• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

Happy 30th Anniversary to one of the GOAT - Robocop (1987)

1 of the 4 greats from the 80s

Robocop
Aliens
Predator
Terminator

Where's Rambo?

Oooo, do tell.

During the Q&A section, the question before mine was asking for their opinions on the remake. Nancy Allen more or less said she appreciated what it was trying to do, but just ultimately didn't have the same social significance that the original did, and felt "incomplete".

Weller on the other hand went on a tangent about World War 2, Regan-era politics, Cold War, and other stuff that was very long winded only to make the point that he didn't like the film. He was asked later on to expand on if it should've ever been remade in the first place, then Weller started ranting like a madman. The most I remember was him calling it a piece of shit with no real message, and to "quit asking me about the fucking remake" in those exact words. Most people got real silent after he said that.
 
Think I'm gonna rewatch the movie today.

rRuC1pc.jpg

q4F9Zcq.jpg
 
Hollywood doesn't deserve Verhoeven. He made some great films and all they remember is fucking Showgirls which he only did to fulfill a contractual obligation with Carolco after they torpedoed Crusade.


Watch Elle though if you haven't. One of last years best films.

Yeah, I definitely need to get on watching Elle. Kept forgetting about it.

I was one of the few that actually liked Showgirls (not because of the nudity). It's so gloriously trashy, that I can't help but love it.
 

Daffy Duck

Member
Where's Rambo?



During the Q&A section, the question before mine was asking for their opinions on the remake. Nancy Allen more or less said she appreciated what it was trying to do, but just ultimately didn't have the same social significance that the original did, and felt "incomplete".

Weller on the other hand went on a tangent about World War 2, Regan-era politics, Cold War, and other stuff that was very long winded only to make the point that he didn't like the film. He was asked later on to expand on if it should've ever been remade in the first place, then Weller started ranting like a madman. The most I remember was him calling it a piece of shit with no real message, and to "quit asking me about the fucking remake" in those exact words. Most people got real silent after he said that.

Amazing. I can fully understand his response.

I couldn't tel you a single thing about the remake. Totally forgettable.
 

Sephzilla

Member
The first roughly half of the remake is okay, albeit slow and forgettable. The problem is that the movie goes to shit after he returns to Detroit. All of the OCP OmniCorp people involved with RoboCop start making really dumb decisions that only happen in order to give Murphy and his wife something to be pissed about for Act 3. Weller is right in the sense that the remake has pretty much no message behind it. It's a movie that completely misses why the original movie worked and it's kind of the poster child for unnecessary remakes.

The movie manages to waste the talents of Michael Keaton and Gary Oldman. And Sam Jackson starts off as a decent side character but his role in the movie goes off the deep end into the realm of being completely unbelievable. (The remake is so forgettable I actually forgot Sam Jackson was in it).

In the remake's defense, it's still better than RoboCop 3
 
I couldn't tel you a single thing about the remake. Totally forgettable.

True story: when the remake was on Netflix, I figured "why not"? A few minutes in, I realized I'd seen it before. But I figured I'd only seen the beginning since I couldn't remember the rest.

That persisted all the way through the film: I kept thinking "I've only seen up to here". Nope. I'd seen the whole thing and forgotten it all.

That almost never happens to me. Usually, I can remember not only whether I've seen a film, but where and with whom.
 
Everyone share your story of how you first saw this at way too young an age.

My first time watching it was a slightly edited version on ABC in 1988. But my parents decided to let my brother and I watch the R-rated version later because all they were concerned with was us seeing any female nudity. After that, I immediately rented the Robocop NES game, parent started buying me all of the Robocop toys, I watched the Robocop cartoon, and was obsessed with the character. I was about 9 years old at the time.

I lost my fucking mind when watching this happen as a kid. This was my first pop-culture exposure to Robocop.

giphy.gif
 

Sephzilla

Member
Everyone share your story of how you first saw this at way too young an age.

I was, I think, 5 or 6 years old, and was bored out of my mind one summer afternoon. So I browsed through my dad's VHS collection, found RoboCop, and threw it in. Mom found out what I was watching a ways in but didn't bother turning it off because she could tell I was into the movie.
 
I was, I think, 5 or 6 years old, and was bored out of my mind one summer afternoon. So I browsed through my dad's VHS collection, found RoboCop, and threw it in. Mom found out what I was watching a ways in but didn't bother turning it off because she could tell I was into the movie.

I was probably around the same age, my dad had a habit of recording movies that would air on TV, so for the longest time the robocop I remember was the one they edited for TV. It was still really violent, but it had fewer squibs (like editing out murphy's hand getting blown off, you saw the gun go off and it cut to murphy's face).
 

