I'd Buy That For A Dollar!

Robocop has always been, and will always be, a cracker of a film. At it's heart, director Paul Verhoeven created a political satire that is masked by violent, and oft hilarious, action scenes. The tagline for this movie when it came out was "Part Man. Part Machine. All Cop." If that doesn't scream 80's then I have no idea what does. When I saw this film for the first time as a child I enjoyed it for how cool Robocop himself was, but when I watch it now I can see what Verhoeven was really trying to do. He was poking fun at America's capitalism, and shows us a world where public service has become privatised and out for profit.

Imma fuck you up, creep!

Robocop was inspired by the British comic book hero Judge Dredd, and the film owe's a lot to this character, especially with the one-liners. One of my favourite things about this movie is the adverts that are shown on the television. This is where Verhoeven put's the events of the movie in context for us. You know that the movie should not be taken seriously, and it allows you to relax, and helps you to just go with all of the over-the-top action that occurs throughout. With such hilarity as boardgame "Nukem" and the ridiculousness of anti-car theft system "Magnavolt" you will be in no doubt that this film is not just the gore-filled violence-fest that it appears to be on the surface.

Paul Weller is the man who plays Robocop, and he does a great job. I'm glad they went with someone who wasn't a big butch action star as it's more impressive seeing what the skinny Weller becomes. The world in which this movie is set is a fascist Detroit, and I would definitely not want to live there. It is full of crime, corruption, and dodgy business deals. I love how the members of the OCP boardroom give zero shits when one of their members is brutally murdered by the law enforcement droid ED-209. This bumbling machine is the cause of much of the movies comic relief, but I wasn't that much of a fan.

Take your top off. You have 30 seconds to comply.

It's probably not fair to judge the film's special effect. It was 1987 after all, but it's clear as day that the effects don't hold up. The stop motion of ED-209 is laughable, and the bullet wounds are ridiculously over the top. This kind of stuff really take me out of a movie, but i suppose that it can't be helped. It's not like we'll get a remake any time soon . . .

Look, Robocop is a very cool character, and a very good satirical sci-fi action movie. It's not perfect by any means, but it is still Not That Shit.