announcers from the first one. On top of it, it still has the insane shootouts and crazy creations.
This movie deals with Robocop and his partner trying to fight off a huge drug reign. But, the so called good guys all are going to extreme measures to create a new robocop and this definitely isn't for the worst.
Anyway, this is such an awesom movie with another great performance by Peter Weller. So, buy the whole trilogy and you'll be in for a treat. While Terminator 2 was praised and this wasn't, this movie gives T2 a run for its money, and in some aspects may be a better film.
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