ROBOCOP (1987) DEAD OR ALIVE...YOU'RE COMING WITH HIM !

DIRECTED by Paul Verhoeven.

SCREENPLAY by Edward Neumeier & Michael Miner.

STARRING  - Peter Weller as Alex Murphy/Robocop,  Nancy Allen as Anne Lewis,  Daniel O'Herlihy as "The Old Man",  Ronny Cox as Dick Jones,  Kurtwood Smith as Clarence Boddiker,  Miguel Ferrer as Bob Morton,  Paul McCrane as Emil Antonowsky,  Ray Wise as Leon Nash,  Jesse D. Goins as Joe Cox,  Calvin Jung as Steve Minh.

PLOT  -  It is the near future and society is on the brink of collapse. In the city of Detroit, crime is running rampant and the police are overwhelmed, understaffed and outgunned. The mega corporation, Omni Consumer Products is granted control by the city over the police department.

During a board meeting, OCP'S senior president, Dick Jones unveils his solution to the prevailing state of lawlessness - the hulking robot, ED209 - an armed response killing machine. During this meeting, ED209 malfunctions and kills a staff member, as a result of this the project is shelved. An ambitious, young rising star in the company, Bob Morton, proposes a solution...the Robocop programme. The project aims to turn a human being into a cyborg policeman. A perfect cop who will be stronger, faster and more resilient than a normal human cop. The project is given the greenlight, now all Bob needs is a subject to perform his cyber conversion upon...

Alex J Murphy is a young cop who has just been transferred to Detroit. He is a family man, a loving husband and father with a fervent desire to protect the innocent. Murphy and his partner, Anne Lewis, intercept master criminal, Clarence Boddiker and his gang in the process of a robbery. Pursuing the gang to thier lair, Murphy is captured, tortured and killed. Bob Morton now has his test subject...

Murphy is resurrected by technology and becomes Robocop - part man, part machine, ALL cop. A hyper efficient law enforcer. Soon criminals everywhere are quaking in fear at this new arrival on the city streets. However Murphy's memories of his human life are returning, and soon Robocop is on the rampage looking to avenge his own death and take down those responsible...

DIALOUGE  - TV advert - "I'd buy THAT for a Dollar !!!"

Robocop - "Dead or Alive. You're coming with me !"

Clarence Boddicker (upon walking in on Bob entertaining two hookers) - "Bitches. LEAVE !" (He then proceeds to brandish an Uzi at them.)

PERFORMANCES  - There are a host of memorable performances in this film which serve to seal its iconic status. Peter Weller gives a great performance as Murphy/Robocop. As a normal human cop he seems like he's a nice guy just trying his best in a bad situation. The archetypal "good cop". When he's transformed into Robocop he becomes an intimidating mechanical presence. Weller portrays this transformation brilliantly with his precise, machine like movements. Another thing which aids the believability of this man to machine transformation is Weller's own actual face. With his lean, angular features, Weller already looks somewhat android like anyway, put that face into that robot costume and you've got a man who was born to play a vengeful cyborg. The fact that he does it so well is just the iceing on the cake, particularly in the scenes when the man hidden inside the machine starts to break through and emotions and memories start to show themselves once again on that cold, dead face.

Kurtwood Smith as Clarence Boddiker makes a great screen villain. He's slimy, obnoxious, utterly without any morals whatsoever and he gets all the best lines too. You'll hate his guts and want to see his comeuppance but you'll also find yourself laughing with him at the same time. Smith as Boddiker must surely rank as one of my favourite movie villains.

Miguel Ferrer is always brilliant at playing funny arseholes with a dry sense of humour and he brings this talent to the role of Bob Morton. Morton is a corporate slimeball with no reservations about pushing other people under the bus to achieve his own advancement up the ladder. Unfortunately for Bob he comes up against an even bigger shark swimming in the commercial sea - Dick Jones, played by Ronny Cox. Jones is even slicker, even slimier, even more ruthless than Bob. Cox literally seems to ooze across the screen in this role, slick and unctuous with a hint of steel. Jones is the true villain of this film, the spider at the heart of the corporate web. Dick by name, Dick by nature...

Mention of Ferrer brings to mind an observation I made whilst watching this film. Ferrer went on to appear in the TV series 'Twin Peaks' playing another funny, dry arsehole, Albert Rosenfeld. Two other future 'Twin Peaks' actors also appear in the cast - Ray Wise as gang member Leon Nash and Dan O'Herlihy as "The Old Man", the CEO of OCP. Both are good in thier roles here, as indeed, they where in 'Twin Peaks'. So there you have it - 'Twin Peaks' is basically a 'Robocop' cast reunion. Maybe Alex Murphy had a predilection for black coffee and cherry pies before he got transformed into a man/machine hybrid...

Rounding out the excellent ensemble cast is Nancy Allen as Lewis. Here she portrays a tough, likeable cop. Robocop's partner and only true friend in the world. It's a heartfelt performance and she's a good female protaganist that you'll find yourself rooting for as she bravely comes to her friend's aid and helps him on his mission of personal vengence.

SFX - Lots of convincing fake blood, some jerky but somehow apt stop motion animation for ED209, and the brilliant make up effects on Weller's face when he takes his helmet off and you see his human face welded to his machine head.

SEX & VIOLENCE - Robocop is a very violent film. From the brutal murder of Murphy to the assorted shootings, beatings and explosions that occur with outstanding regularity. This film is relentless.

A stand out moment is when ED209 guns down the executive in the boardroom meeting. The bloke literally comes apart at the seams and it goes on for ages, he must take about a hundred bullets into his body...

Another memorably horrific scene is when gang member Emil drives his van into a vat of toxic waste and climbs out of the wreck as a mutated, shambling melting man...

It's a great piece of makeup work and truly disturbing. Emil proceeds to shamble about, shrieking in pain. He then ambles up to Ray Wise, scares the shit out of him and then blindly stumbles into the path of an oncoming car. What happens next just beggars belief...

SPLAT !!!!  It's both hideous and hilarious. I don't think I've ever seen ANYONE get it so bad in a film before or since.

RATING  - There where a lot of raised eyebrows and concerns about the level of violence in 'Robocop' at the time of its release. I think the problem arose from the fact that it was marketed as a kind of sci-fi superhero film. I think a lot of people went into the film expecting it to be more kid friendly, instead they got this big budget exploitation movie with men being splattered by cars and people getting limbs blown off. Thing is, the violence is so O.T.T that you have no choice other than to engage with it on a purely comic book level.

That's precisely what this film is - it's a big gaudy comic book with lashings of black humour and violence, coupled with a satirical undertone. Rumour has it that 'Robocop' was originally going to be a 'Judge Dredd' movie, however, the studio couldn't get the rights to the 2000AD strip, so they made this instead. As I said, this is just a rumour, but if true, it would certainly make a lot of sense. The influence of Dredd and 2000AD in general is all over this movie. The TV news broadcasts and adverts that pop up during the course of the film are particularly redolent of 2000AD's brand of satirical humour. Director Paul Verhoeven was to use this narrative device of darkly humourous commercials interspersed with the action once more in his later film - 1997's 'Starship Troopers'.

'Robocop' is a great film. If you're looking to watch something with fast paced action, insane amounts of violence and a wicked sense of humour, then look no further.

5 cyborg cops out of 5.

Don't worry Ray, thing's will get better. In three years time you'll be seeing demons in your mirror and wrapping your murdered daughter in plastic...