joecarmody-02089 80s galore. Still resonates today. My favourite film from the 1980s

jamesgandrew In the not too distant future, a Detroit police officer is gunned down by a gang of killers and is resurrected as a cyborg police officer. He later regains his humanity and craves vengeance for the gang that killed him. Robocop is sci-fi satire at its finest. It uses the action genre as a guise for deep social commentary on institutional power, media manipulation and consumerism. One of the most memorable lines from the film is 'I'll buy that for a dollar!' said by a character from a sitcom which satirises consumerist excess. We aren't given much context about the show except that everyone finds it utterly hilarious. Even the yuppy like executives, that the show openly makes fun of, embrace this cultural phenomena by referencing the line. This pretty much sums up Robocop's message in a nutshell. The film is directed by Paul Verhoeven and written by Edward Neumeier. Verhoeven is known for putting over exaggerated violence, sex, swearing and drugs throughout his films and Robocop is no exception. Most of the violence, except Alex Murphy's execution, is overly comical and this was done for a purpose. We laugh at the corporate climate, especially when an executive is blown to bits by a droid and is only labelled as 'a glitch'. The action in the movie is overly stylised to showcase the silly media driven and consumerist world. Even though Robocop is humorous this is not to say the film hasn't got heavy moments of drama and tragedy. Alex Murphy is like a cog in the machine, which is similarly explored in another Verhoeven film, 'Starship Troopers'. We see him trying to imitate a popular tv show 'TJ Laser' which encourages him to join the police force. Although this results in his death and you end up feeling sorry for the character despite his naivety. However, Alex Murphy ends up regaining his humanity which brings some hope in an otherwise pessimistic view of the future.Robocop is fantastic and is one of the smartest eighties sci-fi action films.

Austin Walker Spoiler-Filled Moments That Make Robocop Better Than Robocop Remake: 1.) Nancy Allen is Rookie Female Partner, but she has short hair which illustrates her toughness. Its remarkable how easily you forget she played a hot prostitute seven years prior. 2.) Protagonist is killed by having his arms blown off ten minutes into the movie, potentially leaving the film to focus on Rookie Female Partner instead. 3.) In a fist fight knee-deep in sewage, Robocop activates an ejectable tooth-wide knife which he sticks in Crime Boss' jugular, so deep that blood is spraying before he has time to remove it. 4.) Robocop runs over a goon who is disfigured from a barrel of leaky toxic sludge, and the goon immediately splatters like lasagna dropped from a rooftop. 5.) Crime Boss spits blood on his arrest report and smiles. 6.) Prototype Robot Cop malfunctions and shoots office worker sixteen times and the Evil Tech Products Boss just strokes his forehead and sighs disappointment. 7.) Robocop shoots Eager To Be New Tech Boss out of a ninety foot window and his arms stretch as if to grab the window ledge for one last desperate move. 8.) Prototype Robot Cop is so inefficient that it trips down the staircase. 9.) Eager To Be New Tech Boss #2 snorts coke off of a hooker's cleavage just minutes before being blown away by a bomb accompanied by a video saying, "Im going to blow you away now." 10.) Robocop stops a street rapist by blowing off his genitals and the girl he saved can't run away fast enough because of her stilettos. 11.) There is homoerotic bathroom tension between the two Eager Tech Backstabbers, which is cut short by more trash talking and foul-mouthery. 12.) Robocop blows up a gas station, almost frying College-Boy Clerk, which would have been worth it because the goon must be stopped at all costs. 13.) After three days of viewing Robocop Remake, I remember nothing. Robocop (1987) wins. Flawless victory.

Uriah43 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.