Arrow Video RoboCop UHD [Blu-ray] [Region Free]

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The reproduction, modification, distribution, or republication of the content without permission is strictly prohibited. It’s hard to think that it’s been 35 years since the future of law enforcement blasted onto Cineworld cinema screens, but to celebrate the 35th anniversary of the sometimes black-humoured movie from director Paul Verhoeven, RoboCop (1987) came back to the big screeing with a 4K director’s cut to celebrate the movie’s release. OCP is also in bed with street criminals, particularly the vicious Clarence (Kurtwood Smith), whom they play against the cops in a bid to wipe everyone out so as to realize a new gentrification project.

You can read my review of that earlier edition to get my thoughts on the film, which are largely unchanged from three years ago. Gunshots are familiarly dated, but pleasantly maintain that futuristic feel, from Robocop's own burst-firing pistol to ED-209's cannons - and even if there's no thunderous LFE input to really weigh in, this is the way the film has always sounded, it simply cannot compete with modern action flicks. Robocop: Edited for Television (18:35, HD) – A compilation of alternate scenes from two edited-for-television versions, including outtakes that have been newly transferred in HD from recently-unearthed 35mm elements (some sound is recreated).Lest we miss the point, Clarence, a budding entrepreneur, even directly says that there’s no theft like free enterprise. That said, the nuance of the Oscar-nominated track remains evident throughout, from the whirring heel-gears of an upturned ED-209, to the satisfying schink of Robocop's fist-spike. There is a wealth of archive and new special features, including a very charming interview with Nancy Allen. The stop motion effects of ED-209 might put off some viewers who have grown up with predominantly CGI in their movies, but as someone who grew up loving everything that Ray Harryhausen was involved with, Phil Tippett’s work in this movie never fails to put a big smile on my face, and in my opinion makes ED-209 even more intimidating.

Much of this world-building is introduced via TV soundbites that relate atrocity with a glibness that represents virtually no satirical exaggeration of news programs. I suppose someday someone will compare and contrast the nature of film critiques between the almost-all-on-print era and the almost-all-on-film era, if they haven’t done so already.And the physical effects are stunning, holding up far better than CG from decades later, with ED-209 still menacing in person, the Robocop suit a true work of art, and the wonderful industrial setting of the film reminiscent of a more brutally real variation on Burton's Batman environments. Unfortunately, many critics and audiences weren’t as savvy to the joke this time and it took awhile for that film to be appreciated. That trends continues with Paul Verhoeven’s RoboCop, which was issued on two-disc Blu-ray in 2019 and now comes to 4K in an identical edition packaged in a nice SteelBook case.