Robocop [VHS] [1988]

Robocop is simply one of the greatest and most memorable Sci-fi movies ever made - few people know that this is actually a low budget movie and was made under great stress and difficulty; yet the final result is astonishing. The film has many layers and more depth to it than at first glance as it in fact makes for a humoristic satire of America.
And the film has not aged a single year! Coming back to it for a rewatch after many years, I was expecting to see with my now matured eyes a clunky corney looking Robocop - but no way, jose! The design of the Robocop suit, if you want to call it that, is simply awesome. You look at it as one might look at a prototype model of some new sports car from Lotus or Ferrari. And the Robotic miming of Peter Weller is spot on.
One of the greatest, most memorable simply unmissable movies of all time. A cult Classic!!!

RoboCop first burst onto cinema screens when I was just twelve years old, and 18-rated movies had all the allure of adult freedom. Of course, like many other such films, including Arnold Schwarzenegger's output at the time, the violence and swearing which earns the rating is probably of less interest to grown-ups. What impresses me now is it's lean, tight editing (easily rivalling 'Die Hard' or 'Speed'), tongue-in-cheek, though sometimes brutal humour, and simple scenario of heroism vanquishing gleeful criminality, corporate greed destroyed from the inside, and human personality winning over blankly efficient technology.

As a design, RoboCop himself is an icon, still featuring in videogames long after the end of the film franchise, but it's the constant internal presence of murdered cop Murphy which makes the character memorable and eventually overwhelms the machine half entirely. The opposititon of Murphy's wronged family man and the cackling lout Clarence Boddicker and his cohorts may strike modern viewers as stereotypical, even dangerously simplistic, but latterday action adventures are often so bogged down with pointless introspection and ruminative psychobabble that the last thing they do is entertain. It has to be said that the director Paul Verhoeven is as unsubtle as he's ever been here, and certain scenes of the movie, in particular the killing of Murphy and rival law enforcer ED-209's fatal malfunction, are violent enough to shock. The original cinema and video releases featured cut-down versions of these scenes, and it's amazing how the addition of just a few seconds can make a moment so much more unsettling.

Those who have never seen this movie don't need telling that the special effects will never dazzle in the way that modern, CGI-heavy releases do. But I for one prefer the concrete presence of latex modelled effects seen in movies which pre-date the visual revolutions of Terminator 2 and Jurassic Park. Go back and watch John Carpenter's claustrophobic classic 'The Thing': the sticky, gungey quality of its hand modelled gore, reflecting the light as naturally and solidly as the actors, has a stomach churning presence that glassy, textureless, holographic computer modelling can't (yet) hope to match. Compare it to the once awesome visuals of 'The Lawnmower Man' and decide which one now looks the more quaint. In the case of RoboCop, the straight-shooting storyline and scuzzy environments of Delta City are better served by its technical limitations. Even at the time of its release it was a fairly low-budget affair, with the largest chunk of spending going to the RoboCop costume itself.

Although I actually own the plush 'RoboCop Trilogy' package, it's this much cheaper single movie DVD that I recommend. The excellent 'making of' featurette and cinema trailers remain present, and I've only watched the inferior follow-up twice (the terrible third movie, absent of leading actor Peter Weller even less). The fact that the other two movies in the trilogy set do not come with any documenatary features should make your choice all the more clear. Spend the £20+ difference on 'Total Recall' and the special edition of 'The Terminator', and you'll have three great reasons why eighties sci-fi was so often a great thrill ride.

I haven't seen Robocop properly since watching a dodgy VHS copy at a mate's house in the early 90s, and since I've become a huge Verhoeven fan I thought it time I saw this in high quality.

And what a joy it was - the picture is crisp and vibrant, showing off the contrasts between the low-fi tv clips and the main film. Old Detroit comes alive in widescreen, showing off Verhoeven's incredible eye for a shot. The "uncut" version of the film was a revelation (though the DVD does pause momentarily as it moves to the uncut version of each relevant scene): as the director explains in the fascinating Making Of..., it's the excess of violence in the key scenes that brings the humour of the film to the fore. The cut-down version is actually more morally ambiguous, ironically enough.

The soundtrack is also good - not the most daring surround mix ever, but it definitely helps immerse you in the action, and it's a joy to hear Basil Poledouris' celebrated score in its full glory.

With a bunch of decent extras and a good documentary including some detailed interview with Verhoeven, this is an absolute steal at its current low price tag. I'd buy that for a dollar!