We watch several movies a week. Every Friday, we'll talk a little about some of the movies we watched that we felt were Worth Mentioning.
ROBOCOP 2 (1990)
Orion Pictures had a big hit on their hands when they sent the sci-fi action classic RoboCop out into the world on July 17, 1987, and they wanted to replicate that success as quickly as possible. So quickly, in fact, that they hired RoboCop writers Edward Neumeier and Michael Miner to write a script for the sequel – and gave them the warning that there would be a financial penalty if they didn’t turn the script in by December 31, 1987. Neumeier and Miner slapped together a rough draft and turned it in on January 1, 1988... but the script wasn’t even close to what Orion was hoping for, and Neumeier and Miner couldn’t work on rewrites because the Writers Guild went on strike in March. So Orion turned to a writer who wasn’t in the Guild: celebrated comic book writer Frank Miller. Over a series of drafts, Miller gave them something they could work with... although his initial drafts were closer to what ended up being RoboCop 3 than what became RoboCop 2. Walon Green, who received an Oscar nomination for his work on the classic Western The Wild Bunch, helped shape Miller’s script into what RoboCop 2 ended up being, with Miller continuing to work on the script throughout production. RoboCop director Paul Verhoeven wasn’t available, so The River’s Edge director Tim Hunter was given the job... and when Hunter dropped out over creative issues just eleven weeks before filming was scheduled to begin, The Empire Strikes Back and Never Say Never Again director Irvin Kershner was brought in to do the job. Not a bad choice, since Kershner had experience working on high profile films that required a lot of special effects, as RoboCop 2 would.
Fifteen months after RoboCop was released, cameras were rolling on RoboCop 2, which was on its way to a June 22, 1990 release. It was a rushed project that had a bumpy ride on its way to the screen... and it wasn’t received as well as its predecessor was, earning less money at the box office on a higher budget. And while I welcomed the movie with open arms when I was a kid and enjoyed every bit of it, in retrospect, rewatching it as an adult, I can see why some other RoboCop fans were put off by this follow-up. The first RoboCop is a rather perfect movie. Fresh, clever, with a cool character at its core and some great action and violence. RoboCop 2, on the other hand, is packed with imperfections. The story feels scattered, the result of too many people adding too many ideas and not knowing exactly how to make them all fit. The first movie had a great sense of humor, but the sequel has moments that are quite goofy, yet mixes them with scenes and concepts that are extremely dark. The tone fluctuates.
What still works perfectly in this sequel is the performance of Peter Weller in the role of RoboCop. He started out as Detroit police officer named Alex Murphy, but when Murphy was killed in the line of duty, his head was preserved and used for the creation of the cyborg RoboCop by Omni Consumer Products, a corporation that is funding and running the Detroit police force. OCP is planning to build Delta City, “the city of the future,” where Old Detroit currently stands... and while RoboCop told us that their purpose in creating the title character was to eliminate crime in Old Detroit so the workers building Delta City will be safe when construction begins, RoboCop 2 walks that back. They have now cut the officers’ salaries and eliminated their pensions so they’ll go on strike and allow crime to run rampant throughout the city. RoboCop is one of the few officers still doing their job. The idea is that they’re going to make sure Detroit becomes a bankrupted hellhole so they can swoop in and take control and get Delta City rolling. The plan is working well, especially since there’s a highly addictive drug called Nuke on the streets – and this drug is so popular, there’s even a “Nuke cult” headed up by cold-blooded former hippie Cain (Tom Noonan).
Meanwhile, OCP is also trying to create a sequel of their own, developing a “RoboCop 2.” But it’s not working out. These cyborgs, again built around the corpses of fallen officers, just go nuts and kill themselves. Dr. Juliette Faxx (Belinda Bauer) is tasked with figuring out how to make a RoboCop 2 work. And when the original RoboCop gets destroyed by Cain and his lackeys, she also gets to tinker with him, adding hundreds of additional directives to his core three (Serve the Public Trust, Protect the Innocent, and Uphold the Law), putting him off his game for a while in a humorous way.
