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Paul Verhoeven's ultra-violent vision of future police enforcement gains added gore on the definitive DVD release of "RoboCop", part of a box-set trilogy release.
TECHNICAL FEATURES
Picture The image clarity on this highly impressive transfer is so good that the film often looks like it was made recently, but with careful 80s stylisation.
Sound A bass hungry 5.1 mix adds welcome oomph to the dynamic action scenes in the movie. The music score makes good use of the available speakers, and the rears bristle with effects every time we're inside Murphy's head.
SPECIAL FEATURES
Director's Cut You can choose to watch the original version of the movie or the 'director's cut' which has every last gore-splattered moment seamlessly branched in. When you see just how violent this version is, even those of you who don't pepper your vernacular with filthy profanities may suddenly find four letter expletives pouring from your gob.
Audio Commentary Director Paul Verhoeven sits in with producer Jon Davison and writer Ed Neumeier for an often entertaining and frank dissection of the movie. Rather disturbingly they take on "RoboCop"-styled voices as they discuss alternative casting choices like Arnie for lead role. As Davison points out, he'd have ended up looking like the Pillsbury Doughboy with all the suit armour on. Or presumably something close to his stupidly bulky Mr Freeze character in the execrable "Batman & Robin".
Flesh and Steel: Making of "RoboCop" Running at nearly 40 minutes, this is a fine new documentary that gets right into all the issues that making "RoboCop" presented. "I like violence. I like violence in movies", explains Verhoeven. Well no surprise there, but you may well be amazed to hear that he turned down the project along with every other half-decent director in Hollywood. "I thought that the script was extremely silly and stupid", explains Verhoeven. It wasn't until his wife pointed out that lots of limbs and body parts were exploding that Verhoeven took another look and decided to go with the project.
The technical issues thrown up by the making of this movie, including the stop motion technology used are, all well covered.
1987 Featurettes Two original release featurettes are on offer here under the titles of "Shooting RoboCop", and "Making RoboCop". Both are short and the second is easily the cheesier of the two, but there is plenty of behind-the-scenes footage here that you won't find elsewhere on the disc.
Deleted Scenes There are four scenes, including a naked girly pizza infomercial. It's classic Verhoeven stuff that we would later see him expand on in "Starship Troopers". There's also B roll and unfinished director's cut footage of gratuitous violence originally cut from the film.
Storyboard Comparisons Technical whizz (or should that be boffin?) Phil Tippett talks us through storyboard/finished result footage from the stop motion scenes, explaining how various effects were achieved.
Stills Galleries No less than six animated stills galleries for you to sit through, from conceptual drawings to assorted shots of Verhoeven looking mad.
Trailer Gallery Here you'll find two trailers for the first film plus a TV spot, and trailers for the two duff sequels. If the music for the first trailer sounds familiar, it's from "The Terminator", another film that Orion backed in the 80s before they went to the wall.
Region: 2
Chapters: 32
Ratio: 1.85:1 (anamorphic)
Sound: Dolby Digital 5.1
Extra Features: Scene selection, animated menus, multiple language subtitles, and English captions for the hearing impaired.
This DVD was reviewed on a JVC XV-S57 DVD player.
"RoboCop" is released as part of the "RoboCop" Trilogy DVD box-set. The "RoboCop 2" and "RoboCop 3" discs feature Dolby Digital (2.0) sound, and the trailers from the movies.
