robocop 3 movie review

There is a certain weariness that begins to infect sequels after a time.

While some movie characters seem able to carry on forever, like James Bond or Tarzan, others get old real fast. Robocop, for example, is a character whose limited dimensions have been exhausted. There is only so much you can do with a creature who is half-man, half-machine. Who walks like a child’s toy. And who eventually disobeys his programming in order to fight for the good guys.

“RoboCop 3” is set once again in Detroit, where, despite the achievements chronicled in “ RoboCop ” and “ Robocop 2 ,” things are even worse. So bad, indeed, that the city has more or less been sold to the evil Omni Consumer Products corporation, which even owns the police force.

OCP’s grand design, as the movie opens, is to displace thousands of nice folks in a colorful neighborhood, and build on the ashes of their homes the towers of Delta City, a high-rise development that seems copied directly from the covers of back issues of “Amazing Stories.” (OCP has no doubt studied the great success of other megalomaniac high-rise developments in Detroit.) The people who live in the neighborhood understandably resent OCP’s plans, which are carried out by deadly strike forces who evict tenants on pain of death. One little child, for example, is left to wander through the mean streets, an orphan, after OCP’s wrecking crews have killed her parents. Meanwhile, in the sewers beneath the city streets, an alternative culture struggles to survive. These underground people, who dress like 1960s hippies, are against totalitarianism and mega-corporations, and are waging guerrilla warfare against the capitalist pigs.

There are some moments of humor in “RoboCop 3,” as when an executive hangs up his phone and jumps out the window. And it’s fun watching Rip Torn , as Omni’s CEO. He walks, talks, smiles and thinks exactly like the producer of the Larry Sanders Show, a role he was probably performing more or less simultaneously. (Because “RoboCop 3” gives him little else to do, this is a wise acting decision on his part.) RoboCop, you will recall, was once a normal human Detroit policeman, until large parts of his anatomy were lost in the battle against evil. Now equipped with machine-tooled body parts and a computer-assisted brain, he looks like a robot, except for his mouth and chin, which are left exposed, probably in homage to Batman’s uniform. He clanks about the city, speaking like an automated elevator, and despite the efforts of Detroit’s best programmers he keeps having flashbacks to his loved ones – memories that revive his human side, and cause him to side with people he likes.

RoboCop was played by Peter Weller in the first two movies, which he confided in me were the worst experiences in his life – not because of the screenplay, but because of the costume, which caused him to sweat gallons even though air-conditioners were trained on him between takes. This time the metal man is played by Robert John Burke , star of “ Simple Men ,” by the independent filmmaker Hal Hartley . This may be too high a price to pay to enter the Hollywood mainstream. Nancy Allen is also back again, as Robo’s old cop partner, in a role that grows more thankless with every sequel.

Why do they persist in making these retreads? Because “RoboCop” is a brand name, I guess, and this is this year’s new model. It’s an old tradition in Detroit to take an old design and slap on some fresh chrome.

Roger Ebert

Roger Ebert was the film critic of the Chicago Sun-Times from 1967 until his death in 2013. In 1975, he won the Pulitzer Prize for distinguished criticism.

• John Burke as Robert
• Nancy Allen as Robocop Officer Anne Lewis
• Rip Torn as The Ceo

Directed by

• Fred Dekker

Leave a comment

Now playing.

Apartment 7A

Transformers One

American Crime Story: Aaron Hernandez

Speak No Evil (2024)

Saturday Night

The Killer’s Game

Girls Will Be Girls

The 4:30 Movie

Latest articles

Pull the String: Larry Karaszewski Remembers “Ed Wood” at 30

TIFF 2024: A Canadian Perspective on This Year’s Festival of Festivals

“Agatha All Along” Wastes Supernatural Powers of an Excellent Cast

Colin Farrell Turns Gotham Into “The Sopranos” with HBO’s Thrilling “The Penguin”

The best movie reviews, in your inbox.

Log in or sign up for Rotten Tomatoes

Trouble logging in?

By continuing, you agree to the Privacy Policy and the Terms and Policies , and to receive email from the Fandango Media Brands .

By creating an account, you agree to the Privacy Policy and the Terms and Policies , and to receive email from Rotten Tomatoes and to receive email from the Fandango Media Brands .

By creating an account, you agree to the Privacy Policy and the Terms and Policies , and to receive email from Rotten Tomatoes.

Email not verified

Let's keep in touch.

Sign up for the Rotten Tomatoes newsletter to get weekly updates on:

• Upcoming Movies and TV shows
• Rotten Tomatoes Podcast
• Media News + More

By clicking "Sign Me Up," you are agreeing to receive occasional emails and communications from Fandango Media (Fandango, Vudu, and Rotten Tomatoes) and consenting to Fandango's Privacy Policy and Terms and Policies . Please allow 10 business days for your account to reflect your preferences.

OK, got it!

• About Rotten Tomatoes®
• Login/signup

Movies in theaters

• Opening This Week
• Top Box Office
• Coming Soon to Theaters
• Certified Fresh Movies

Movies at Home

• Fandango at Home
• Prime Video
• Most Popular Streaming Movies
• What to Watch New

Certified fresh picks

• 85% Transformers One Link to Transformers One
• 75% Rob Peace Link to Rob Peace
• 96% Rebel Ridge Link to Rebel Ridge

New TV Tonight

• 88% The Penguin: Season 1
• 90% High Potential: Season 1
• 78% Agatha All Along: Season 1
• 80% American Sports Story: Aaron Hernandez: Season 1
• 79% A Very Royal Scandal: Season 1
• 67% Twilight of the Gods: Season 1
• 100% Tulsa King: Season 2
• 50% Frasier: Season 2
• 38% Emmys: Season 76
• -- Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story: Season 2

