Your Move Creep!

Thank the Dutch for Paul Verhoevan! Without him the late 80’s and 1990’s would be very, very dull indeed having provided us with delights such as Starship Troopers, Total Recall and Basic Instinct. His first U.S. effort was a classic straight out of the gate. RoboCop is an ultra-violent, darkly satirical, science fiction, crime thriller that is pretty unique amongst films the preceded and followed it….and that includes the disappointing sequels and TV shows. In what is basically a Jesus Allegory Android tale, the tightly structured origin story follows Police Officer Alex Murphy as he is gunned down on duty and resurrected as a robotic law enforcer for a corrupt and all powerful corporation.

RoboCop is fast paced, very funny (in a mean-spirited, black humoured kind of way), is filled with exhilarating, self contained action sequences and has a touching central plot of a man trying to re-establish his identity. On top of this Frankenstein’s monster tale of vengeance you’ve got layers of razor sharp satire which are highlighted in the commercials that punctuate the TV airwaves and in the politically correct way that Robo is programmed. It presents a decaying urban landscape where greedy corporations exploit every level of society via fraudulent government weapons contracts to partnerships with the local crime bosses as well as lowest common denominator television and a society on the brink of anarchy. It’s not far off the truth to be fair.

Peter Weller gives a soulful, introspective performance as the title character while Ronny Cox and Kurtwood Smith are never better as the two punch villains of the piece. Basil Poledouris’ score shouldn’t be under estimated either as it gives the darkness a much needed larger-than-life feel which feels into the over the top gore and twisted humour on display. An out and out classic that the 2013 remake is going to have try very hard to try and measure up to.