Robocop (1987) Full Review

Film Scene Investigation

Here’s my review of the film Robocop.   Thanks for watching and please subscribe. New content dropping every week.   #cultmoviereview #moviereview #movie   For Exclusive Content: https://www.patreon.com/filmsceneinvestigation  Rumble: https://www.rumble.com/filmsceneinvestigations   Odysee: https://odysee.com/@filmsceneinvestigation:e  Daily Motion: https://www.dailymotion.com/Filmsceneinvestigation

Transcript

00:12hey guys how's it going film scene investigation it's me Bo hope you're all doing well in today's

00:20review I'm going to be taking a look at a very popular 1987 movie Robocop now this was a movie

00:30that I watched many years ago when I was a kid say around 11 or 12 don't ask me how

00:39I got hold of the

00:40VHS tape I can't remember but either way I got hold of a copy I watched this movie and yeah

00:49I mean the

00:49whole thing just kind of blew me away now I will admit at the time didn't fully grasp the overall

00:59story but you know as a kid it was just great to see Robocop in action just before we get

01:07into this

01:08review guys if you haven't already please do consider subscribing to the channel all the support

01:15is greatly appreciated so Robocop from July 1987 was a movie that was directed by the Dutch filmmaker

01:26Paul Verhoeven the man behind such films as Starship Troopers and Showgirls produced on a modest budget

01:35of 13 million dollars this movie was released and went on to gross over 50 million at the box office

01:44and yeah subsequently produced two further sequels as well when it comes to the plot it centered on the

01:53police officer Alex Murphy who was played by actor Peter Weller this was a cop who worked in the old

02:01Detroit area but ended up getting transferred to a new precinct in Metro West it was a pretty chaotic

02:09environment to say the least where the cops were understaffed and undervalued but all this didn't

02:18really seem to phase Murphy at all he was teamed up with his new partner and Lewis who was played

02:25by

02:25actress Nancy Allen she didn't necessarily look intimidating but she could sure handle herself

02:34one day out on patrol the duo ended up getting into a car chase trying to apprehend a gang Murphy

02:45had two

02:46guns he was shooting yeah it was a pretty intense car chase to say the least you had this group

02:53of

02:53thugs all inside this van who had just committed a robbery they were led by Clarence Boddicker who was

03:00played by actor Kirkwood Smith and this guy had zero intention of stopping and surrendering to police

03:09anyways the chase led to Lewis and Murphy driving to this old abandoned factory where they tried to

03:19apprehend this group they made a crucial mistake in not waiting for backup they parted ways they split up

03:28and eventually Alex was cornered and gunned down he had all these guys surrounding Murphy shotguns you know

03:39pointed to his neck these guys meant business and yeah it was a very brutal scene Alex ended up

03:48at one point getting his arm shot off and uh I remember watching this as a kid and being totally

03:56freaked out

03:57I knew it was a pretty violent film but to see kind of all the just brutality that went on

04:07you know seeing this

04:09guy's limbs fall off and being shot to pieces yeah I was um it was shocking for sure yeah and

04:17when I was

04:17watching this I immediately assumed that Alex was dead you know I mean he took a bullet to the head

04:22at

04:22one point I mean it's over right but he actually ended up getting transported to hospital where he later died

04:30and at that point you think you know well that's it that's that's his story over but his body ended

04:37up

04:38getting salvaged by OCP the corporation in charge of the Detroit police force the city had given OCP

04:49full control and they were in the process of trying to find an officer to be implemented into their new

04:57robocop project OCP decided to use Murphy's dead corpse as a prototype giving him robotic limbs and wiping

05:10his memory clean Alex Murphy was now dead he was you know gone but in his place was Robocop this

05:20law enforcement cyborg ready to bring down the cryo rates in the city now first and foremost this was

05:30a very innovative movie not just with its storytelling but also with its visuals there are so many different

05:40aspects of the film I could talk about but I'd you know be here for hours so um I'm just

05:46gonna talk

05:47about what really stuck out to me the most and one of those aspects was the Robocop suit it was