Most Popular TV on RT

• 64% The Perfect Couple: Season 1
• 74% Kaos: Season 1
• 100% Slow Horses: Season 4
• 83% The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power: Season 2
• 67% The Old Man: Season 2
• 99% Shōgun: Season 1
• Best TV Shows
• Most Popular TV

Certified fresh pick

• 78% Agatha All Along: Season 1 Link to Agatha All Along: Season 1
• All-Time Lists
• Binge Guide
• Comics on TV
• Five Favorite Films
• Video Interviews
• Weekend Box Office
• Weekly Ketchup
• What to Watch

All Transformers Movies Ranked by Tomatometer

The 60 Best 1960s Horror Movies

What to Watch: In Theaters and On Streaming

Awards Tour

Agatha All Along First Reviews: Kathryn Hahn Powers a Unique, Satisfying Spin-Off

Renewed and Cancelled TV Shows 2024

• Trending on RT
• Hispanic Heritage Month
• Spanish-Language Movies
• Re-Release Calendar

RoboCop 3 Reviews

…Robocop 3 is, like its titular character, glitch-ing all over the place and malfunctioning like crazy, but the random quality makes it a hoot in 2023…

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Jul 23, 2023

While the sight of a flying RoboCop isn't as offensive as the sight of a flying R2-D2, it still registers as an awful idea.

Full Review | Original Score: 1.5/4 | May 16, 2022

Clearly more concerned with action and explosions than bloodthirsty violence, refraining from the second film's nastiness or the first's experiment in satirical excesses.

Full Review | Original Score: 6/10 | Sep 24, 2020

Worse than anything to do with the plot, is the saggy action, which has that unpleasant peek-a-boo quality of hard violence retrofitted into teen-friendly fare.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/10 | Feb 18, 2014

A tame and brutally boring final installment...

Full Review | Aug 19, 2013

What was turning out to be a smart franchise here loses an edge it never quite recovers.

Full Review | Aug 4, 2009

Watch the first episode but stop after that.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/5 | Aug 4, 2009

The movie seems stuck betwixt and between.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/4 | Aug 4, 2009

Limiting the gore, but not the carnage, in pursuit of a PG-13 rating and more youngsters, pic remains a cluttered, nasty exercise that seems principally intent on selling action figures.

Full Review | Mar 26, 2009

The series had run its course.

Full Review | Sep 1, 2007

Dekker's third instalment also comes third in terms of merit.

Full Review | Feb 9, 2006

Full Review | Original Score: 2/5 | Jul 24, 2005

Full Review | Original Score: 2/5 | May 6, 2005

Full Review | Original Score: 1/5 | Nov 11, 2004

In the latest episode of the series, which seems to have nearly run out of steam, he is portrayed by Robert John Burke, an actor who bears some resemblance to Mr. Weller while lacking his forerunner's tongue-in-cheek glint of authoritarian machismo.

Full Review | Original Score: 1/5 | Aug 30, 2004

Full Review | Original Score: 1/5 | Jul 8, 2004

...at the very least, Robocop 3 works as a popcorn movie - something part two couldn't even manage.

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/4 | Jun 6, 2004

Full Review | Original Score: 1/5 | May 25, 2004

All of the humanity of the first movie and what little there was in the second movie are drained from RoboCop 3.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/10 | May 23, 2004

It's just stupid.

Full Review | Original Score: 1.5/5 | Mar 18, 2004

RoboCop 3 (1993)

• User Reviews

Awards | FAQ | User Ratings | External Reviews | Metacritic Reviews

• User Ratings
• External Reviews
• Metacritic Reviews
• Full Cast and Crew
• Release Dates
• Official Sites
• Company Credits
• Filming & Production
• Technical Specs
• Plot Summary
• Plot Keywords
• Parents Guide

Did You Know?

• Crazy Credits
• Alternate Versions
• Connections
• Soundtracks

Photo & Video

• Photo Gallery
• Trailers and Videos

Related Items

• External Sites

Related lists from IMDb users

Recently Viewed

Join or Sign In

Sign in to customize your TV listings

By joining TV Guide, you agree to our Terms of Use and acknowledge the data practices in our Privacy Policy .

• TV Listings
• Cast & Crew

RoboCop 3 Reviews

• 40   Metascore
• 1 hr 45 mins
• Suspense, Action & Adventure, Science Fiction
• Watchlist Where to Watch

The cyborg defends impoverished Detroit citizens whose homes are threatened by an evil corporation formed by his creators, who have gone corrupt.

