RoboDoc: The Creation of RoboCop Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		4.5
Video		3.5
Audio		3.5
Extras		1.5
Overall		3.5

RoboDoc: The Creation of RoboCop Blu-ray Movie Review

"Your move, creep..."

Reviewed by Kenneth Brown November 29, 2023

Clanging discordant steel. Rising strings. Triumphant horns. A stirring flourish, and then... ba ba ba bum baaaah, bum ba baaa buuuum! Can you hear it? I can. Deep inside. The moment the word RoboCop is mentioned, that infectious Basil Poledouris theme roars in my mind. Such is the power of a movie that shouldn't exist. That was almost cast aside, nearly tossed into a pile of rejected, largely cheesy sci-fi stabs at greatness. And the title? My God, how did a film called RoboCop make it to the screen, much less earn the respect and thirty-five-plus year-long longevity it has? Without any context the title reads as B-movie as they come, and the story -- dead cop turned cyborg crime fighter -- could have gone wrong in oh so many ways. But it didn't. RoboCop defied the odds, silenced the critics and emerged as one of the preeminent action epics of the '80s, and with an iconic hero so striking and memorable, deviant villians so nasty and evil, and corporate satire so sharp and scathing that it has weathered the years and only gotten better. RoboDoc takes five riveting hours to tell the candid tale of the film's production. Never boring, never dry, it offers interviews, anecdotes and wild recollections aplenty, tracing RoboCop's path from inception to its place as a bonafide classic. If that sounds hyperbolic, give RoboCop another watch!

'RoboDoc' is a four part docu-series that takes a deep-dive into the making of the seminal 80’s sci-fi sensation, a film that pushed boundaries and inspired a whole generation of filmmakers. Directed by Eastwood Allen and Christopher Griffiths ('Pennywise: The Story of IT') and produced by Gary Smart ('Dark Ditties Presents'), the film includes brand new interviews with BAFTA-nominated 'RoboCop' director, Paul Verhoeven, along with a host of stars from the original trilogy including Peter Weller, Nancy Allen, Ray Wise, Kurtwood Smith, Ronny Cox and the late Miguel Ferrer. The series is also produced by Michael Perez ('Scream: The Inside Story', 'Hollywood Dreams and Nightmares: The Robert Englund Story'), Hank Starrs ('Elstree 1976'), John Cashin ('Gotham', 'The Kitchen'), Fuad Omar ('Kingdom Come', 'Bread'), Gary Collins, Ben KB Ng, Aleksandar Smiljanic and Sean Tiedeman.

How much do people love RoboCop? It turns out RoboDoc is actually a fan-funded project that began raising money over six years ago. But more than that, the four-episode series represents one of the most comprehensive behind-the-scenes film documentaries I've seen. No punches are pulled, no topics are off limits, disagreements are laid bare, and no weird comments are edited out to save face (and there are plenty of odd bits here and there, particularly from Weller, who ensures you'll never think of Oreos the same way again). So what could possibly fill five hours beyond morsels from the cast and crew? It's the ramshackle start to the production and the fight to preserve Verhoven's vision that gives the doc its meat, and it's the exploration of the many, many paths to failure that could have been taken that reveal just how narrow a road RoboCop walked to make it into theaters. It wasn't the creeps and low-life thugs of Delta City that threatened Officer Murphy, or even the lumbering, beautifully realized ED-209 in all his stair-wobbling overkill glory. (Every time I see ED, I could hug Phil Tippet and Craig Davies.)

No, it was everything from the budget to the at-times bickering cast, the nervous studio, the puzzled execs, the mom-n-pop morals of the MPAA, you name it... those are the antagonists that tried to stop Detroit's finest cyborg enforcer from fulfilling his cinematic destiny. More surprising and engaging? Sometimes hilarious? I can't state it enough: Weller is kind of a weirdo. It's not just his castmates throwing shade either. He makes himself look like quite the narcissist (with a pretty big hint of diva thrown in for good measure), which would be no fun if we were joining him for dinner, but realizing how he behaved behind the scenes gives a whole new level of entertainment to an already entertaining film. Add to that forthcoming, brutally honest discussions of Vehoven's directing style and occasional unapproachability, the tightrope of parody vs. satire, the challenge of bringing such vivid ultraviolence to the screen, balancing the design philosophies of the production team, battling through the various obstacles in bringing cyborg battle-bots to life, finding the best fx on a dime and composing music that lends legitimacy, fine-tuning the casting and performances, developing unforgettable villainy and heroism, on and on and on. If there's a subject to cover, you'll find RoboDoc hits on it. Best of all, it never feels like a fan-made or fan-funded documentary. This is the real stuff, and RoboCop junkies could not and likely will not ever do better than this. Enjoy. I certainly did.

