Robocop was filmed in an original ratio of 1.66:1, which is how the
Region 1 DVD is presented, but this release opts for a slightly-zoomed-in
1.85:1 ratio to emulate the theatrical ratio. This will lose a small amount
of top and bottom information but nothing to worry about.
What is more worrying is how scratched this print is, particularly early on.
It's only a 15-year-old film and I expected far better than this, even if it
is anamorphic. When there are no scratches present, there's still an underlying
and unexplained level of grain. At a number of times the print can look
perfectly fine, but why wasn't it given the remastering it so seriously needs?
Similarly, I level a question at the Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack. Some SFX
are exemplary, such as when Robocop's visor is screwed down at all four corners
early on. Such precision is used with the front and back stereo steering that
it makes me wonder if the sound mixer was on a tea break during many explosions
that sound flat, lifeless and monotonous.
Whatever the latter two discs may or may not have, the main one starts with
a documentary Flesh and Blood: The Making of Robocop", taking in chat
from principal crew members and what their influences were in the character's
creation. This is followed by two 1987 featurettes, Shooting Robocop
and Making Robocop, neither of which break with the usual tradition
of a featurette containing similar chat like you'd expect from "Flesh and
Blood", but filmed on-set, although the first one aims to start off like
a real Q&A with Robocop. Also contained in the above are plenty of clips from
the film.
5 deleted scenes are included such as a fake advert for Topless Pizza,
an OCP press conference, a nun being interviewed in the street, a final
Media Break announcement and more director's cut footage but as a work-in-progress
and in anamorphic 16:9 too. 4 movie trailers are included - 2 for the
first film and one each for the other two, as well as a TV commercial.
Still galleries show off the director, the design, ED-209, special effects
and behind-the-scenes work, all set to music from the film. Phil Tippett,
the visual effects supervisor takes you through Storyboard comparisons
over the awe-inspiring ED-209. Finally, comes a feature-length Audio
commentary with director Verhoeven, co-writer Edward Neumeier,
executive producer Jon Davison and Robocop expert Paul M. Sammon.
There are 32 chapters to the movie, dialogue comes in Dolby Digital 5.1 for
English and Spanish, while subtitles come in 12 languages: English (and hard
of hearing), Czech, Danish, Finnish, Greek, Hebrew, Hungarian, Norwegian,
Polish, Portuguese, Swedish and Turkish.
The main menus are mostly static but contain music and have screen-wipes
between them to fit in with the theme of the movie.
DVDs reviewed by the editor are watched on a Panasonic TXW32R4 32" widescreen TV
connected to either a Creative Dxr2 DVD-ROM player or Microsoft Xbox and
played through a Sony STR-DB930 amplifier.
PC games reviewed by the editor are on:
Since Nov 2005: Intel Pentium D 830 3.0Ghz, 1Gb RAM, 128Mb nVidia GeForce 6700XL, Windows XP
Since Aug 2003: Intel Pentium 4 2.66Ghz, 512Mb RAM, 128Mb GeForce4 MX440 graphics, Windows XP
Since May 2003: Intel Pentium 4 2.6Ghz, 512Mb RAM, 128Mb ATI Radeon 9600TX graphics, Windows XP
Since Jun 2002: Intel Pentium III 600Mhz, 384Mb RAM, Windows 98 SE, 64Mb ATI Radeon 8500LE
Since May 2000: Intel Pentium III 600Mhz, 384Mb RAM, Windows 98 SE, Voodoo 3 3000 AGP
In the DVD trilogy boxset, it's the first time that Robocop
has been available in its slightly-extended director's cut form with added
violence and gore. We only received this disc out of the trilogy for review,
hence the reason why those two films are not mentioned here although, as I
understand it, the extras on the latter two are severly lacking.
Robocop was filmed in an original ratio of 1.66:1, which is how the
Region 1 DVD is presented, but this release opts for a slightly-zoomed-in
1.85:1 ratio to emulate the theatrical ratio. This will lose a small amount
of top and bottom information but nothing to worry about.
