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If you want a hard R movie look for the recent red band trailer for Sabotage starring a whole slew of people, with Arnold Schwarzenegger in the lead. I'd post it here, but it is incredibly NSFW.

You can make a good throw back to the 80's action films without sacrificing, Rambo for instance. It amped the blood and gore to insane levels. Only 3 people die in First Blood, In Rambo the count is around 180 most of which is very graphic.

The difference is that with Rambo they weren't willing to pull any punches and didn't try and aim for a younger audience for the toy buy ins. Kinda sad to see Robocop get dulled down, even by todays standards it was edgy and violent as hell, that's what made it so great. Softening it to a PG-13 even with the more lax modern ratings standards means it's going to be so much weaker compared to the original.

I just pray they don't ever decide to remake the Terminator as kid friendly, because if they do I'll be stabbing somebody.

 sebster wrote:

 Monster Rain wrote:
Well yeah, with all the drones flying about it's really not all that far fetched a concept.

Yeah, that's the (admittedly very late) realisation that shifted me from the 'Robocop remake is pointless' camp to the 'well actually given the way the world has changed since the first film there is actually some interesting things for a new Robocop to comment on' camp.

But from what I can tell that potential is basically squandered.

They could also have used the premise as a way to tell a story about people like Tammy Duckworth - something less "Corporations are evil" and more "This is what some veterans of Iraq and Afganistan are going through."

One thing I noticed in the trailer is that his right hand is intact but the left appears to be cyborg. His right hand was the first to go in the original, so maybe it's an intentional thought?

 paulson games wrote:
You can make a good throw back to the 80's action films without sacrificing, Rambo for instance. It amped the blood and gore to insane levels. Only 3 people die in First Blood, In Rambo the count is around 180 most of which is very graphic.

The difference is that with Rambo they weren't willing to pull any punches and didn't try and aim for a younger audience for the toy buy ins. Kinda sad to see Robocop get dulled down, even by todays standards it was edgy and violent as hell, that's what made it so great. Softening it to a PG-13 even with the more lax modern ratings standards means it's going to be so much weaker compared to the original.

I just pray they don't ever decide to remake the Terminator as kid friendly, because if they do I'll be stabbing somebody.

Very true. I, for one am tired of seeing all of these kiddy friendly remakes. just because little Timmy wants to watch it, dosnt mean he can.

And Terminator is safe-they already ruined it.

 KingCracker wrote:

 Breotan wrote:
I was pleasantly surprise by the Total Recall remake so I'll check this out with an open mind. Still, having him keep the arm does seem really silly.

You're kidding right? The total recall remake was total ass. The only thing it had going for it was it was really pretty to look at.

A lot of people don't like it, but I did. Listening to people talk about it, it seems that most of the hatred comes from people who really liked the first one and couldn't let go of it. Sort of like the way there are some people who really hate the remake of Galactica.

Or it could be because the new movie really isn't that good (which has little to do with how much enjoyment you can take from it). And the remake of Galactica was bad. Started out strong, but turned the gak fast (difference here is that the first Galactica wasn't that great to begin with).

 Ahtman wrote:
If you want a hard R movie look for the recent red band trailer for Sabotage starring a whole slew of people, with Arnold Schwarzenegger in the lead. I'd post it here, but it is incredibly NSFW.

I thought about spoilering it, but even then i still think that might be a bit much for Dakka OT.

Not that it's particularly much worse than anything I've ever seen, just maybe not Dakka friendly.

It looks like a watchable film, not loving the look though seems very made for TV/Cheap.

 AlexHolker wrote:
They could also have used the premise as a way to tell a story about people like Tammy Duckworth - something less "Corporations are evil" and more "This is what some veterans of Iraq and Afganistan are going through."

That's maybe a step too far from the original premise, I think? Robocop without the dystopia is the Six Million Dollar Man. I could see a remake of the Six Million Dollar Man being used to explore the challenges of wounded vets. As long as it also contained lots of scenes of jumping really high and landing on cars driven by international jewel thieves.

 sebster wrote:

 AlexHolker wrote:
They could also have used the premise as a way to tell a story about people like Tammy Duckworth - something less "Corporations are evil" and more "This is what some veterans of Iraq and Afganistan are going through."

That's maybe a step too far from the original premise, I think?

Maybe, but being too close was doomed to failure. If the reboot wasn't going to be better than the original, it could at least be different to the original, instead of being a poor imitation.

