Robocop (1987)

Aw man Robocop! It's a cop who's also a robot! Yeah! My second Paul Verhoeven movie this month (and ever), Robocop introduces us to a vaguely futuristic, crime-laden Detroit, run by the corrupt Omni Consumer Products. This company develops a powerful robot, hoping to use it to deter crime, but it just ends up killing an executive at a big meeting. OCP is all "oops!" and decides to instead turn to its new cyborg program, operated by asshole Bob Morton (Miguel Ferrer). When Officer Alex Murphy (Peter Weller) is killed by supercriminal Clarence Boddicker (Kurtwood Smith) and his gang, he's brought into the program and becomes ROBOCOP, a dude with primarily robotic body parts, a computer brain, and no apparent memory of his former self.

His efficiency and awesome powers certainly curtail criminal activity in the city, but the police department resents OCP's extreme presence. Murphy's old partner Anne Lewis (Nancy Allen) is concerned for his lost humanity and does her best to remind him of his past, despite the corporation's strict regulations against communicating with him. Eventually he discovers what Boddicker did to him, and commits himself to stopping the baddie's violent activities for good. I wonder if the dual villains of Boddicker and OCP will turn out to be related somehow? Hmm.

There's a lot of grittiness going on in this movie; Verhoeven does an excellent job of really showing how hopeless, dark, and dirty a city can become without a cyborg around to dispense justice. There's a lot of great action sequences and the world felt fully realized. I think the story was a little uneven; it has a lot going on, but not all of it is necessary, so I felt like certain aspects could have been given more focus. I didn't really need all the corporate intrigue stuff at OCP, for example. But generally it's very entertaining, and knows when to be serious. The stop-motion battle robots are a bit silly in their design, though. I mean, they can't even handle stairs. They're like cows.

Peter Weller is really, really good here. I've been fan since my love of The Adventures of Buckaroo Bonzai Across the Eighth Dimension began in high school, but I hadn't seen him in much else. Considering he's in a full body suit and helmet for most of the film, I was pretty impressed with his abilities. He's got great robotic movements and an appropriately stern mouth, and somehow manages to emote while keeping me convinced of his machine-ness. I liked Kurtwood Smith as the bespectacled and gleeful villain as well.

Basically: Robocop is pretty rad, and proves the old adage "Every movie is made better when it has a robot and/or cyborg in it". I liked it a lot, but wasn't blown away.

4/5

PS. This movie gave me two of my new favorite catchphrases: "I'd buy that for a dollar!" (what does that mean? I have no idea) and "Excuse me, I have to go. Somewhere there is a crime happening." Hell yes.

My original art for this film is for sale as a print and a shirt.