One of Cain’s lackeys is a 13-year-old boy called Hob (played by Gabriel Damon), and the fact that there was a foul-mouthed, gun-wielding child in this movie is one aspect that didn’t go over well with a lot of viewers. Even when I was a kid myself, I found the presence of Hob in the movie to be disturbing. Especially since he ends up being killed in a dramatic moment.
One of the most effective dramatic elements in the first movie was the fact that RoboCop still had some memories of Murphy’s life and would have flashbacks to times Murphy spent with his wife and son. That carries over into RoboCop 2 – but only very briefly. We see that RoboCop has been hanging around the Murphy house, catching glimpses of Murphy’s family, which gets him in trouble with OCP’s legal department. But RoboCop 2 quickly closes the book on all of that with a scene where Murphy’s widow Ellen (Angie Bolling) visits RoboCop at the police precinct – and even though we know he’s not telling the truth, he tells her, “I don’t know you.” And that’s it for Murphy’s past. This is something the movie really could have dug into more, especially since Ellen tries to connect with Robo (“Alex, it doesn’t matter what they’ve done to you.”), but they just ditch it after one exchange and leave it like Robo was bullied by OCP into setting his former family aside.
What RoboCop 2 is really interested in is setting up a climactic battle between RoboCop and the RoboCop 2 cyborg that has been made out of Cain, who is killed during a police raid on his base of operations. Dr. Faxx believes that criminals are better candidates than police officers for the new RoboCop because they want the power and virtual immortality – and that Cain is the best choice of all, because she’ll be able to control him as long as she keeps him supplied with hits of Nuke. It doesn’t quite work out that way, allowing for a smash-up Robo vs. Robo action sequence that certainly satisfied me when I was a kid. Weller complained to Orion throughout production that the script wasn’t complete, it didn’t have a proper third act – and the studio said it didn’t matter because there was a “Monster” (which is how everyone referred to the RoboCop 2 cyborg). They were right to some degree, that “Monster” fight is cool enough that it makes it easier to disregard some of the movie’s issues, but the film does still end up feel like it’s lacking something.
RoboCop 2 is an entertaining movie, but it’s not on the level of its predecessor. It could have been better if it had a more cohesive story and a more consistent tone. But it’s fun, and I enjoyed watching it again and again throughout my childhood.
SNIPER: G.R.I.T. - GLOBAL RESPONSE & INTELLIGENCE TEAM (2023)
Claudio Fäh directed Sniper: Reloaded, then came back to direct Sniper: Ultimate Kill six years later. Don Michael Paul directed Sniper: Legacy and Sniper: Ghost Shooter back-to-back. Although Sniper: Rogue Mission was the most poorly received entry in the franchise to date, director Oliver Thompson was brought back to direct the follow-up Sniper: G.R.I.T. - Global Response & Intelligence Team, which was set up at the end of Rogue Mission... and this allowed him to complete an “Oliver Thompson trilogy” that began when he wrote the screenplay for Sniper: Assassin’s End, which was directed by Kaare Andrews. And with this, Thompson became the first person to write three Sniper movies. (John Fasano had written two; Sniper: Reloaded and Sniper: Legacy.)
CIA agent Gabriel “The Colonel” Stone (Dennis Haysbert), returning from Sniper: Legacy, Sniper: Ghost Shooter, and Sniper: Rogue Mission, has started his own team called G.R.I.T., and is working with our former Marine (and briefly CIA agent) sniper hero Brandon Beckett (Chad Michael Collins), Zeke “Zero” Rosenberg, formerly of Homeland Security (Ryan Robbins, returning from Assassin’s End and Rogue Mission), a techie named Reggie (Tarik Badwan), and assassin Lady Death – who was played by Sayaka Akimoto in Assassin’s End and Rogue Mission, but is now played by Luna Fujimoto – neutralize threats around the globe.
