There's nothing better than a movie reactor who gets this film. You said it in the very beginning the perfect mix of satire and seriousness, campy. People who pick up on this, such a joy to watch. This is the perfect 80s violent movie with a message, warnings of the dangers of evil corporate greed, wuth philosophy about what it is that makes us human. One of the best movies ever, in my top 20 for sure.. Retro dystopian future action!
His pre-American work is fanastic, as well. The 4th Man, Turkish Delight, Spetters etc. Aside from Basic Instinct and Showgirls, Verhoeven always kills it.
As a kid in the 80s-90s watching this I loved the violence, but coming back as an adult I now appreciate the biting commentary on corporatism run amok.
Classic movie in every sense of the word. I remember Murphy's death scene giving me nightmares for a couple of weeks 😂. The satire is nearly unmatched as well.
Such an awesome movie, glad you liked it Jimmy. A thing that might go under the radar on a first or second viewing of this is that Bob Morton talks about having the police department restructured to place prime candidates according to risk factor. So not only did Murphy get killed in the line of duty, he was put in a position to be killed and then denied the right to die. He lost everything to become something he never asked for, because of a vague clause buried in a contract all officers had to sign to work, all so some suit could make money and prestige off his corpse. The only positive in any of it besides Robocop being a badass, is that somewhere in there Murphy isn't all gone.
It struck me that when Boddicker and his gang shoot up Murphy, and cause all that pain and suffering, it could be kind of a crucifixion moment and then Murphy is resurrected as Robocop. It wasn't much more than a fleeting idea I had but then when we see Robocop walking on water at the abandoned steel mill at the end...
9:39 - Robocop pulling the guy through the wall...I noticed in the first Iron Man movie, Iron Man does that to one of the Ten Rings guys. I wonder if it was an intentional nod to Robocop? And you might notice in Robocop when the thug robs the convenience store, as he walks in he grabs a comic book off the rack and throws it down on the counter. What comic book? An issue of Iron Man. Whoa...
To what you said about this possibly being a comic book movie.. this was originally supposed to be an adaptation of 2000AD's Judge Dredd but they couldn't acquire the rights, so they reworked the story. Both worlds share many similarities. The sequel "Robocop 2" was written by legendary comic book writer Frank Miller and while not as good of a film as the original, it's absolutely insane, hilarious and great in it's own way! Hoping to see your reaction to the sequel and "Starship Troopers" if you haven't seen that one yet!
No need to explain. We all love that movie because it is perfection. I loved how you said after the first glimpse of violence....this is the directors cut..... all of that violence is in the original :)
The Jarvick heart was named after Dr. Jarvick that developed an artificial heart in the 80s and the Lee Iaccoca Elementry School was named after a famous auto executive in Detroit.
"Maybe you could fit me in" is one of the greatest pickup lines ever. Can't imagine I would ever use it, or that it would ever work, for ANYONE, EVER. But still.
Listening to the story of how this movie came together, it's amazing how they planned on playing it to where robocop walked and moved as quickly as a regular person and costume problems had the actor reworking all that and slowing it down and exaggerating his movements.
You showed a tiny clip that most people don't process when they see this movie, where Bob says the "prime candidates" in the police force have been reassigned according to risk factor. That means that Murphy being transferred from a relatively nice part of town to this precinct was a set-up by OCP to try and get him killed so they could turn him into Robocop. Just shows you Bob and Dick are pretty much equally terrible people.
I watched this for the first time a few years back, expecting it not to live up to its reputation, and was blown away by how good it is. There's a fantastic song called '20 Seconds to Comply' that samples this film too.
Always great to see someone "get" this movie right off the bat. Theres another reation channel I saw a few weeks ago where a guy who shows his wife movies... and she not only hated this movie, but just mocked it mercilessly, saying there wasnt one entertaining thing in it. How... the holy fuck... can someone not find one thing entertaining about Robocop? If my (theoretical) wife had that reaction to Robocop... divorce papers are getting drawn up in the morning, cause we will clearly not agree on a damn thing.
Most folks only care about this as a unrealistic scifi action flick with weird jokes... not as a satirical fairytale that explores and critiquingly mocks human choices in a nuanced manner about giving up autonomy to privatisation and tech and about human attention deficiency. And as such it is masterpiece of tight storytelling. Including a totally underrated performance by Weller for embodying the highly skilled movements. Sci fi action is the motiv it is situated in. It works as entertainment and as meaningfulness.
Imagine a time, when within a little less than 18 months, all these came out.... Aliens, Predator, Cobra, Robocop, The Running Man, Full Metal Jacket, Lethal Weapon, and the Untouchables. What a great time it was....
