ROBOCOP 2

US, 1990, 118 minutes, Colour.
Peter Weller, Nancy Allen, Dan O'Herlihy, Belinda Bauer, Tom Noonan.
Directed by Irvin Kershner.

Robocop 2 is in the same vein as its original. However, there is a change of director from Dutch Paul Verhoeven (who went on to make Total Recall with Arnold Schwarzenegger) to Irvin Kershner, director of such dramas as The Hoodlum Priest, Loving, as well as spectacles like The Empire Strikes Back, The Return of a Man Called Horse and Never Say Never Again.

Peter Weller, Nancy Allen and Dan O'Herlihy reprise their roles from the original. Weller is still the Robocop trying to administer law and order in a futuristic Detroit which has collapsed. O'Herlihy is the boss of the Omni Corporation. Added to this film are a sinister drug dealer played by Tom Noonan as well as a sinister doctor played by Belinda Bower.

The action is very much slam-bang - almost too much so. For many countries the action had to be trimmed for cinema release.

However, the film echoes concerns at the end of the 20th century about the future of American cities, the decline in economies, the reaction for law and order, the hold of drugs.

1. The impact of this film? Comparisons with the original? Expectations of a sequel?

2. The Detroit world, a city in shambles? The company, its offices, laboratories? A picture of the future?

3. The action sequences, editing and pace, the stunt work, the special effects, especially for Robocop 2? Musical score?

4. The themes of violence - how presented, in context? Too much?

5. The humour of the film - especially with the commercials interspersed, the blend of outrageous violence and black humour? Giving a tone to the film?

6. Murphy as Robocop: at work, separation from his wife, his seeing her? Lewis and her partnership? The confrontations, the drug dealers, the police? His being lectured at? The collapse and in a mess, brought together? The fight against the drug dealers, the boy, Cain? The build-up to the confrontation? The press conference, the fight and his winning? The clash with Robocop 2 and its destruction? Murphy as a person, as a machine? Used by the company? Facing danger, invincible? The end (and a sequel)?

7. The personal tones of the robot cop: memories of his wife, grief? His friendships? Relationship with the police chief?

8. The picture of the firm and the Old Man? Sinister, power-hungry, money no object? The attempts to control Detroit? To control the mayor? The experts, Johnson as his assistant? The role of Dr Faxx? The sauna sequence? Yet his sinister approach, getting rid of opposition? The failed projects, the conference, his sacrificing Dr Faxx? Driving away - to a sequel?

9. Cain and the drugs of the future, the laboratories and the raids, the shoot-outs? Forced labour? His relationship with Hob and Angie? The attacks? The conflagration? The attack on the mayor? His being hurt, dying, transformed by Dr Faxx into a monster? The video screen? His pain, the drug addiction? The confrontation with Robocop and his destruction? Symbol of evil?

10. Hob, a cruel boy, the dealings with the mayor, his death? Angie and her relationship with Cain, dependence on the drugs, with the boy, the set-ups, her death?

11. The drug Nuke, and the power of drugs in the cities, control of the populace? Synthetic drugs?

12. The presentation of the TV media, the personalities, their bland presentation of the news - and the violent visualising of the news? The mayor and his style, chatter, the city in debt, the black humour of the telethon, the deals, destruction and the ending?

13. The Old Man's henchmen, their role in the business, advice? Dispensable? The double-dealings between the mayor's office and that of the Old Man, money deals, deaths?

14. Johnson and his advice for the Old Man, smooth and suave, yet sinister, opposition to Dr Faxx?

16. Dr Faxx, her ambitions, the beautiful but mad scientist, insinuating herself with the old man, her plans, the use of a brain, her control over Robocop, the getting of Cain and making him into Robocop 2? Her own destruction?

17. Lewis, the good cop, the force in Detroit, the attempts to keep law and order, Lewis and her working with Robocop?

18. Themes of the future, the collapse of urban civilisation? The power of the big companies? Robocop and Robocop 2 as symbols of violence and of law and order?