Venture

Member
Go Robo!

Love this movie. It's one of the first I snuck into the theater to see, I would've been 14 at the time. I used to draw ED-209 all the time at school. Such a cool design.
 
Watched this movie 30 tines at least.

I prefer the dubbed pg13 version.

Dick Jones: "We used to call the old man funny names: IronButt, Bumblar, sometimes we even called him..... a lot worse"

The dubbing on this film is GOAT!!!
 
Man Robocop and Robocop 2 are amazing.

I love this film so much.

Didn't even watch the remake because it looked like a piece of shit.
 
Everyone share your story of how you first saw this at way too young an age.


I remember my friends and I seeing the poster art and the ads on tv during its theatrical run and wanting to see it but being far too young to see it in the theatres. When it came out for VHS rental at the tail end of 87, my friends dad rented it for us to watch along with The Lost Boys and Predator and while they all were great films, Robocop was the coolest of them.


Looking back at 1987, that was amazing year for boys who loved R rated films. We got Robocop,Predator, The Lost Boys, Nightmare on Elm Street 3, Lethal Weapon and The Running Man
 
I was 10 when I watched this. It was on VHS and holy shit. It's scared me to my bones.

Dear GAF in 1987 the world was a different place. Shit like aliens and predator and Robocop was an 18 in the UK or R elsewhere.

Picture the scene. Sat in my 1980's lounge (que stranger things and ace music) and dad left this rental lying around.

I was scared. The pee pee scene and shooting of the hand was nuts. The melting toxic waste and running over scene.

Still like Lasy come home (GAF lasy is a dog) I had to watch till the end.

Luckily after all the stress and strain our hero wins.

This movie was the first to shock the shit out of me. These days GAF snuff is instantly available on a phone shared via wataspp.

I lived in the slow days and perhaps better days.
 
Still a fantastic film. The social satire is brilliantly done, and Verhoeven was the perfect choice to helm the film.

The franchise isn't great as a whole, but I do sorta enjoy Robocop 2 as well. It's meta and self-aware of itself, think of it in the veins of Chainsaw 2 and Gremlins 2 (same year), only not as clever or as hilarious as those films.

As for the remake, it has it okay moments, but a lot of it is just bland and forgettable. Good cast, but it just doesn't do anything, so meh.
 

Tom Nook

Member
Everyone share your story of how you first saw this at way too young an age.

Vaguely remember being 5 or 6 watching this on VHS. That toxic scene scared me for life

giphy.webp
.

Rewatched it at 13 with a better understanding of it and loved the everything about it (story and action). I started to quote this movie a lot.
 

EGM1966

Member
Pretty much perfect film. Can't think of a thing I'd change or a sour note throughout quality wise.

Sure even at the time the odd special effect looked a little off but they suit the tone and style so much it doesn't matter.

Can't believe they remade it completely unecessarily but whatever.

The original remains a gem. A super violent, wonderfully clever and satirically brilliant gem.
 

Thriller

Member
I always refer to Robocop as the movie that hardened me for life. I saw it when I was 8 (when the legal age to watch it was 16) and this movie gave me bad dreams but made me crave more :p
The execution scene, the acid guy the malfunctioning droid at the start, sheiiitt I need to watch it again soon :D
 
'Gimme a piece!'

'Cops don't like me, so I don't like cops.'

'You know those things'll kill you?' 'Yeah. You wanna live forever?'

'I like it!'

'Dick, you're fired!' 'Thank you!'
 
"Frankie blow this cocksuckers head off"

"Ooh guns guns guns. Come on Sal, the tigers are playing toooonight. I never miss a game"

"Just kidding"


"Come quietly or there will be trouble"

"Ohhhh fuck you"



"Don't you get it, you cocksucker. I work for Dick Jones. Dick Jones. He is the number 2 guy at OCP. OCP owns the cops. You're a cop."
 
What's really interesting about that movie is the whole arc of Robocop slowly turning back into Murphy. God damn what a great movie. Top 5 ever easily for me.
 
Amazing. I can fully understand his response.

I couldn't tel you a single thing about the remake. Totally forgettable.

No characters, no scenes, no lines, no action, no violence, no fun, no story. It really is purified fucking nothing. Everyone involved in making or watching it wasted their time.
 
"Just give me my fucking phone call"

Fun fact #1: The scene where Clarence spits blood on the police counter wasn't actually in the script. He came up with it on the spot, and the actors reactions to it were real.

Fun fact #2: Dick Jones' secretary that Clarence Boddicker hits on was actually Kurtwood Smith's real wife.
 
Top Bottom