RoboCop (1987) – He’s a Real Boy

I’m so excited! And it’s all because of the game Nukem: “Another quality home game. Get them before they get you!” Isn’t that the most awesome game? You can practice dropping nuclear bombs on other countries if they don’t do just what you want them to do. Bombs away! Now, this is a made up game from Robocop even though it may seem real with the way society is. Robocop has a lot of news segments about how much crime there is in the world and the other bad happenings going on. Then they topped it all off with the Nukem commercial. It seems like people viewed the future world bleakly in the ’80s before 24/7, Internet, and face to face conference calling. I’m glad a lot has changed since then.

RoboCop is here to serve and protect you. When there’s no more hope, just hope a little more and maybe RoboCop will be there save your ass. A police officer, Alex Murphy (Peter Welker), gets killed while he’s busting a gang for robbery. All the while Murphy is getting bullet holes installed into his body, his partner Anne Lewis (Nancy Allen) is taking a nap. Just kidding, but she isn’t there in time to save Murphy. So, they take the most logical next step: they turn him into a cyborg. Lewis tries to convince RoboCop that “he’s a real boy” through the rest of the movie.

images

There are a lot of slow points and talking, but RoboCop does mess some people up as well. It gets pretty just brutal, enough to keep me from completely snoozing, but it’s more of a commentary on American society in the 80’s than it is an action movie.

Time until initial action starts: ~ 5 minutes

Time until real action starts: ~ 16 minutes

Big Bad Baddies: OCP Senior Vice President Dick Jones and his minions

Best Line: “Dead or alive, you’re coming with me.” I think Murphy means business.

Best Kill: A bad guy gets covered with a toxic chemical. It is so toxic that he starts to…melt. His skin turns mushy and droopy. He is trying to find some neighborly soul to help him when finally his fellow baddies come to his rescue. One of the other baddies is driving a car and runs right into the melting guy. The guy liquefies and splatters all over the windshield. The other baddie just turns his windshield wipers on and keeps going. Now that is a real friend.

Best Explosion: A baddie is spewing gas all over a gas station while Robocop is after him. A cigarette gets thrown onto the fuel and explodes the whole station and all the pumps, and then some.

Action Rating: 2 Robocops with childbearing hips, out of 5

This is the Action Flick Chick, and you’ve just been kicked in the ass!

Robocops with child bearing hips

Illustration by Alex Langley. Rocket Llama World Headquarters.

Share

About Action Flick Chick

Action Flick Chick Katrina Hill, author of the books Action Movie Freak and 100 Greatest Graphic Novels , learned to appreciate all things action at a young age by sneaking into the room while her two older brothers watched action movies and horror. At ActionFlickChick.com, she shares her love of these films with everyone, along with interviews, news, and whatever else she happens to choose. G4TV crowned her their Next Woman of the Web champion, and she co-hosted MTV Geek’s live Comic-Con coverage. Her articles have appeared at sites including MTV.com, io9.com, Arcade Sushi, and Newsarama. Follow her as @ActionChick on Twitter. Base of operations: Dallas, Texas. Favorite Movie: Tremors (1990).
This entry was posted in * all movie reviews *, 2.0 kabooms, action, movie, R-rated, science fiction and tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , . Bookmark the permalink.

5 Responses to RoboCop (1987) – He’s a Real Boy

  1. Coop says:

    I saw “Robocop” in the theater back in 87 and it blew me away. Only years later did I get the biting satire that Verhoven would re-implant in “Starship Troopers” and “Total Recall.” They involve tales of heroism in neo-fascist, self-destructive societies; something that Verhoven knows a lot about growing up in Nazi-occupied Holland. What I like so much about his action movies is how they challenge us to root for protagonists that aren’t really good guys. They are violent tools of the fascist society. We only root for them because the other bad guys are worse. Being a huge fan of the anti-hero, I can dig it. What I can’t condone is Robocop shooting guys in the dick. That’s just not cool. NOT COOL!

  2. Pingback: » RoboCop (1987) – He’s a Real Boy

  3. Reel Whore says:

    I’ve always had a special place for Robocop in my heart. The gooey explosion of bad guy is just classic. Watching ED-209 malfunction in the board room is brutal. Love the commercials; the SUX and the ever popular “I”d buy that for a dollar!” It’s a flick I’ve always got time to sit down and watch.

  4. Pingback: » This Week at Rocket Llama!

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *