RoboCop: Limited Edition Blu-ray review

The Six Million Dollar Man meets Judge Dredd in this classic 1987 sci-fi actioner, which marked the beginning of controversial Dutch filmmaker Paul Verhoeven’s Hollywood career.

Peter Weller plays Detroit police officer Alex Murphy, gunned down by a criminal gang only 
to be reincarnated as experimental cyborg law enforcement officer RoboCop. It’s a simple plot that could have been ripped from the pages of a comic book, but what makes it so special is how Verhoeven and writers Ed Neumeier and Michael Miner approach the material. Lashings of ultra-violence draw you in, but it's the satirical condemnation of big business and rampant consumerism that keeps you coming back again and again.
Movie rating: 5/5

Picture: Arrow’s new RoboCop Blu-ray is based 
on the same 4K restoration of the original camera negative that served as the basis for Fox’s ‘New Remastered Director’s Cut’ platter back in 2014. 
The fact that there are no discernible differences between the two 1.85:1 Full HD encodes isn’t a problem as it’s still a nigh-on flawless presentation that delivers rich colours, fine textures, excellent contrast and a natural grain field.

The only exceptions to all this picture quality perfection are the film's handful of optical shots, and the footage added to the Director’s Cut that was sourced from lower-generation elements, as those negatives have been lost.
Picture rating: 4.5/5

Audio: In addition to the DTS-HD MA 5.1 remix featured on the 2014 Blu-ray, here Arrow also includes DTS-HD MA 2.0 and 4.0 tracks. While pleasingly punchy, neither the 5.1 or 4.0 incarnations make especially immersive use of the surround channel(s). That said, the front of the soundstage 
is nice and wide, localised effects are reasonably convincing, dialogue is cleanly rendered and Basil Poledouris’s iconic score sounds magnificent.
Audio rating: 4/5

Extras: Arrow has gone to town with this two-disc limited edition. Accompanying the Director’s Cut on Disc One are an archival filmmaker’s commentary (2014 re-edit); two new chat-tracks from film historian Paul M. Sammon and fans Christopher Griffiths, Gary Smart and Eastwood Allen; six new interviews; a tribute to Basil Poledouris; a tour of a collection of memorabilia; archival interviews and featurettes; four deleted scenes; storyboards; raw production footage; trailers and TV spots; and three image galleries.

Disc Two houses both the Theatrical Cut and TV edit of the film (the latter taken from an original DigiBeta broadcast master tape and presented in 1080i); an archival filmmaker’s commentary; two isolated scores; a compilation of alternate scenes from the TV edit; and two split-screen comparisons of the three different cuts of the film. The set also comes bundled with six art cards, 
a double-sided poster and an 80-page booklet.

Yep, I'd buy that for a dollar.
Extras rating: 5/5

We say: While there’s no real AV upgrade here, exhaustive extras make this the definitive edition of Verhoeven’s sci-fi cracker.

 RoboCop: Limited Edition, Region A/B BD, £30
HCC VERDICT: 5/5

COMPANY INFO
Arrow Video

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