Robocop

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Year:	1987
Country of origin:	USA
Director:	Paul Verhoeven
Genre:	CyberBobby
Starring:	Peter Weller, Nancy Allen, Ronny Cox, Dan O'Herlihy, Miguel Ferrer
Rating:	5/5
IMDB link:	http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0093870/
Tagline:	Part man. Part machine. All cop. The future of law enforcement.
Favourite line:	"You have 20 seconds to comply."

Paul Verhoeven's futuristic cop movie is a savage affair indeed.

Peter Weller plays Officer Murphy, the new guy in town, transferred in from another district. On his first day on the job in Detroit he and his partner, Officer Lewis (Allen) get on the tail of a gang of robbers, heavily armed, and follow them to a disused factory estate. They head in, electing not to wait for backup as Murphy seems keen to impress his new partner. Unfortunately for both of them, they are soon overpowered and the boys get to work on Murphy, blasting away at him in a real flinch inducing scene of gun-wielding violence.
OCP, the company that runs the city, has a top secret project in the pipeline, and Murphy, half dead, is elected as a volunteer and transformed into Robocop, half man, half machine, controlled by software and a set of directives to protect the innocent and uphold the law. But OCP did not foresee one thing: Murphy still remembers his past, however fleeltingly, and his is a tormented digitised soul.

Though dated now, particularly the stop motion effects - ED209 being the most obvious example of this - this is still powerful, evocative stuff, enhanced wonderfully by a stormingly good, melancholic score.
It's intelligent, too, with oodles of social commentary provided by both the faux advertisements and news reel footage, something Verhoeven explored again in Starship Troopers.
Weller is perfectly cast as the metallic behemoth, and Allen provides more than adequate support.
With the ever impressive Ronny Cox, we are also gifted an excellent villain, Dick Jones, all smarmy sophistication; amoral greed personified.
One of my favourite movies of them all, this is a must see for all.
Apparently a remake is in the offing, set for a 2011 release date. I dread to think....