13 Notes

This film is 23 years old.

Holds up better than you might think too. The mostly-practical special effects aren’t too dated (indeed, the flap of skin around Robocop’s face is really well done and always reminded me queasily of the Cenobites from Hellraiser). The stop-motion model work on ED-209 is nicely matted, but still looks a bit weightless and fake. The plot is more interesting than many of its late-80s action brethren and Peter Weller does a reasonable job of emoting through little more than his mouth for most of the film (although he does walk like a constipated Terminator). Oh, and the score is good too.

It’s also a great film for hey-he’s-that-guy-from-that-thing. I’d remembered Dr Romano was in it but totally forgotten about Ray “Leleand Palmer / the Devil in Reaper” Wise, for example.

The Bluray transfer was OK at best; rather grainy throughout though. I’d chalk it up as reasonable for the time if I hadn’t recently watched the superbly restored Ghostbusters.

Overall I enjoyed watching this (for the first time in at least a decade) more than I thought I might.

This film is 23 years old.

Holds up better than you might think too. The mostly-practical special effects aren’t too dated (indeed, the flap of skin around Robocop’s face is really well done and always reminded me queasily of the Cenobites from Hellraiser). The stop-motion model work on ED-209 is nicely matted, but still looks a bit weightless and fake. The plot is more interesting than many of its late-80s action brethren and Peter Weller does a reasonable job of emoting through little more than his mouth for most of the film (although he does walk like a constipated Terminator). Oh, and the score is good too.

It’s also a great film for hey-he’s-that-guy-from-that-thing. I’d remembered Dr Romano was in it but totally forgotten about Ray “Leleand Palmer / the Devil in Reaper” Wise, for example.

The Bluray transfer was OK at best; rather grainy throughout though. I’d chalk it up as reasonable for the time if I hadn’t recently watched the superbly restored Ghostbusters.

Overall I enjoyed watching this (for the first time in at least a decade) more than I thought I might.

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  1. rawnsley said: Love this film. I actually like the stop-motion on the ED-209, it gives it a Ray Harryhausen quality that I miss in CGI films - things can be too real.
  2. frageelay said: This was one of my favorite movies and I’ve wondered it it held up. Great satire.
  3. penllawen posted this

 

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