RoboCop (R)
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This came out in 1987, and I must have first seen it sometime in the '80s, and for that reason alone I consider it vaguely nostalgic. But by the time I re-watched it in 2025, I didn't remember anything about it beyond the basic premise. Actually, the thing I remember most regarding the movie is that once when I was a kid, I had a dream where RoboCop was chasing me, like I was a criminal or something. But somehow I was able to slow him down so he couldn't catch me. Also I should say it's sort of science fiction, but I don't think it's quite science fiction-y enough for me to include a link to it in that category, just "action". (But it is science fiction-y enough for me to not include a link for it in the "law enforcement" category.) I also don't think it's quite dystopian enough for me to include a link in my "dystopian films" section. Anyway... upon re-watching it, I find that I liked it perhaps a bit more than I expected to, but still not a lot. I mean, I'd say it's a fairly good movie, but certainly not as great as some people think it is.

It's set in Detroit, sometime in the "near future" (which by the time I re-watched the movie could very well be the past, but I don't believe an actual year was ever mentioned). The city is riddled with crime, and a corporation called Omni Consumer Products (OCP) has taken control of the police department. OCP is run by someone referred to as "the old man". The number two guy, the senior president of the corporation, is Dick Jones (Ronny Cox), who is in charge of a project creating robots called ED-209, which he wants to replace cops with, as well as selling them to the military. But during a demonstration, a prototype robot kills one of the company's junior executives, which puts the future of the project in question. Another executive, Bob Morton (Miguel Ferrer), takes the opportunity to ingratiate himself with the Old Man, to advance his own project, creating a cyborg "RoboCop".

Meanwhile, a cop named Alex Murphy (Peter Weller) transfers to a new precinct, where he is partnered with Anne Lewis (Nancy Allen). They chase down a group of criminals led by Clarence Boddicker (Kurtwood Smith). The two cops get separated, and the criminals end up killing Murphy. But he's then taken to a hospital, where he's eventually pronounced dead. After that, Murphy wakes up in a new robotic body. While he works for the same precinct he had before he died, he's owned by OCP. At first he is purely robotic in his actions, just doing his job to bust criminals. But eventually he starts regaining memories of his life, which reawakens his humanity, to some degree.

And lots more stuff happens that I don't want to spoil (besides which I already can't remember the order in which everything happened). I also want to mention that throughout the movie, we occasionally see newscasts with a pair of anchors, played by Leeza Gibbons (whom I sort of knew from Entertainment Tonight), and some other real-life reporter who I never heard of. We also see various commercials for products that exist in-universe, but that seemed totally random to me. But I suppose both the newscasts and commercials helped add to an understanding of the state of the world, with wars and consumerism and whatnot. Overall, I think the movie was reasonably engaging in various ways beyond being "just" an action movie... but that's still how I mostly think of it. It's pretty violent, but that's something I'm used to seeing in action movies. And I don't know what else to say about the movie.

It was followed by two sequels (I don't remember if I ever saw the first sequel or not, but I highly doubt I ever saw the second one), an animated TV series and a live-action series, among other media. There was also a remake in 2014, which I might be interested in checking out someday, but it's not a priority. I'd also like to check out "RoboCop 2" sometime, and based on that decide whether or not I have any interest in seeing "RoboCop 3".