My friends worked on RoboCop - they made the robot , which they dubbed “ The Chicken” and offered it to me . I had a large warehouse space in SF during the mid 80s - it was made of PVC pipe and silastic for the “skin “ . It was about 10” tall , quite large , so while I liked the idea - pretty cool - I didn’t want the responsibility of having it , so I passed on the offer . Probably worth a lot of $$$ today !
4:05 Bob says they've re-structured the police and placed potential candidates for the robocop project just as Murphy is transferred in from 'Metro South' where it's assumed he didn't have to work for a living.
I've said it a thousand times, Kurtwood Smith makes an excellent villain and is, IMHO, the secret sauce on screen here. If I were in the business, I would be writing roles specifically for him. Don't get me wrong, I always love seeing Miguel Ferrer, Ronny Cox, and Peter Weller (even Ray Wise, though I think he's under-utilised in this role) when I turn on RoboCop. But I keep returning for the answer to that eternal question, "Can you fly, Bobby?"
My favorite movie of all time and I watched it as a kid on release. And I watched thousands of movies and world cinema. This is an all time great. Watch Total Recall, the spiritual sequel to Robocop.
Nawp. Saw this in theaters as a kid and Kinney's death is exactly as gory and graphic in the regular theatrical cut. Thas just standard '80s R-rating, baby. (I think the main difference is Murphy's dismemberment, of his right arm from the shotgun blasts, is much more obvious vs. it being kinda implied.)
I assumed the main difference in the director's cut was more of the world-building ads, not the violence. Maybe...SLIGHTLY less violence. But the movie wouldn't be the same without ED going haywire.
I think some of the effects held up perfectly. ED 209 looked horrible when the movie first came out. So much so that I always thought it was intentional. And Dich Jones falling didn't really look all that much worse than Hans Gruber. Slow it down a little, set it at night and add the more dramatic music...
Easily in the top 10 movies of all time. Ray Wise (Leon) played Alec Holland in Swamp Thing, and Nicholas Worth who was his co-star in that film was in Liam Neeson's Darkman. Now take a look at the 3 movies and see if they do not have any similarities 😀
I love watching reaction videos to my favorite movie RoboCop and I've noticed a pattern that most people bring up while watching. "How is Murphy still alive." First and foremost, he had a vest on which, for lack of a better term "Lessened" the severity of the shotgun blasts, albeit not by very much. Secondly, the human body doesn't react like it would in movies. The body can actually sustain tremendous injuries and people still survive. Headshots, while not rare and not common are survivable. There was a Congresswoman named Gabby Gifford who was shot in the head at a political rally some ten years or so ago. She lives to this day with maybe some memory loss and facial paralysis but she is alive. When President John F. Kennedy was shot, even though he ultimately died, was showing signs of life after being shot. I'm not sure if it was breathing or a heartbeat which is why an effort was made to save him. The same thing goes for the character of Murphy in RoboCop. He had to be showing some signs of life for him to be transported to the hospital. Speaking of the Hospital, the Doctors and Nurses that were working to save Murphy's life were actual off duty hospital staff. The director wanted authenticity and so real medical staff were hired. Everything the Doctors and Nurses say is real. They just gave them a rundown of the situation and told them to do what they would if it were a real man dying on the table.
5:30 Murphy and Lewis are TERRIBLE COPS. The dispatch said over the radio it was just 10 minutes for backup - that’s not that long…just wait. They go in and SPLIT UP?!?! Then Lewis is such a perv she just has to take a peek and gets herself knocked out… just… just awful
You should react to the film “Of Unknown Origin”. Another early Weller film where a giant rat has moved into his house and he goes absolutely nuts trying to kill it. Honestly a lot better than it sounds. Same director as TOMBSTONE.
One of the rare instances where the Director's cut doesn't detract from the original Theatrical experience. All you really get is a few moments more extended gore here and there. Even though not as expertly crafted, RoboCop 2 is an absolute blast and highly recommended! Then just leave it all right there because it's done. 3 and the remake are atrocious and miss the point of the source material for commercial appeal. Pure diluted garbage. Anyway, great reaction, that was fun!💖
If you want a violent movie put ninja assassin on the poll ,my dad took me to the theater when it came out ,i was 9 years old and il tell you its one of the most traumatizing movies to see as a kid
The only thing that bothers me now might be that the man at the top, Dick, doesn’t get as grisly an ending as the people lower down. Or maybe that is calculated, seems more heroic on Robocops part.