{"id":2263,"date":"2024-08-13T19:40:10","date_gmt":"2024-08-13T19:40:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/?p=2263"},"modified":"2024-10-13T19:31:23","modified_gmt":"2024-10-13T23:31:23","slug":"robocop","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/2024\/08\/13\/robocop\/","title":{"rendered":"RoboCop"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"RoboCop <\/strong>(1987)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Orion\/Sci-Fi-Action\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 103 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Unrated Director’s Cut (language, extreme graphic violence, gore, nudity, drug use\/content)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Paul Verhoeven\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Edward Neumeier and Michael Miner\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Basil Poledouris \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Cinematography: Jost Vacano\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: July 17, 1987 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Peter Weller, Nancy Allen, Ronny Cox, Dan O’Herlihy, Kurtwood Smith, Miguel Ferrer, Robert DoQui, Ray Wise, Felton Perry, Paul McCrane, Jesse Goins, Del Zamora, Calvin Jung.<\/p>\n

Rating:<\/strong> ****<\/p>\n

\u00a0RoboCop<\/strong> is a movie that was ahead of its time when it hit theaters in summer \u201887. It\u2019s futuristic sci-fi, super-violent cop action and dark satire all rolled into one. It made a real impact on audiences as it went on to gross just over $53 million at the box office, not too shabby for a movie that was nearly rated X by the MPAA for its extreme violence.<\/p>\n

\u00a0The scene that caused the most trouble is where the hero Alex Murphy (Weller, Buckaroo Banzai) gets killed. He\u2019s attacked by the main villain Clarence Boddicker (Smith, Rambo III) who blows his hand off with a shotgun. In the uncut version, he holds up the bloody stump only to have his arm shot off. The gang then proceeds to shoot him full of holes until Boddicker finally puts one in his head. It\u2019s an extremely bloody scene. The MPAA forced director Paul Verhoeven (Total Recall) to tone down the violence before they granted him a more box office-friendly R.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Set in a dystopian near future, Detroit has become a lawless hellhole where crime runs rampant in the streets. The Motor City is on the verge of financial collapse as well. The city, as a means of self-preservation, hands over control of the police force to OCP (Omni Consumer Products), a megacorporation with a wide range of interests including military weaponry. They want to replace the human police officers with robots because they\u2019re unable to contain the increasing criminal activity.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Senior president Dick Jones (Cox, Beverly Hills Cop) introduces the ED-209 (Enforcement Droid) at a board meeting. He claims it\u2019s the future of law enforcement. It malfunctions during a demonstration and shoots a junior executive to death right in front of everybody including the OCP chairman (O’Herlihy, Halloween III), commonly referred to as “The Old Man”. BTW, this is another scene that got pegged by the MPAA.<\/p>\n

\u00a0After the bloody fiasco, another junior executive Bob Morton (Ferrer, Twin Peaks) sidesteps Jones and tells the Old Man about his RoboCop program which would replace human cops with cyborgs. All he needs is a recently deceased police officer to launch the program. No problem, he\u2019s already restructured Detroit PD, transferring the most ideal candidates to the worst areas of the city thereby increasing the likelihood of their demise. Now it\u2019s just a matter of waiting. Jones, it goes without saying, is mighty POed about his cocky underling going over his head.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Morton and his team don\u2019t have to wait very long. Murphy, a veteran officer, is transferred to Metro West (the very worst precinct) where he\u2019s partnered with Anne Lewis (Allen, Dressed to Kill), a no-nonsense beauty who can kick ass as well (if not better) than any man on the force. They barely have time to get acquainted when they\u2019re called to assist in the pursuit of Boddicker and his gang. They follow the creeps to an abandoned steel mill where Murphy meets a bloody and violent death. But for him, death is not the end.<\/p>\n

\u00a0The people from OCP waste no time in having Murphy declared dead so they can begin work on RoboCop. He\u2019s a large, heavily armored cyborg with three primary directives: (1) serve the public trust, (2) serve the public trust and (3) uphold the law. There’s a classified fourth directive that will come into play later in the movie. Once he hits the streets, it\u2019s the scumbags\u2019 turn to be scared. He\u2019s a one-cyborg army on a mission to clean up the streets. Plus, he never stops for doughnuts and coffee. He\u2019s the ideal cop.<\/p>\n

