EARLY ACCESS: RoboCop

Those bastards!!!

Alexander Fish

If you'd seen E.T. as a child you might now have a different opinion. It was all about how a child copes with divorce with E.T. being a substitute for the missing parent.

Alexander Fish

It's better than ET though and you seemed to enjoy this one actually

Mr Marvelous

I saw this in the theater when it premiered and it was the goriest, bloodiest movie I’d ever seen. Your reaction was mine all those years ago.

Clarences mix tape!

Brett Delbridge

Excellent choice... a great 80s movies, that holds up well.

Manuel Johnen

"The Hidden"(1987) is a great cult sci-fi/action flick that could be worth a look

Paul Johnson

I'd still recommend Total Recall by the same director. but different type of story.

stephen phillips

It's assumed.

Kenton Kruger

I like First Blood I can't call it Rambo. It was a very smart action movie that blurred the lines between whose good and whose bad. And works because John Rambo is very human. In the following Rambo movies it's pure bullets and explosions and Rambo is an unstoppable action figure sort of character. For me she could watch First Blood and skip the rest.

Mark Sylvester

I must have imagined stuff in my memory about this movie. I thought Murphy got medical help for Nancy Allen's character before the boardroom showdown.

Mark Sylvester

OK! Time to get to business, add Rocky, Rambo, Conan, and Terminator to you list! Or, not… it’s cool.😁

Ullatec

Important take-aways: 1) introduction to Peter Weller, 2) introduction to Nancy Allen, 3) Ashleigh already knew about Kurtwood Smith from That 70's Show,

JHB

We didn't see her die, just complain about being "messed up".

Thomas Yanez

I don't think Lewis die.

David Diesbourg

The movie is elevated when you recognize the satire Verhoeven brings to movies like this and "Starship Troopers", but without that perspective, I can see her point.

Thomas Yanez

I’d buy that for a dollar!

Bobby Bates

"Lewis Bodaker" Wow. Clarence Boddicker...

Manuel Johnen

There is interesting imagery in the film. Murphy is a Christ figure who is tortured, dies, and is resurrected in a more powerful form. In the junkyard, Boddaker stabs Robocop in the heart with a steel pipe, reminiscent of how you kill a vampire. Robocop is, after all, an undead creature.

Gordon Davis

Film reacts to color different than the human eye. For Robocop’s suit to look silvery metallic on film, it was in real life painted a green color. When Boddaker asks Dick Jone’s secretary if she can fit him in, later on those 2 actors dated and got married.

Gordon Davis

You corporate sickos, you killed Kenny !!!

Gordon Davis

I remember watching this on regular cable TV and it was always hilarious how they would dub in alternate words. The guy robbing the convenience store with the safe would say "forget me, forget, me, forget me" as he shot at Robocop.

Thomas Ivie

Or, you know, on Criteron Collection or Blu-Ray editions as the Director's Cut. She watched the Director's Cut, btw.

Thomas Yanez

Never mind, a quick scan of the YouTube cut shows it's the Director's Cut. This ought to be interesting.

Thomas Yanez

Theatrical, Director's Cut, other...?

Thomas Yanez

Showing a guy getting blown to pieces with a shotgun... no problem. Somebody saying the word "motherfucker"... beeped out. America... :)

Manuel Johnen

"RoboCop" honestly may be one of the best movies ever made...

Manuel Johnen

The special effects in this movie are amazing, what are you talking about...?

Manuel Johnen

This was normal back in the 80's. Lots of violence and bad special effects.

Keith Boyd

You seem to be struggling with your feelings regarding the movie. Just like RoboCop.

Murf

I love this movie, saw it in the theaters as a kid and was blown away. Such a cool concept in the 80s. Ashleigh you’re breaking my heart hating on my childhood 80s movies ☹️☹️

Vicky phillips

Ashleigh, I'm so glad you disliked it as much as I do. 😄

Andy H.

Fun Fact: The initial cut of Robocop was Rated X. They had to edit it down for the theaters. You can now find that cut online I believe.

Steven A Martinez

I still use "I'd buy that for a dollar" to this day and hear it from other people from time to time. I'm disappointed you didn't like this one, but that's just like, your opinion, man.

Thomas Ivie

How will she react to the opening scene?? 🤯

Thomas Ivie

As others have mentioned, Lewis lives to be in RoboCop 2 and 3, and Murphy sees his family again in 2. The second is even sillier, and the satire largely falls apart, but it has some amusing moments. The third is nearly unwatchable.

Tyler Foster

*Paul

Tyler Foster

The movie is commenting on corporate interests encroaching on public service, and society as a whole. The police being owned by a corporation corrupts them, because the corporation can then create directive 4-style fail-safes to protect them from prosecution. It also means that the cops are then subject to corporate whims, such as budget cuts and corporate pay disputes, which is why they talk about going on strike. Human life is merely a commodity they trade and cash out on the corporate ladder to the top, like Bob and Mr. Kenney. They try to take it a step further by turning a literal human being into a literal product, and it doesn't work, because the human in the product still has free will. As for the silliness, it's intentional; the creators' basic logic seems to be that heady sci-fi concepts will go down easier and/or be more successful with bigger audiences if they're also action packed and silly. "Satire of consumerism" might sound a bit dry, but maybe less so if it comes in the form of a robot cop.

Tyler Foster

I find it funny how this movie doesn't work as well as it did at the time, mostly because compared to modern stuff it's not that over the top, which was its selling point. However, since that's the future it predicted, the more accurate it is the less successful it is.

Kenton Kruger

And Lewis was a mess...but she lived to see the sequel

Paul Johnson

Really curious what you would think of Total Recall (the original) and Starship Troopers. Dick Verhoeven's style is... unique.

Robert 'Jemimus' Kloosterhuis

Toxic Avenger time

David Harrison

Great review. This is one I am glad I watched but not a big repeat factor. I would love to see you watch Judge Dredd (original) with Stallone and then the new one and compare and contrast. More goofy sci-fi nonsense. A 1000 word essay will be due at the end. Sorry my old teaching days coming out.

MrBamaRed

Another great review. I remember when I first watched this as a kid I was like 11. I can't remember if it was VHS or cable. LOL those were state of the art graphics back in the day. And at the time this was the future 😂. This movies is set 7 years from now making the 86 Ford Taurus Police cruiser of choice. "I'd buy that for a dollar"

Mike Johnson

💔

Gemma Clement

"Dick....you're FIIIRED!" "Thank you!" I love that part too! Can't wait to do the watch along later! :)

Paul Johnson

This IS a Paul Verhoeven flick, so the gore and blood and guts is pretty normal. Total Recall and Starship Troopers are two films you might wanna watch of his.....also, the way a hand grenade works is the fuse gives the end user 3 to 5 seconds to do something WITH the grenade and then hopefully be out of the kill radius......

David Bennett

“Fever dream”? Let me put it like this. I understand why folks like this, but it’s not in my film library.

Richard Meyer

A great movie. I saw it when it first came out. I have it on my DVR so I will do the watchalong later today.

Bill Bevins