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Robocop is one the best Action Movies of all TIME

Movies about Cyborgs are great. But no film does cyborg as well as the original, Robocop! This movie was about a Detroit cop who got blasted with gunfire while trying to make a bust. Then he basically died, but a powerful company turned the cop into a cyborg and made him very powerful and hard to kill. Robocop came out in 1987 and I remember seeing it in the theaters and getting very shocked by the violent scene where the OCP Executive (OCP is the main company in the movie that makes lots of hardware and basically runs the show) gets executed by the giant robot, ED-209. One reason why I love Robocop so much is because it has great characters, plot, setting and themes. (I guess that’s more than one reason but who’s counting?) The main character, Murphy who later becomes Robocop is mild mannered and likeable. But when Murphy turns into Robocop he is a detective, a unstoppable cop, and a relentless cyborg who doesn’t take no for an answer. Murphy’s partner, Officer Anne Lewis, played by the beautiful Nancy Allen, is spunky and peppy and you can tell that she really cares about her partner. Peter Weller, who plays the part of Murphy and Robocop does an amazing acting job. He is very convincing as a man who is part machine. There is this scene where Robocop goes to his old house, and the emotions that are portrayed are unforgettable. You can see and feel the frustration that Robocop is experiencing when he tries to remember his old life, and the can feel the anger when Robocop thinks about the wife and child and life that was ripped away from him.

The setting of Detroit is excellent. In the movie, crime and unemployment is rampant and the city of Old Detroit is decaying. There are abandoned factories and other businesses and there just aren’t enough cops to maintain order. The future depicted seems very realistic and the unemployment strikes a chord even with viewers today, who are facing such problems in 2010. The abandoned factories and drug factories are very dangerous, very gritty places for the action to take place. In the first factory where Murphy is looking for the bad guys, you feel the danger that a cop would experience when investigating a factory. There could be a criminal lurking around any corner, and there are walkways and ledges that are unsafe.

The plot of Robocop is fast paced and is 103 minutes long. There are no dragging parts and you are constantly entertained and intrigued. This is something that recent movies could really learn from. The theme of the story of Robocop is two fold. It is a combination of revenge, and justice. Robocop wants revenge against the men who basically killed him. But when he comes face to face with Clarence Boddicker, the Criminal Leader, instead of killing Clarance, he arrests him. So this makes Robocop a more likable character because he still believes in the law even though he had been seriously wronged.

The amount of violence in Robocop is pretty extreme. People get their throats punctured, shot, turned into mutants then exploded, punched, blown up by grenades and thrown through windows. The violence in this movie is not quite as extreme as Total Recall. Like other Paul Verhoeven movies, the gunshots sound and look real. This is unlike a lot of other movies where it looks like people are getting hit by paintballs. If you are squeamish about blood, you may not want to see this movie alone.

The soundtrack for Robocop is highly memorable and sets the bold tone for the film. The music when Robocop drives for the first time since he was Murphy is perfect.

Speaking of sound, scroll down to watch the Amazing Robocop Rap by THE ANOMALIES. If you haven’t seen the movie yet and you don’t want any spoilers then don’t watch this. But if you are curious about the movie and want a 10 minute summary of the film then go ahead and watch it.

Demons and Deadlines: Play the Story Game!

Right now I am playing an awesome, story game! It is called Demons and Deadlines and you can play it by clicking here. I am playing the story game right now and it is very fun. I don’t want to die so I am being very careful what choices I pick. I am pretty good at these kinds of games so I have a feeling that I will get the good ending after a few tries. (That is, if there IS a good ending!) The story is about how you and your partner are journalists and you are doing a story in HELL! A great thing about this story is that the settings and environments are all very demonic and well described. And the characters you meet are funny and oftentimes evil. This story game isn’t for kids because of the adult content relating to murder and death. Also this story can get scary at times.

I got banished

I haven’t played Master of Magic for like, 10 years or so. And man, this game is fun. You get to be a wizard who has magical powers, and you command an army and build a civilization of one of many races like Orcs, Klackon, Humans, and Elves…not to mention the awesome Lizardmen and Draconians! This game is totally awesome! It is kind of like games similar to Civilization and I hear that it is based on the Master of Orion universe (loosely). But I think this game is really excellent. It was made in 1994 and it works on the program DOSbox (DOSbox is an MSdos emulator that lets you play old school DOS games on a PC). Here’s a link to DOSbox if you want to check it out. If you want to check out some info on Master of Magic and want to download the manual and spellbook, here’s a link to a cool abondonware website. Yeah so let me tell you about why I posted that picture of a dragon dude getting banished. Basically that dragon was me, my wizard, I named myself “Overidon.” It was great. I started with two units, one unit of orc spearmen, and one unit of orc swordsmen. I was pumped. I found these ruins supposedly guarded by giant spiders. I recently finished recruiting some shamans to help my soldiers and I was excited to kill some spiders. Well, what happened when I got to the ruins was that I didn’t just have to fight some giant spiders, there were magical sprites there too. Sprites kind of look like white butterflies and they shoot magic at you. I was very worried. So almost instantly the Sprites opened fire on my shamans and killed all of them in like three hits. I was horrified. I imagined my poor shamans having their limbs ripped off and heads exploding from Sprite magic. Blood flying everywhere. So I tried to have my spearmen and swordsmen run away, but they all died. I bet they were trying to run into the mountain but they got run down by the giant spiders. Huge webs of sticky silk slime pulled at their legs and made the swordsmen trip on the rocks. Then one of the giant spiders must have opened it’s mandibles wide and munched off the heads of the swordsmen one by one…leaving spinal cords squirting out people juice for several minutes.