Though the story is tired, most of ROBOCOP 3's action sequences and special effects are imaginative and effective, and the gruesomeness of the first two films has been toned down in a commercially wise attempt to make it more accessible to the younger audiences who love Robocop. In the degenerate future, on the mean streets of Detroit, cyborg cop Murphy (Robert John Burke), better known as Robocop, is the best and last hope of law enforcement. Haunted by fragmentary memories of the man he once was and ruthlessly manipulated by the vicious executives who run Omni Consumer Products, the corporate conglomerate that hopes to make Detroit over along more profitable lines, Murphy is faced with a dilemma. OCP, now owned by a Japanese conglomerate headed by tycoon Kanemitsu (Mako), is illegally evicting residents of Detroit's run down, working class Cadillac City neighborhood, so that Delta City, a glittering metropolis of the future, can be built in its place. Robocop is meant to help clear them away, but after his longtime partner (Nancy Allen) is killed, he violates his programming--which requires him to obey all orders from his superiors — and joins the Homeless Underground, led by charismatic Bertha (CCH Pounder); her troops include adorable computer-hacking youngster Nikko (Remy Ryan), who was separated from her family when the army evicted the populace of Cadillac City. OCP's troops wage full-scale war on the homeless resisters, and damage Robocop, apparently beyond repair. But he's remade once again, this time by Dr. Marie Lazarus (Jill Hennessy), an OCP employee who realizes she can't just follow orders anymore. He then takes on the Detroit police and OCP's secret weapon, a sleek, athletic, ninja cyborg who makes RoboCop look like a rusted heap of tin, and emerges victorious. The original ROBOCOP was a dark action film set in a disturbing urban future, distinguished by a cynical script, Paul Verhoeven's brutal direction and Peter Weller's surprisingly affecting performance as the machine who remembers that he was once a man. Written by cutting-edge comic book star Frank Miller and directed by Fred Dekker (NIGHT OF THE CREEPS, THE MONSTER SQUAD), ROBOCOP 3 is a far lighter affair, with the emphasis on spectacular but relatively bloodless action. On those terms, it's fairly successful. Sharp-jawed Robert Burke, best known for his roles in Hal Hartley films, gamely dons RoboCop drag and manages to retain the character's weary dignity, even when he's forced to don a flying backpack (a la THE ROCKETEER) and zoom over the heads of the incredulous villains. The action sequences are well staged and imaginative, and the battle between Robocop and Roboninja, takes some surprising turns--the best is the revelation that there are three identical opponents. That said, the movie seems stuck betwixt and between: it dishes up monstrous splatterpunks (reminiscent of ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK), ruthless corporate fiends (no character in RISING SUN, denounced for its Japan bashing, can compare to the evil Kanemitsu or the ninja cyborg, who makes literal the idea of the Japanese being "like robots"), killer cops and the scary Roboninja, but pulls its punches whenever things seem to be getting too tough. And though it was meant to appeal to younger ROBOCOP fans, the opening sequence is every child's nightmare: little Nikko is in her own bed, her daddy assuring her that things are fine, when a wrecking ball crashes through the wall and the family has to take to the streets, which are filled with running, screaming families. In the melee, Nikko is separated from her parents (who, we later learn, are killed) and left to wander the nighttime streets alone. That's the true stuff of children's nightmares. (Violence, adult situations.)

RoboCop 3 (1993)

Directed by fred dekker.

• AllMovie Rating 5
• User Ratings ( 0 )
• Your Rating
• Overview ↓
• User Reviews ↓
• Cast & Crew ↓
• Streams ↓
• Related ↓

Description by Wikipedia

RoboCop 3 is a 1993 American cyberpunk action film directed by Fred Dekker and written by Frank Miller and Dekker. The film is the third and final installment of the original RoboCop trilogy. Set in the near future in a dystopian metropolitan Detroit, Michigan, RoboCop 3 follows RoboCop (Robert John Burke) as he vows to avenge the death of his partner Anne Lewis (Nancy Allen) and tries to save Detroit from falling into chaos. It was filmed in Atlanta, Georgia. Most of the buildings seen in the film were slated for demolition to make way for facilities for the 1996 Olympics. Nancy Allen, Robert DoQui, Felton Perry, Mario Machado, and Angie Bolling are the only cast members to appear in all three films.

RoboCop 3 is the first film to use digital morphing in more than one scene.

Part of Collection

Related movies.

Alternate Titles

RoboCop 3 (1993)

Movie Details

Stream & watch robocop 3.

Cast & Crew

Robocop collection.

RoboCop is a 1987 American cyberpunk action film directed by Paul Verhoeven and written by Edward Neumeier and Michael Miner. The film stars Peter Weller, Nancy Allen, Dan O'Herlihy, Kurtwood Smith, Miguel Ferrer, and Ronny Cox. Set in a crime-ridden Detroit, Michigan, in the near future, RoboCop centers on police officer Alex Murphy who is brutally shot to death by a gang of criminals and subsequently revived by the megacorporation Omni Consumer Products (OCP) as a superhuman cyborg law enforcer known as "RoboCop". Collection includes 2 sequels.

Similar Movies

Movie Reviews

Follow Moviefone

Latest trailers.

RoboCop 3 Review

01 Jan 1993

114 minutes

This is one of those films that suggests there ought to be a law against sequels. Taken by themselves, this and its immediate predecessor are no worse than many ambitious but vague science fiction action movies, but they have the misfortune to follow up Paul Verhoeven's original, a crackerjack mix of politics, humour, violence and action. In a cartoonish devolution of the surprisingly sophisticated comic book politics of the first film, the Evil American Corporation has been taken over by an Evil Japanese Corporation, and mercenaries led by yet another well-spoken Brit (John Castle) are massacring the homeless in downtown Detroit for nefarious purposes.

The script busily introduces a host of new characters, from feisty terrorists to creepy corporate types, then, as an afterthought, squeezes in RoboCop himself, killing off his usual partner (Allen) early on in favour of bimbo scientist Jill Hennessy and "cute" computer whizz Remy Ryan. Director Dekker, who did good work on Night Of The Creeps and the underrated Monster Squad, doesn't quite get the Robo idea: he holds back on the violence to get a 15 rating and misinterprets Verhoeven's satire by having all the supporting cast overact like geeks in a sitcom.

Held up due to Orion's financial problems, this effects spectacular has aged badly in the years since its production, and a few CGI moments hardly compensate for a silly and not-very-well-executed finale in which RoboCop sprouts a flying pack and zooms through the air. With Weller gone, Burke, of Hal Hartley and Dust Devil fame, steps into the suit, and while he's as skilled as Weller in acting with only his mouth, he's clearly a lot less comfortable with the hardware.

• Top 100 Comic Book News Sites: Bleeding Fool Ranks #7

John Landis Films Ranked: #12: ‘The Kentucky Fried Movie’ (1977)

Transformers make a nostalgic return to premium trading cards, superprod animation & red monk studio announce cg ‘underdog’ series.

• Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs Arrested & Denied Bail for Sex Trafficking

Bleeding Fool

Comic book news, film reviews and geek-culture as well as the farce, folly, and fiascoes surrounding it all!

RoboCop Franchise Films Ranked: #4 ‘RoboCop 3’ (1993)

Very typical of franchises that started in the 80s,  RoboCop  began with a violent, gory, smart, witty, and exciting opening entry and quickly descended into nonsense aimed for children. Studio executives drove the franchise into the ground as fast as possible while chasing merchandizing potential from a demo that had no disposable income.

It was then rebooted in the 2010s because Hollywood needed a recognizable property to fill a release date, and they gave the reins to a promising indie director that they then boxed into a corner and wouldn’t let him make the movie they hired him to make.

If you want a microcosm of what’s been wrong with Hollywood since the 80s, I can’t think of a better example than the  RoboCop  franchise. No surprises in the definitive ranking below. And do check out the rest of the  definitive rankings  to bask in their definitiveness.

The third entry in the  RoboCop  franchise is a great example of what was going wrong with a lot of franchises in the 90s. Toned down to appeal more to kids while only retaining the barest amount of talent from the original films no matter how unimportant to the actual story, Fred Dekker’s  RoboCop 3  is the Saturday morning cartoon version of a hard R-rated satirical action movie. Where the second movie went wrong by trying to be too much and satisfying nothing altogether, the third firmly sets its sights on the most dumbed down version of the same idea.

Poor Nancy Allen. Her character of Anne Lewis was never a huge part of the first movie. She was a supporting character with no real life of her own, and the second movie had little idea of what to do with her. The third kills her off in a  Death Wish  attempt to give our titular hero some motivation, literally any motivation, that the audience can latch onto. In reality, he has a couple of different reasons why he decides to back the homeless people of Old Detroit against OCP’s new relocation forces headed by Paul McDaggett (John Castle), but it all feels like weak justification to keep RoboCop involved, especially since he disappears from the film for large swaths of time.

OCP has been purchased by a Japanese conglomerate. Why? So we can get a Japanese robotic samurai, Otomo (Bruce Locke), to fight RoboCop in the finale. Does it make any sense? Not really. Does it affect anything? Nope. Is it at least cool to watch? Not at all.

Anyway, I’m getting ahead of myself. The efforts to build Delta City are about to go into overdrive, and OCP needs the residents out. They’re pushing everyone out with the relocation forces, and the brilliant eight year old hacker (oh, dear Lord in heaven…) Nikko (Remy Ryan) gets separated from her parents and ends up with Bertha Washington (CCH Pounder) and her terrorist crew that are trying to do…something about OCP’s efforts. It’s really unclear what their end goal is, though they do mention holding out for three days when OCP won’t be able to do anything anymore because…I don’t know. They, along with Nikko, break into a police armory complete with Nikko, ugh, hacking an ED-209 and making it, ugh, loyal as a puppy (I don’t think this part was in Frank Miller’s original script). With these weapons (and not the ED-209 which would be great to have, you know?) they flee.

Then, Officer Lewis gets called to give chase, crashing and being attacked by splatterpunks, Mad Max inspired gang members in Old Detroit (why are people trying to save this place?). Who are the splatterpunks? Doesn’t matter. Do they matter? No. Are they eventually good for one of the movie’s few good jokes? Surprisingly, yes! We have that to look forward to, a throwaway moment an hour later that made me giggle. Does this scene matter? Well, it gets the OCP executive Jeffrey Fleck (Bradley Whitford) to yell at Dr. Marie Lazarus (Jill Hennessy) about killing RoboCop’s emotions because he gave up chase of the homeless van to save his partner (the emotional connection between RoboCop and Murphy was never that strong). She, of course, doesn’t follow through, and…it doesn’t matter all that much. Are we sensing a pattern yet?

Now, the movie’s hard edges have been sanded far down, but there is one sequence that does have a hint of the original’s satirical joy. After RoboCop decides to protect the homeless and Officer Lewis gets shot dead, news runs rampant that OCP’s mechanical police officer has gone rogue, and OCP’s offices have descended into chaos. One executive, with his wife on the phone, walks out onto the ledge of his office dozens of floors up, and jumps out. The timing of the editing between his jump and his fall to the left side of frame as another car pulls up in front of the building is hilarious. And, moments later, Fleck gets fired after having showed off his gun, saying that he’d go out with a bullet to the head if it ever came to that. He walks out of the office, and again, the timing is perfect as we keep with the scene he leaves behind, eventually hearing the single gunshot.

That’s almost the extent of the joys of the film, though. RoboCop ends up sidelined for pretty much the rest of the movie until halfway through the action finale as nothing of any real importance happens around him. Otomo eventually tracks him down, but Otomo and RoboCop don’t have any kind of connection, so it’s just empty spectacle. It’d be one thing if the fight between the two was well filmed, but it’s pedestrian at best. The police all quit the force in protest of OCP’s plan to wipe out Old Detroit, and they set up barricades to fight. The removal teams decide to bring in the splatterpunks as extra guns (why? It doesn’t matter), and we get the one moment where a punk with huge green spikes for hair, in the background of a tracking shot, tries to fit on a tactical helmet without messing up his hair. What can I say? After 90 minutes of almost universal drudgery, I laughed.

Is this movie remotely good? Not in the least? Is it a fun time anyway? No. Does it have brief moments of levity? Yes. Are those worth the investment of time? Not at all. The film is mostly kind of boring, though it’s perfectly competently made. The script is a disaster. Whatever ideas Frank Miller had wanted to put into this were gone by the time this came to theaters. It’s just bad.

