'Robocop' was made by Paul Verhoeven, who had been an arty, envelope pushing Dutch director before coming to America, seemingly to make dreck, but he retained a subversive spirt. I only saw 'Starship Troopers' I think last year, I was impressed with its sarcasm and satire, that is plenty present here as well.
As the title suggests 'Robocop' is about a robot cop, well really a cyborg cop. Peter Weller is killed by bad guys and a corporate behemoth brings him back to life, kinda. He's lost his sense of identity but his former partner (of the better part of a day) manages to bring it back out in him. The action story is standarish, but the spirt in which it is rendered is kind of special.
'Robocop' saves the day from an evil business guy, but he remains at the end of things still their property, forced to conform to some pre written directives imbedded in his code. The only reason that Robo was even able to kill the bad guy is that the bad guy's boss fired him as soon as he was taken hostage, since he was then no longer an employee he was fair game.
The satiric news cast bits sprinkled throughout the picture, some of them delivered by real life anchorwoman Liza Gibbons, are the best parts of this movie, and of course are reminiscent of the propaganda broadcasts in 'Starship Troopers'. ***
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