The opening minutes establish Paul Kissaun as cult leader Bubalo, who hosts meetings with his lackeys in a way that is very reminiscent of Blofeld from the early James Bond movies and has managed to become a person of influence in the Maltese government. Lady Death was sent to take him down, but she was wounded and captured, so Brandon and Zero are sent to finish the job and save their associate. They manage to do this very quickly. Bubalo is not as much of a presence in this movie as the early scenes will lead you to expect him to be. But even with Bubalo taken out the picture, Brandon, Zero, and Lady Death have plenty of trouble to deal with as they make their way through Malta. Things get so complicated, The Colonel even has to seek the help of orange pop-loving techie Intelligence Pete (Josh Brener) from Rogue Mission.
Speaking of the previous movie, that one was a disappointment because it felt like low-key filler. There wasn’t much going on, the locations were bland, the bad guys were nobodies. G.R.I.T. retains the sense of humor that Thompson brought to Rogue Mission, but makes up for the lackluster previous installment and gets the series back on track, with more interesting action sequences taking place in visually intriguing locations.
Even though Lady Death is played by a different actress this time around and it’s a shame that Akimoto stepped away before making this one since it digs into her character more than the others did, Fujimoto did a fine job taking over the role. She holds her own in a big climactic fight scene, and it’s fun to watch her share the screen with Collins and Robbins. These actors and characters have good chemistry with each other, making G.R.I.T. an entertaining watch as they work together to survive their time in Malta.
After watching Rogue Mission, I was worried, but Thompson redeemed himself with G.R.I.T. and added to the list of Sniper movies I have had a good time watching.
JESSE STONE: STONE COLD (2005)
Author Robert B. Parker is best known for the 40 novels he wrote about a private detective named Spenser, a character who was played by Robert Urich in the ‘80s TV series Spenser: For Hire and by Mark Wahlberg in the 2020 movie Spenser Confidential. But Parker didn’t just write Spenser novels, and among his other works were a series of books that followed a cop with a drinking problem, Jesse Stone. And Jesse Stone has also been brought to the screen for several adaptations, where he was played by Tom Selleck.
The first Jesse Stone movie, Jessie Stone: Stone Cold, made its debut on CBS back in 2005. In this one, directed by Robert Harmon from a script by John Fasano and Michael Brandman, we learn that Stone used to live in Los Angeles – but when his wife Jenn (who still calls him regularly) divorced him and he was fired from the homicide department of the LAPD, he made his way across the country to take a job as the Chief of Police in the small town of Paradise, Massachusetts. Nothing much happens in Paradise and the local police department is only inhabited by a few other characters: Viola Davis as dispatcher Molly, Kohl Sudduth as a deputy Stone refers to as “Suit,” and Vito Rezza as Anthony D'Angelo. Usually, the officers only have to deal with handing out parking tickets. But, of course, there’s more going on in Stone Cold. That’s why we’re getting a peek into these characters’ lives.
For one thing, teenager Candace Pennington (Alexis Dziena) was assaulted by a trio of her classmates, which include a football playing golden boy. For another, people are turning up dead around town with two .22 bullet wounds in their bodies. Although there are interesting moments during the rape investigation, including a great scene where Candace’s dad holds his own in a fight against one of her daughter’s attackers and the kid’s father while Stone watches and approves, I have to say that whole storyline wraps up in a rather underwhelming and disappointing way.
More satisfying is the murder investigation, which leads Stone to an odd married couple played by Reg Rogers and Jane Adams, who have a habit of going around town and filming everything with their camcorder. When people connected to Stone start being killed off, the murder investigation brings some nice thriller elements into the mix.
Stone Cold is a surprisingly low-key movie that spawned a surprisingly low-key franchise of Jesse Stone flicks. Although not everything pays off in ways viewers might hope they will, it’s a good movie that centers on an intriguing character who is played very well by Selleck. If you like TV shows and TV movies that follow interesting cop characters and deliver some thrilling moments, Stone Cold is worth a look.
This was an adaptation of the fourth Jesse Stone novel that Robert B. Parker and is quite faithful to the source material. In fact, many scenes use the dialogue straight out of the book. Some characters are switched around, some things are more complicated (and the resolution of one storyline is less satisfying) in the book, but the biggest difference between page and screen may be that Selleck is a couple of decades older than the book Jesse. Regardless of age, he still inhabits the character well.
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