RoboCop (1987)

Nice effects though.

In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.

There's no way I can possibly love it entirely but I just think its ridiculously bad, but enjoyable at the same time.

The movie turns out to be a little better than the average. Starting from a romantic formula often seen in the cinema, it ends in the most predictable (and somewhat bland) way.

80s galore. Still resonates today. My favourite film from the 1980s

What was remarkable about this film, is that it was one of the very last times we had ever seen Ray Harryhausen style stop motion animation used in a feature film. The odd look was because they had to use Rear Projection. This film reflects all of the glory of 70's and 80's practical special effects. Everything we see here is on camera. The Computer displays were all done on Amiga.The ED-209 appears to utilize the top half of a Sennheiser Microphone as a "Radiator Grill", I'd recognize the shape anywhere. Phil Tippet's animation is ingenious, giving unwarranted life to the 209's.What makes this film are the small details, "I'll buy that for a Dollar" (Originally from "The Marching Morons" by CM Kornbluth, which was later the basis for "Idiocracy"), the little News clips, the phoney ads what are not too far fetched. These little bits were used well in the 22-episode TV RoboCop TV show from 1994.And Rob Bottin's brilliant design of the RoboCop "suit". As far as the actors, I didn't know who Peter Weller was. But he was perfect for the role. There is a "good" buisinessman, Miguel Ferrer, contrasted with the Bad Guy Ronny Cox, who Verhoeven also used in Total Recall. Kurtwood Smith and Ray Wise, who always show up in Star Trek things, were over the top crooks. The Kid who drives the van, played by Paul McCrane, was the guy in the X-Files that could walk away after a head-ectomy. In this film, the Old Man of Omni Consumer Products, played by Dan O'Herlihy is a lot more like the kindly old man who owns a company, this changes in the under rated Robocop 2, in which Irvin Kirschner does a good job of imitating Verhoeven's directorial style.Overall, this one film served as a Template that was used in 2 sequels, 2 TV Shows, and one TV Mini Series of various quality. It's great to revisit these, it shows a wholly different way of doing things than what is used today. Also, anachronisms. Many of the things we see in these films, even though they are depicting the future, don't really exist anymore. Cameras that use Film. Computers that use Disks, and even today, Optical disks are not used much, it's all flash drives and SDcards. Telephones. Even Pay Phones, when was the last time you saw a Pay Phone on a street corner? And cars: The huge 6000 SUX, an over the top parody of so many huge Ford cars in the 80's. And we don't even see many of those cars anymore, everything is an SUV now. In some ways, the world was a much simpler place, even in the movies from that time.

This film begins in a dystopian future with the city of Detroit faced with a horrendous crime wave coupled with massive unemployment. As the story unfolds a cop by the name of "Ajax J. Murphy" (Peter Weller) is reassigned from one precinct within the city to the most difficult and crime-ridden area of all. To make things even worse a big corporation known as "OCP" has essentially taken over control of the police department and virtually dictate all policy and procedures. So when Murphy get shot and killed in the line-of-duty they take his body and transform him into a cyborg which gives him increased strength and gun accuracy but at the cost of a complete loss of memory. Also included in his transformation is a secret protocol known as the "4th directive" intended to benefit those within OCP. Although there isn't anything Murphy can do about this his memory begins to return to a limited degree when his partner "Officer Anne Lewis" (Nancy Allen) attempts to remind him of certain events just prior to his being killed. In the meantime, however, office politics within the corporation begin to become a bigger problem to Murphy than the armed criminals out on the street. Now rather than reveal any more I will just say that I remember watching this movie when it first came out and I continue to enjoy it to this day. Of course, it suffers a bit due to the passage of time but that is only to be expected. In any case, I encourage those interested in a movie of this type to check it out and I have rated it accordingly. Above average.

Be forewarned! A lot of blood, gore, bullets and swear words are in this film. That being said, a great concept film later turned into 2 uneven sequels, a 2014 remake, and a somewhat-successful TV series. So many errors and goofs which, for the most part, are mostly "signage" problems and techno-issues. I didn't have time to "catch" the rest of them as I was too busy watching the film. It is so obvious that this film wasn't filmed anywhere remotely near Detroit. There is even an out-of-state steel mill. Like all Verhoeven films, more big guns than imaginable. The depicted use of "coke" is totally inappropriate and the annoying "I'd pay a dollar for that" dirty-minded TV video gets old very fast. I love the fake news and tacky commercials. Peter Weller in that tin can suit looks very hot and sweaty! The "rogue" cyborg looks stop motion animated but that is before CGI. I am still surprised that there were no laser weapons. Some on the mattes are unconvincing. Somewhat better to watch on cable as the fowl language is greatly cleaned or cut. The acid-dissolving "henchman" would give any little kid nightmares. It's convenient that the dirty water dilutes it so that no one else dies that way! I also like (although not as much) Robocop 2.