RoboCop

Robocop (Paul Verhoeven, 1987)

THE SCOOP
Director: Paul Verhoeven
Plot: In a dystopic and crime ridden Detroit, a terminally wounded cop returns to the force as a powerful cyborg with submerged memories haunting him.

Genre: Action/Crime/Drama/Sci-Fi/Thriller
Awards: Won 1 Oscar - sound effects editing. Nom. for 2 Oscars - film editing, sound.
Runtime: 103min
Rating: M18 for extreme violence, gore, and language.

IN RETROSPECT
Paul Verhoeven's first Hollywood picture was a commercial success as well as a hit among the critical community. The Dutch director took up the job after many failed attempts by the distributors to recruit established American filmmakers. At that time, no one wanted to do a film with a title like 'Robocop'. It seemed too much of a kiddish concept, and it looked like the kind of picture that B-grade directors would do. The fact that Robocop is still one of Verhoeven's best Hollywood movies vindicates his brave decision to take up the directorial role.

Just three years after the release of James Cameron's groundbreaking The Terminator, Robocop continues the trend of cyborg pictures. The contrast between the two films is obvious; while Cameron's picture is dark and menacing, Robocop is a serious high-octane action movie. Peter Weller is no Arnold Schwarzenegger, though he is quite adept in playing the man of steel. In every way, he puts effort into ensuring that his movements and speech are characteristics that a cyborg would exhibit.

Verhoeven is well-known for his pacing. This quality shows in Robocop with numerous staged action sequences that work because of its editing and energy rather than the scale of it. There are gun battles galore and big explosions. And most of them end up with gory results. In fact, Robocop is like David Cronenberg meets Michael Bay. The violence is uncompromising and there are more blood and guts spilled than any other film of similar genre, leading to censors to demand alternative cuts to the original film. The director's cut runs over 100 min and it is the version that should be experienced.

Many fail to realize that Robocop works excellently as a social commentary as well. Often, the film's narrative is inter-cut by 'advertisements of products and live news updates' that reflect the absurdity of politics and mankind's fascination with war, science and technology. It is a clever and neat touch by Verhoeven because this is rarely observed in an action-thriller. The originality of Robo's appearance may be called into question as it is obvious the title character's design is heavily borrowed from the alien in The Day The Earth Stood Still, and Fritz Lang's Metropolis, and though it may feel dated after twenty years, it is never a boring affair.

SCORE: 8/10
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Recommendations: Toy Story 3 (Lee Unkrich, 2010), To Kill a Mockingbird (Robert Mulligan, 1962), The Visitor

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Last updated: 2010-05-20 06:43:35 by eternality_tan

RoboCop

RoboCop - Directed by Paul Verhoeven, starring Peter Weller, Miguel Ferrer, and Kurtwood Smith - Rated R

I don't want to get too in depth with this movie. I just want to point out that this film holds up very well and, in the spirit of Punisher: War Zone, deserves a viewing just for the insane violence alone. Verhoeven was the king of the 80's action/sci-fi movie and he's at the top of his game in this one. The stop motion animation is hard to watch in a few scenes, but this is a completely enjoyable film. Weller does a good job as a robot (not sure if that's a compliment or not), Ferrer is perfect as the weasly corporate guy, and Smith is phenomenal as the evil drug lord. It's just good 80's fun.

(Read Less...)

Eric Harris - www.canneltoncritic.com

RoboCop [1987] --- 4

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0093870/



Every once in a while I get the urge to watch an old cult classic. This time I have no idea why RoboCop came to mind but the last time I saw it I was a child and honestly the only thing I remembered about it was that his gun came out of his thigh. I thought that it might be time to brush up on the ways of RoboCop.

I am actually dreading the fact that I told myself that I am going to watch the trilogy after seeing this one film. It’s not terrible mind you; it’s just really not worth watching again for a long long long long long long long long long time again, like when I completely forget everything about it all over again.

Now the storyline is not that great. It’s interesting enough to not want to turn it off, but if really never gets better than that. It’s about a cop who gets transferred to a really high crime rate city and he basically gets turned into swiss cheese and then scientists pick him up, robotify him and then he sets out on revenge.

Seriously that’s the story. It’s that simple, it never gets better than that paragraph right up there. I will say that the makeup was insane though. Even for its time I had a hard time figuring out (once he took his helmet off) where the actors face was, and how the hell they got the back part of his head recessed. It bothers me how convincing it is even being over 20 years old. Great job on the make up.

The acting was terrible through and through, well one guy did a great job, Kurtwood Smith or as most of you know, Red from That 70’s Show. He was the only convincing actor in the entire movie, the rest of them suck. And by suck I mean I’ve had better bowel movements than these people performed. Hell compared to some of the actors my movements were musical in nature. Bad analogy, I’m sorry, but still it feels just like that.

All in all I can see where some people would love this movie. I am one of the people that stand on the neutral line, but I would rather have done something else.

Base Score = 5
-1 for bad acting
-1for bad story
+1 for Kurtwood Smith being this movies only saving grace
=4/10

Last updated: 2010-01-21 13:38:23 by Tolll