Movies Worth Seeing
Movies Worth Seeing is a comedy podcast that explores all the best trending films and blockbuster releases. A big movie buff, Michael is an unconventional reviewer of all things movies. This podcast is for anyone sick of watching crappy movies and wants only to watch the best
Movies Worth Seeing
Robocop - Corporate Greed, Explosive Gore, and Robotic Justice
Remember when action movies had substance? RoboCop wasn't just an explosive sci-fi flick about a cyborg cop—it was a prescient vision of our future.
Watching Paul Verhoeven's 1987 masterpiece today feels eerily prophetic. Long before our current concerns about facial recognition technology, corporate control of public services, and media desensitization to violence, RoboCop was laying it all out with remarkable accuracy. What makes this film truly special is how it balances biting social satire with genuinely thrilling action sequences that still hold up decades later.
The practical effects deserve special mention—from the horrific toxic waste scene to Clarence Boddicker's spectacularly bloody demise, these moments remain seared into viewers' memories. Speaking of Boddicker, Kurtwood Smith's performance stands out as remarkably ahead of its time, feeling contemporary even by today's standards. Nancy Allen's portrayal of Officer Lewis also deserves recognition for avoiding the typical female action character tropes of the era—no forced romance, no unnecessary sexualization, just a competent cop who happens to be a woman.
What truly elevates RoboCop is Verhoeven's outsider perspective as a Dutch director examining American culture. The film's commercial breaks and news segments might seem like quirky additions, but they build a rich dystopian world while delivering sharp commentary on media, consumerism, and violence. This film isn't just worth seeing—it's essential viewing that rewards multiple watches with new details and insights each time. Whether you're revisiting this classic or experiencing it for the first time, you'll understand why we both rated it 4.5/5 stars without hesitation. What's your favorite scene from this groundbreaking film?
Hey everyone, and welcome to Movies Worth Seeing. Today's episode's a little different in that we are actually going to talk about a movie that is worth seeing. I've been copying a lot of flack from friends and family being like why do you keep talking about movies that are s***? And I'm like, well, that's what movies come out, so I can't really do much about it. Sometimes I watch a new movie and I think that it's gonna be good. It doesn't always work out, so we decided that we are going to go back to a time when there was lots of great films, and today's episode we're going to talk about RoboCop.
Speaker 2:RoboCop. Thank you for your cooperation.
Speaker 1:So you watched it for the first time.
Speaker 2:First time in a very long time, I did not remember anything about the story besides all the spoilers you see online.
Speaker 1:Wow, I'm so interested in how it felt for you because I saw it the other day and I love watching it. I can watch it and never get sick of it, and it's so hard to pinpoint what the exact reason is, but it's like a whole collection of just firing on all cylinders.
Speaker 2:It was way ahead of its time. Besides a couple of little shitty CGI, most of it was actually pretty good. It wasn't CGI, though, it was stop motion. It was stop motion. Well, you could see, it was stop motion Look it was like 1988. 87. 87, 87, 87, michael, how disappointing for 87.
Speaker 1:They did amazing. They did amazing, yes, and this movie didn't have a big budget. This wasn't like hollywood blockbuster budget level no, this was a big gamble, oh I shit, I didn't know that.
Speaker 2:Godwood Smith Red from that same show. I can't think of anyone else but Red. That's true Plenty of warm memories. His acting style was way ahead of its time as well.
Speaker 1:Interesting. What is it about that?
Speaker 2:Way ahead. Everybody from the 80s and the 90s was like big. Look at Nancy Allen, for example. Her acting style is typical for the 80s. It's like pretty bland with emotions, it's big and it's flat, but it's okay, that's, that's the style of that time, right. And then you have peter weller, who has the same thing. It's like big movements when he's his own character, when he's himself right before he turns into a rob cop. Spoiler alert as much as you can spoil an 80s movie robot cop.
Speaker 1:Has a robot cop in, just warning everyone his movements are also big.
Speaker 2:It's anime. It's animated, right. But kirkwood smith his acting style. You could put him in today's movies with the same acting style and he wouldn't fall out of place when you're watching lots of 80s movies as well.
Speaker 1:he is a guy that like, even though his backstory isn't a lot to go off, he does stand out. He goes from being the main antagonist to then kind of becoming a henchman and then going back to the main antagonist. He has, like, the best moments and he's more memorable, and I love his reactions when Robocop is like I'm not taking you in, I'm not arresting you, and he's like whoa, whoa, whoa.
Speaker 1:What do you mean? You're there. Slow down, buddy boy. What do you mean? We can talk about this. Oh, he's such a prick too Like he's so good at being a bastard.
Speaker 2:Just give me my phone call.
