Review of RoboCop (1987) by Alden S — 28 Jul 2014

What with a 2014 version of this 1987 film now appearing at my local cinema what better excuse than visiting a film that I had never seen except from an appalling ZX Spectrum computer game!

On the whole I wasn't disappointed although parts of the film have aged since 1987. After all it is over 25 years ago at the time of this review.

Robocop is supposedly set in a future crime ridden Detroit, USA where police officers are being killed in large numbers.

Officer Alex Murphy (Peter Weller) is transferred to the precinct of crime ridden Detroit.

He is soon gruesomely murdered by a gang of 'cop killers' and in human death finds himself at the forefront of the latest fight against crime by the local police department.

The police are run by a private company, Omni Consumer Products (a glorified G4S in the UK).

The management of Omni and spate of police killings means a strike threatened police department.

The dead body of Officer Murpgy is moulded into a cyborg Robocop. The latest fight against crime.

The Robocop has a computerised memory, titanium armour plating and excellent gun skills.

However the Robocop does suffer from the odd 'seizure' as it has flashbacks of the memories of Officer Murphy, his family and events of his gruesome death.

Robocop eventually catches up with his killers however one of them Clarence J. Boddicker vindicates Omni executive Dick Jones in the murder of a young OMNI operative Bob Morton. Morton championed Robocop to the OMNI board.

The character of Boddicker consistently reminded me of motoring journalist Quentin Willson!

Dick Jones tries and fails to 'sell' his rival ED-209 crime fighting cyborg 'product' to OMNI.

Robocop eventually destroys the ED-209 cyborg with the help of military grade weopenry.

Jones meanwhile is brought to rather rough justice at an OMNI directors meeting of all places.

Robocop plays back to the present OMNI directors footage of Jones from his computerised memory vindicating Jones and eventually kills him after a short struggle.

The grateful head of OMNI asks Robocop for his name. "Murphy" is his response.

The film is supposedly set in the future. However there are scenes featuring old station wagons and 1980s TV sets. It certainly doesn't have a Back To The Future hoverboard feel!

The film is enjoyable and I will definitely check out the latest version now.

I understand why modern cash strapped studios (MGM) wanted to remake this relatively cheap 80s film.

The 1987 film was made before the rise of Computer Generated Imagery (CGI) in the film industry in the 1990s.

This is particularly evident in the scenes with the ED-209 cyborg.