05:56this

05:57armored plated steel suit with this data spike and uh a gun holder inserted into the right leg I mean

06:09you know what's not to love I remember seeing it for the first time and just being kind of like

06:15whoa you know awe-inspiring seeing this cyborg it just looks so good on screen it really did I think

06:22obviously you have to take into account the lighting which helped a long way to really

06:28kind of magnify that image of Robocop I also liked how over the course of the movie the suit you

06:38know got

06:38damaged that kind of stuff it gave um it kind of grounded the story and gave it a lot more

06:46depth

06:46to an otherwise kind of silly concept to this day I still think the original 1987 Robocop suit

06:55looks amazing you see the movie on you know 4k looks amazing and you really just have to give a

07:05lot of

07:05credit to the makeup artist Robin Botten who was in charge of creating the suit it really was quite

07:14a monumental task to come up with a design for a suit because ultimately when you think about it

07:23if the suit hadn't worked then I don't think this movie would have worked I don't think it would have

07:30enticed people to kind of see it you know it's um a lot rioted on how the Robocop suit and

07:40the aesthetic

07:40looked and uh I know for a fact that when I was a kid you know seeing posters of Robocop

07:50in Blockbuster

07:51or whatever like that seeing the VHS cover you know immediately you're just drawn to it like what the hell

07:57is

07:57that you know I need to watch that right now and um yeah so just major props to uh to

08:03Botten who

08:04yeah he knocked it out of the park yeah as I say this to you guys now

08:10it does make me think about the uh 2014 uh Robocop remake that starred Joel Kinnaman in the lead role

08:21I ended up actually going to the cinema to see that and um I remembered walking out being disappointed

08:29and my thoughts on that haven't changed I can and you know going back to my point about the importance

08:36of the suit just visually this Robocop remake it it just yeah it was terrible and the fact they went

08:44with

08:44this all black suit um it just didn't work for me and I don't think it obviously clearly didn't work

08:53for

08:54the audience because they didn't do a sequel it was kind of a one and done thing uh a box

09:00office failure

09:01and um yeah it just shows you you know I mean that that suit in the remake was more akin

09:07to something

09:07like Batman you know something that Bruce Wayne would wear I also want to mention the fantastic

09:13practical effects that were on show as it really enhanced the film's quality from the various gun

09:22battles to the huge explosions it was all you know super impressive you know what I find sad about

09:30watching Robocop now is just the whole the the efforts that went into the practical production

09:37all of that is just now gone and it's you know 21st century cinema relies so heavily on CGI

09:46um there was just something tangible about it that's now missing from uh Hollywood action films

09:53now this movie introduced a number of concepts that would seem a little bit strange for a 1980s audience

10:04but fast forward you know 40 years later and it's clear that this movie Robocop certainly predicted

10:11elements of the future that we are in now what's interesting is how this movie was meant to be

10:19a satire on American culture of the 1980s but now it seems we're more intertwined with this reality

10:31than we could we ever could have imagined you know one example of this would be a government overreach

10:38and the privatization of services the city council had given full control of police force over to a

10:48corporation who well their main priorities were making profits no one at OCP cared about the people of

11:00Detroit and their safety absolutely not they were just you know hungry businessmen who were consumed by

11:10corporate greed OCP were very incompetent you know full of corruption

11:17corporation and it's very much like corporations now in the 21st century bad decisions are made by these

11:28people that live in a bubble have no idea how the real world works and then these people are like

11:38shielded

11:38from the bad decisions that they make and they you know rarely ever suffer the consequences

11:45another example that i saw was the militarization of policing which was represented by the

11:57ed 209 robot the workers at OCP were trying to compete with one another to you know basically create a

12:10robot a cyborg that would eventually you know replace human police officers and of course that would lead to

12:18massive job losses this idea of removing human labor from the workforce absolutely rings true today as we see

12:31more and more jobs getting automated China in particular have been at the forefront of producing mechanical weaponry with

12:41its robot dogs and advanced drone technology seeing a robot dog you know with a machine gun fixed to its

12:52back

12:53that's real guys yeah this it's out there and let's be honest if we saw this robot dog

