Robocop (1987)

"Dead or alive, you're coming with me!"
Detroit City has become the number one crime-ridden capital of America, where violence and chaos rules the streets.
But one day the huge corporation known as OCP (Omni Consumer Products) suddenly decides to step in and help the local Police out, with the promise of a crime-free city.
However, the deal do come with a heavy prize, as the unlucky Officer Alex J. Murphy (Peter Weller) ends up taking part as OCP's new guinea pig after a gruesome meeting with the ruthless crime lord, Clarence Boddicker (Kurtwood Smith).
As a result, the OCP unveil their latest product, the very first crime fighting cyborg, called Robocop.
An unstoppable police officer with only three primary directive: "Serve the public trust, Protect the innocent, and Uphold the law".

I was so excited when some friends from school had got a hold of a rental VHS copy of the "uncut" edition of Robocop back in the mid 90s, but somebody must have gotten the tapes mixed up, as all we got was Robocop 3, which was like looking forward to seeing The Terminator for the first time, but ending up with Terminator Genisys, instead.
Ok, I was probably a bit too harsh on the third Robocop feature. It is bad but not that bad, in fact I rather take that one, any day than the Terminator sequels after T2: Judgment Day. 
Anyway, when we finally got to see the original, it was not the uncut version, but still it came as quite the shock, as it was still pretty damn brutal, and the death of Alex Murphy were really nasty, and Clarence Boddicker surely is among the most evil and vicious bad guys ever in the history of cinema, which is funny as he kind of reminded me of George Costanza (Seinfeld), the first time I saw it. But of course, all that was soon to be forgotten as Clarence uttered the classic lines of:
"See, I got this problem. Cops don't like me, so I don't like cops."

As in many of Verhoeven's films, the violence is all the place, brutal and it really looks very painful, and while the eye popping sequence in Total Recall seems like a horrible way of going out, I do fell a bit for "poor" Emil, who gets to meet a fate that did not give him any superpowers, instead it leads up to one of the most nasty meltdowns I have ever seen.
No CGI bullshit could ever compete against Verhoeven and his nasty, gory scenes, and when finally I caught up with the uncut edition, which felt like a lifetime (bought it in the early 00s), but still it was all worth it.

Peter Weller does a fine job here, and especially knowing that the Robocop suit, must have been a hell of job to walk around in, for several months, and if I am not mistaken, the part of Alex Murphy was earlier on planned to be given to Verhoeven's fellow dutchman, Rutger Hauer, but I think he was too tall for the suit, and they ended up with Weller instead, which turned out more than ok.

The lovely Nancy Allen plays the rookie cop and partner of Alex Murphy, who is one of the few that still is under the impression that his soul is still intact, after the brutal incident with Boddicker and his gang.

Kurtwood Smith might for most of todays generation be the grumpy but likeable Red from That '70s Show, but for me, everytime I see that show, I cannot help but think of Clarence Boddicker and what a fantastic job he did in that film. Hell, I have even forgotten about who was the bad guy in the remake, but guys like Clarence, those are not the kind of villains Hollywood seem to go for these days, that's for sure.

In other parts you have the great Ronny Cox (who does once again later on play a similar creepy bad guy in Total Recall) as the corporate megalomaniac, Dick Jones.
The late Miguel Ferrer is the sleazy but somehow likeable yuppie businessman, Bob Morton, who has a big part in making of Robocop, but once again, you don't wanna end up on the wrong side with guys like Dick Jones or Clarence Boddicker.
Daniel O'Herlihy is the "Old man", or head of the OCP corporation, and then we have the classic angry police chief, played fantastic by Robert DoQui:
"Listen, pal, your client's a scumbag, you're a scumbag, and scumbags see the judge on Monday morning! Now, get out of my police station!"

In other parts we see Ray Wise as Leon, one of most vocal of the Boddicker gang, we got Felton Perry as the OCPs very own suck-up, Donald Johnson and then Paul McCrane as the eccentric and clumsy henchman, Emil.
And I almost forgot about the awesome mechanical beast that is, ED-209.

Paul Verhoeven's explosive sci-fi/action classic (soon to be 30th years old) along with it's ultra violent and very gory special effects, hilarious one-liners, sadistic and memorable bad guys, great use of satire and one hell of a pumped up soundtrack by the master composer that is Basil Poledouris, all play an important part in why Robocop (1987 not the dull remake) still stands tall as one of the absolute best and finest action films ever to be made.