ROBOCOP

Depending on your point of view this 1984 science fiction film is either a brilliant satire or an excessively violent piece of trash.  

As a centrist dad I necessarily fall somewhere in between these two extremes.  

It is set in some near future where a megacompany (Omni Consumer Products or OMP) is being paid to help the Detroit police force, which certainly needs it judging by the amount of crime going on.  When a cop (Murphy, played by Peter Weller) is shot to pieces and killed by a gang of sadistic criminals what remains of his body is used by OMP to create a cyborg policeman.

It's debatable who are the most obnoxious characters in this entertainment, the aforementioned criminals or the top executives at OMP who have lost any semblance of humanity in their desire for money and power.

Not altogether surprisingly it emerges that the head criminal and the CEO of OMP are in cahoots, and the story ends up as a kind of revenge tale with Robocop going after both of these villains.  

Over the course of the film he (or should I say 'it'?) regains some memories of his life as Murphy, aided by his cop partner Lewis (Nancy Allen) who provides what little warmth this picture has to offer.

There are several very effective scenes.  For example Murphy's death and then 'resurrection' as Robocop, as experienced from his point of view, is scary and unsettling.  Later on, the scene where he visits Murphy's house (now empty), where and fragments of his former life  featuring his wife and son come back to him, is poignant.

And interspersed throughout are amusing little media clips that are certainly satiric.  The overall effect is to create a dsytopian world where capitalism and consumerism are rife. 

The director Paul Verhoeven keeps it rattling along so that it comes in at well under two hours, helped by a screenplay which is lean and taut.  Given that the violence and performances are deliberately cartoonish there's not much in the way of thrills or emotional engagement but the story is original enough to hold the attention, and there is some humour along the way.