Robocop 3 (1993)

Title: Robocop 3 (1993)

Director: Fred Dekker

Writers: Frank Miller & Fred Dekker

Cast: Robert Burke, Nancy Allen

Review:

So every now and again a franchise becomes mega successful, and takes over the world. It churns out a sequel or two and then dies when one of said sequels becomes what I like to call ‘The Franchise Killer’. It happened with Spiderman 3 (2007), it happened with Batman and Robin (1997) and it happened with Terminator Salvation (2009). The only solution that studios are left with is to reboot the entire series; start from scratch, make believe the previous films never happened. This is exactly what happened to the Robocop franchise. Paul Verhoven’s Robocop was a huge hit that instantly turned the robotic cop into a pop cultural icon. The sequel, Robocop 2 (1990) got a lot of heat because it was such a violent film, it had a 12 year old kid running a drug cartel, wielding machine guns and cursing like a sailor. Plus, the body count was even higher then that of the first movie! But it was filled with action and that dark sense of humor that the first film was so known for, it wasn’t a disappointing Robo-sequel in my book. Then came the third film, The Franchise Killer. What went wrong here?

Well, a couple of things went wrong here. Number one, the studio had decided to turn Robocop into a series of films for kids. But was Robocop a series of films made for kids? No, far from it; if you remember correctly, since inception Robocop was a violent series of films. I just re-watched the first film, and that’s a violent, gory piece. I mean, Murphy gets his hand blown clean off! He gets blown away by shotguns! He gets a bullet in the head! And we get front row tickets to the whole thing, we got to see it all. Hell, a man gets toxic waste spilled on him and melts into a bloody pulp! For Christ sake, we see Robert Morton  -Robocop’s creator- hanging out with two whores as he sniffs cocaine from their bare breasts! Point is, the first Robocop was not a film intended for children. Neither was the second film, that one was centered around drug addiction. Ever stopped to count how many people died on Robocop 2? A lot that’s how many!  So why turn the third film in the series into a vehicle to sell video games and action figures? There was  money to be made and the studio knew it that’s why. So sad they decided to turn Robocop into a nanny. How was this PG-13 version of Robocop when compared to the previous two films? For starters, the body count was low, there’s no nudity, no blood, no gore, no foul language. Robocop gets a sidekick, and she’s a little girl who is a computer whiz. This is what Robocop was reduced to.

Robocop 2 was written by Frank Miller, the renowned comic book artist behind Sin City and 300. Writing Robocop 2 was a bad experience for him because the script he wrote and the film we ended up seeing where two different beasts all together. So different were they, that in 2003 Frank Miller released a comic book called Frank Miller’s Robocop 2 which stuck close the original script for the film. Miller’s script was so convoluted that the studio deemed it “un-filmable” and so they brought in a team of writers to rework it. Robocop 2 was a sour experience for Frank Miller, but, like a resilient cockroach, Miller came back anyways to write part 3, thinking he could teach Hollywood a thing or two. Instead Hollywood taught him something. In his own words: “Don’t be the writer. The directors got the power. The screenplay is a fire hydrant and there’s a row of dogs around the block waiting for it” So according to Miller, his screenplays got pissed on by Hollywood. Fred Dekker was the guy who pissed on Millers script, Dekker took Miller’s script and reworked it under studio orders to make it more kid friendly. So if we have to point a finger at someone, it’s the studio who wanted to turn Robocop into a Saturday morning cartoon. Dekker was just playing ball, excited to be playing with the Robocop franchise and willing to do anything he could to make the film.

In a scene during Robocop 2, when they are injecting Robocop with all these useless new directives one of the directives read: “Directive 262: Avoid Orion Meetings”, funny they should put that there because Orion Pictures was going bankrupt around this time! So you can add that to the list of things that went wrong during Robocop’s 3 production; Orion Pictures, the studio that financed and distributed the film was going bankrupt. As a result many films where put on hold while the studios gargantuan debt was being resolved. Reportedly, the debt had risen to the vicinity of 690 million dollars! This was a studio in trouble, no doubts about that! And it was sad too, Orion Pictures had produced so many Oscar winning films like Silence of the Lambs (1991), Platoon (1986) and Dances with Wolves (1990). They were behind fun films like the Bill and Ted movies, The Terminator (1984) and even Return of the Living Dead (1985)! So, Robocop 3 was made during the last days of Orion. Robocop 3 had been finished in 1991, but ended up being released a couple of years later, in 1993, which of course led to speculation about the studios integrity. When a studio holds a film back like that, it’s because of something, and usually it aint good. Movie buffs such as myself can smell a troubled production from miles away! Situations like this can put a dark cloud over a film, making its target audience suspicious about the films quality. 

Fred Dekker on the set for Robocop 3 (1993)

  

Finally, the saddest part of the whole Robocop 3 ordeal is that it was made by a director whose work I’ve enjoyed very much. The man is Fred Dekker. Strangest part about the whole thing is that Dekker says that working on Robocop 3 was “the most enjoyable movie making experience I’ve had, and for me, the most accomplished work I’ve done as a director” That comment baffles the mind, considering he is the guy behind such great sci-fi horror classics as Monster Squad (1987) and Night of the Creeps (1986), two far better pictures in my opinion, but it’s what the man thinks, you gotta respect that. I guess Dekker is actually referring to working with a bigger budget and having all the equipment necessary to make a film; this was his biggest film ever and he was excited to be working with all these professionals. Frank Miller, the comic book god and Rob Bottin the make up effects god, these are all great industry professionals respected in their fields, hey, I’d be excited to be working with them too. For Robocop 3, Dekker was working with a budget of 23.5 million dollars, of course he was enjoying himself! All his previous films were made under the 12 million dollar mark. On the positive side of things, Dekker does accept the blame for the film not working and recognizes the mistakes he made. He says part of the films failure was that it was a story about Robocop siding with the poor guys (a very left wing message) at a time when the country was mostly right wing. He also admits to having shot himself in the foot by following studios order to make the film more kid friendly. Gone were the violence and cynicism that made the first two films successful. Dekker also wishes he’d put more action in it, I agree right there too, the action falls flat on this one.

So there you have it ladies and gentlemen, the reasons why Robocop 3 failed to lift off at the box office. I personally didn’t mind that this was a story about Robocop siding with the poor and the needy, because you know, this world is filled with evil corporations wanting to kick the poor out of their homes so they can make their expensive condos that only the rich can live in; spreading their Ivory towers around the world, and that sucks in my book. There should be space for all of us in this world, “this could be heaven for everyone”, but it isn’t because of corporations like Robocop’s Omni Consumer Products. Yeah, it’s a tired story, but apparently it keeps happening in the world because films with these themes do not stop getting made. I personally enjoyed that angle of the story. The human characters had heart to them, unfortunately, though Robocop was siding with them, he had no emotion or heart himself. On this film Robocop was more robotic than ever! I mean, didn’t Robocop turn a bit more human in previous films? He’s supposed to be thinking on his own now! He’s supposed to be more Murphy than Robo, but he isn’t. On this third film he speaks in a colder fashion, with a whole lot less emotion, he’s not Murphy and that was one of the biggest problems for me with the film. And when Robocop flies through the air, it just looks so cheesy, so fake. All things considered, at the end of the day I can’t bring myself to completely hate this film because it’s Robocop and I’ve always loved the character. Let’s hope this new reboot that is on the horizon does the character some justice! Let’s hope the series doesn’t loose that cynicism, that violence and that edginess that the previous films had. But I digress, in all honesty this new Robocop film will probably be PG-13. The more things change, the more they stay the same.  

   

Robo Rating: 2 1/2 out of 5

The Four American Godzilla Films

One of the few times that Hollywood has taken a stab at producing a Godzilla film; the result was the universally panned Godzilla (1998) directed by big budget event film specialist Roland Emmerich. The anticipation for that film was pretty high; I remember everyone wanted to know what the King of All Monsters was going to look like on this new film because Sony was keeping the look of the creature under wraps. Their plan was that the only way you would get a chance to see the beast is by going to see the film. Concept art leaked onto the internet, but no one was really sure if it was the creatures’ true look. When audiences finally paid their movie ticket and got a look at this new Godzilla, most where disappointed because it wasn’t really Godzilla, at least not the way they remembered him from all of his Japanese adventures. 

