Description: There's a new law enforcer in town and he's half man, half machine! From the director of Total Recall and Basic Instinct comes a "sci-fi fantasy with sleek, high-powered drive" (Time) about an indestructible high-tech policeman who dishes out justice at every turn! When a good cop (Peter Weller) gets blown away by some ruthless criminals, innovative scientists and doctors are able to piece him back together as an unstoppable crime-fighting cyborg called "Robocop."Impervious to bullets and bombs, and equipped with high-tech weaponry, Robocop quickly makes a namefor himself by cleaning up the crime-ridden streets of violence-ravaged Detroit. But despite his new, hardened exterior, Robocop is tormented by scraps of memory of his former life, and relives vividnightmares of his own death at the hands of the vicious killers. Now he is out to seek more than justice...he wants revenge! "Fast, furious and entertaining" (L.A. Daily News), Robocop is "a fiercely paced action film" (Screen International) that doesn't let up on the thrills.
Amazon.com: When it arrived on the big screen in 1987, Paul Verhoeven's RoboCop was like a high-voltage jolt of electricity, blending satire, thrills, and abundant violence with such energized gusto that audiences couldn't help feeling stunned and amazed. The movie was a huge hit, and has since earned enduring cult status as one of the seminal science fiction films of the 1980s. Followed by two sequels, a TV series, and countless novels and comic books, this original RoboCop is still the best by far, largely due to the audacity and unbridled bloodlust of director Verhoeven. However, the reasons many enjoyed the film are also the reasons some will surely wish to avoid it. Critic Pauline Kael called the movie a dubious example of "gallows pulp," and there's no denying that its view of mankind is bleak, depraved, and graphically violent. In the Detroit of the near future, a policeman (Peter Weller) is brutally gunned down by drug-dealing thugs and left for dead, but he survives (half of him, at least) and is integrated with state-of-the-art technology to become a half-robotic cop of the future, designed to revolutionize law enforcement. As RoboCop holds tight to his last remaining shred of humanity, he relentlessly pursues the criminals who "killed" him. All the while, Verhoeven (from a script by Edward Neumeier and Michael Miner) injects this high-intensity tale with wickedly pointed humor and satire aimed at the men and media who cover a city out of control. --Jeff Shannon
Amazon.com: When it arrived on the big screen in 1987, Paul Verhoeven's RoboCop was like a high-voltage jolt of electricity, blending satire, thrills, and abundant violence with such energized gusto that audiences couldn't help feeling stunned and amazed. The movie was a huge hit, and has since earned enduring cult status as one of the seminal science fiction films of the 1980s. Followed by two sequels, a TV series, and countless novels and comic books, this original RoboCop is still the best by far, largely due to the audacity and unbridled bloodlust of director Verhoeven. However, the reasons many enjoyed the film are also the reasons some will surely wish to avoid it. Critic Pauline Kael called the movie a dubious example of "gallows pulp," and there's no denying that its view of mankind is bleak, depraved, and graphically violent. In the Detroit of the near future, a policeman (Peter Weller) is brutally gunned down by drug-dealing thugs and left for dead, but he survives (half of him, at least) and is integrated with state-of-the-art technology to become a half-robotic cop of the future, designed to revolutionize law enforcement. As RoboCop holds tight to his last remaining shred of humanity, he relentlessly pursues the criminals who "killed" him. All the while, Verhoeven (from a script by Edward Neumeier and Michael Miner) injects this high-intensity tale with wickedly pointed humor and satire aimed at the men and media who cover a city out of control. --Jeff Shannon
A Leftist Shoot'em Up. Funny, Bloody, and Slyly Serious. But Who Would Have Thought? "RoboCop" has the distinction of being a leftist shoot'em-up, which might be why the film attained instant cult status when it hit theaters in 1987. It has lots of bloody action, cool-looking technology, and skewers the ideals of Reagan Republicans. Kind of like "Rambo" for liberals. Detroit, Michigan of the near future is overrun with crime, and the city has hired Omni Consumer Products (OCP), a private enterprise, to manage its police force. OCP's vice president Dick Jones (Ronny Cox) has high hopes for a problematic ED-209 enforcement droid to augment the police force. But up-and-comer Bob Morton (Miguel Ferrer) has a better idea: A cyborg that incorporates the corpse of a deceased cop, retaining his instincts, increasing his firepower, and programming his directives. When Officer Alex Murphy (Peter Weller) is murdered on the job, he is transformed into RoboCop.
