If the recent remake proved anything, it's that RoboCop is inescapably tailor-made for the '80s. In a decade that saw rampant capitalism and excess building, Paul Verhoeven's subversive original perfectly skewered the era by ironically, slyly criticising the do-or-die right-wing values of the US at the same time as it took a shot at increasingly action-focused Hollywood cinema. The result is a hyper-violent, blackly comic film - featuring a committed turn by Peter Weller at the core - that still feels relevant today. But even if the satire isn't your thing, you can always just sit back and enjoy the show. Verhoeven may have been going for a critique of the OTT Hollywood action movie, but RoboCop actually manages to be a great example of one too, nailing the set-pieces at the same time as it aspires to be something more. It's loud and it's crass, and it might feature some really obvious Christian symbolism (he's walking on water!), but this may just be the smartest movie to come out of Hollywood in the '80s.
Lover of film, writer of words, pretentious beyond belief. Thinks Scorsese and Kubrick are the kings of cinema, but PT Anderson and David Fincher are the dashing young princes. Follow Brogan on twitter if you can take shameless self-promotion: @BroganMorris1
