Android Cop (2014)

Some things in life are just an undeniable fact. The sky is blue, hamburgers are delicious, love really does stink and you can trust The Asylum to release their own version of whatever movie the big studios have in their pipeline. Now that the Robocop remake is about to hit theaters worldwide, The Asylum took it upon themselves to enrich our lives with Android Cop. This movie deserves some scrutiny!

The uhm..."future" of law enforcement?

After a disastrous earthquake, A large part of Los Angeles has been destroyed. The survivors separated the rest of the city from the irradiated wastelands (A couple of fusion reactors got destroyed) with a wall. They call it “The Zone”. When hardboiled cop Hammond gets paired up with the latest law enforcement has to offer, he of course reluctantly agrees. Andi, an android and Hammond get requested by the mayor himself. They are asked to find his daughter that has gone missing. During their investigation they uncover a  foul conspiracy and the deeper they dig the deadlier it gets for them.

His expression pretty much throughout the whole movie. Yes, sarcasm level +200!

I haven't seen much Asylum movies but I do know they aren't exactly known for having huge budgets; So, I can't really judge them on the production values. How does the rest of this pan out then? First of all, this film is a strange mixture of Robocop, Mad Max, Surrogates, Training Day and every buddy cop movie ever made. There isn't one original idea to be found in this movie and yet somehow it works (We'll get to that later). Yes, the film looks cheap and had that distinct digital video look. Andi's suit looks bad, there is no weight to him he looks just like a guy in a plastic suit held together with duct tape. The visual effects and CGI are serviceable to bad at best. It gets the job done and matches the the cinematography quite well so, it's not too jarring or distracting. On a technical level this movie is nothing to write home about.

ILM has nothing to fear.

Noticed I've said nothing about the acting or story itself? To my big surprise the script was better than expected. Yeah, it has some minor subplots that go nowhere but for the rest of the time it keeps things focused and moving forward. It actually has a story to tell! There was even a twist in there that I did not see coming! Randy Wayne as Andi is pretty unremarkable but he has to play an emotionless android so, I can't really knock his performance too much. Kadeem Hardison as Sgt. Smith does his best Det. Alanzo Harris impersonation and chews some considerable scene-age. While the rest of the cast is fine, the best thing about this movie is Michael Jai White. His sarcasm and playfulness made this movie for me. See, the cast knew exactly in what kind of movie they were in and were hamming it up to the max. I'm not sure if it was intentional but this movie had me laughing out loud the whole time. 

Bring on Android Cop 2.0!

Android Cop is exactly what you expect it to be. A low budget, action comedy. What you see is what you get. It does have something of a solid story and very funny performances. Also, the ending of this movie! Oh, don't worry I won't spoil it but it's like waiting for the punchline of a joke that never comes. That to me made it even more funnier. I went into this movie with a frown but left it smiling from ear to ear. I found it to be quite delightful. Is it a good film then? Not really but i've definitely seen worse.