Android Cop has White as a detective in a futuristic LA recovering from a major earthquake. The result was the creation of a quarantine zone after radiation leaked out of a power plant. After a trip to the quarantine zone leads to the killing of a drug lord, White is teamed up with the android cop, Randy Wayne, that bailed he and his fellow officers out. He doesn't get along with him, but he has to when the two are sent back into the quarantine zone to get the mayor, Charles S. Dutton's, daughter out. Seems easy enough, except fellow cop Kadeem Hardison is up to no good--like worse than the Dwayne Wayne troublemaking days up to no good. It'll take everything White and his android partner have to get out alive.
Okay, so maybe the face I chose there is a bit harsh, because this wasn't that bad. It borrows from a lot of places, beyond the RoboCop reboot it was mockbusting. We have The Warriors, Escape from LA, Blade Runner, and some classic Italian produced Williamson flicks of the early 80s like 1990: Bronx Warriors. I can appreciate it that, I just need the action to be there, but the problem with The Asylum, is they can never quite do that. We have shoot-outs where people don't get hit. We have a Michael Jai White that we want to see unleashed, but who never completely gets the chance. By the same token, I did fun with this, and I think that's all you want.
You do wonder though, with White in the lead here, what this could have been if it wasn't an Asylum rush job, but rather a franchise they gave more attention to like Sharknado. Beyond being a top notch athlete and martial artist, White is also a great comedic actor, and you feel like if this script had been given more time you could have had a great buddy picture that could have possibly even had DTV sequels. Imagine a Kadeem Hardison as the baddie revenge flick after this. I think the thing is, we can't fault The Asylum that Michael Jai White brings so much to the table, because what if they can't get him for this part? Now they need something that works for someone who can't do the comedic part, or can't do the martial arts part. They don't have time to rework it for someone else. So that means we're left with something where White elevates the material beyond what it was, but then we wonder what could have been.
I had totally forgotten about the 2014 RoboCop reboot, so in that sense I didn't even consider that this would have been a mockbuster until I looked it up on IMDb. This might be the only Asylum mockbuster like this that actually outlived the film it was mockbusting. Part of that is having White on the cover; but another part is just how sauteed in wrong sauce the reboot was. Hollywood is looking for as many franchises as it can find to package and pull in billion-dollar grosses, and in that wake there are many of these failed reboots. The funny thing is, you wonder how that RoboCop reboot would have done if they'd cast White in the lead. It pulled in about $252 million worldwide, but only about $58 million of that came in the US. Do we think White could have pulled in more? And then where would the Asylum have been left? But that's the thing, while Hollywood does a paint-by-numbers RoboCop reboot, The Asylum does something different, and shows Hollywood what they missed out on by not casting White.
Speaking of The Asylum, they now join the 30 Club with this review. Maybe this paragraph should have come sooner, because that's a big moment. In terms of movie houses that I tag, they join Cannon and PM Entertainment with that distinction. It's amazing to think how far we've come with The Asylum, from the early days of Snakes on a Train and Transmorphers, to the non-mockbuster Mega [insert apex predator here] vs Giant [insert other apex predator here], which led to the success of the Sharknado franchise. It'll be interesting to see where they go from here, but since a lot of their stuff is DTV, wherever they go, we'll follow.
As I mentioned above, after White, we had Kadeem Hardison and Charles S. Dutton. I thought this was the first time we've had Hardison on in a non Mark Dacascos film, but I discovered that he was also in the Lambert/Mario Van Peebles flick Gunmen. Again, his character is one we could bring back for a revenge sequel if this were turned into a franchise, and I think it could be fun to see him get after it as a total baddie. This is the second time we've seen Dutton here, the other time being when we did Black Dog for our Swayze memorial posts. While he's good here, Dutton is also someone who would have been a cool choice for the Ronny Cox role of the RoboCop reboot.
Right now this is on Tubi, so the only thing you're investing here is time. I went to The Asylum's website, and it looks like they took down their disclaimer saying they can't offer temporal refunds, but I assume they still can't give you your 90 minutes back if you watch this and decide it didn't work for you. White shines here, and I think this is a fun take for an Asylum Mockbuster.
For more info: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt3393070
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