Rating: 1/4

Originally published here .

More Trending Stories:

David Vining

Related posts.

Inside Out 2 Rewritten “Less Gay” After Lightyear’s Box-Office Disaster

John Landis Films Ranked: #13 ‘Blues Brothers 2000’ (1998)

Just keeping the lights on.

Den of Geek

10 remarkable things about RoboCop 3

RoboCop 3 marked the temporary end of the franchise. We attempt to find some interesting things to say about this critically panned film…

• Share on Facebook (opens in a new tab)
• Share on Twitter (opens in a new tab)
• Share on Linkedin (opens in a new tab)
• Share on email (opens in a new tab)

If you think the notion of rebooting RoboCop is sacrilegious, you probably haven’t seen RoboCop 3. Released in 1993 – six years after Paul Verhoeven’s classic original, and three years after Irvin Kershner’s headache-inducing second film –  RoboCop 3 saw the franchise head down an ill-advised PG-13 route. 

Critically panned and ignored at the box office, RoboCop 3 effectively killed the series, leaving it in a dormant state for almost 20 years. As is often the case with franchise-strangling sequels – see also Jaws: The Revenge and Superman IV: The Quest For Peace – RoboCop 3 has acquired a weird sort of legendary status, in that it’s often talked about but seldom viewed. 

With this in mind, we’ve girded our loins, knocked back a few gins, and put our RoboCop 3 DVD in the player. It may be a difficult film to love but, as this list hopes to point out, that doesn’t mean there aren’t a few noteworthy things to say about this oft-maligned sequel…

Some familiar faces return

For at least a couple of minutes, RoboCop 3 doesn’t seem all that bad. Once again, Omni Consumer Products (or OCP to its friends) is bent on levelling Old Detroit, and wants to build a shiny new Delta City in its place. A glossy, 50s-style commercial sells us the corporate dream, before reality cuts in – OCP’s using a new force called the Urban Rehabilitators to chase the poor residents of Cadillac Heights out of their homes.

Ad – content continues below

As this grey-suited army move in, we’re introduced to Nikko (Remy Ryan), who’s one of those preteen computer geniuses that always used to turn up in 80s and 90s movies. If that horrible little child murderer in RoboCop 2 (Hob, played by Gabriel Damon) was inspired by 90s star Macaulay Culkin, Nikko appears to be modelled on the precocious kid out of Curly Sue. At any rate, when Nikko’s parents are killed by OCP’s forces, Nikko’s taken in by a group of resistance fighters who aim to stop the corporation from demolishing Cadillac Heights, and briefly become her surrogate family. 

While all this is going on, director Fred Dekker ( Night Of The Creeps, The Monster Squad ) introduces a few familiar faces to reassure us that yes, we are watching a RoboCop movie. First, comedian Bixby “I’d buy that for a dollar!” Snyder appears on a TV screen to wheel out his old catchphrase, along with Media Break news anchor Casey Wong. Then Felton Perry shows up as Donald Johnson, one of the corporate types who’s been haunting the boardrooms of OCP since 1987. He’s now Vice President, and spends much of the film standing around and not blinking.

Then there’s Robert DoQui, who returns as the heroically noisy Sgt Warren Reed, a senior law enforcer who’s never met a situation he can’t yell his way out of. Finally, we have Nancy Allen, who’s back as Anne Lewis – RoboCop’s loyal partner and frantic chewer of bubblegum. There’s even a cameo appearance for ED-209, the mighty yet faintly comic attack robot introduced in the first film. Briefly seen guarding OCP headquarters, ED’s reprogrammed by Nikko, turning him into a friendly droid that is “As loyal as a puppy”.  

These familiar faces are a reassuring sight, since one character is peculiarly absent for the first 15 or 20 minutes of the film: Robo himself.

RoboCop has a strange mouth

To the rousing march of Basil Poledouris’ music, RoboCop finally makes his grand entrance during a shoot-out between Anne Lewis and a drug-crazed gang. Before Robo even gets out of his car, it’s clear that this isn’t the same figure of law enforcement we’re familiar with.

First, he wastes time by driving up to the roof of a car park and then zooming off the top of it. Crashing to the ground, wrecking his car and presumably damaging himself in the process, Robo then proceeds to shoot at everything except the bad guys. Because RoboCop 3 is now a family movie, our hero no longer shoots directly at criminals; he shoots around them, A-Team style, and then either arrests them or let them run off screaming into the night. 

It’s also immediately noticeable that actor Robert John Burke isn’t as good at pretending to be a robot as Peter Weller, who vacated the Robo role to star in David Cronenberg’s Naked Lunch instead. Where Weller’s movements were staccato yet rhythmic and oddly natural, Burke sort of jerks into different positions, as though he’s been poked with a sharp stick or had his bottom pinched.

Get the best of Den of Geek delivered right to your inbox!

What’s even more distracting is that, for some reason, he over-enunciates every line he’s given. If you can imagine someone exaggerating their mouth movements to enable you to be able to read their lips more easily in a noisy situation, it’s rather like that.

Or maybe like watching a horse chewing a polo mint.

It has ninjas in it 

Possessed with the theory, perhaps, that all sequels can be made better by putting ninjas in them, RoboCop 3’ s writers have added in no fewer than three sword-wielding shinobi warriors. OCP’s currently undergoing a merger with a Japanese company called the Kanemitsu Corporation, and it’s logical enough that, just as OCP were creating robot cowboys, the Japanese company makes its own robot ninjas, which look exactly like actor Bruce Locke. 

To speed up the process of the Cadillac Heights takeover, three of these robot ninjas – called Otomos, which may be a nicely geeky reference to Akira creator Katsuhiro Otomo – are despatched for Detroit.

