Stometer Save your money for something good and enjoyable

Senteur As somebody who had not heard any of this before, it became a curious phenomenon to sit and watch a film and slowly have the realities begin to click into place.

Kaydan Christian A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

Francene Odetta It's simply great fun, a winsome film and an occasionally over-the-top luxury fantasy that never flags.

xamtaro Three movies, a live action TV series and two cartoons later, ROBOCOP returns with a made-for-TV miniseries "ROBOCOP: PRIME DIRECTIVES". This miniseries consisted of four movies which attempted to bring back the gritty and darker tone of the first movie, as well as some social satire. For all intents and purposes, what we have is an ambitious project limited by lack of budget and inexperience of the creative team.Our story begins 10 years after the first movie (ignoring the continuity of the other movies and TV series). Robocop is obsolete and weary of his years trying to bring peace to the crime ridden Delta City. The megacorporation OCP, who runs the city, is experiencing inner turmoil among the management. Due to new policies preventing use of lethal force by the police, a crime wave is sweeping the city. From Kamikaze gangs to a psycho in Halloween armour armed with machine guns and rockets, this town is going to hell. Fortunately, they have a new kick ass police commander JohnCable; a dual pistol wielding ol fashioned cowboy cop. Oh, and Robocop, the supposedly invincible enforcer of law who spends the entire miniseries getting owned.Every character goes on about how awesome Robocop is, every criminal mentions his name in fear, you never see that. What you get is Robocop being blasted, kicked down, smashed, electrocuted and pummeled in every other combat scene. He only manages to take down people who refuse to take cover in a firefight.This brings me the portrayal of Robocop himself played by Page Fletcher. Fletcher is a fine actor, able to convey heavy emotions with his voice and mannerism. He is not, however, I anyway suited to the role. For starters, he is short. As in really short. And the bulky oversized armour only makes him look shorter. Everyone including the old female scientist is taller than him. His Robocop is a stumbling dwarf, always marching with his fists balled up. On the flip side, with his helmet off, Robocop looks like an old man and even acts like one. Nothing is done to make him machine-like. He very visibly pants when tired, swallows hard when scared, he even sweats.So a crappy Robocop headlines 4 made-for-TV movie length episodes of the miniseries. On the bright side, what the 4 episodes do is attempt to remake and redo some very classic elements from Robocop media history. You have a new more advanced Robocop, something Robocop 2 should have been about. You have a advanced Artificial Intelligence meant to automate the entire city, like th pilot episode of the 90s TV series. Lastly, you have a tale of a machine regaining his humanity. Throughout this story is the tale of James Murphy, son of Alex Murphy, who is now a young executive caught up in the turmoil in OCP. James must come to terms with the discovery of his father's identity as Robocop as father slowly reunites with son.The overall story is good for its drama. The actors are spot on in their portrayals and it is generally well written with many of the themes inherent in the original films. Of particular note is the hammy Kaydick and the absolutely obnoxious Damien. A huge plus is the miniseries return to R-Rated violence rather than the kid friendly style of fighting in the TV series and Robocop 3.Sadly the execution is less than sub-par. Director Julian Grant brings a lazy hand to the directing and seems to have this obsession with skip-frame slo mo (the kind of jerky slo mo you get when shooting something at half the usual Frames Per Second). The overall low budget look to the production is heightened by dated special effects, unremarkable camera-work and crappy costumes. The New cyber terrorist villains have the fashion sense of the Matrix characters, all tight, black and trench coats. They have cartoony electrical powers and can move at super speed with a basic blur effect. The low budget is most obvious in the Robopcop suits. During action scenes, they come apart at the seams letting you clearly see the black leotard underneath.With this, Prime Directives sounded the death knell of the classic Robocop franchise. Perhaps in this new century of movies with fast kicking kung fu combat, high tech special effects and tighter narratives, the concept of classic Robocop as a walking tank is in itself obsolete. With this sad closure to a once remarkably original franchise, perhaps the new reboot in 2014 would be a much welcome revival of the concept.

JoeB131 Blame Canada! Essentially, this is 8 hours of recycling. There's really nothing new here we didn't see in the previous three movies. OCP is evil, Robo is somehow decent, or maybe he's just a robot.Did we really need more of this? Oh, yeah, and then we have all the fun "pun" names. Like Ann R. Key and Lexx Icon. Why not include characters named "Jim Shoo" while you are at it? It seems the bit of dialog and plot are only interludes to hang the shootout scenes on. Lots and lots of shootout scenes, I lost track after a certain point of who was being shot for what, exactly.The plot is that an aging RoboCop is considered a has-been in OCP's new Delta city, lots of corporate maneuvering by evil executives that could never actually exist outside a parody. There were a few actors who didn't phone it in...

thebigeasy555 I have never claimed to be a fan of the robocop series and after watching this,I would please ask that he be killed off once and for all.To say this film is absolutely terrible dosen't even come close.The wooden acting by everyone,the inconceivable storyline.As soon as you finish watching this you ask yourself "WHY?".Being tortured for 90 minutes would be much more pleasurable.I only watched it entirely in the hope it might possibly get better or resemble something that wasn't total excrement.I made a huge mistake thinking that.The character of John Cable is without a doubt the worst I've ever encountered in any film.Robocop and James Murphy are credible in comparison-now that's saying something.For the sake of your sanity avoid this woeful creation at all costs

Ironman-7 I found this in a clearance bin at a video store. I bought it and gave it a watch. While its not nearly as good as the Original, it has its merits. It actually has a plausable plot, not anything like Robo 2 and 3. It has its violent moments, and many flashbacks. It changes a little of the history, but its close enough for my tastes. I eagerly await the next installment, which will hopefully come soon!!!