 AlexHolker wrote:
Maybe, but being too close was doomed to failure. If the reboot wasn't going to be better than the original, it could at least be different to the original, instead of being a poor imitation.

I don't think the problem with the remake is that it's too close to the original, not by a long shot. And if something had to be changed, I really don't think removing the dystopia is what needs to go.

 Breotan wrote:

 KingCracker wrote:

 Breotan wrote:
I was pleasantly surprise by the Total Recall remake so I'll check this out with an open mind. Still, having him keep the arm does seem really silly.

You're kidding right? The total recall remake was total ass. The only thing it had going for it was it was really pretty to look at.

A lot of people don't like it, but I did. Listening to people talk about it, it seems that most of the hatred comes from people who really liked the first one and couldn't let go of it. Sort of like the way there are some people who really hate the remake of Galactica.

Galactica started out strong but sadly splintered and fell apart at the end... wasent supposed to be so punny later seasons

 sebster wrote:

 AlexHolker wrote:
Maybe, but being too close was doomed to failure. If the reboot wasn't going to be better than the original, it could at least be different to the original, instead of being a poor imitation.

I don't think the problem with the remake is that it's too close to the original, not by a long shot.

Not taken in isolation, no. But given the lack of will to do a straight reboot done right, they could have made a different movie where that lack of will wasn't such a crippling weakness.

Robocop was the first ever ’18 certificate’ (the British equivalent to an R rating) film I ever saw. That’s a rite of passage for any young lad and as a result Robocop has always had a special place in my heart.

I knew the remake would suck, especially after that god awful Total Recall debacle. Remakes should always be approached with caution unless they are being done for the right reasons. The days of truly interesting remakes that updated older tales for newer times such as The Fly, The Thing or Invasion of the Body Snatchers are long gone. Can anyone remember the last remake that didn’t suck?

 LuciusAR wrote:
Can anyone remember the last remake that didn’t suck?

I thought Death Race was pretty good. That's from 2008.

Death Race has a leg up in that the original was kind of suck to begin with

I liked the original...

I'm only going to see it if I get dragged along, it doesn't look too great IMO.

I won't bother. I'm honestly so tired of all the remakes. Every movie that comes out anymore is just a remake of another remake. I've lost track on how many batmans or spidermans were on. Give me something new.

Wasn't Looper an "R" rated action film? Also Dredd was pretty violent and gory too (although it was not a box office success).

Yeah, but it doesn't hit the level of blood spatter from Robocop.

I think that the last Rambo was the last movie I saw that really had that "This was not made for children" feel. Plus it was pretty damn good.

Although the guys that made District 9 and Elysium have mastered the "disintegrating human" weapon effect.

 Ahtman wrote:
If you want a hard R movie look for the recent red band trailer for Sabotage starring a whole slew of people, with Arnold Schwarzenegger in the lead. I'd post it here, but it is incredibly NSFW.

Wow that looks kind of incredible.


Going back to the topic: Robocop has a 55% on Rotten Tomatoes. That sounds kind of promising, actually, in my opinion. I thought it would be aggressively terrible, not merely bad.

Saw it yesterday, without any expectations whatsoever.

That kind of made it worse because it starts out really well. It was actually clever and thoughtful for the first hour or so, but it was like Man of Steel. Halfway through, the producers ring the fight bell and all the slow and subtle build up goes out the window to make way for the action, which is okay in some places but falls into the same trap with most other modern action films; all style, no substance. The plot's a bit all over the place too.

At least Samuel L. Jackson is having fun as the Bill O'Reilly of the future.

I went to see this yesterday and was pleasantly surprised. It was a perfectly passable action flick and despite the moans over the lack of satire compared to the original there is allot of political stuff in there. The whole plot revolves around the ethic of drone warfare debate.

Also I’m surprised this is a 12A, there may well be little blood but there is still plenty of violence and there is a bit when we get to see what remains of Murphy and it’s certainly not for the queasy. 20 years ago this would probably have received an 18 certificate or at the very least a 15.

Went and saw it knowing it would be no where near as good. Mainly as it was billed sutible for 12 year olds not 18, like the original. The finger print thing was a, realy!!!, type of moment, but on the whole I think they pulled of a good shootem up film. This was proably down to key actors, cast in it but hey, I enjoyed it.

The remake of recall was crap.

It had absolutely NONE of the mindfethery that PKD was famous for - and as bad as the Verhoeven version was, it at least paid some attention to that.

They dumped the entire MARS plot. Kinda important to the original story.

