Robocop

Hey gang. Back again. So my interview with Christine Nguyen was a great success, she was a total sweetheart and again I had fun chatting.   So I am going over my various write-ups to find I haven't tackled a franchise that hails as far back as 1987. It's odd. I have referenced it, done a review on a spin-off created, hell I managed to sit through the horrific animated cartoon but never the original source material. So let's head away to a dystopia Detroit with one of the first cyberpunk stories since Blade Runner. This is Robocop.

Gun pulls a bit to the right.

In the not too distant future...where have I heard that before?  Anyway, Omni Consumer Products, a corporation has purchased the city of Detroit and will demolish neighborhoods to make for building Delta City. The crime rates are at an all-time high and something has to be done. Vice President Dick Jones (Ronny Cox of Deliverance, Beverly Hills Cop, Total Recall, Spawn, Stargate SG-1, The Agency and The Starter Wife) alongside Security Concepts brings the ED-209, an urban pacification droid that...has a few glitches. Mass production, 20 years of parts and labor and would put Jones higher up the food chain.

Junior VP Bob Morton (Miguel Ferrer of DeepStar Six, Miami Vice, Twin Peaks, Another Stakeout, The Stand, Superman: The Animated Series, Jackie Chan Adventures, Crossing Jordan and Young Justice) jumped at this chance and pushed his Robocop project. A cybernetic construct of man and machine to create the perfect police officer. Now all they need is a volunteer.

Officer Alex Murphy (Peter Weller of The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8^th Dimension, Robocop, A Killing Affair, Naked Lunch,The New Age, Batman: The Dark Knight Returns: Part 1 and Part 2) is just transferred to the worst district in Detroit and is teamed up with Officer Lewis (Nancy Allen of Home Movies, Dressed to Kill, The Buddy System, Blow Out, Robocop, Poltergiest III, Acting on Impulse, The Patriots and My Apocalypse) are teamed up and dealing with a heist.

Topher Grace gets a little annoying.

Leader of said bloodthirsty and money hungry gang, is Red Forman??!!! I mean Clarence Boddicker (Kurtwood Smith of Robocop, Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country, The Zeta Project, That '70s Show, Broken Arrow, Medium, 24 and Hitchcock) were drug dealers, thieves and cop killers. So yeah Murphy and Lewis need to take this seriously. Everything goes pear shaped, Lewis gets knocked out and Murphy gets shredded by shotguns.

With a finite amount of time on life support, looks like we got a volunteer. Morton proves worth his salt (GET IT??!!) and his crew go to work rebuilding Murphy into the first Crime Prevention Unit. With his family unaware of this, they live with the loss of their husband and father and must move on.

As Robocop, he is prepared to taking out drug dealers, prevent murders and rape with ruthless efficiency.  Running into one of the gang that took his life making his prime directives and human memories having conflict.   Can Murphy figure out who he is?  Will he avenge himself all the while carry out the law?

A combination of cyberpunk, 80s corporate greed and commercial and action of gore. This movie now deemed an example of classic Sci-Fi action. Highly quotable lines and plenty of references made from it. We have TV personalities such as the up to date news anchors and the ridiculous game show host Bixby Synder, who would buy that for a dollar.   Cheesy commercials for current American vehicles, the SUX.  Guessing it's a gas guzzler.

This movie spawned two sequels, a live-action TV series, a mini-series called Prime Directives and two cartoons and the 2014 remake. More merchandise ranging from toys, models, T-shirts and other such memorabilia.

Hell, Robocop had a modern era appearance in WCW wrestling. With this much marketing around one character is similar to the likes of Batman and Spider-Man. At one point Marvel Comics made a comic book of it but could not manage the level of violence. So with that in mind, Dark Horse Comics took over the title and brought it's fair share of mini-series and crossovers.

There's that pigeon that crapped on me. You're going down!