RoboCop 2 **** (1990, Peter Weller, Nancy Allen, Dan O’Herlihy, Belinda Bauer, Tom Noonan, Gabriel Damon, John Glover) – Classic Movie Review 809

Irvin Kershner’s underrated, bigger budget 1990 first sequel film RoboCop 2 stars Peter Weller, Nancy Allen, Dan O’Herlihy, Belinda Bauer, Tom Noonan, and Gabriel Damon.

Director Irvin Kershner’s underrated 1990 first sequel RoboCop 2 stars Peter Weller, Nancy Allen, Dan O’Herlihy, Belinda Bauer, Tom Noonan, and Gabriel Damon. The American science-fiction action film is written by Frank Miller and Walon Green, based on the story by Frank Miller and the characters created by Edward Neumeier and Michael Miner. 

After his big 1987 hit RoboCop, Peter Weller is back again for RoboCop 2 in 1990 as Alex Murphy, the half-man, half machine cop in the snazzy metal suit, with his tough partner, macho lady cop Officer Anne Lewis (Karen Allen).

They are on a mission to battle the evil Old Man (Dan O’Herlihy), president of the conglomerate Omni Consumer Products (OCP), who this time assigns beautiful scientist Dr Juliette Faxx (Belinda Bauer) to destroy Murphy’s RoboCop and develop the mechanical monster RoboCop 2.

RoboCop has to deal with robber gangs who take to the streets while he also tries to root out the makers of an addictive new narcotic known as Nuke which has invaded Detroit led by religious-mad leader Cain (Tom Noonan). Faxx plans to use Cain for her RoboCop 2 as a god on earth.

RoboCop 2/Cain’s metal body has the symbol for nuclear radiation attached to the chest. Cain has produced and distributed the designer drug Nuke and as a cyborg he is dependent on it.

Director Irvin Kershner’s underrated 1990 first sequel has a much bigger budget than the original film, costing nearly or more than twice as much at $25 million–$30 million. It was less popular at the box-office, taking $45.7 million, perhaps harmed by lukewarm reviews, but it is welcome again as dark satire mixes with brutal violence and a complicated plot and involving characters new and old.

Weller’s Robo remains a mesmerising class act, Allen is an appealing humanising presence, and Dan O’Herlihy, Belinda Bauer as Faxx and Tom Noonan as Cain are a fine trio of villains. You cannot fault the performances or the technical skill that has gone into the movie. Phil Tippett’s stop motion special effects are again impressive and Rob Bottin and Peter Kuran’s Special Effects work is also notable.

The direction by Kershner, the maker of The Empire Strikes Back and Never Say Never Again, is highly slick and professional and he keeps the movie tense, dynamic and atmospheric. There was, however, much adverse criticism, indeed some outrage, over using child actor Gabriel Damon as the juvenile criminal, gun-wielding, kid drug-dealer Hob.

Frank Miller (Sin City, 300), who wrote the story and co-wrote the screenplay (with Walon Green), has a walkon as Frank the Chemist. Patricia Charbonneau appears uncredited as laboratory technician Linda Garcia.

After this, Peter Weller called it a day in the movies with RoboCop, perhaps because of its relative failure, and when it was revived again, they made it noticeably less violent in response to widespread criticism of this one. But Weller returned in the fighting games Mortal Kombat 11 (2019) and RoboCop: Rogue City (2023). The first-person shooter game RoboCop: Rogue City features an original storyline based on the RoboCop films, with Peter Weller back as the title character. 

Dan O’Herlihy appeared in RoboCop as The Old Man in 1987 and in 1990 appears in RoboCop 2 his final film, 

It is the last film directed by Irvin Kershner before his death on  November 27, 2010, aged 87.

By comparison, the 1987 original earned $53.4 million against a budget of $13.7 million. The sequel cost nearly or more than twice as much at $25 million–$30 million, taking $45.7 million at the US box-office. Nevertheless, RoboCop 2 kicked back a moderate box-office return for Orion Pictures, much helped by the additional $22,505,000 from video rentals.

Release date: June 22, 1990.

Running time: 117 minutes.

RoboCop continues to fascinate over the years. There was another sequel (RoboCop 3 with Robert Burke in 1993), then a TV series with Richard Eden in 1994-95 and a miniseries of four films with Page Fletcher in 2000 before the spectacular remake RoboCop in 2014 with Joel Kinnaman, reviving the franchise.

A video game called RoboCop: Rogue City, set between RoboCop 2 and RoboCop 3, with Peter Weller reprising his role, was released in 2023.

Frank Miller returned to write the comic-book sequel RoboCop Versus the Terminator in 1992 and Steven Grant adapted Miller’s original screenplays for RoboCop 2 and RoboCop 3 into the comics Frank Miller’s RoboCop from 2003 to 2006 and 2013 to 2014.

Daniel Peter O’Herlihy (1 May 1919 – 17 February 2005)

Irish actor Dan O’Herlihy died of natural causes in Malibu, California, in 2005, aged 85.

© Derek Winnert 2014 Classic Movie Review 809

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