As daft as robot ninjas in a RoboCop movie sounds, it’s a pity that they’re so tentatively employed; not only are there just three of them, but they’re also woefully under-equipped. They don’t carry ninja stars, or those cool sickle-type things with a chain attached. They don’t even appear or disappear in flashes of smoke. If you ask us, that’s a terrible missed opportunity.

The villain is hilarious

What RoboCop 3 lacks in ninja weaponry, it makes up for in its villainy. The movie’s most evil person is Urban Rehab commander Paul McDaggett, played by the incomparably posh British actor John Castle. He’s so posh, he refuses to call RoboCop by his proper name, and instead refers to him as “the robot cop”, with a beautifully rolled ‘R’. 

In a moment of hand-rubbing villainy, McDaggett leads his army to a church where RoboCop, Lewis and a group of Cadillac Heights residents are holed up. When RoboCop refuses to surrender, McDaggett opens fire, killing Lewis in one of the movie’s few scenes of genuine “Aww, but I liked her” pathos.

Although you could never describe Castle’s performance as committed or even good (for much of the film, you can actually see the cheque being waved at him in the corner of the screen), he still inhabits the most entertaining character, and spits out some of his lines with gusto. In one great scene, McDaggett’s being driven away in a police van, with an angry RoboCop pursuing in a commandeered pimp’s car (complete with pink paintjob and sparkly lights around the windscreen).

Having shot at Robo’s car until the steering wheel’s practically the only thing left, McDaggett then makes good his escape in the most original way imaginable – he throws a fistful of dollar bills at a group of kids playing hockey in the street, which create a road block RoboCop’s programming won’t allow him to drive through.

Just to prove his villainy one final time, McDaggett even gets to shriek the politically incorrect line, “We’re dead you stupid slag!” 

We were unable to find out whether this line was penned by Frank Miller or co-writer Fred Dekker.

Everyone shouts

Like such infamous films as Battlefield Earth and Jaws: The Revenge, the actors in RoboCop 3 all perform as though their families have been taken hostage. There’s much shouting and eye-rolling, and it’s one of those films where the child actor plays the only character who doesn’t appear to be dangerously unstable.

Rip Torn rants and raves sweatily as the new president of OCP. Stephen Root, a hard-working actor you may recognise from such films as Office Space, O Brother, Where Art Thou or Dodgeball , slices his ham thickly as a resistance fighter who’s secretly in league with McDaggett. Bradley Whitford (recently seen in The Cabin In The Woods ) plays a particularly slimy OCP executive who gets to snarl the Mel Gibson-esque line, “You make him predictable, or you look for a new job, sweet cheeks.”

Although the original RoboCop was a black satire, something RoboCop 2 attempted to replicate with less success, RoboCop 3 is pure pantomime. Where the violence has been toned down to a distracting degree, the acting is extraordinarily excessive. Even poor old ED-209 over-emotes, with his cameo concluding with the robotic cry of “Eat lead, suckers!” 

RoboCop doesn’t do very much

No longer allowed to gun down bad guys like the earlier, 18-rated movies, RoboCop’s essentially reduced to either being nice to people or getting knocked over. Shortly after the grand entrance mentioned earlier, he simply stands in front of a pair of evil punks and waits while they dowse him with petrol and set alight to it. He then spends the next few scenes covered in soot, like Wile-E-Coyote after an Acme bomb’s just gone off in his face.

Even in RoboCop’s first encounter with a robot ninja, in which he’s holding a gun and the ninja’s brandishing a sword, he finds himself hopelessly outclassed. In a sequence remarkably like a famous one in Monty Python And The Holy Grail, Robo’s knocked over and has several of his limbs hacked off one by one.

Having been disabled for the umpteenth time, Robo spends a good section of the film lying on a bed while he’s repaired by the implausibly named Dr Marie Lazarus (Jill Hennessy). This affords him the time to give Nikko a gentle pat on the head, ruminate about the meaning of life and death (“If you remember them, they’re never really gone…”), and replay a few flashback sequences from the first film.

Latest Movie reviews

Super/man review: christopher reeve documentary makes you believe he really could fly, the substance review: the horror movie you need to see this spooky season, speak no evil review: great european horror goes hollywood in new blumhouse.

Like us, he’s probably reminiscing about the good old days, when Verhoeven was still calling the shots. 

The teen scientist out of Frankenhooker’s in it

We promised we’d think of 10 remarkable things to say about RoboCop 3 , and admittedly, we’re already running out. But here’s an interesting fact: the star of Frank Henenlotter’s cult horror classic, Frankenhooker , turns up in a brief cameo. Possibly wearing the same haircut he had as mad scientist Jeffrey Franken in that film, James Lorinz plays a rather rude young man whose car is totalled by Anne Lewis. 

“I traded in an SUX for this!” Lorinz yells, alluding to the SUX 6000 advertised in the original RoboCop . After foolishly calling Lewis a “Dumb broad”, he’s shot in the chest by a gang member and dies. (If there’s one recurring gag in RoboCop 3 , it’s that any man who utters a sexist slur of any kind is killed before the end credits.)

Well, we thought it was an interesting fact. Moving on…

It has a sewer scene

We have a pet theory that, sooner or later, all movie sequels end up in a sewer. We even wrote an article about this last year . And just as Alien Vs Predator: Requiem saw the continually worsening franchise head into a subterranean drainage system, so RoboCop 3 sees Robo head into a sewer for the first time. 