Even though Godzilla’s new design displeased many a Godzilla fan, this didn’t stop American audiences from seeing this new Godzilla, which went on to make 379 million at the box office. And though a lot of people hated it, I personally had a lot of fun with it. I mean, yeah, technically this wasn’t really Godzilla; it was more of a lame attempt to make Godzilla “cooler” or un-cheesy. But as a monster movie? I think it has its moments. And it has some awesome special effects sequences. Those scenes with Godzilla tangled on the San Francisco Bridge? Classic monster movie mayhem! I think this film would have garnered less hatred if it had completely disassociated itself from the Godzilla franchise. People were expecting Godzilla, and they didn’t get it, so they hated the film. Problem is that this particular Godzilla movie was missing a lot of what makes a Godzilla movie a Godzilla movie. For example, Godzilla doesn’t fight other giant monsters! Godzilla doesn’t fire laser beams out of his mouth! His back doesn’t light up! Roland Emerich’s prime concern with making this film was to get away from the cheese factor as much as possible. Unfortunately, anyone who’s watched Godzilla films knows that cheesiness and Godzilla go hand in hand. It just goes with the territory. You can’t fight it, you have to accept it, engulf it. Only then will you enjoy a film where Godzilla fights giant Moths that shoot laser beams from their eyes. But no, from day one Emmerich was always thinking about getting away from the cheesiness. Was this a good move? Well, it certainly made no dent in the films box office intake, but Godzilla fans were not pleased. 

Godzilla thrashes the streets of New York City

Emmerich’s approach for making this film was to totally redesign Godzilla; to get as far away as he could from the original Japanese design. Truth be told, at first Roland Emmerich and Dean Devlin wanted nothing to do with this new Godzilla movie. Another bad omen if you ask me. Why try and get two guys to make a film that they don’t have any passion for? But Sony had their hearts set on getting Devlin and Emmerich to make their new Godzilla because these were the guys who made the multi million dollar box office success known as Independence Day (1994). Surely they knew a thing or two about making a successful summer blockbuster, let alone a new Godzilla movie! Emmerich thought Godzilla was simply too silly a concept for him to develop. His outlook on the project changed when Patrick Tatopoulos redesigned the creature from the ground up. Understandably so, Emmerich didn’t want a man in a suit for his film. So he got Patrick Tatopoulos to give Godzilla a new look. Tatopoulos had previously worked for Devlin and Emmerich designing the creatures of Stargate (1994) and the aliens for Independence Day (1996). Once Emmerich saw Tatopoulos’s new design, he liked it so much that he knew that this was they way he wanted to go with his new take on Godzilla! 

Concept art for Godzilla (1998)

When the time came to start production, Patrick Tatopoulos actually traveled to Japan to meet with 30 Toho Studios officials to reveal his new Godzilla designs. When he unraveled his creation to them in drawing and sculpture form, they were met with a resounding silence. Tatopoulos went back home thinking the meeting had gone wrong, but to his surprise, the next day he was informed that Toho had approved the new creature design. That even though it was different, it still captured what Godzilla was all about. All they saw was a big budget summer blockbuster being produced by Hollywood which would eventually reap monetary results if the film became a hit. In the end Japanese audiences loathed the new film calling it “Godzilla in name only”. Kenpachiro Satsuma, an actor who’s portrayed Godzilla in various Japanese films walked out of a Tokyo screening saying that “It’s not Godzilla, it does not have the spirit” Essentially, what Emmerich’s film did was turn Godzilla into a big animal searching for food and looking for a place to procreate, while in the Japanese movies Godzilla was something closer to a God walking the earth. In the original Japanese films Godzilla would emerge to punish humanity for their abuse of the earth, other times he’d be the protector of the earth. Sometimes he’s a mix of both! But on Emmerich’s film he is neither of those. Emmerich stripped Godzilla of its godliness. Japanese have referenced Godzilla (1998) in some of their subsequent Godzilla films. For example in Godzilla: Final Wars (2004) the Japanese Godzilla actually goes up against the American Godzilla which they call ‘Zilla’. The battle transpires rather quickly, and Japanese Godzilla kicks Zilla’s ass in a matter of seconds. Then one of the characters in the movie calls Zilla a “Good for nothing Tuna eating monster” Which I guess pretty much surmises how the Japanese felt about Emmerich’s film. It was an insult to their beloved icon. 

