15 Dumb Movies Which Are Secretly Smart

11. RoboCop

There's an entire generation of kids who, quite irresponsibly, were allowed to watch Paul Verhoeven's gloriously entertaining gore-fest from an all-too-young age (this writer included).

And as a young'un, RoboCop functioned purely as a badass, stylish action film in which a murdered police officer (Peter Weller) is brought back to life inside a robotic, crime-fighting chassis.

But in line with much of Verhoeven's filmography - and this won't be the last time he appears on our list - RoboCop takes a pulpy, silly concept and imbues it with a heap of searing social commentary.

First and foremost, RoboCop is a scathing critique of privatised police and the dangers of allowing corporations to get in bed with the government, which in a world where Donald Trump is the President of the United States couldn't seem much more relevant.

That's not to forget its eerie accurate portrayal of a bleak future Detroit, or its overarching mockery of a society obsessed with violence, which is rendered here in hilariously over-the-top extremes.

In many ways RoboCop is a movie which has taken on a new life in more recent years, and viewed today, it's impossible for all but the youngest viewers to simply engage with it as an ass-kicking superhero origin story.