When a film series is running out of ideas to explore, it seems that sewage networks are a handy fallback option for screenwriters everywhere. RoboCop 3 may lack the satire, brutal action, clever ad breaks (one brief commercial for Johnny Rehab action figures aside) or quotable lines of the first film, but it does have a scene in which Robo uses his heat-sensitive vision to stare at a pack of rats. Beat that, Ed Neumeier. 

The food’s reasonably priced

Just $5.95 for New York strip steak with garden salad, baked potato and a buttered roll? Say what you will about the violence in future Detroit, that’s unbeatable value.

RoboCop Rises 

The moment we first set eyes on a gigantic jet pack sitting in the corner of an OCP armoury at the beginning of the movie, our hearts sank. And when freedom fighter Bertha (CCH Pounder, later of The Shield fame) said, “Let’s take it! It might be worth something,” our hearts sank a little further.

When, just before the start of the third act, Dr Lazarus stumbles on the same gigantic jet pack and enthuses, “Ooh, it’s a prototype for RoboCop’s flight suit. We never got a chance to test it”, we had to fight back our tears of indignation. Yes, RoboCop 3 sees Robo take to the skies for the first time, and after nearly 90 minutes of being shot, dismembered and kicked around, the metal hero starts buzzing around Detroit aerospace.

By this point, shouty Sgt Reed and his loyal cops have turned against OCP, and have joined in the fight against McDaggett’s Urban Rehab forces. With war raging in the streets, RoboCop soars overhead, and finally finds the marksmanship mojo that eluded him for much of the film. In a dervish of terrible special effects, a tank and several extras are blown up, and Robo flies off to OCP for a final confrontation with McDaggett and his cyborg ninjas. 

If Orion Pictures and MGM were hoping to sell a few RoboCop toys with this third film (and the appearance of actual Robo toys early in the film, plus the inclusion of then-popular ninjas, implies that they were), then their plans backfired. But while RoboCop’s jet pack marks the moment where the franchise officially flew over the shark, it does appear to have inspired Matthew Vaughn and Jane Goldman’s comic book movie, Kick-Ass. RoboCop 3’ s conclusion, which sees Robo shoot his way into the top floor of OCP headquarters, bears a remarkable resemblance to the ending of Kick-Ass – though ironically, Kick Ass ’ ending is far more violent. 

The ninja robots are tricked into decapitating each other, which in turn sets off their “Thermonuclear” self-destruct systems. With McDaggett incapacitated and screaming politically-incorrect abuse, Robo scoops up Nikko and Dr Lazarus and flies to safety, OCP exploding like the Death Star in his wake.

That explosion marked the tragic death of the franchise. But like Robo himself, the series has been brought back from the grave, and next year sees the release of the rebooted RoboCop . We’d be stunned if the new film can equal the brilliance of the 1987 original, but we can at least hope that it’ll be better than RoboCop 3.

As movies such as The Dark Knight have proved, you can get away with quite a lot of violence in a PG-13 movie these days, so that at least gives the Robo reboot the edge over the disappointingly tame 1993 sequel.

The first glimpses of the new RoboCop’s suit may have split opinion, but we can take comfort in the fact that it doesn’t appear to have any jet engines sticking out of it, and RoboCop doesn’t appear to be saddled with a precocious kid sidekick this time around, either. At least, not yet…

Follow our  Twitter feed for faster news and bad jokes right here . And be our  Facebook chum here .

Ryan Lambie

BADass SINema Unearthed - Blu-ray 4K UHD Review

Robocop 3: collector's edition (1993) - blu-ray review.

{jatabs type="content" position="top" height="auto" skipAnim="true" mouseType="click" animType="animFade"}

[tab title="Movie Review"]

Peter Weller wasn’t ever going to do RoboCop 3 .  That’s a fact.  There was a twisted little movie called Naked Lunch that he was going to do instead.  But that didn’t prevent him from meeting with RoboCop 3 ’s hired director, cult filmmaker Fred Dekker ( Night of the Creeps , The Monster Squad ) and discussing the project with him.  That’s respect, right there; respect for the character, the business, and the audience.

The sad thing is that – in spite of this amicable split for the actor from the franchise – far too many people didn’t accept a new actor in the role of RoboCop, which is really fucking weird when you consider how many DIFFERENT actors have played Batman, Superman, and James Bond.  We can accept changes there, but not a change in a robot whose only human feature we usually only see is the bottom half his face?  Sometimes we really suck as audiences.

And, yes, that’s one of the reasons why RoboCop 3 is maligned.  No one saw it out of protest for the change in actors.  I’m pretty sure even some of the critics phoned in their reviews of the movie at the time of its release.  It simply isn't as godawful as it is made to sound; it just has a different lens through which RoboCop is seen.  If you’ve ever seen ANY of Dekker’s other movies, you know he maneuvers his way around genre flicks with the greatest care; he's a solid maker of enjoyable genre films.  Filling his movies with gore and humor, and – yes – kids, he’s always on point.  Which is why he got the gig on RoboCop 3 in the first place.

Orion wanted to tap into the PG-13 market.  They recognized that the majority of RoboCop’s fans were now kids thanks to edited versions of RoboCop being aired on television.

If you can’t handle those changes, then stop reading because you’re not going to like anything else I have to say about the movie.  RoboCop 3 is obviously the weakest one of the three when it comes to bloodshed, but – surprise, surprise – it’s also the most fun, celebrating itself and its franchise as the b-movie it always was.  Yes, ALWAYS.

As written by Dekker and Frank Miller, the idea for Delta City is not dead.  And the poor will once again pay the ultimate price by Omni Corp, who are determined to see Detroit in rubble.  This time city militants called the Urban Rehabilitators are doing the dirty work of the corporation.  Led by Paul McDaggett (John Castle), they invade low-rent areas of Detroit and move the poor people elsewhere, generally pushing and kicking them along the way.  Violence and criminal activity, as a result, is steadily on the rise.