Godzilla gets up close and personal with his American co-stars

But Emmerich’s Godzilla film wasn’t the first time Hollywood tried to take a stab at making a Godzilla film. Actually, they tried twice before! And both times, the projects came close to getting made, then caput; nothing. Whatever came of those projects? Why didn’t they ever come into fruition? Well, as some of you might already know, I am a huge fan of conceptual artwork, if you havent done so already, check out my article on Conceptual Artwork for Films That Never Got Made. For me its always fun to go through these projects that never got to exist. Well, in my thirst for knowledge on all things Godzilla I came upon not one but two American Godzilla films that never happened. And they actually looked like they were going to be cool films! They both had great creative teams behind them! Sadly, at the time studios had no faith in putting so many millions on a what they considered to be ‘children’s films’. And in order to do these films right, these filmmakers were going to need mucho dinero, which the studios were reluctant to give. So both projects were shelved. But there are pictures and storyboards of these projects, which I’ve posted for your viewing enjoyment. So without further ado, I give you the Two Godzilla’s that Never Where! 

GODZILLA KING OF ALL MONSTERS 3-D (1983-1984) 

Director: Steve Miner

Writer: Fred Dekker

The first of the two shelved Godzilla projects was going to be directed by Steve Miner, the main driving force behind this project. Right now Steve Miner isnt regarded as much of a director. Recently he was responsible for the abortion that was Day of the Dead (2008). Boy was that a bad movie and not in a fun way. It wasn’t even a proper remake of George Romero’s original Day of the Dead film. But, once upon a time, he was a director making profitable horror movies like Friday the 13th Part 2 and 3. He’d also directed the fun haunted house flick House (1986) and the first Warlock (1989) film. He knew his way around a film, and this Godzilla was shaping up to be his biggest endeavor yet.

Story Boards for Steve Miner's proposed Godzilla film by William Stout

Miner had a respectable filmography at the time, a bunch of profitable horror films under his belt. He looked like the right guy for the job! His experience in working with 3-D on Friday the 13th 3D was going to be put to good use because his proposed Godzilla film was going to be 3-D! In fact, it was going to be called Godzilla: King of the Monsters 3-D, nifty title right? The writer behind this proposed Godzilla flick was non other than Fred Dekker, the director behind Night of the Creeps (1986) and Monster Squad (1987), not a bad couple of films if you ask me. Plus, he’d written a bunch of Tales from the Crypt episodes, and he’d worked with Miner before writing the script for House (1986). Fred Dekker is a connoisseur of sci-fi and monster films from all eras, so he knew a thing or two about what a good Godzilla movie was all about. Dekker’s story was going to have a meteorite hitting one of the U.S. militaries satellites and accidentally setting off a nuclear attack that would ultimately end up resurrecting Godzilla. The film was going to end with an all out battle between the U.S. army and Godzilla on Alcatraz island!

Godzilla animatronic made for Godzilla: King of the Monsters 3-D, sadly, it was never used

And finally, conceptual artwork and storyboards were handled by artist extraordinaire, William Stout. Even special make up effects legend Rick Baker was called in to make an animatronic head for Godzilla’s close ups! They even built an animatronic of Godzilla that was never used! ILM and Dreamquest would have worked in conjunction to deal with the films extensive fx work! The proposed budget for the project was a measly 30 million. Tame by today’s standards, but back then the studios considered it a big price tag for what they considered a children’s film, so the project was scrapped. Considering how many talented inviduals were going to be involved in making this film, I’d say the studio was getting a bargain price for this awesome movie! 

But Godzilla was not ready to die just yet…. the next attempt to resurrect Godzilla in Hollywood would be:

Concept art  by Stan Winston Studios for what would have been Godzilla '94  

GODZILLA ’94 a.k.a. GODZILLA VS. THE GRYPHON 

Director: Jan De Bont

Writers: Terry Rossio, Ted Elliott, Donald McPherson

This project was the precursor to Devlin and Emmerich’s eventual film. Tristar had been aching to do a Godzilla movie and they’d hired Terry Rossi and Ted Elliott to write a script for the proposed film. Terry Rossio and Ted Elliott are two guys who have lots of experience writing big budget money makers for studios like Disney and Dreamworks. These are the guys responsible for writing the whole Pirates of the Caribbean franchise. So Tristar hired them for the script. Next, they brought in Jan De Bont who wanted to make a Godzilla that would be faithful to the spirit of the Japanese Godzilla films but at the same time offer up some cutting edge special effects. He employed the talents of Stan Winston Studios for the creature designs. The designs speak for themselves. The Gryphon creature was going to be an awesome villain!