This is what it looked like when I wanted to build more shaman!

But I wasn’t discouraged. I decided to build more forces, this time multiple units of swordmen and shaman, and even a unit of spearmen. And I ordered them to do some reconnaissance on one of the nearby Klackon villages (Klackons look like big beetle people). And I left a single unit of swordsmen to protect my home village. Well, when I got near the enemy village I had by units check on the strength of the forces there, and guess what? My troops were outnumbered and outclassed. So I ordered them to return to base and regroup. But then, out of nowhere a unit of Klackon raiders decided to attack my city. I tried to build more troops, but it was no use. They were just 2 days away. And my army was 10 days away. So I cast spells on my unit of lonely swordsmen, giving them iron skin and increased strength. But when it came time to fight the Klackon halbrediers, they got slaughtered.  The Kackons must have chopped my orc swordsmen’s arms and legs off. And eaten the dismembered bodies. I bet there was blood and guts everywhere. So then I lost the battle and the raiders instead of just destroying a building or two, they decided to hurt the great wizard, Overidon! And they banished me to another realm. So now I have learned a valuable lesson. Don’t leave just one group of soldiers defending your home base. This was a lesson hard learned. But I hath learned it well!

-Tyler

Jack from LOST in his Scrubs

The LOST finale was very well done. It wrapped up the show and even though it didn’t answer every single question that the show presented, it was still good. The finale left some parts up to the imagination of the viewer and I was happy about that. You see, one thing that LOST did around season 5 was that the show shifted from a program that was focused primarily on technology and science-fiction, with splinters of spirituality mixed in; into a show that was focused on spirituality and relationships. In the beginning of the show the 815 survivors were trying to stay alive on the island and cope with issues regarding their lack of food, water, medical supplies, and proper shelter. But as the show progressed, we were introduced to the “Hatch” and the interesting technology of the Dharma Initiative. I am pretty sure the Hatch and the technology really sparked people’s continued interest in the show. It was always intriguing to find out what kind of strange experiments that the Dharma Initiative was doing on their stations. Also there was a lot of mystery behind why the Dharma Initiative was doing what they did. That mystery along with the unknowns about the “Smoke Monster” and why the island was able to increase people’s healing rates made for a very compelling show.

But all along there was always a spiritual side to the show, especially through the dialogue of John Locke. John often referred to the island as a living entity that he was in contact with and it was clear that his character was doing a great deal of soul searching. As LOST got into its later seasons, the Dharma Initiative became less of a focal point of mystery and more of a backdrop for the settings and a facilitator for plot points. The real mystery began to unfold as we learned more about Jacob. I think this is where some people began to loose some of the “Gee Wiz” interest in the show. Jacob didn’t really give any answers to the big questions and the reason for this is because Jacob was limited by the writers for his character and the overall story. And since the writers are human beings just like us and are not immortal they had to write about Jacob and the spiritual mysteries of the island using archetypes and metaphor.

LOST was known to jump around a great deal since the very first episodes. But when the alternate universe happened in Season 6 it became pretty clear that what was happening in that universe was mostly for the writers to send the viewers a message, rather than trying to further the plot and character arcs. I personally liked the idea that the people were dead and that the universe they were in was a medium for them to “Move On.” If you notice in final episode in the second-to-last scene where Jack is looking at his father’s coffin the stained glass window had symbols representing many of the widely followed religions of the world. This represented that the spiritual place they were in and the church they were in was a realm for all people of all faiths. And that people will be able to find each other. When everyone was in the pews and they were happy to see each other and they were hugging, it felt like this was a vision of what the writers were trying to express as what happens when you die. Because all we really are is the information and memories that we have and the connections with others that we make.

In the end the show actually had very little to do with electromagnetism and harnessing energy for power and profit. LOST was about caring for people and having a family and growing that family by meeting new people. It was interesting for me to see that Ben didn’t want to enter the church. This I think was symbolic of the idea Mortal Sin and/or reincarnation. Ben didn’t let himself transcend because of the guilt he carried for his actions. His karma didn’t let him be with the others. That is a strong message and a hidden warning to the viewers of the show. Think twice about committing evil deeds, they will follow you. But in the end the characters had to forgive themselves and “Let Go” in order to truly enjoy the light.

In the end it didn’t really matter about the island. It mattered about the people. Hurley was supposedly protecting the island in the end. But the island was just a teaching mechanism for the characters in the program and invariably the viewers of the show. Some people may be wondering how the island got the light in the middle of it in the first place. Or others may be asking themselves what the water drinking ritual was, or where Jacob’s mom came from. But none of that really matters.