This Valentine’s weekend offers up a love letter to the 1980s with José Padilha’s reimaging of Paul Verhoeven’s Robocop as the third treat from that seemingly seminal movie decade. As excited as I am to see Joel Kinnaman (The Killing and Easy Money) step up to leading man status, the rating of this new version gives me pause. Verhoeven’s original, which spawned two forgettable sequels (one written by graphic novel guru Frank Miller), fiendishly wallowed in a violent bloodbath that shocked audiences in much the same way its cop-turned-crime-fighting machine (Peter Weller back in 1987) had to be awakened to his humanity. Now in theaters. (PG-13) Not reviewed
This article appears in Feb 12-18, 2014.