I'm guessing that pretty much everyone over the age of 18 (Give or take) knows the movie RoboCop. If not, shame on you. To me, RoboCop is one of the most iconic action films in the history of action films. It was also the very first action flick I ever saw.
For the poor few who've never seen it or heard of it, here's a quick recap of the story.
Crime is at an all-time high in Detroit and the police is just about ready to strike. Two officers, Alex Murphy (Peter Weller, RoboCop) and Anne Lewis (Nancy Allen, RoboCop) manage to track down crime-lord Clarence Boddicker (Kurtwood Smith, RoboCop) and move in to arrest him. During this arrest, Murphy gets murdered by Boddicker's goons.
Instead of burying the man and be done with it, a young go-getter, Bob Morton (Miguel Ferrer, RoboCop), at OCP (Omni Consumer Products, kind of like Umbrella Corp. from Resident Evil) manages to use Murphy for his Future Cop programme, in an attempt to one-up his older OCP colleague who designed a giant, two-legged death-machine by the name of ED-209 for the same programme that aims to help the police force to uphold the law.
So, Morton manages to transform Murphy into the RoboCop, a half-man/half-machine android super-cop who starts kicking names and taking ass as soon as he is booted up.
There's just one glitch; he still has memories from his past life as Alex Murphy, so he starts a personal vendetta against Boddicker for murdering him and thus leaving his wife and son behind. When he finally confronts Boddicker, we find out that there's way more behind everything and that there's a conspiracy going on behind the scenes that leads all the way to the top of OCP.
Also, RoboCop and Ed-209 duke it out in one of the most awesome scenes ever.
RoboCop was directed by the legendary Paul Verhoeven, the Dutchman who can also add Total Recall, Basic Instinct, and Starship Trooper to his list of achievements. That should already speak for something.
Much like James Cameron, Verhoeven isn't one for deep dialogues and lots of character development, but rather goes where the action is. The same goes for RoboCop. There's plenty of well-known actors in this film, alongside plenty of lesser-known actors, but the acting in general isn't what you would call the stuff of legends.
But that's okay.
Remember, this is RoboCop we're talking about. It's like Terminator, but with a helmet and a different storyline. Okay, so maybe not a lot. But it's like Terminator in that the action sequences are awesome as all Hell and that there's a ton of legendary catchphrases, starting with the one titling this review.
Another great part is the satire this film lays on America. Everything, from the commercials on TV to news broadcasts to the OCP organisation to the cars and guns used in this alternative reality are so far over the top that it loops back to being awesome again. The sheer stupidity of that show with the guy going "I'd buy that for a dollar!", and the fact that everyone finds this hilarious is just one of the many winks at the TV-addicted, brain-dead society of that (and perhaps even this) age.
Like I said, RoboCop was my first real action film, so I might be biased, but it's an undeniable fact that this film is a classic when it comes to '80s pop culture, just as much as Alien, Gremlins, Back To The Future or Terminator.
