Since I was born in the late seventies, I missed a lot of classic movies as a kid and in the eighties there just weren't made that many excellent movies. But if you ask me to name on of the movies that I saw then and which I still like, than chances are that it will be this "Robocop". It looked great back then, but still hasn't lost any of its power today.
In a futuristic Detroit, violence is everywhere. The police department isn't able to react in a proper way and every week several officers get killed in the line of duty. But a private company called OPC may have come up with an excellent alternative for a police officer. They have developed E. D. 209, a powerful and huge crime fighting robot that can be used 24 hours a day. The only problem is that the robot doesn't always do its task correctly and sometimes shoots an innocent man. So it isn't used and the human cops will have to keep doing the dirty work. While Officer Alex J. Murphy goes on his first patrol, he is ambushed and shot by the feared gang leader and cop killer Clarence Boddicker. In the hospital they try to save Murphy's life, but when that appears to be impossible, his body is used by OPC to develop an entirely new robot. They use him to create the much better RoboCop. He is very successful against criminals, but when memories of his former life begin to surface, he starts looking for revenge...
I guess that many people who now see this movie for the first time might say that some special effects could have been better. Especially the scenes with the E. D. 209 don't always look perfect (as long as it stands still, it all looks OK, but when it moves you see that the special effects weren't what they are today). Personally I didn't really have any problem with that because I kept in mind that this is still a movie from 1987. Let's be honest, in 20 years time today's special effects will probably look dated as well. But a good thing about this movie is that it didn't just rely on its special effects. The story is more than OK, and even though written almost two decades ago, still looks futuristic enough to be believable. A good thing about the story is also the fact that they don't mention a date. Some eighties Sci-Fi movies say: 'in the year 2002...' Back then that may have felt futuristic, special and believable, but when you see it today, you know that it wasn't like that at all in 2002. But what would a good story be without some good directing and acting? Absolutely nothing. It wouldn't be the first movie to fail completely because one of those things wasn't exactly great. But not in this case: Paul Verhoeven established his name in Hollywood with this movie (which is completely understandable, although he never came up with another movie that great.) and actors like Peter Weller and Nancy Allen also did a very good job (although they too weren't able to come up with another excellent project).
In the end this is a Sci-Fi / action movie that really stands out above the average movie in the genre. Normally I'm not a fan of this kind of movies, but this time I'm willing to make an exception. The acting and the directing were very good, the story still feels futuristic enough and believable... That's why I give this movie a 7.5/10.
In a futuristic Detroit, violence is everywhere. The police department isn't able to react in a proper way and every week several officers get killed in the line of duty. But a private company called OPC may have come up with an excellent alternative for a police officer. They have developed E. D. 209, a powerful and huge crime fighting robot that can be used 24 hours a day. The only problem is that the robot doesn't always do its task correctly and sometimes shoots an innocent man. So it isn't used and the human cops will have to keep doing the dirty work. While Officer Alex J. Murphy goes on his first patrol, he is ambushed and shot by the feared gang leader and cop killer Clarence Boddicker. In the hospital they try to save Murphy's life, but when that appears to be impossible, his body is used by OPC to develop an entirely new robot. They use him to create the much better RoboCop. He is very successful against criminals, but when memories of his former life begin to surface, he starts looking for revenge...
I guess that many people who now see this movie for the first time might say that some special effects could have been better. Especially the scenes with the E. D. 209 don't always look perfect (as long as it stands still, it all looks OK, but when it moves you see that the special effects weren't what they are today). Personally I didn't really have any problem with that because I kept in mind that this is still a movie from 1987. Let's be honest, in 20 years time today's special effects will probably look dated as well. But a good thing about this movie is that it didn't just rely on its special effects. The story is more than OK, and even though written almost two decades ago, still looks futuristic enough to be believable. A good thing about the story is also the fact that they don't mention a date. Some eighties Sci-Fi movies say: 'in the year 2002...' Back then that may have felt futuristic, special and believable, but when you see it today, you know that it wasn't like that at all in 2002. But what would a good story be without some good directing and acting? Absolutely nothing. It wouldn't be the first movie to fail completely because one of those things wasn't exactly great. But not in this case: Paul Verhoeven established his name in Hollywood with this movie (which is completely understandable, although he never came up with another movie that great.) and actors like Peter Weller and Nancy Allen also did a very good job (although they too weren't able to come up with another excellent project).
In the end this is a Sci-Fi / action movie that really stands out above the average movie in the genre. Normally I'm not a fan of this kind of movies, but this time I'm willing to make an exception. The acting and the directing were very good, the story still feels futuristic enough and believable... That's why I give this movie a 7.5/10.