Robocop 3 MPAA Rating: PG-13 Entertainment: +2 Content: -2

Any title with a number after it usually falls short of the original. ROBOCOP 3 is no exception. Part of Detroit is bought by the Japanese and designated for urban renewal. Rehab troopers, led by McDagget (John Castle), put the residents on buses, suggestive of concentration camp roundups. Wrecking crews start on houses with people still in them. Nikko (Remy Ryan) is separated from her parents in the crowd and lost until urban guerrillas come to her rescue. Using her portable computer, she helps the guerrillas bypass a guard robot and steal weapons from police storage. Murphy (Robert Burke), also known as Robocop, is injured while protecting some of the families hiding in a church. Murphy must defeat robot Ninjas, save the neighborhood police and rescue Nikko. Fortunately, he's been given wings. The special effects, explosions, and technical wizardry keep things moving, but the plot is a weak spot in this ROBOCOP.

Like many action movies, this one depends on explosions, car chases, and automatic weapons to provide excitement. While the violence seems less graphic than past outings, more than one character gets hit by numerous gunshots or blown up. It's rather gruesome when one of the human-looking Ninja robots gets his jaw displaced by an iron pipe and he puts it back in place. Big business is portrayed as evil when Japanese business men buy property and use violence to clear it, aided by American big business greed. The abundance of foul language is thoroughly disgusting. When Robocop's actions cause business losses, suicide is accepted as normal; one character even notes he prefers a gun he carries over jumping. When Murphy remembers his family, he reacts protectively toward Nikko, and the neighborhood police force resigns to stand beside the citizens. The message of neighborhood and family unity is good, but unfortunately the bigger theme is that might is right and greater violence is the way to stop violence.

Preview Reviewer: Paul Bicking
Distributor: Orion Pictures, 304 Park Ave. S., NY, NY 10010