\u00a0While foiling a gas station robbery, RoboCop recognizes the perp Emil (McCrane, The Blob) as one of the creeps that murdered Murphy. It\u2019s a serendipitous encounter as it allows RoboCop to use his image to identify his criminal accomplices including Boddicker. I suppose I wouldn\u2019t be giving away too much by telling you the cop-hating crime boss is secretly working for a top executive at OCP. I\u2019ll bet you can guess who it is.<\/p>\n

\u00a0RoboCop <\/strong>is awesome! It\u2019s the best way to put it. It plays like a violent comic book with a storyline straight out of Heavy Metal magazine. Verhoeven, in his second American movie, shows his skill as a master filmmaker. He injects a healthy dose of satire into the mayhem, mostly aimed at the media and consumerism. The action is intercut with news reports of horrible things happening around the world followed by ridiculous commercials for things like board games about total nuclear annihilation and a heart transplant center that offers financing. He maintains a deft balance of dystopian sci-fi, cyberpunk, explosive action, bloody violence and brilliant satire. There aren\u2019t too many directors capable of such a balancing act.<\/p>\n

\u00a0The RoboCop looks pretty realistic. And the things he can do, WOW! He’s been outfitted with a tracking system that allows him to pinpoint a target perfectly. In one scene, he prevents the rape of a young woman by shooting the rapist through the woman’s skirt and hitting him in the groin. I don’t know any human cop who would even attempt something like that, not even Dirty Harry would take such a risk. He can withstand the gunfire of an automatic weapon thanks to bulletproof metal then bend the barrel in half so the criminal can’t fire any more shots.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Weller does a great job as both a family-oriented human police officer and an emotionless cyborg with no memory of his previous life. That\u2019s how OCP tried to program him anyway. They didn\u2019t quite succeed. He still retains memories of his wife and son. He recalls scenes from their life. He also remembers being killed. He reacts accordingly. Weller makes it all work. Allen, who\u2019s always good, is perfect as the partner who manages to bring out some of RoboCop\u2019s remaining humanity. Tough and compassionate, it\u2019s she who first realizes OCP\u2019s latest toy is her old partner Murphy.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Smith plays one of the meanest, scariest villains of the 80s. The actor excels at playing hateful characters; Boddicker is easily his greatest performance if not his most memorable. Cox is equally good as the megalomaniacal company VP who will do everything in his power to pull the plug on RoboCop. McCrane is sufficiently scuzzy as one of Boddicker\u2019s creeps.<\/p>\n

\u00a0The score by Basil Poledouris (Conan the Barbarian) fits the mood of the movie perfectly. The special makeup effects by Rob Bottin (The Thing, Total Recall) are amazing. He brings to life something that existed only in comic books and the imaginative kids that read them. The gore effects are equal parts impressive and icky. There\u2019s a scene where a gang member gets a toxic waste bath courtesy of RoboCop and transforms into a melting, deformed monster before getting hit by a car and exploding, splattering gore all over the place. I love s*** like this!<\/p>\n

\u00a0RoboCop <\/strong>is one of my all-time favorite cop movies. Not only does it have a lot of action and violence, it’s also a perfect example of a dystopian future world where corporations call the shots and everybody is expendable. Verhoeven including satirical elements helps lighten the mood a bit. It doesn’t seem quite as harsh and brutal when you have stupid commercials and some dopey Benny Hill-like comedy sketch show where the main character keeps saying “I’d buy that for a dollar!” while standing next to women with big boobs.<\/p>\n

\u00a0RoboCop<\/strong> is a lot of fun and still holds up well after more than 35 years. \u00a0I\u2019d definitely consider it a movie classic. It’s a high-concept exploitation movie that crossed over into the mainstream and became part of the public consciousness. It\u2019s also a kick-ass action movie with lots of cool hardware like the cannons Boddicker and his crew sport when they come after RoboCop. They\u2019re still no match for the real man of steel, but what fun would the film be without them?\"\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

RoboCop (1987)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Orion\/Sci-Fi-Action\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 103 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Unrated Director’s Cut (language, extreme graphic violence, gore, nudity, drug use\/content)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Paul Verhoeven\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Edward Neumeier and Michael Miner\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Basil Poledouris \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Cinematography: Jost Vacano\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: July 17, 1987 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Peter Weller, Nancy Allen, Ronny Cox, Dan O’Herlihy, Kurtwood Smith, Miguel Ferrer, Robert DoQui, Ray Wise, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3214,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,20],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2263","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-kick-ass-actioners","category-sci-fi-fantasy"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/RoboCop-PIC.jpg?fit=620%2C348&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2263","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2263"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2263\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3215,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2263\/revisions\/3215"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3214"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2263"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2263"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2263"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}