I don't know if critics or people generally consider the original a 'good' movie but it's surely a huge 'cult' movie. For me the style in the way it's presented with its' quirky offbeat humour news clips and adverts make it really unique and special. I think it stands out as a movie all on it's own with nothing else to compare it too. It also has to be one of the first 'mainstream' movies outside of horror genre to be so ultraviolent - I mean this was really shocking back in the day and still is in parts. I first seen it when I was 11 years old (I also remember my Mum completely freaking out that I was watching it) and I just thought it was the coolest thing I'd ever seen. Love the soundtrack and all the cheesy 80's movie one liners. Perhaps nostalgia plays a significant part in how I feel about Robocop but then we can probably say that about all the films that are being remade.

I still pull out the Directors Cut DVD every now again for a watch (usually after I've had a drink) and it never tires for me. The Directors cut is worth a watch for any fans who haven't seen it - Murphy's getting shot by Boddiger's gang and the guy getting shot up by ED209 in the office scenes are both extended (must of been consdiered too gratuitous for the final cut!) and there are couple of more explicit 'I'll by that for a dollar' advert scenes!

It's a specific case where I do not have this fear at all. The original is a cult classic, and recognzed as such. The whole image of the robocop (with merchandise, toys, horrible cartoons, horrible series, horrible sequels, horrible comics, sometimes decent games) revolves around the original design. So, it's a bit like James Whale and Boris Karloff's Frankenstein, at this point. Plus, it's still the overall better film, on the elements which can be compared (the remake's action is boring, the satire is more narrow, the humour is more discreet, the plot resolution is much weaker, most performances are less memorable, and so is the film in general, or would be without Michael Keaton). The remake will certainly stay in the shadow of Verhoeven's film.

But yes, in absolute, title hijacking, especially when coupled with distribution shenanigans, can be devastating. Some films seem to have simply vanished from the stores to be replaced by their same name remakes, sometimes to reapear much later. This was driving me mad when seeking Solaris, Sleuth, or even Bad Lieutenant. I'm not sure this has happened with Robocop or The Thing (which remakish prequel seems righteously forgotten).

Yeah, but you see the thing is, we're not close to having had our fill of the Predator ip. We would like to see more cool things done with it, and this looks extremely cringey so far.
Perhaps a film exploring the Predator homeworld somehow, or a classic Predator film set in Medieval times. There's a fan made film about the latter on youtube, and is pretty good as far as fanmade films go I guess, but it's nowhere near what could be cooked with good funding and a proper director, writer and cast.

Still for the time being at least I'd happily give that up if only AvP2 would come to gog :P

It's ok I guess. I liked that they fleshed out that he was actually a peadophile / child killer a bit more which seems to have been glossed over in the original films and particulary as children were going to school in the 80's with their Freddy Kruger lunch boxes! I would say that the film makers were respectful of the original movie - there were a few nods to the original and I liked that they just altered slightly the original musical score which was fantastic and big part of what made that movie so scary for me. It's just Freddy himself that doesn't work in the remake - they should have casted Robert Englund again for the role - it's not as if he was unavaiable and he mentions in his autobiography that he was a bit offended he wasn't asked to do it... I'd LOVE for them to do another movie with Robert Englund has Freddy! You never know...

You make some good points there Telika. And yes there were some terrible sequals although I don't mind Robocop 2. In terms of games, my absolute favourite was Robocop for the ZX Spectrum (although the same game would have been available for the Commdore and Amstrad too). I still play it on an emulator from time to time and it still holds up for me - incredibly difficult as games were back then with exactly the right amount of bullets for each ememy in the level and not one to spare! The intro music on the start menu is stunning - ambient and quite euphoric. Check it out here: https://youtu.be/WIlaq_i6UmM

Here's a cool video comparing all the diferent version of the original Robocop game: https://youtu.be/VhkliKXIegg

Yeah, I've played it a huge lot on the Amiga.

And I don't like Robocop 2. Not only I consider Lewis dead (with would make Murphy's "they fix everything" more bitter and poignant - from a manufactured zombie whose "death" has been fixed for profit by an overly powerful corporation), but also Murphy seemed to have regained so much humanity at the end that I somehow imagined him out of the system (in a very different way, like Callahan throwing his badge away in Dirty Harry). Seeing him all robocopy, back to robot-like routine work at the beginning of Robocop 2, felt like his ark was pointless. For me, Robocop was dead at the end of the first movie, annihilated by Murphy's smile.

The film has amusing parts, like Robocop's deconstruction in the hands of those petty gangsters (conflicting with Robocop 1's efficiency, though), his hilarious re-programming, and the replacement prototypes. But I left it simply didn't really fit with the frankensteinian story of the first film and its resolution. Really felt fan-fictionny. So meh.

Not a movie that I'd by on DVD. But I gladly own Robocop and its remake.

most offensive remake to me is

Rocky Horror Picture Show

which I will never watch, but still really fucking pisses me off that they did that

I thought the original was pretty lame too, never bothered with any of the sequels or the remake, don't know why ppl think it is good at all.

and it is NOT a cult classic!!!
you're the reason this shit keeps getting made

STOP

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oh, so the new "The Predator" movie is a sequel, not a remake of "Predator"- they really should do something about the titling because just adding "The" makes me think it is remake.

Still looks awful.

I was writing an article about the franchise for when the reboot was coming out. I had to watch all the movies, the two live action series and even the cartoon. Because of course they made a terrible 80s kid-friendly cartoon out of this somehow. Trust me, the original movie is just the tip of the iceberg. And everyone who bitches about the reboot has no idea how badly the franchise got screwed multiple times long before it.

There's one franchise that shouldn't exist anymore, but it does.

First one was ok, but I liked To Catch a Predator more.

To me, Nightmare on Elm Street, was never about the actor playing Freddy, no offense to Robert Englund who was great in the role. It was about Freddy having fun, which is why I even liked the Freddy vs Jason movie. So just changing the actor would not automatically make me dislike the film, but I do agree that it was insulting not even asking Englund. I guess they were expecting a hit, to turn it into a new 10 movies franchise, and they wanted a younger actor.

Do they really really have to?

It is a so-so or ok movie, so in that sense I don't see it eclipsing the original, because I'd feel most won't even watch the new Robocop, at least not because they heard somewhere it is a great action movie with a great story. Probably most people who have seen and will see the new Robocop are the people who already saw (and liked) the original, and hence want to see the remake.

So I don't feel like people will be talking one or two decades from now "Remember that Robocop movie? Damn it was great, why don't they make more movies like that nowadays?", referring to the 2014 movie. The new movie will be regarded as a generic action-drama movie from the 2010s, and people will just generally forget about seeing it.

But as said, it is more like a completely new take on the same subject, so it isn't like all the characters or the story is the same etc. Being a fan of the original movie, it is still hard not to make comparisons to the original. What I didn't particularly like in the new Robocop movie (when comparing it to the original):

- It lacked the black humor from the original, as far as I could tell.

- At some points the drama felt even too sappy. The new Robocop concentrated more on mere drama than the original.

- It was maybe a tad too political to my taste. The original had some clever and light-hearted commentary on privatization of public services, how people watch stupid TV shows with no real content, how US cars use too much gas etc., but the new movie was more heavy-handed in ramming into our throats how awful the big corporations are, how awful it is how the US army goes to invade Middle-East countries and are condescending to the native people there, how disgusting the right-wing US politicians are etc. etc.

Like take that character (reporter?) played by Samuel L. Jackson, a stereotypical angry alt-right extremist, right?

You got time to duck?

Holy s**t the horror.

Btw, knowing the current trend, I wonder if the woman is going to be a badass that survives with the child..