Episodes include, "Destination Delta City" - "Who is he? What is he? Where does he come from?" Take a deep dive into the making of the sci-fi masterpiece. Hear the origins of how Orion Pictures assembled a magnificent cast & crew, who unbeknownst to them, have signed up for a turbulent and career-defining ride. "Verhoven's Mantra" - Notoriously demanding mad-genius director Paul Verhoeven pushes the envelope and many people’s buttons with the unprecedented shooting conditions. "Blood, Sweat and Steel" - he resilient cast and crew relive the golden era of hands-on, practical filmmaking in the 1980s. And "Murphy and the Machine" - A cinematic icon is unleashed to the world, creating an indelible legacy with lasting memories for those involved in its production.

Note: advertising and early press for the release suggested the documentary would have extensive coverage of 'RoboCop 2', 'RoboCop 3' and the 'RoboCop' series. This is not the case. The back of the Blu-ray cover also lists several special features that are not included on the actual disc. See the Supplements section below for more details.

RoboDoc: The Creation of RoboCop Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Bottom line, right at the top: RoboDoc's 1080p/AVC-encoded video presentation looks decent but not great. Film clips are mixed in liberally and feature adequate encoding, though compression is an obvious issue, with artifacts galore. Nothing too damning but just enough to judge its single disc overcrowded and not so beatuifully encoded. The interviews, meanwhile, which comprise the majority of the episodes, are crisp but inconsistent, with too much softness, green screen halos, and hit or miss contrast. They look good on the whole but those with larger screens will more readily notice the shortcomings. Archive behind-the-scenes footage is, of course, take it or leave it, often sourced from standard definition reels rife with the anomalies and issues you'd expect. Photographs and other still images fare better than anything else, and it helps that there are so many striking images (even if they're spruced up with screen effects and splashy graphics when it isn't entirely necessary). None of this is a detriment per se, though, as a documentary's encode can't really be penalized for the condition of the B-roll and BTS footage available, or a director's at-times heavy hand. All told, there's some disappointment to endure but, on the whole, fans will be too wrapped up in the delirium and fun of it all to mind too much.

RoboDoc: The Creation of RoboCop Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

RoboDoc's DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 surround track delivers a solid, fairly standard docu-series audio experience. Interviewees' voices are clean, clear and nicely centered, prioritization is spot on, and film clips keep things explosive and engaging (particularly when scenes involve shootouts, ED-209 bullet sprees and Robo's iconic hand-cannon). Low-end output is suitably hefty when called upon and the rear channels bolster the RoboCop footage and enliven the soundfield. Directionality is relatively precise, though not as much so as when watching the film itself on Blu- ray. Music punches through as well, giving fans the triumph and the blaring horns of the film's main theme from every channel. Again, there's no real disappointment to be had. Yet. Read on...

RoboDoc: The Creation of RoboCop Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

While the back cover of this single-disc release lists a variety of special features that were meant to be included across two Blu-ray discs, five mini- docs are missing: "Art of the Steel" (3 minutes), "Call to Action" (12 minutes), "Guns Guns Guns" (3 minutes), "Part Man Part Machine All Video Game" (8 minutes) and "Roboteam Assemble" (12 minutes). If consumers e-mail support@screambox.com, ScreamBox will reportedly supply a Vimeo link and password that will allow you to access and view the missing features. There are no current plans to send missing or replacement discs/cases to consumers. Links and passwords for the five missing supplements can also be found in our forum.

The Region B-locked UK release -- available for pre-order now and shipping on December 18th -- will reportedly be the intended 2-disc edition with all special features included on said discs. The following four bonus features, though, are present and accounted for on the US region-free disc:

• Meet the Makers (HD, 10 minutes) - Filmmakers and super-fans Christopher Griffiths and Eastwood Allen discuss their early encounters and growing love of RoboCop, the crowd-funded documentary's origins, assembling the interviews and meeting the cast and crew, mapping out the episodes and more.

• Robo Cast Quotes (HD, 2 minutes) - A quick reel of outtake comments from the cast. Skiiiip!

• Major Firepower: The Weapons of RoboCop (HD, 8 minutes) - Ultraviolence and weapon props.

• RoboDoc Trailer (HD, 1 minute) -

RoboDoc: The Creation of RoboCop Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

With all of its supplemental mish-mashing, is RoboDoc: The Creation of RoboCop worth the cost of admission? Yes, with some caveats. Even if the release was missing all of its special features, the five-hour main course is a delight. More bonus content would certainly be a plus, but the AV presentation is only slightly above average (not entirely surprising for a fan-funded production). Should these drawbacks cause anyone to turn their backs on an excellent four-episode series that digs into one of the '80s most iconic actioners? Heck no. This one, disc problems and all, comes highly recommended.