Speaker 1:So while Nancy Allen's performance isn't like gripping, like standout or anything like that amongst all the other performances, right, I've got to say like when I watch this and thinking like this is late 80s, it's mind-boggling that they do this character, anne Lewis, in a way where she's not just playing a straight-up love interest to Alex Murphy, she's just a friend. They don't even imply or, subtly, they don't go down that path, which is great because you don't want to see that. Even Paul Verhoeven told Nancy Allen cut your hair short instead of going for like the long hair, look Like he wanted her to look different to her other roles, and I could see that in the hands of other directors or something like that. They would just present her as overly sexualised kind of love interest, whereas in this like they don't go that way at all and I think that would have been massive in like the late 80s to do something like that.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:I love the look of Robocop. I love that grit, that corporate kind of like. There's this meshing of like new versus old where you've got this emerging metropolis that's trying to be built in this shithole city, that's trying to be built in this whole city that's being underfunded, like. I feel like it's a great little commentary on like capitalism and corporate greed.
Speaker 2:And the beautiful part of it is that it set it up for future films. So look at nowadays movies Like current movies that recently came out. It's always corporations that have their fingers with the government or military or something like that, where just money buys them their way into power. That's exactly what they explored in Robocop, and it just there was a prediction of the future, which is crazy, Like a lot of technology they used as well, like the facial recognition, all that kind of stuff. It's all. It didn't exist back then and it all exists now.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I love the little knife, wolverine style knife claw USB.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's a USB stick. It's different stuff. That's cool, I like that.
Speaker 1:Well, I mean, like that's a great example of like foreshadowing in. Like at first you're like, oh, that's just a random kind of power like that he has, but then it comes into play right at the end and saves his life. That's just such a simple thing that I feel like modern movies don't do that. Well, if this was a superhero movie, there wouldn't be the foreshadowing. It would just be like oh yeah, this superhero, superpower is this because it's convenient for the plot, instead of like planting the seeds for a power to then come back into play in like the climax of the movie.
Speaker 1:What else is like a standout in this? I mean the practical effects Blood and gore just rips off the page. I mean like you see a dude not just drive into the toxic waste but come out of the toxic waste looking disgusting and all like mutated and burning his skin and stuff. I don't even know how they did that shit. But then it doesn't end there. It keeps going, because then he gets across to one of his mates and one of his mates is just like dude, get the fuck away from me, like he doesn't give a shit about him anymore. And then a car hits him and he's all slovenly and he just disintegrates, he explodes, it's so brutal, Except for his head.
Speaker 2:His head rolls on.
Speaker 1:Oh wow I didn't even notice that when you watch it you're almost like, damn, that was such a good death. That could have been like the actual villain's death. But I mean like that Red's death I mean Kurtwood Smith fucking Clarence Spodekar is death Like just the stabbing of the throat and then this giant explosion of blood that goes onto Murphy's chest plate. It's just like an image that gets ingrained in your mind, especially when you watch this movie at such a young age when you weren't supposed to watch it. Yeah, you don't forget that. Also, the movie's funny, like it has lots of dark humour. Well, you've got these random commercials that don't really contribute to the plot at all. It's almost just like world-building stuff.
Speaker 1:But that's something that you wouldn't expect in something like this sunblock 5000 yeah, you could take it out, but then you take out the character, the personality of the movie. The charm and this is the type of that you don't see in new movies is taking a chance on doing something like that and the uh.
Speaker 2:The satire of it is amazing because then you also have that little news um break kind of thing we're like, ah, and today, by routine startup, the space laser killed 117 people and now here's this commercial uh, it was the satire of it is brilliant.
Speaker 1:It kind of gives you a little idea of like what the rest of the world's like, so you don't just know like okay, this is Detroit in the future, but you get the sense that like the whole America is kind of, and that's something that I remember watching the making of, and when they were talking about like directors and stuff, they were actually saying like Paul Verhoeven's great, because he's going to do a better job than an American director would, because an American director would not understand how other countries see America, and the humour of that.
Speaker 2:Yes, From a one to five stars. What would you give Robocop 1987? Don't call it 1987.
Speaker 1:Just call it Robocop. Robocop, the original Robocop, I would give it 1987. I would give it like you, f*** Gotcha. I'd give it four and a half out of five stars because, man, I just can't get enough of it. It's one of those movies I can watch and days later I can just watch it again.
Speaker 2:I would give this movie a four and a half out of five stars as well. Oh shit, yeah, no, it's amazing, really good movie Transcender for the time it set the ground for future films and premises for films and story structures for films. Yeah, really, really good for its time, really good.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's a shame that the sequels didn't build on that more. But yeah, I think Robocop 1 is just a quintessential 80s film, but it has way more meat to it than you think for a movie called Robocop. So that's our retro kind of look back at Robocop movie Definitely worth seeing. And yeah, if that is the end for it, we'll try watching the second one. I'm done. It is a crazy movie, man. I will give it that it's got balls. Well, we'll find out. So if you enjoyed this video, please like, share and subscribe for more videos like this and comment below. What are your thoughts on the original Robocop? What are your favourite scenes? Comment below. Let us know.
Speaker 2:Can you please pronounce his name properly Verhoeven? Yeah, it's Paul Verhoeven. No, it's Verhoeven, not Verhoeven. Are you 100%? Yes, because it's a Dutch name and I'm Dutch. It's Verhoeven Verhoeven, paul Verhoeven. Verhoeven, you waited the whole podcast to tell me this when you watch his back, you'll see me like I'll leave it.