Plot
In a dystopic & crime ridden Detroit, a terminally wounded cop returns to the force as a powerful cyborg with submerged memories haunting him.
Release Year: 1987
Rating: 7.5/10 (77,575 voted)
Critic's Score: 67/100
Director:
Paul Verhoeven
Stars: Peter Weller, Nancy Allen, Dan O'Herlihy
Storyline Detroit - in the future - is crime ridden, and run by a massive company. The company have developed a huge crime fighting robot, which unfortunately develops a rather dangerous glitch. The company sees a way to get back in favour with the public when a cop called Alex Murphy is killed by a street gang. Murphys body is reconstructed within a steel shell and named Robocop. The Robocop is very successful against criminals, and becomes a target of supervillian Boddicker.
Writers: Edward Neumeier, Michael Miner
Cast: Peter Weller
-
Officer Alex J. Murphy
/
RoboCop
Nancy Allen
-
Officer Anne Lewis
Dan O'Herlihy
-
The Old Man
(as Daniel O'Herlihy)
Ronny Cox
-
Dick Jones
Kurtwood Smith
-
Clarence J. Boddicker
Miguel Ferrer
-
Bob Morton
Robert DoQui
-
Sergeant Warren Reed
Ray Wise
-
Leon C. Nash
Felton Perry
-
Johnson
Paul McCrane
-
Emil M. Antonowsky
Jesse D. Goins
-
Joe P. Cox
(as Jesse Goins)
Del Zamora
-
Kaplan
Calvin Jung
-
Steve Minh
Rick Lieberman
-
Walker
Lee de Broux
-
Sal
(as Lee DeBroux)
Taglines:
Part man. Part machine. All cop. The future of law enforcement.
Trivia:
The shoot-out at the cocaine factory was not originally intended to be so fast-paced. The automatic guns used in the scene kept malfunctioning during filming. Most camera shots didn't provide more than three seconds of usable footage, because most guns were usually jammed by that time. This necessitated quick cuts during editing, which proved to be advantageous for the scene.
Goofs:
Revealing mistakes:
When Robocop is having his "nightmare", he thrusts his head backward several times, during which you can see the actor's neck between gaps in the neck-piece, rather than the pistons we see later in the movie (when he takes off his helmet).
Quotes: Clarence Boddicker:
[stabs Robocop in the chest with metal rod]
Sayonara, Robocop!
[Robocop stabs him in the throat; Clarence screams in pain as he staggers away and collapses]
User Review
The mix of science-fiction, action and social satire is just brilliant!
Rating: 10/10
The success of this movie can be credited to one man; Paul Verhoeven.
His special touch of violence, gore and social satire make the movie
more than just your average B-movie, with a lame title and simple story
and characters. Yes, without Verhoeven this movie seriously would had
been nothing more like another B-movie on par with
science-fiction/action movies like "Timecop" and Albert Pyun movies.
The main story of "RoboCop" itself is simply and not that complex,
however Verhoeven manages to put many different layers for the story as
well as the characters in the movie. The social satire in the movie
works out brilliantly and is what makes the movie perhaps more
entertaining than thrilling or tense. Especially those typical
Verhoeven news sketches are brilliant! But also those who will not be
able to understand or fully appreciate the social satire elements in
the movie, will have plenty to enjoy while watching this. The action
itself is top-class and the characters are fun as well as cool. RoboCop
himself looks awesome, both in his movements and the way his costume
looks. Oh and of course I may not forget his awesome gun!
The movie is not only filled with some typical Verhoeven social satire
elements but also with some trademark Verhoeven gore and violence. The
way Murphy gets killed is very graphic and disturbing. But as always in
most Verhoeven movies is the case, the violence is so over-the-top that
it's not really shocking to look at but almost more comical like
because it's just so over-the-top. Especially what happens to Emil at
the end, the gore is way over-the-top there and I absolutely love it!
In a movie like this the characters are also always important.
Especially the villains and yes, "RoboCop" has some highly entertaining
and good villains. The group of Clarence, Leon, Joe and Steve are a
bunch of entertaining, charismatic stereotypical villains. But also the
more educated villains like Dick Jones (Ronny Cox) and Bob Morton (a
very young Miguel Ferrer) who also isn't a very nice person. But also
the mechanical villain ED-209 is extremely cool and dangerous looking.
The stop-motion effects for him are of course heavily outdated this
days but it takes away nothing of his threatening appearance. All of
the character are entertaining and well developed. Characters also
worth mentioning are The Old Man (Dan O'Herlihy) who plays the
president of OCP and you can tell by his face gestures that he's not
very pleased with the direction Dick Jones is heading towards with the
company and Johnson who is always smiling. And of course let's not
forget Bixby "I'd buy that for a dollar!" Snyder, he's a real classic!
They should given that guy a real show on TV.
Also the musical score by Basil Poledouris is what helps to make this
movie a very memorable one. Poledouris delivers one of his best works.
When will he finally get some more attention from the big awards? He
has made some great stuff but he rarely has won anything of importance
with it. A bit of a disgrace for such a wonderful composer.
All in all this is a brilliantly entertaining science-fiction/action
movie that simply is perfect in every way, mainly thanks to Verhoeven
his input.
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