The 'Probe-Bat' creatures for Godzilla '94 by Stan Winston Studios, sadly they were never used! 

I have to say, I think this was going to be an awesome Godzilla movie. Of these two projects that never came to be, I think this one was going to be the most faithful to the old Godzilla films. It was going to have Godzilla go up against another giant monster called The Gryphon! It was going to have aliens, ancient civilizations and the two creatures destroying all of Manhattan during their cataclysmic fight!  Godzilla was going to have that classic Godzilla look, yet at the same time look pretty freaking cool! The final fight was going to take place on Ellis Island with Godzilla taking the Gryphon’s head and placing it on the Statue of Liberties torch!

The awesomeness that could have been Godzilla '94

This project went as far as building sets, but once again, it was the budget that scared the studio away. De Bont wanted 130 million and the studio wanted to make the film with much less, so De Bont stepped down. Ironic thing is that even though Emmerich agreed to make the film for 65 million, Emmerich’s film ended up costing more then 150 million plus promotional costs. So in the end, it would have cost them less to more or less the same to make it with Jan De Bont, by the looks of it, it would have  been an even better film than Godzilla (1998) was, but I guess we'll never really know will we?

Conceptual artwork for The Grypon 

Well, that’s it folks. I guess what these two defunct projects show us is that a lot of planning and work can go into planning a film, but if in the end you don’t convince the studios (read: the guys with the money) then chances are your project will go nowhere.  Even if you are a big shot director like De Bont was at the time. Also, it shows us that Hollywood doesnt know a good deal when they see it. The creative teams behind these flicks were beyond cool, and I would've loved to see both of these movies get made. But alas, Hollywood likes to play it too safe some times.  Gareth Edward's the director behind Monsters (2010) is the next director to attempt making a Godzilla film for Hollywood. He seems to have a genuine love for monster movies, so lets see what happens. The project is happening under Legendary Pictures, here's some conceptual artwork for how Godzilla might end up looking in that picture, what say you guys?

Well, thats it for now boys and girls. Look forward to more Godzilla movie reviews; I will be posting a couple more in the coming days! As always thanks for reading. And if you want to read more reviews on Godzilla films, go here!

Night of the Creeps (1986)

Title: Night of the Creeps (1986)

Director: Fred Dekker

Cast: Tom Atkins, Jason Lively, Steve Marshall, Jill Whitlow

Review:

Sometimes movies completely bleep out of the radar, disappear, cease to exist. This usually happens with really cheap sci-fi/horror movies that studios figure nobody cares about. Sometimes its films that were such box office bombs that the studio simply wants to forget about ‘em. But sometimes the public will claim for a long lost movie to re-emerge and re-emerge they do thanks to the good will of a distribution company who'll give a crap about these old movies and decides to rescue them from obscurity. I'm talking about companies like Anchor Bay, Synapse Films and Blue Underground, these companies thrive on pleasing horror/sci-fi fans by re-releasing these films on various formats. Even with companies such as these, Night of the Creeps was nowhere to be seen. But wait! Finally somebody out there heard audience’s cries (thanks Sony!) and released this long awaited gem from the 80's! Get ready, because this my friends is one of the best zombie films of the 80's!  

Storyline on this film is a complete homage to science fiction and horror films from many eras; it's as much a homage to 50's science fiction films as it is a homage to zombie movies from the 80's. But what you need to know is this: a meteor containing a deadly alien life form crash lands in the woods! A curious teenager ends up as a host to one of the alien beings! They begin to reproduce in his brain…until his body is found and cryogenically frozen. Fast forward 30 years and the body is unfrozen by a pair of teenagers trying to get into a college fraternity! The alien slugs escape and spread all through out college campus! Will Detective Cameron find a way to stop the alien slugs before they eat every football jock and cheerleader on campus?

