Android Cop

If you're familiar at all with The Asylum, you pretty much already know what you're in for. That said, for The Asylum, this isn't bad. Don't mistake that for "good," though. But you could do worse.

The effects could be better, but they aren't completely terrible. The biggest letdown of the film is the under-utilization of Michael Jai White's martial arts skills. It's in there, but not as much as it could or should have been. Too many camera cuts.

This is a low budget film. It rides the coat tails of Robocop, and has the slight essence of the TV show Almost Human - without being a rehash of either. So don't expect either. Pleasantly surprising coming from The Asylum. Definitely one of their better films.

You can do worse than Android Cop, but you can do with much, much better as well. It is saved from total disaster by a couple of passable(but nothing more than that) effects and the performances of Michael Jai White and Charles S. Dutton. White has a lot of charisma and manages to put some meaning into his monologues while Dutton performs with terrific gusto, funny and a touch menacing. Unfortunately the rest of the acting is not good, the worst is Larissa Vereza who is both annoying and bland, you often don't have a clue what she's saying. Randy Wayne is bad too, he is robotic emotionally even for a robot, plays it far too straight-faced and is nowhere near aggressive or charismatic enough(he doesn't even command or intimidate physically because he's too short and scrawny). Kadeem Hardison doesn't get much to shine with, he has talent but has such an insignificant character that it's a waste really. The characters are very poorly developed and are not interesting or likable at all, the "villains"- difficult to call them that when there isn't really a main one, just a handful of insignificant ones- are written stereotypically, don't seem much of a threat and just seem to be there to be a source of conflict(that doesn't work, seeing as how poorly they are written). The worst case however was for the titular character, absolutely no effort to make to explain where he came from, the reason for his creation and existence and how he came to be the way he was, it is very difficult to engage with a character that we know nothing about and is this poorly acted. Most of the special effects are static and cheap, and the practical ones are little better. The android suit can't even be classed as one, it read too much of a man in a nylon tight-suit.

The editing is very choppy and whatever good locations there are are not used very well with no time to enjoy them, in fact most of the settings are dreary and yes that is even for the type of movie Android Cop is. The worst aspect though of Android Cop is the writing(both in script and story). There is barely even a script, when there are bare bones of it has a lot of stilted lines especially anything that comes out of Vereza's mouth(her English is not easy to understand and she stumbles on a lot of her lines) and sketchily drawn characters. The story is little more than a convoluted jumble, too much is thrown in within such a short running time and nothing makes sense as a result. The action sequences are generic and has nothing new to what's we've seen before in action movies we've seen previously, it doesn't help also that some of the worst of the production values are in the action sequences, while there is no sense of suspense or conflict which adds to the pointlessness of the "villains" and even the titular character. If Android Cop was longer and the pace slowed down it would have felt much less hectic and may have been a tad more coherent. Atkins' direction is sloppy, the material completely goes out of control, the actors should have had much more to do than what they had, he rushes through things and slaps it all together and he should have realised that the movie needed a serious re-write and that the scenes between White and Vereza needed re-takes because of how badly Vereza(White occasionally too) fluffs her lines. To sum things up, not absolute garbage- you can certainly do worse than Android Cop- but on most counts it is a mess. 3/10 Bethany Cox

The Asylum does it again; take on a forthcoming potential blockbuster and make a poor man's version of it. This time it is with the remake of "Robocop", and The Asylum cleverly called it "Android Cop". Potato, potato...

Despite it being such a shameful and blatant copy of "Robocop", then I will say that The Asylum actually well all the way with this one, and it is by far one of their best productions to date. Be it a rip off or not, there are so many similarities that you just can't ignore.

Moving on... The movie is about police officer Hammond (played by Michael Jai White, I wonder how they managed to get him to do this particular movie) who ends up having to work with a highly advanced android police officer (played by Randy Wayne). Teamed up, they have to infiltrate a dangerous zone to find the mayor's daughter. But as they progress in their investigation, more and more secrets are unveiled, and things are definitely not what they appear.

"Android Cop" was actually rather enjoyable, despite being a rip off movie. Just take it for what it is, and don't read too much into it.

The effects in "Android Cop" were actually quite nice, especially for a production by The Asylum - they really upped the stakes here. And it was a nice thing, a most welcomed thing indeed. The CGI effects were quite good. The only thing that wasn't overly impressive was the toy-like suit of armor that the android police officer was wearing.

"Android Cop" get a solid 5 out of 10 stars from me, and this is definitely a step up for The Asylum - I just wonder when they will stop with the copying of forthcoming potential blockbusters and start coming up with original ideas for themselves...

'Android Cop' is the progeny of 'Lethal Weapon' and 'RoboCop' on a budget. There's a little more plot structure than usual, and the script is half-decent even if some of the acting is decidedly half-baked.

Good to see former Australian rugby league player Ian Roberts in a minor supporting role as a radiation-infected kingpin of the wasteland (which look like some current public housing districts), and then more prominently, Kadeem Hardison as an LA police officer who along with star Michael Jai White must venture into the quarantine zone where crime is running rampant.

Like many other Asylum pictures, the studio backlots, industrial warehouses and urban alleyways provide unlimited sets depicting 'futuristic' scenery (traffic is clearly visible in some shots) and what those ubiquitous locations can't deliver, amateurish CGI takes care of the rest.

Mediocre mockbuster, with reasonable fight choreography and reasonably assured performances by White, Hardison and Dutton (although Wayne as the titular cyborg is comically wooden), 'Android Cop' is a passable buddy picture that's not great , but not as awful as it could've been under the circumstances.

First off, this IS a budget movie, with budget movie production values. Second, taking that into account, it's not so bad. I've seen many many films with way bigger budgets that were FAR worse. I don't recall any Blaxploitation film being made with high production values, though this is definitely a B-movie. It is called Android Cop, and the android part doesn't take over. Good use of future technology to drive the story.

Acting; reasonably good throughout, with a few exceptions. C S Dutton as the mayor is very good. Not such a big role, but what he does he does well. The main protagonists are somewhat hampered by the characters they have to play, but they manage it well enough.

Action; in parts it suffers from the 'many bullets' syndrome of so many Hollywood films. Hundreds of bullets are sprayed from endless ammo guns, and hardly any damage. Oh well, seen that a thousand times.

Photography; for such a low budget film, in parts some of the angles and editing are quite gripping. Only a couple of times did I find myself really criticising the angles, timing of cuts etc.

Dialogue; well, I burst out laughing a couple of times. Genuinely funny. It's not very moving, but it's not saccharine either. Again, only a couple of times did I think the lines were lame.

Story; nothing new, but well delivered. Twists and turns in the right places and nicely paced.

Overall, I didn't think I had wasted my time.