ROBOCOP

Cert 18

99 mins

BBFC advice: Strong violence, sexual violence, nudity

Crikey, I hadn't recalled that RoboCop was this violent.

Strangely, my addled memory of Paul Verhoeven's classic movie was that it fitted within the usual 12A band.

I had presumed kids could see it and that its marketing had probably included RoboCop dolls.

Clearly, I had dreamt all of the above because this is an unrelenting gore fest with a huge number of very grisly deaths.

RoboCop is set in Detroit where crime is so far out of hand that emergency measures are needed to prevent the almost daily catalogue of police deaths on the streets.

The private company in charge of law enforcement has been attempting to bring in droids but so far experiments have failed horribly.

Meanwhile, an officer (Peter Weller) has been drafted in as part of the reinforcements but soon after being paired up with Anne Lewis (Nancy Allen), is murdered by a merciless gang.

His bullet-riddled corpse is converted into RoboCop.

To be frank, there isn't too much more to Verhoeven's film that its hero going around shooting up bad guys with minimum fuss.

Sure, there is a bit of pathos surrounding Murphy's memories of those who killed him and his lost family life but really it is bloody revenge after bloody revenge.

And yet it is compelling with the audience desperate for the bad guys to have their comeuppance even though we know they will.

The special effects don't really pass the test of time but I was pleased to see RoboCop and be reminded of what all the fuss was about.