RoboCop 3 ** (1993, Nancy Allen, Robert John Burke, Mario Machado, Rip Torn) – Classic Movie Review 810

In director Fred Dekker’s 1993 second sequel film RoboCop 3, Robert Burke takes over from Peter Weller as the cyborg cop, who this time takes on ruthless developers who want to evict people on the land they’ve taken.

Robert Burke, Nancy Allen and Rip Torn star in the 1993 American science fiction action film RoboCop 3, directed by Fred Dekker, known for his cult horror films Night of the Creeps and The Monster Squad. Frank Miller again writes its story and screenplay (along with Dekker), based on the characters created by Edward Neumeier and Michael Miner. 

In director Fred Dekker’s 1993 second sequel film RoboCop 3, Robert [John] Burke takes over from Peter Weller as the cyborg cop, who this time takes on ruthless developers who want to evict people on the land they’ve taken.

Without original star Peter Weller or Dan O’Herlihy the Old Man, and with considerably less action violence than before, it seems much less exciting and was hugely less popular. But Burke makes a fair substitute as Robo, the story’s not bad, the action is good and the dark humour is quite witty.

Plus, Karen Allen is back again as Officer Anne Lewis, along with a handful of the original cast and Rip Torn heads a notable support cast as the unnamed CEO of the conglomerate Omni Consumer Products (OCP) who succeeds the Old Man. And of course it’s a must-see as the final part of the RoboCop trilogy, following RoboCop and RoboCop 2 and the events of those first two films.

The original RoboCop composer Basil Poledouris returns to compose the score and brings back many music themes from the first film.

It was shot over 14 weeks from February 4, 1991 to May 1991, primarily in Atlanta with shooting at Auburn Avenue, Georgia Avenue Church, Allied Cotton Mills, and Old Alabama Street. 

It flopped in North America, grossing only $10.6 million in the US and Canada. But elsewhere it did better, grossing $36.3 million, That brought the worldwide gross up to $47 million, against an estimated $22 million production budget.

Orion Pictures decided that ‘some of RoboCop’s biggest fans were children’ and cut down on the graphic violence that was a defining element of the first two films. But curtailing the graphic violence and dark humour of the first two films to be more family-friendly backfired on the studio, and the audience. And the fans wanted Peter Weller. It is like Speed 2 without Keanu Reeves.

Peter Weller did not return as RoboCop as he was starring in Naked Lunch.

Weller’s departure from the role was made public in September 1990. The film’s principal photography was scheduled to begin on December 3, 1990, but postponed until February 4, 1991. Shooting on Naked Lunch started on 21 January 1991 in Toronto. Surely one or other film, or both, could have juggled their schedules.

Burke didn’t so much step into Weller’s shoes as his suit. Burke’s RoboCop suit was built for Weller in RoboCop 2. No wonder he often complained that wearing it was painful.

Miller hoped some of his ideas cut from RoboCop 2 would be used in RoboCop 3. Major themes of the RoboCop 3 plot were taken from Miller’s original rejected draft of RoboCop 2. But he found his work was even more drastically altered in the third film.

Miller recalled: ‘I learned the same lesson. Don’t be the writer. The director’s got the power. The screenplay is a fire hydrant, and there’s a row of dogs around the block waiting for it.’

Running time: 104 minutes.

RoboCop 3 was to have been released in mid 1992. The problem for RoboCop 3 was that Orion Pictures went bankrupt and was bought out. It eventually premiered on April 18, 1993 in Japan, where it grossed more than $10 million.

The film was finally released in the US on 5 November 1993 after opening at the Charleston International Film Festival the night before.

Pirated VHS copies of the film were being sold in New York City from mid 1993. The film’s tie-in video game was released before the film, spoiling the film’s plot for the fans.

There followed 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.

Nancy Allen, Robert DoQui (as Sergeant Warren Reed), Felton Perry (as OCP Vice President Donald Johnson), Mario Machado (as news anchor Casey Wong) and Angie Bolling (as Murphy’s wife) are the only actors to appear in all three original RoboCop movies.

The cast

The cast are Robert Burke as Officer Alex Murphy/RoboCop, Nancy Allen as Officer Anne Lewis,  Jill Hennessy as Dr Marie Lazarus, Remy Ryan as Nikko Halloran, Rip Torn as the unnamed CEO of OCP, John Castle as Paul McDaggett, Bruce Locke as Ōtomo, Mako as Kanemitsu, Felton Perry as Donald Johnson, Robert DoQui as Sergeant Warren Reed, Bradley Whitford as Jeffrey Fleck, CCH Pounder as Bertha, Daniel von Bargen as Moreno, Stanley Anderson as Zack, Stephen Root as Coontz, Mario Machado as Casey Wong, and Eva LaRue as Debbie Dix, Jodi Long as Keiko Halloran, John Posey as David Halloran, Shane Black as Donnelly, S D Nemeth as Bixby Snyder, Jeff Garlin as donut jerk, Lee Arenberg as a hold-up man, Angie Bolling as Murphy’s wife.

© Derek Winnert 2014 Classic Movie Review 810

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