13:03it wouldn't look out of place in a robocop movie it's like reality is here guys robocop is here we

13:10are delta city

13:11and we are screwed before we get to the performances i wanted to mention the score by the composer

13:21basil poldoris it was a blend of electronic and orchestral music mixed together that um created some

13:32brilliant themes including the main title the uh the robocop theme it's very memorable you know you get

13:39stuck in your head after you've you've heard it and um i mean it just works really well very heroic

13:46kind of uh kind of theme and also some of the um slower themes in particular i really liked a

13:55lot of

13:55that stuff evokes a lot of emotion yeah poldoris just did a brilliant job it's a shame that the composer

14:04didn't return for robocop 2 even though i thought that score was okay yeah i mean you can't beat the

14:13original and at least poldoris came back for the further sequel robocop 3 as for the performances

14:22peter weller did an amazing job in the lead role playing alex murphy not only from his vocal delivery

14:31but his intimidating presence inside the robocop suit he really was just perfect for the role

14:40having re-watched this movie recently for this review yeah i stand by it and you know i can say

14:47that

14:47confidently because enough time has passed where we've had several other actors be cast in the robocop role

14:58and in my opinion nobody has outperformed peter weller he is the best he is the

15:07the de facto robocop and uh yeah i mean it's just an amazing performance he spent countless hours in

15:17makeup you know before even you know filming began so yeah it was a a huge you know commitment for

15:27weller

15:28but you know he did it he delivered and it resulted in his most famous character his most famous role

15:38nats yalla did a pretty decent job playing murphy's partner and lewis she was a woman who could take

15:47care of herself and we saw that from the introduction to the character when she was inside the precinct

15:53and beating up a criminal it was obvious she was no pushover but she was also able to retain her

16:01sex

16:02appeal i just think the characterization of anne lewis is a great example of how you can successfully

16:10you know create a strong female character without turning them into some

16:16girl boss who yeah which we see in 21st century cinema also the character wasn't one-dimensional

16:25she had layers and to that extent it was clear that she felt guilt over the fact that it was

16:32her

16:33decision not alex murphy's it was anne lewis's decision to go after bodica and his gang inside the

16:42factory they should have waited for backup they didn't and what happened happened i thought the

16:49late actor miguel ferreira did a great job playing one of these signed villains bob morton and this he

16:59turned out to be i guess for me one of the most memorable characters within the entire film he was

17:05this

17:05brash yuppie type who was the man behind the robocop project we had this subplot that involved

17:15morton feuding with his counterpart dick jones over the whole robocop situation it was the classic case of

17:24you know this new kid trying to outdo the old timers you know and with that you had morton who

17:33was climbing the ranks of ocp and well basically embarrassing dick jones in the process they went

17:43back and forth which i found highly entertaining and it perfectly captured the cutthroat nature of

17:53corporate america i also have to quickly mention one of my favorite moments it's such a small little

18:01thing but um yeah when they're assembling robocop for the first time and you have robocop you know

18:09his you know povs from his perspective and you've got bob morton you're gonna be a bad motherfucker it's

18:17just like man it's classic classic stuff as for the main villain kirkwood smith did a very impressive job

18:26playing the street thug clarence bodica now in one aspect you might not think that bodica would be this

18:36intimidating presence given his lack of size but just from his mannerisms and even the small details like

18:46the the frameless glasses that he wore kirkwood he just made it work bodica was you know really sadistic

18:56especially when he gunned down uh alex murphy inside the factory you know blowing off his limb

19:02and this guy you know took pleasure out of it um yeah just uh a very sinister but believable performance

19:11even just down to some of the small things that the character did uh like for example when they were

19:17in

19:17the drug factory and he was having a meeting with uh some dude and he ended up putting his fingers

19:24inside the guy's wine glass and then ended up sniffing it now i don't think that red wine is a

19:33good

19:33substitute for cocaine but nevertheless just little things like that that were like you know really

19:40entertaining and so dislikes for robocop from 1987 when it comes to the dislikes i'm gonna be honest guys

