RoboCop 2 (1990)

I really cannot recall whether or not I actually saw RoboCop 2 when it was released years ago. I had either forgotten it completely, which is entirely possible, or I didn't bother with it after hearing that it was no good, which is equally possible. It's also very possible that people telling me it was no good were just plain wrong. RoboCop 2 is pretty great. Just like many sequels, the biggest problem it has is not being as good as the film that preceded it.

Peter Weller is back in the main role, and Nancy Allen is still his partner, Lewis. Detroit isn't any safer, sadly, and the latest threat to people is a powerful and highly-addictive drug named Nuke, with a man named Cain (Tom Noonan) being at the very top of that lucrative supply chain. Will RoboCop be able to deal with the problem, or will it be time to unveil RoboCop 2?

Written by Frank Miller and Walon Green, and directed by Irvin Kershner, the first thing that many will notice about RoboCop 2 is just how much it wants to keep the dark humour running through the nihilism and violence. That is obvious from the first scene, thankfully, and it sets the scene for a film that nicely balances out the thrills and violence with ongoing commentary about businesses over-extending their reach across society, especially when it comes to crime prevention and policing of cities. Kershner is a very capable director, and not afraid to tackle a sequel to a massive hit, and he tries to keep everything on track here, despite the plot strand that takes some time to explore the humanity of our hero before simply making use of it as an additional strength when he once again faces off against a potentially deadlier robo-foe.

Weller and Allen are a good fit, and (as evidenced in the next instalment in the series) it's hard to really think of anyone else as RoboCop. Allen gets less to do this time around, but she's still a loyal and capable partner, and she is still willing to keep fighting back against overwhelming odds when other robots get that urge to kill. Noonan is as watchable as ever, and a lot of fun in the role of Cain. He doesn't get to be as mean and fun as Kurtwood Smith in the first movie, but he brings that patented Noonan menace to his role. Dan O'Herlihy is entertainingly conniving, Belinda Bauer is enjoyable as another person thinking that they have a great idea to progress the profitability and innovation of the company, and it's worth mentioning how good Gabriel Damon is in the role of a vicious criminal kid named Hob. Others to namecheck are Galyn Görg (a bit of a moll, essentially), Willard Pugh (the Mayor), Stephen Lee (corruptible cop), Mark Rolston and John Glover (both with barely any screentime, but just there enough for you to start thinking about where else you know them from).

Maybe I like this a lot more now than I ever would have if I'd seen it back when it was first released. I am more familiar with the main cast members, I can appreciate the humour even more, and I have a really comforting warmth of nostalgia when I see actors positioned in front of matte paintings and rear projections in a way that we rarely see nowadays. It's not able to present the kind of perfectly-realised vision that can be done with computer effects now, but that just adds to the charm. If you have a choice then you should always choose to (re)watch the original film, but this is far from the worst way you can spend more time with these characters in this world.

7/10

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Mubi Monday: Naked Lunch (1991)

When I first saw Naked Lunch I had no idea of exactly WHAT I had just watched. It was a film full of startling imagery, a wonderful lead performance from Peter Weller, and some impressively organic special effects that often looked like genitalia. I was probably in my early twenties when I saw the film, which explains why I came away so confused.

Now, at the grand old age of *cough, cough*, I can safely say that a rewatch of the film has led me to now have a clear opinion of it. And that clear opinion is that I still have no idea of what exactly I just watched. It remains a bizarre and bewildering experience, but I now know that it is all planned out that way.

The plot concerns William Lee (Weller), an exterminator who also likes to get high on his own supply of bug powder. As does his wife (Judy Davis). Mr Lee is also a writer, although his main typewriter of choice appears to him as a insect-like creature that starts to talk to him. I could say more but you would just think I hallucinated the whole thing.

That is the big plus of Naked Lunch, yet it's also the big minus. Writer-director David Cronenberg, adapting an "unfilmable" novel by William S. Burroughs, has decided to take the bones of a standard narrative and loop it numerous times through a drug-coated mesh, pulling everything tight at either end and leaving the middle section bulging and mis-shapen. He makes a number of bold choices, but they all pay off when it comes to delivering a movie experience like few others I can think of.

As well as the druggy haze, Naked Lunch deals in the kind of paranoia, conspiracy, and twists and turns that will be familiar to Cronenberg fans who have enjoyed Videodrome (made years before this one) and eXistenZ (which came along some time after). And there are so many films from him that feature characters losing their sense of identity that you could say it is one of his main preoccupations.

Weller gives arguably his best performance here, despite the fact that he has a couple of other roles in his filmography that fans will often put ahead of this one, and he's ably supported by Davis, Ian Holm, Roy Scheider, and Julian Sands, among others. Everyone involved gives a performance that feels a little bit off. Whether it's their sense of humour, their acceptance of odd events, or something else, they feel just like characters being viewed through the eyes of a drug addict who cannot trust his own senses.

Don't ever ask me to tell you what is going on in every scene and how it all connects. I am not about to rewatch the film with the intention of taking down notes and creating venn diagrams. And I am not offering my opinion of the movie as any kind of testimony to my own insight. I just know that I love the experience of it, even during the more gross sequences, and that it is another Cronenberg work that feels like it couldn't have been made by anyone else.

8/10

There's a disc you can buy here.
Americans can get a nicer disc here.