Review of RoboCop (1987) by Nick O — 04 Feb 2014

REWATCH: The future didn't have flying cars, or time travel. Instead it had widespread poverty. Crime small-scale and corporate at large. NSA spying. Politics as celebrity and vice versa. Mostly it's baffling the '80s had Paul Verhoeven's masterpiece "RoboCop" when even by today's standards it's surprisingly spot-on in its satire and wicked commentary. It also represents the opposite of everything that's wrong with most mainstream action/sci-fi movies today. You feel every lick and lash of violence in "RoboCop". Not just a timely concept or gimmick, Verhoeven's film is a true landmark for pairing story with spectacle instead of clobbering its audience with either moral heavy-handedness or waves of cheap computer effects.

Unlike his ludicrous follow-ups -- "Total Recall", "Basic Instinct", "Showgirls", "Hollow Man", "Starship Troopers", etc. etc. -- "RoboCop" isn't a buffet of mock filler and melodramatic cheese. Believe it or not, it's high art. Yeah, really. Punchy, prescient, and damn entertaining, "RoboCop" -- like "Blade Runner" and "The Terminator" -- remains a cultural touchstone both for its visual aesthetic and forward-leaning parable of strategic militarism as rampant bureaucratic consumerism. Of course it was remade as something sexy, sleek and modern. Hollywood always buys in bulk. "RoboCop" didn't have to predict that. (95/100).