19:50there really wasn't anything that um stuck out to me as you can probably sense i'm a fan of this

19:57movie

19:57have been for many years and in a way that's a good thing because i've seen this i've seen robocop

20:03countless

20:03times and i still enjoy it thoroughly there's only a couple of minor things that uh i thought you know

20:13could have been improved now one of those things for me was the scene where ed 209 fell down stairwell

20:22these two cyborgs were you know fighting in the tower they're blowing everything up robocop was able

20:29to make an escape and ed 209 was stuck in the stairwell the big issue for me about that scene

20:36was the

20:37baby noises that were dubbed in to me it just uh felt uh kind of over the top and a

20:45little bit too

20:46silly now i understand what the filmmakers were trying to do here you know trying to add some

20:51levity to the situation but even as a kid i've never been a fan of that i thought it was

20:58just um

20:59yeah as i said a little bit too much guys i mean you could have just had some you still

21:04had everything

21:05going on you know the mechanical works of the legs up in the air not a problem but just the

21:10actual

21:10dubbing in of some sort of like you know baby screaming thing it just didn't work for me another

21:16dislike i have and it's not a big one but it's something that i continuously always kind of feel a

21:27kind of kind of cringe when i see it and that's the shot of dick jones falling from the ocp

21:38tower

21:39all of this came at the end of the film when robocop confronted jones he was the man behind bodica

21:48and

21:48his group so he ended up getting shot and he fell through the window but yeah we were just then

21:56given

21:56this this shot of this like low budget animation of what was meant to look like dick jones you know

22:06falling out to the ground the arms itself were way too big it was disproportioned and it really kind

22:16of looked like like an action figure or a doll or something like that as i said you know there

22:21were so

22:21many brilliant special effects and practical effects in this movie i've always saw the ending

22:29and it does kind of for me ruin that shot because it's just so it looks like yeah it's just

22:34animation

22:35it looks ridiculous and the fact that they added that shot in it actually didn't need to be in there

22:41you could have actually removed that shot still had dick jones fall out of the window and you could have

22:48just easily cut to you know robocop or the old man smiling or whatever you know he didn't need that

22:54one shot and once again for someone like me who's seen robocop countless times that to me um

23:03it doesn't improve it only gets worse you know it's like oh man just kind of like cringe uh

23:09not good not good and so ratings for robocop from 1987 i'm going to be rating this movie a solid

23:218.5 out of 10 with its layers of social commentary and the brilliant practical effects

23:31in my eyes robocop stands as one of the best movies produced in the 1980s

23:38this film of course went on to have a big success it turned into a franchise had two

23:44sequels a television show um you know i'm not necessarily surprised by that after watching

23:50robocop because i think it has a multi-layered story and so there are so many different elements

23:59that you can pick out from so when i was a kid watching robocop i just appreciated it on the

24:05surface

24:06level for what it was you know an action movie you know a cyberpunk kind of futuristic drama

24:13as i got older i started to notice you know a lot more different aspects of the film for example

24:20how

24:20it explored corporate greed and you know privatization of you know public services all that stuff as a kid

24:28you know goes over your head you don't understand it but um yeah i mean it's a film that uh

24:35it's like a gift that keeps on giving there's there's always new things to unravel and to see i think

24:41overall you know you just have to appreciate the craft behind this movie not just from paul verhoven

24:49not just from the cast but everyone involved it really was a brilliant group effort and i think even

24:59with the sequels nothing can top the original if you've seen robocop and i'm sure many of you have

25:06then please let me know your thoughts and memories in the comment section below for all those out there

25:12who haven't and i'm sure there's i mean there probably are a few of course uh if you're out there

25:17and you

25:17haven't seen this one yet recommendation from me big time you have to see this one fans of the 80s

25:24absolutely you know it's uh it's a staple of 80s cinema same as you know films like terminator for

25:31example and well that is all from me today guys i do hope you've enjoyed this review of robocop from

25:391987 i'll be back next week with another cult movie review don't forget guys if you haven't

25:46please do subscribe i really do appreciate all the support and of course guys take care

26:16so

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