Preteen computer whiz, Nikko (Remy Ryan), finds herself separated from her parents and, as the crowds are intense and whipped up into a frenzy thanks to the brutal techniques of the Rehabs, winds up in the care of freedom fighters Bertha (CCH Pounder) and Coontz (Stephen Root), all of whom Robocop winds up joining in the fight against his makers and their new brand of terror, the Otomo units.

It’s a wild FAMILY adventure that has RoboCop (played by Robert John Burke) siding with a rebel force that wants Detroit to belong to the people and not the corporations.  RoboCop shoots.  And, yes, he even flies.  He saves Anne Lewis (Nancy Allen) at the beginning, but is unable to later on.  And so she dies.  We knew she would.  Allen knew she would before she met with the director.  She was ready.

Unfortunately, no one else was ready to see a muted RoboCop.  Nevermind the fact that its cast – which includes Bradly Whitfield, Rip Torn, Jill Hennessy, Robert DoQui, and Daniel von Bargen – were quite talented and ready to rock it in the b-movie.  Audiences just shrugged.  The director says we should blame him.  No.  He’s wrong.  WE are the idiots.   RoboCop 3 might not be the best thing in the world, but it's a matinee genre romp through and through.  Climb down from the high horse, please. 

Scream Factory presents RoboCop 3 on 1080p in a brand new collector’s edition which features a ton of brand new special features.  It’s time to get with the third installment of this action series or, as Ed-209 says, “Eat lead, suckers.”

[tab title="Details"]

MPAA Rating: PG-13 for violence. Runtime: 104 mins Director : Fred Dekker Writer: Frank Miller and Fred Dekker Cast: Nancy Allen, Robert John Burke, Mario Machado Genre : Action | Sci-fi Tagline: Back on line, Back on duty. Memorable Movie Quote: "What's it like being a rocket scientist?" Theatrical Distributor: Orion Pictures Official Site: Release Date: November 5, 1993 DVD/Blu-ray Release Date: March 21, 2017 Synopsis : Robocop saves the day once more. This time the half man/half robot takes on ruthless developers who want to evict some people on "their" land.

[tab title="Blu-ray Review"]

Blu-ray Details:

RoboCop 3: Collector's Edition

Home Video Distributor: Shout Factory Available on Blu-ray - March 21, 2017 Screen Formats: 1.85:1 Subtitles : English SDH Audio: English: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1; English: DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 Discs: Blu-ray Disc; Single disc Region Encoding: Locked to Region A

RoboCop 3 is presented by Scream Factory with a detailed 1080p/AVC MPEG-4 encode. With a 1.85:1 ratio and a an excellent DTS-HD MA soundtrack, in either 5.1 surround sound or 2.0 stereo, the blistering griminess of the busted city at the heart of this movie is still present. Talk about an enhancement. The print has been cleaned up to preserve the grain structure and enhance the colors – which pop with dynamics – and the shadows as they are now seen with more purpose instead of murky corners. Thick lines engage the vision with crispness previously unseen in any version. Shot in Atlanta around buildings that were to be blown and scrapped to make way for the Olympics, the transfer presents the city with a nice fluidity of neon and cyberpunk intent.

Supplements:

Commentary :

There are two NEW commentaries included with this release.  The first is AWESOME as cult filmmaker Fred Dekker talks about the making of the movie and how it was his best experience behind the camera.  The other commentary features Gary Smart, Chris Griffiths And Eastwood Allen, the Makers Of "RoboDoc: The Creation Of RoboCop" Documentary and is very informative.

Special Features:

Loaded with tons of NEW supplemental materials, the collector’s edition of RoboCop 3 will please genre fans.  The NEW interviews feature Fred Dekker, Actors Nancy Allen, Bruce Locke, Producer Patrick Crowley, Cinematographer Gary Kibbe And Production Designer Hilda Stark.  Also interviewed are FX coordinators Peter Kuran, Phil Tippett, Craig Hayes, Kevin Kutchaver And Paul Gentry.  Actor Felton Perry gets time in front of the camera.  In another, Bruce Locke And Martial Arts Trainer Bill Ryusaki, get to talk about Otomo.  All in all, this is a damn good celebration of the final movie in the original series.

• Delta City Shuffle: The Making Of ROBOCOP 3
• Robo-Vision: The FX Of ROBOCOP 3
• The Corporate Ladder
• Training Otomo
• War Machine
• Theatrical Trailer
• Still Gallery

[tab title="Trailer"]

New in Theaters/VOD

New on Home Video

• RoboCop: Two-Disc Limited Edition (1987) - Blu-ray Review
• Poltergeist III: Collector’s Edition (1988) - Blu-ray Review
• Safe - Blu-ray Review

Movie Trailers

• Trailer Watch - APARTMENT 7A (2024)
• Trailer Watch - Megalopolis (2024)
• Trailer Watch - OUT COME THE WOLVES (2024)
• Trailer Watch - CHARLIE TANGO
• Trailer Watch - SLINGSHOT (2024)

Movie Reviews

Morbidly Hollywood

• Colorado Street Suicide Bridge
• Death of a Princess - The Story of Grace Kelly's Fatal Car Crash
• Joaquin Phoenix 911 Call - River Phoenix - Viper Room
• Screen Legend Elizabeth Taylor Dies at 79
• Suicide and the Hollywood Sign - The Girl Who Jumped from the Hollywood Sign
• The Amityville Horror House
• The Black Dahlia Murder - The Death of Elizabeth Short
• The Death of Actress Jane Russell
• The Death of Brandon Lee
• The Death of Chris Farley
• The Death of Dominique Dunne
• The Death of George Reeves - the Original Superman