The "fall" was dead-goat-fellating bad. Not just the science of it, the execution of it.

About the only thing it had going for it were some nice fx shots and Kate B kicking arse. Not enough to warrant a rewatching though.

 paulson games wrote:
You can make a good throw back to the 80's action films without sacrificing, Rambo for instance. It amped the blood and gore to insane levels. Only 3 people die in First Blood, In Rambo the count is around 180 most of which is very graphic.

The difference is that with Rambo they weren't willing to pull any punches and didn't try and aim for a younger audience for the toy buy ins. Kinda sad to see Robocop get dulled down, even by todays standards it was edgy and violent as hell, that's what made it so great. Softening it to a PG-13 even with the more lax modern ratings standards means it's going to be so much weaker compared to the original.

I just pray they don't ever decide to remake the Terminator as kid friendly, because if they do I'll be stabbing somebody.

Uhmmmmmmmmm what? You realize that every terminator movie since T2 has had a toy line yes?

 KingCracker wrote:

 paulson games wrote:
You can make a good throw back to the 80's action films without sacrificing, Rambo for instance. It amped the blood and gore to insane levels. Only 3 people die in First Blood, In Rambo the count is around 180 most of which is very graphic.

The difference is that with Rambo they weren't willing to pull any punches and didn't try and aim for a younger audience for the toy buy ins. Kinda sad to see Robocop get dulled down, even by todays standards it was edgy and violent as hell, that's what made it so great. Softening it to a PG-13 even with the more lax modern ratings standards means it's going to be so much weaker compared to the original.

I just pray they don't ever decide to remake the Terminator as kid friendly, because if they do I'll be stabbing somebody.

Uhmmmmmmmmm what? You realize that every terminator movie since T2 has had a toy line yes?

This. The original Robocop had toys associated with it too.

That's what made the 80's so cool - movies were filmed for adults but then marketed to children.

Saw it tonight.

Waaaaay better than I expected. I actually liked it a lot (though the end felt a little rushed). I'd give it a thumbs up.

 chromedog wrote:
The remake of recall was crap.

It had absolutely NONE of the mindfethery that PKD was famous for - and as bad as the Verhoeven version was, it at least paid some attention to that.

They dumped the entire MARS plot. Kinda important to the original story.

I'm not sure Mars really matters, to be honest. It's a key setting detail, but in terms of plot or concept you can really replace Mars with any other faraway setting. And honestly, the idea of Earth being just England and the Colony was silly enough to be a fun set up.

It's also not really one of the better Phillip K Dick stories, so I don't know if there's much value in putting that story on a pedastal.

What the original film did, though, was satirise the crazy action films that we were otherwise accepting uncritically. Is all the ridiculous violence and mayhem we're seeing the dream of a man entering psychosis, or is it 'really' happening, just like we're asked to believe in any other action movie of the period that we sit through? Which says a lot about the insane action movies we love so much.

The new film failed, I think, because outside of the 'is it a dream thing' it was basically just a fairly boring action movie. It asks the same question, but lacking the visceral violence of the original movie, the answer is 'who cares?'

About the only thing it had going for it were some nice fx shots and Kate B kicking arse.

I would say not so much as Beckinsale kicking ass, but just her ass in general. Through each of those incredibly long chase scenes, pretty much the only thing that kept me watching was that they kept showing her running about in tight pants. Other than that the film was terrible.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 NuggzTheNinja wrote:
This. The original Robocop had toys associated with it too.

That's what made the 80's so cool - movies were filmed for adults but then marketed to children.

Yep. Absolutely juvenile and adults only at the same time

 sebster wrote:
What the original film did, though, was satirise the crazy action films that we were otherwise accepting uncritically. Is all the ridiculous violence and mayhem we're seeing the dream of a man entering psychosis, or is it 'really' happening, just like we're asked to believe in any other action movie of the period that we sit through? Which says a lot about the insane action movies we love so much.

There was an interesting post I read over on TV Tropes that said the same thing about Predator, and it makes sense. When you look at it Predator is an action hero in that movie. A one man/alien army with a personal arsenal of weapons that he uses to take out mooks with little to no effort, the mooks in this case being the more typical American macho action heros of films like Rambo and Commando who are sudden leveled down to typical goons in their own film as Predator starts picking them off.

Personally, I never liked Total Recall much. I found the film kind of boring. Some stuff happens, then some more stuff, then he's on Mars. It felt very like going through the motions, but maybe that's the point?