BLU-RAY REVIEW

RoboCop

Featured In Issue 188, July/August 2014

Picture5
Sound5
WSR Score4
Basic Information on new release titles is posted as soon as titles are announced. Once reviewed, additional data is added to the database.
(Studio/Distributor):
20th Century Fox Home Entertainment
(Catalog Number):
M129985
(MPAA Rating):
PG-13
(Rating Reason):
Intense sequences of action including frenetic gun violence throughout, brief strong language, sensuality and some brief drug material
(Retail Price):
$39.99
(Disc Type):
Single Side, Dual Layer (BD-50)
(Widescreen Edition):
Yes
(Full Screen Edition):
No
(Running Time In Minutes):
117
(Color Type):
Color
(Chaptered/Scene Access):
Yes
(Closed Captioned):
Yes
(Regional Coding):
A
(Theatrical Year):
2014
(Theatrical Release):
Yes
(Direct-To-Video Release):
No
(Disc Release Date):
06/03/14
(THX® Digitally Mastered):
No
(Director):
José Padilha
(Screenplay/Written By):
(Story):
(Music):
(Director Of Photography):
(Production Designer):
(Visual Effects):
(Costume Designer):
(Editor):
(Supervising Sound Editors):
(Re-Recording Mixers):
(Executive Producers):
(Co-Producers):
(Producers):
(Academy Awards):
(Principal Photography):
(Theatrical Aspect Ratio):
(Measured Disc Aspect Ratio):
(Disc Soundtrack):
Dolby Digital 5.1, DTS HD Lossless 5.1, DTS 5.1
(Theatrical Sound):
(Theatrical Re-Issue Soundtrack):
(DTS Bit Rate):
(Dolby Digital Bit Rate):
(Additional Languages):
(French Language):
(Spanish Language):
(Chinese Language):
(Subtitles):
(Cantonese Language):
(Mandarin Language):
(Japanese Language):
(Italian Language):
(German Language):
(Portuguese Language):

In RoboCop, the year is 2028 and OmniCorp—the world's leader in robot technology—sees a golden opportunity to reap billions from their company. When Alex Murphy (Kinnaman)—a loving husband, father, and good cop doing his best to stem the tide of crime and corruption in Detroit—is critically injured, OmniCorp grabs their chance to build a part-man, part-robot police officer. OmniCorp envisions a RoboCop in every city and will stop at nothing—no matter the cost to Alex—to make sure the program succeeds. But OmniCorp never counted on one thing: there is still a man fighting inside the machine. (Gary Reber)

Special features include the featurette RoboCop: Engineered For The 21st Century (HD 28:47), five deleted scenes (HD 03:59), an OmniCorp Product Announcement (HD 03:27), upfront previews, and an UltraViolet digital copy.

The 2.39:1 1080p AVC picture was photographed by Cinematographer Lula Carvalho using the Red Epic and Arri Alexa digital camera system. The imagery is impressively clean and pristine in appearance, with well-balanced contrast that exhibits deep, solid blacks and revealing shadow delineation. RoboCop's metalized suit is finely detailed and exhibits excellent texture and sheen. The color palette is generally natural with, at times, strong, saturated primaries exhibited and at other times is more subdued. Resolution is excellent throughout, especially in the laboratory facilities, with fine detail exhibited in facial features, hair, clothing, and robotic suits, as well as object texture. This is a reference-quality visual experience that is engaging throughout. (Gary Reber)

The DTS-HD Master Audio™ 5.1-channel soundtrack is dynamic sounding, with aggressive gunfire and battle scenes that will challenge the SPL and deep bass capabilities of your home theatre system. RoboCop's walk is enhanced with .1 LFE bass energy. The quieter moments are sonically nuanced with low-level atmospherics. But the real sonic adrenaline happens during RoboCop's engagement with the criminal elk in which machine gun fire generates, and heavy artillery penetrates the soundfield with aggressively directionalized energies at intense SPLs. All sorts of debris and heavy objects scatter throughout the soundfield, as well as panned planes and helicopters. There is even a RoboCop versus EM-208 robot match test that occurs in a large warehouse, wherein the robots execute the firing of weapons, which are localized throughout the soundfield. At times bass extension is effectively energized at sub-25 Hz frequencies, often when all the channels are fully engaged. The end scene is a tour de force of thunderous aggressive surround immersion. The orchestral music score is dynamically presented with a wide and deep soundstage presence that aggressively extends to the surrounds. Dialogue manages to retain intelligibility throughout, with decent spatial integration. This is a terrific holosonic® soundtrack experience that delivers impactful dynamics, contrasted with nuanced sonics. (Gary Reber)