Robocop

1987 action movie

Rating: 12/20

Plot: Rookie cop Murphy gets all shot up by a giggling bunch of thugs in what has to be the worst first day in the history of employment. That's what you get for workin gin Detroit, I guess. He's reconstructed as a half-robot/half-Murphy by a Omni Consumer Products into a crime-fightin' machine. Fragments of memories surface, and Robocop wants revenge.

So what happens if Robocop gets shot in the lower half of his face? Seems like an attack on the mandible would do some damage. You'd think the bad guys might be smart enough to figure that out. "Hey, there's one part of Robocop that isn't covered with metal. Let's aim for that since shooting him in the chest during the last 45 minutes of this movie hasn't worked." I don't think I buy the Robocop-as-post-modern-masterpiece idea, but this is still a goofy, ultraviolent movie that manages to be entertaining enough from beginning to end. I do like some of the satirical jabs at consumerism, our violent society, progress (?), and the media, but I don't think this is cohesive or consistent enough to be taken all that seriously. I think the part where the guy drives his truck into a giant container of toxic waste might be one of the greatest moments in the history of movies made about half-robots/half-cops though. I'll give Robocop that much.