The Robocop franchise has proven remarkably durable, with the original 1987 film spawning two sequels and a syndicated television series in the early '90s. In 2000, a series of four television movies followed under the rubric: Robocop: Prime Directives and subtitled Dark Justice, Meltdown, Resurrection, and Crash & Burn. The crime/science fiction theme of the story about a near-future time when a downed police officer is transformed into a cyborg provides opportunities for dramatic scoring, most successfully exploited by
Basil Poledouris in Robocop and Robocop 3. (
Leonard Rosenman scored Robocop 2.) This soundtrack album presents music from the TV movies written and largely performed by
Norman Orenstein. The only other musician employed is
William Sperandei, who provides trumpet solos here and there that seem influenced by Spanish bullfighting music. They provide some respite from
Orenstein's highly dramatic synthesizer score, which is dominated by martial percussion sounds and alternately suspenseful and climactic music. Independent of the small screen, there isn't much here that satisfies, although the score no doubt works efficiently with the TV move thrillers. ~ William Ruhlmann