"RoboCop" is one of those liberal movies that even conservatives admit they love. It's a violent, bring'em-to-justice action movie but also an anti-privatization tract. Elements within OCP are corrupt, working unscrupulously to create a need for their product in order to sell it. The company is at odds with the Detroit police force, which is threatening to strike. And RoboCop is just an enhanced version of a corporate drone, stripped of his own identity and programmed so that he may become "product". OCP is planning a huge industrial complex called Delta City that will provide 2 million much-needed jobs, but the script even manages to spin that unfavorably. One may or may not agree with its sentiments, but the sheer quantity of socio-political commentary that screenwriters Edward Neumeier, Michael Miner, and director Paul Verhoeven were able to pack into the film amazes me.
Black comedy, gory action, and RoboCop's sympathetic nature make it all watchable. RoboCop's monotone statements remind me of a mechanized Dirty Harry. They evoke both sly laughter and vengeful approval. But RoboCop is victimized by forces he cannot control and that he struggles to understand. His simple mind is compelled to cope with dirty politics and unscrupulous profiteering. The audience sympathizes with that. Leeza Gibbons makes a semi-cameo as a newscaster whose reports allude to many hot political topics of the 1980s, as do fake commercials that interrupt the news. In fact, there are so many references to then-current events -nuclear arms race, toxic waste, SDI, the Jarvik heart, urban violence- that it feels like a trip back in time to my high school government class. "RoboCop" is simultaneously over-the-top and sly, and it's still fun.
The DVD (MGM/Orion 2001): I'm reviewing a bare bones edition of the film, whose only bonus feature is a theatrical trailer (1 1/2 min). Subtitles are available in English, Spanish, French. Dubbing available in Spanish and French. If you would like an audio commentary and the longer, more graphically violent "director's cut" of the film, you will need the out-of-print Criterion Collection disc (1998).
Robocop is a classic! This 20th anniversary edition of "Robocop" is very well done. Not only is there a beautiful version fo the original theatrical release, but the director's cut is included as well. The special features were great in they included featurettes from 1987 and new interviews and retrospectives recorded for this release. I found the dicussions of the special FX techniques used then and how things would be achieved differently with today's technology to be very interesting. "I'd buy that for a dollar!"
Don't be fooled by the cover. (BD Review) Even though this shares the same cover as the 20th Anniversary DVD, none of the features are carried over with the exception of a theatrical trailer. Other than that, the only plus side is that you get the high def movie. However, the movie itself isn't the best transfer job I've seen. I've seen older movies transferred better. Don't get me wrong, it's decent-but I personally feel that it could be better. To put it simply, unless you are a huge Robocop fan, don't bother. Any DVD version of this movie that you have will do the job.
One of the Best Loved it when I was a kid that was really too young to be watching this kind of movie and love it still as an adult who watched it last night. Its amazing how well this movie holds up. It some instances you realize its from a different decade, but for the most part it could have been shot today and seemed very relevant and styled for the present day.
I won't get into the details of the plot or acting, but I'll say if you like action movies that don't pull any punches when it comes to violence while at the same time using that violence effectively to tell a story, you'll enjoy this movie. It may seemed dated, but it has moments that strike a cord perhaps even more so today than it did twenty years ago when this was "science fiction". Now it just seems like this could happen any day now.
Peter Weller Nancy Allen & Paul Verhoreen in the directors chair deliver This was a favorite of mine when I was a kid yes it's a violent movie but hey I seen it in 1997 and but was unfortunate enough to see the 2nd movie first infact I was 7 or 8 when I saw it and I also seen Terminator 1&2 when I was 10. But this film is about a cop who is gunned down by a gang lead by crime boss Clearance Bodicker played by Kurtwood Smith he gets away with anythiing becuse he's protected by Dick Jones played by Ronny Cox. He's a corprate head who even kills a corporate VP out of jelousy becuse Ropocop is cleaning up the streets he used to be officer Alex Murphy he is played by Peter Weller his former partner Ann Lewis played by Nancy Allen tries to help him remember he is Alex Murphy he starts to figure out he was once human. This Blu Ray released has the more violent death of Murphy and a more violent death of an OCP employee by ED 209 because he's a piece of Junk that's faulty. Easy 8.5/10
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