empty mirror

remember the jackalope
I saw Robocop at the movie theater. I was sitting on my aunt's lap. I was nine. It may have been the same year that I saw Schwarzenegger's chair at the mall in Santa Ana, California during the filming of the opening scenes of Kindergarten Cop.
 

Mr. Tea

Let's Talk About Ceps
I saw Robocop at the movie theater. I was sitting on my aunt's lap. I was nine. It may have been the same year that I saw Schwarzenegger's chair at the mall in Santa Ana, California during the filming of the opening scenes of Kindergarten Cop.
Was it the uncensored version?
 

empty mirror

remember the jackalope
There's some fairly strong stuff in it for a nine-year-old!

Your aunt either didn't know, was rather negligent, or is the coolest aunt ever, I'm not sure.
dude i've been struggling because she was the coolest aunt. she wore a perfecto motorcycle jacket. she did makeup and hair. now she is the worst tunnel-visioned deluded star spangled ding dong on the planet. last time i saw her i was up until daybreak trying to reason with her. but all is lost. her coolness was sloughed off like so much toxic waste-splashed flesh.
 

Mr. Tea

Let's Talk About Ceps
dude i've been struggling because she was the coolest aunt. she wore a perfecto motorcycle jacket. she did makeup and hair. now she is the worst tunnel-visioned deluded star spangled ding dong on the planet. last time i saw her i was up until daybreak trying to reason with her. but all is lost. her coolness was sloughed off like so much toxic waste-splashed flesh.
Oh how sad. Is she a Trump-bot?
 

woops

is not like other people
watching robocop, total recall and bloodsport of the back of this forum recently i've noticed that (just as being italian / spanish with tight dark ringlets = love interest) bald and bespectacled was a good look for a bad guy back then, don't think those traits have the same connotations of ruthlessness in 2020.
 

padraig (u.s.)

a monkey that will go ape
I saw the most recent Terminator. I wouldn't say it's "good" but there are some fun things.

they made the wise decision to ignore every movie since T2 (all prior sequels happened in "an alternate timeline")

Arnie got married, has a career as an interior decorator (!), and has developed a cryptic sense of humor

the Kyle Reese stand-in is Mackenzie Davis and the relationship between her + Linda Hamilton has serious queer overtones, which delighted many lesbians - understandably, that's a pair of hella tuff/cool/photogenic ladies - and pissed off exactly who you'd think i.e. that segment of fanboydom that always gets upset when a hero is now being played by a woman/black person/etc (I remember seeing one comment "remember when Terminator was good before feminism ruined it")

it doesn't live up to T2 let alone the original but it's a respectable effort unlike all the other sequals
 

version

Well-known member
I don’t really think Robocop is the second best film ever made, I was being a bit silly, but I do think it is a brilliant and moving film.

I mean, one thing it does have in common with Ghostbusters is that it works on a number of levels: as science fiction, action, exploitation, satire, comedy, and human drama. The effects look dated, but they are still more impressive and creative than they were in that hollow CGI reboot, or most other modern movies. The production design is sublime: it was then, it is now. Even the location of Detroit has taken on an added dimension since the insolvency of the city in 2013. The script is wicked: very quotable (as the tags above begin to suggest), witty and lean. The theme of private corporations taking over the public sector, applying commercial logic and using it as a testing ground for innovation and commercial expansion; the fusion between the military and police; the erosion of collective action and trade unions in the face of privatisation; the intersection between urban redevelopment, political corruption and organised crime; the blurring of the line between news and entertainment...all of these things are woven into the story, and satirised without overwhelming the tone of the film (like it does in Starship Troopers, which is a different type of film for that reason). They are also still very relevant and real, maybe more so.

The casting is perfect: Dick Jones and Clarence Boddicker are fabulous villains, striking the perfect balance between pantomime and genuine evil. But the heart of the thing is Peter Weller as Murphy. There is no real charisma to his lead, he is pure and banal and blandly American, his interior life merely shown in hints and allusions. But it is enough to suggest an emotional core, based on his domestic life and family, that comes back in flashes that he is unable to recognise but still haunt him, causing some form of emotional response despite the fact that he is entirely mechanised. The poignancy and pain of this broken link with the past gives the film its soul. Apart from all the other things - the ostentatious violence, the special effects, the satirical TV spots (Nukem!) - the film is about these basic conditions of the human experience: love, friendship, memory, death and mourning. The way that it presents them does not lead to a happy resolution or a bleak dead end that would kill the emotional balance and tone: it is woven in, and done with surprising grace. Despite being an over-the-top, gratuitous, flashy, trashy exploitation flick, there is something delicate about the way Robocop handles itself. That’s why it is such a good film that lots of people really love.


I put this into an app that tells you who you write like and it said you write like David Foster Wallace.
 
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