My review of my favorite movie of all time, Robocop (1987)

In the future in Detroit, Omi consumer productions aka Ocpccommunications owns the city and provide technology and weaponry  even sign a contract to privatize the police force yet old detroit has a cancer, cancer is crime. Officer Alex J Murphy (Peter Weller) has been newly transferred to a new precinct and joins up with new partner Officer Anne Lewis (Nancy Allen) to go on the hunt for criminal Clarence Boddicker (Kurtwood Smith) who has been causing all kinds of crime in old detroit as Murphy gets murdered in the line of duty. He is brought back to life as a half-man half machine cyborg named Robocop who is nearly powerful as he wipes Detroit of crime within weeks. This makes chairman of Ocpcommunications Dick Jones (Ronny Cox) jealous as he's a hypocritical guy who is secretly a crime boss who is friends with Boddicker as they want to kill Roboocp and now Robocop who's human side of him starts to get haunted by memories of his murder as now he wants revenge on those who killed him.


Originally, this was gonna be a movie based on the Judge Dredd comics but the writers couldn't get the rights, so they decided to do their own thing and original creation. Writers Ed Neuermier and Michael Miner were inspired not only by Judge Dredd comics, but also after seeing Blade Runner with it's concept of a cop hunting down robots, they decided to twist the idea of having a robot cop hunt criminals even on Marvel's Rom character. They wrote the screenplay in 1984 and it was a tough sell to many studios that turned it down. Until after the success of The Terminator a year later, in 1985 the project was greenlighted for Orion Pictures who was looking for another sci-fi movie to work on.



Alex Cox who was behind Repo Man was going to direct it but dropped so. Paul Verhoeven who did art films in the Netherlands as he moved to the US to work on US productions like his first English language film Flesh and Blood which is a gritty film about the truth of medieval Europe. It didn't do well at the box-office and decided after rejecting the script judging from the title which sounded silly until his wife read it and said "this is a very funny and terrific well done script", thus Paul looked at it and was wrong about judging a movie's script by it's name and learned there's substance to the script/story than he expected.



The project was done for a budget for 13 million dollars and casting began in July of 1986, Arnold with Rutger Hauer, Arnold Schwarzenegger and Michael Ironside were considered for Alex Murphy/Robocop but then Peter Weller came along for the role and was perfectly cast. He gave a fantastic superb performance as Alex J Murphy and as Robocop. This is the role Peter Weller is best known for and will forever be Robocop, he did a terrific performance in the suit too with his body language and emotions showing this cyborg does have some humanity to him even in truly human moments we feel bad for him like his memories of his family and how he said "I can feel them but i don't remember them". It truly hits you. Nancy Allen was perfectly cast as Officer Anne Lewis as her character is one of the best female heroines on screen with Ripley, Sarah Conner and more.



Ronny Cox and Kurtwood Smith, both played scummy bad guys you really love to hate. Both did outstanding performances! Cox delivers a role as a corrupted corporate businessman co-CEO named Dick Jones. Cox was never known for bad guys until this role which he later starred in another Verhoeven classic Total Recall and more. Kurtwood Smith plays one of my fave bad guys as he maybe a scumbag but yet you can't help but wanna party with this guy.



The film opened up in theaters 33 years ago and became a surprise box-office hit and one of the years highest grossing films and earned critical acclaim. Robocop became an instant part of pop culture since then and became one of the greatest sci-fi motion pictures of all time. It spawned sequels, a remake, cartoons, a tv show, video games, comics, merchandise and more.

What is there to say about this Sci-fi action masterpiece from 1987? it's a classic and one that resonates with me all the time. I saw this movie in theaters when i was 5 years old with my 12 year old big brother, 15 year old bigger brother and my parents. It kicked major ass! and i had some action figures of this movie when i was 6, comics even Marvel's comics to Terminator vs Robocop when i was a kid, and i watched/taped the sunday morning cartoon of Robocop. He's been one of my fave movie characters since and my one of my all time fave movie! i even bought it on video at age 11, bought the 2-disc DVD in 2007 and now have the 2-disc limited edition blu-ray.


The performances by the other supporting cast is fantastic as well even Daniel O'Herihy as the old man Miguel Ferrer as Bob Morton and more. The practical effects by Rob Bottin is just fantastic even the stop motion effects on ED-209 by Phil Tippet, great visuals and all that 13 million dollars spent well. Even quality nonstop bloody action and there is some shocking scenes of gory violence even in the director's cut as originally this movie was going to get an X rating by the MPAA but some scenes got cut and had refilming of different angles. But luckily in 1995, Criterion released a laserdisc of the director's cut which the MPAA didn't want you to see. It's also a hilarious satire on corporations, yuppism and greed and it's scary that it predicted Detroit getting bankrupted and even corporations taking over some things. It's why it's stood the test of time as it's still relevant on it's ideas of corporations and all.



It combines action, Sci-fi, satirical comedy, drama and blends all drama in a delicious puree. It even makes you feel sorry for Robocop as he's getting his humanity and memories back even in that dramatic sequence when he is going to his old house where his wife and son left as he gets memories back. Even that line "I can feel them, but i don't remember them". Peter delivered emotions in that make up and suit he was wearing, it's that terrific of a role.



The script is very witty, grueling and well written with the unique hilarious satire thrown in even with the fake commercials during media newsbreak sequences to memorable lines like "bitches leave" to all the way to "I don't want to hear anymore talk about strike! we are not plumbers we are police officers and they don't strike!". Not to mention, a well done story that delivers all the goods and still is a classic to this day and will continue to be a classic as it's not just a must own and see for action and science fiction fans but also for movie lovers.



The blu-ray from Arrow in it's 2-disc limited edition offers exclusives like poster of the iconic film poster with stills even a neat booklet on the history of this movie even how it became a pop culture iconic film. Even fantastic PQ on the director's cut from 2013 which was supervised by Paul Verhoeven and the theatrical cut as both offer terrific PQ as you can see detail as you'd be hard to be convinced the movie was made in 1987. It also includes the TV version which was seen on syndicated TV and other channels plus extras like TV version/theatrical comparison, directors'cut/theatrical comparison, censored versions of some scenes from ABC's premiere version, commentaries, interviews, featurettes, discussion panal, trailers, TV Spot, deleted scenes and more. Totally lightning in a bottle.

My rating: Five out of five stars (a classic).