I never got why audiences didn’t connect with this movie; Night of the Creeps had all the right elements to become a hit in theaters yet it didn’t; it died a quick and quiet death in theaters. Many members of the crew and cast agree, the film just wasn’t marketed properly. Apparently, the studio didn’t know who to sell Night of the Creeps too, since the film is a mish mash of genres, they couldn't pin point the proverbial target audience. Same thing happened to John Carpenters Big Trouble in Little China (1986), the studio didn’t know how to sell Jack Burton to people, as a result a fine film like Big Trouble in Little China tanked at the box office. Same thing happened to Night of the Creeps and consequently, same thing happened to Dekker’s second film, Monster Squad (1987), it seems as if Dekker specialized in making films that were a hard sell. But there’s one thing all these fine movies have in common: maybe Hollywood didn’t know how to sell ‘em to us, but we found the movie anyway and made it our own!



Night of the Creeps has so many cool things going for it, many elements make it an enjoyable watch. First off, it has this whole background with the alien experiment, the slugs that get released onto our world by an evil zombie midget alien/scientist. Yup, you read that correctly! So we got the science fiction angle there which is fun, especially considering the aliens are midgets! I mean little people.

Then, the movie shifts into a 50's horror film when we are introduced to this couple sitting in their car, enjoying the beauty of a quiet star filled evening. Suddenly a meteorite falls from the heavens! The teens investigate, but wait; theres an axe wielding maniac on the loose as well! Then the film turns into an 80's teen flick and now we  follow a pair of horny teenagers looking to get some action. How do we know this is an 80's teen flick? Well, the film uses that classic 80's plot device where the teens who want to enter a fraternity have to pull off some sort of prank to get accepted. Then it turns into a zombie flick along the lines of Return of the Living Dead (1985), when we enter a facility that conducts secret science experiments involving the dead. But wait, its also a mystery, and so the film suddenly feels like a film noir as we follow a detective slowly uncovering everything! On top of this, we’re on a college campus with cheerleaders and football jocks running around drunk, looking for their next hot date. As you can see, Night of the Creeps is entertaining because it mixes so many different genres, it keeps things fun.

Tom Atkins has to be mentioned as something special in this film because he truly is. He is the epitome of what a bad ass 40 something detective should be like. He’s always the smart ass, the guy who knows the answers to everything. Don't ask him a stupid question, because you'll get stupid answer! His character has so many quotable one liners here, but amongst my favorite is of course, the ever popular “Thrill Me!” or there’s the other one: “I got good news and bad news. Good news is your boyfriends are here, bad news is their dead!” Jason Lively, whom some of you might remember as Rustty Griswald in National Lampoons European Vacation (1985) plays a pivotal role here as the nerdy leading guy, again, the film plays with our expectations of a film, this time its the nerd who is the hero. Steve Marshall plays the wise ass handicapped best friend. And Jill Whitlows plays the hot yet innocent looking, quintesential 80s cutey!

The cheesy dialog and sci-fi angle might not sit well with some folks, but if you can’t take the midget aliens in the first five minutes of the movie, then what are you doing watching this movie anyways right? But if you love monsters, aliens, zombies, cool make up effects, flame throwers, exploding heads, sorority babes getting undressed, zombie dogs, zombie boyfriends, alien slugs, cemeteries, and corpses sleeping in cryogenic laboratories, then look no further, this movie is for you! 

The DVD has some really great extras. The film included in the DVD has the alternate ending, so you get to finally see that alien spaceship hovering above the graveyards, looking for that lost canister of slugs! The original theatrical ending is available separately on the DVD as a deleted scene. That’s the ending with the slug coming out of that dog’s mouth and flying at the audience. It’s got interviews with everyone, Tom Atkins, Jason Lively, Steve Marshall and Jill Whitlow. Its got extensive interviews with Fred Dekker the films director, you can see the guy really loved his film, and he really did put his all into  making it as awesome as he could. Don’t worry Mr. Dekker, your film rocks! I hope Dekker does finally get to make another film, and that he puts as much effort and cram it with cool stuff and love for the genre as he did with Night of the Creeps. Mr. Fred Dekker, this film connoisseur salutes you!

Rating: 4 out of  5