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, Kaleidoscope Entertainment.

Reviewed by Randy Miller III December 7, 2023

After a brief delay, Cinedigm & Walmart's exclusive Steelbook edition of RoboDoc finally saw the light of day recently. It's a fairly standard upgrade as far as variants go, with terrific design elements that are especially appropriate to the subject matter. But disc contents are identical to Cinedigm's wide-release version, a somewhat mismanaged release that compressed roughly five hours of HD onto a single Blu-ray... and even sadly dumped a few extras promised in the press release (and packaging!). Then, of course, there's the notion of buying an exhaustive documentary about Paul Verhoeven's anti-capitalist sci-fi classic at a friggin' Wal-Mart, which just feels kinda wrong on principle.

One thing that can't be complained about is the main feature: RoboDoc is a thorough, enjoyable, and engaging look at RoboCop with lots of great first-hand info from its cast, crew, and other notables. For a full synopsis and appreciation of this crowd-funded documentary, please see Kenneth Brown's review of the wide-release Blu-ray linked above.

As Ken also mentioned, a 2-Disc Special Edition Blu-ray will be released by Kaleidoscope Entertainment on 12/18. Though potentially Region B locked (UPDATE - nope, it's region-free!), it will likely be the definitive HD version with the main feature getting more room to breathe and those missing bonus features reinstated.

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

For details about this Blu-ray's 1080p transfer, please see Kenneth Brown's review of the wide-release version.

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

Likewise, the DTS-HD 5.1 Master Audio mix is details in Ken's review of the wide-release version.

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

This one-disc release (sigh... so close) ships in standard Steelbook packaging, mostly-matte finish with a few metallic highlights on Robo's armor and the logo/tagline. The back cover depicts Robo sans helmet and, annoyingly, a stubborn UPC sticker covers the top-right corner. Meanwhile, the interior features a more abstract "futuristic" design with small pictures of Peter Weller, Nancy Allen, and Paul Verhoeven above the film credits. It's a decent design as far as these things go, and the Steelbook format is a perfect match.... but oddly enough, there's no information about the actual disc contents anywhere. Might have something to do with the delay... maybe they just removed it altogether.

For details about the on-disc extras, once again Ken's your man.

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

RoboDoc: The Creation of RoboCop is an extremely entertaining and dare I say essential watch for fans of the original film. Cinedigm's wide-release Blu-ray has a few nagging issues, including questionable compression (one disc for five hours of HD material!) and a few missing featurettes. Walmart's Steelbook variant helps to make up for that, so most should consider it a bit more desirable overall. However... Kaleidoscope Entertainment's forthcoming 2-Disc Special Edition Blu-ray looks like it'll correct both of those problems, so anyone who doesn't mind waiting might want to spring for that bad boy instead. With slight reservations, this one's still Recommended though.