Over the Cop

If you've been to my blog this week, you've seen me gush about the Alamo Drafthouse, which I experienced for the first time when I went to see a screening of Robocop. The experience was great, but what about the actual film?

I have seen Robocop once before, but it had been long enough that my memory of the film wasn't that strong. My expectations were virtually reset. I really liked director Paul Verhoeven's Total Recall, but frankly hate the film that many consider to be his masterpiece, Starship Troopers. And let's face it, Robocop hews much more to the latter than the former... if indeed you can find all that much space between them.

At some level, the movie is meant to be just as much a comedy as an action piece. The violence of Robocop is so preposterously over-the-top, and realized with such dated makeup effects, that it literally makes you laugh. And the acting rarely does it any favors. The film is virtually a who's who of working character actors, and none of them are delivering their finest work here.

But there are three performers who embrace hammy villainy in a way that does manage to work. Ronny Cox, Miguel Ferrer, and Kurtwood Smith plant their tongues firmly in their cheeks and chew up whatever scenery isn't blasted to smithereens. Peter Weller is also good in the title role in his physicality; his Robocop moves in a strange, machine-like way that makes sense for the character.

The script is a bit hit and miss, but I'm inclined to say it has a few more hits than misses. A bright spot in the movie is the social commentary delivered in the near-future news reports, television programs, and fake commercials. It's a device that, in my opinion, was used less artistically in Starship Troopers, pioneered here. In any case, it fits right in with many elements that were dated even when the movie was released in 1987: the Harryhausen-style animation of the ED-209, the ridiculously arch dialogue, the rote plot with sci-fi trappings.

...And yet, it somehow works. Not exceptionally well, but better than some. I'd call it a B-. A B- that could very well have been affected by the hilarious live in-theater pyrotechnics at the screening I saw, or just the general warm glow of my first Alamo Drafthouse experience. But a B- all the same. If you've liked any of Paul Verhoeven's other films, but somehow have never seen Robocop, you should probably check it out.