ROBOCOP 2

* * ½

STARRING: Peter Weller, Nancy Allen, Dan O'Herlihy, Belinda Bauer, Tom Noonan, Galyn Gorg

1990, 118 Minutes, Directed by: Irvin Kershner

Description: Sequel to Robocop. What plot there is deals with the corporation that runs the cops and its two-pronged attempt to squeeze every dime out of the populace and the city: create a new drug crisis (with an incredibly addictive synthetic drug the corporation manufactures, spread by a charismatic drug lord) and then attack with a bigger robot, one that eliminates Robocop at the same time. — Amazon.com

More comic book than before: undoubtedly having comic book writer Frank (Dark Knight Returns, Daredevil) Miller helps. Unfortunately having Irving Kershner (who directed the excellent Empire Strikes Back) doesn't. Kershner is no Verhoeven and the movie lacks the wildness of its predecessor.

The plot has to do with a bunch of drug smugglers led by a fourteen-year-old kid and a giant robot (alike to the one featured in the first movie) inhabited by a mad baddy. The plot is incidental and merely and an excuse for some spectacular action pieces. Verhoeven's hilarious ultra-violence that made the first movie great is simply missing.

Followed by a much worse Robocop 3 in 1993. Then there's also the TV series and several TV movies.
 

• Read an extended review of Robocop 2.