How Had I Never Seen, 1987 Special: ROBOCOP

By Lynn Lee (with special guest Jeff Chen)

Until recently, I’d never seen RoboCop, Paul Verhoeven’s 1987 sci-fi classic about a viciously murdered cop who’s resurrected as a cyborg supercop.  I was too young to see it when it first came out and didn’t get around to it when I was older, partly because I’d heard it was gruesomely violent.  However, I learned it had passionate fans that included some very astute critics.  Among them is Jeff Chen, former writer for ReelTalk Movie Reviews and a fellow alum of the dearly departed online critics’ group Cinemarati (through which I met both him and TFE’s very own Nathaniel), who ranks RoboCop as his favorite movie.  As part of TFE’s 1987 retrospective, I finally saw RoboCop and invited Jeff to discuss my reactions as a first-time viewer and how the movie has remained in our cultural consciousness for over 30 years.

JEFF: RoboCop is indeed my favorite movie.  A lot of that has to do with timing.  I was already an avid movie watcher as a teenager, but I’d been mostly watching PG or (the new, at the time) PG-13 movies.  I was 15 when I went to my best friend’s house and he put on a VHS copy of RoboCop.  And I was traumatized and exhilarated...

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Beauty Break: A Veteran's Day Gallery (and rant)

by Nathaniel R

George Clooney in "Three Kings"

Happy Veteran's Day to all reading who have served or have loved ones that have. I've been thinking more about the military than usual lately. That's probably partially because our Montgomery Clift centennial series featured so many military films. But it's especially due to the US election where there was a lot of discussion about mail-in voting which the military especially has been doing for hundreds of years (their votes generally arrives late due to absentee ballots). The military is not a monolithic voting block and contains Republicans, Democrats, and Independents.

After the jump please enjoy pictures of beautiful men in military movies and ignore the text if you can't stomach a political rant right now...

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Tweetweek: Voting, Holidate, and sick co-star burns

Curated by Nathaniel R

Since there's no avoiding politics at the moment, we give in for this twitter roundup but we keep it as movie-related as possible...

If Wisconsin were an actress, she'd win "Best Supporting Actress" every year. No one can milk more drama out of 10 Electoral Votes than good old Miss Forward.

— Ted Perry (@Fox6TedPerry) November 4, 2020

Every four years but great joke ;)

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Monty @ 100: Forgotten gem "Wild River"

by Nathaniel R

Clift arrives in Tennessee, a Federal employee who the locals will not take well to.

When speaking about new movies, we often discuss the vagaries of film distribution and studio support both in terms of audience outreach and awards campaign. These things often effect how movies are received, for better and worse. Less discussed, probably because interest is always more niche when it comes to older films, is how important both continued availability and awards play, are to an enduring reputation, once a movie is "old". Some films are forgotten for a reason, but there are plenty that would be better regarded if they had remained readily available to the public. Such I'd argue is the case with Elia Kazan's Wild River...

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"Enola Holmes"

by our new Italian contributor Elisa Giudici

It's been a while since a Netflix film prompted me to write in my cinephile What's App group chat: "ok everybody, I have a fun movie to suggest." After the boring disappointments of The Devil All the Time and Project Power, after the unspeakable horrors I witnessed in The Last Days of American Crime, I confess I log in my Netflix account holding my breath. Enola Holmes brought a sigh of relief. Nothing life-changing, mind you, just a fun, entertaining movie that reimagines the canon of Sherlock Holmes, the classic of classics. Conan Doyle's detective is one of the few fictional characters who keeps getting adapted in fresh ways without ever wearing out his welcome. 

Giving Mycroft and Sherlock a little sister is not entirely new...

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