The List - RoboCop

In the hustle and bustle of everyday life, we often put off our responsibilities. Such is the case with a list I created months ago outlining a series of movies I had yet to see.

All were films I should have seen years ago, films I feel compelled to see. In some ways, as a geek, these are movies I am required to see.

While four of the five films have continued to elude me - or perhaps I've unwittingly eluded them - I have at long last made headway on the fifth.

At 29 years of age, twenty-one years after its release, I have finally seen Robocop.

I should have seen this years ago, of course, but there is little sense dwelling in the past. I enjoyed the movie overall, though the pacing was perhaps a bit slow at times. Still, there is little doubt why this is a classic. Stop motion is an art form we miss, and it is used well here.

Ask yourself, dear reader, when was the last time you saw robot effects accomplished with stop motion? It's been awhile, hasn't it?

The movie was gloriously violent, of course, but I expected no less from Paul Verhoeven (iD&Di: .44). I would recommend this movie to anyone who hasn't seen it, but such words seem unnecessary: there are few geeks alive, I'd wager, who apply.

So, as I check another film off my list, I think of the movies I've yet to see: Clockwork Orange, Harvey, The Jerk, and Metropolis. Of course, this is but the tip of the iceberg: movies I listed off the top of my head. I didn't even think to include The Day the Earth Stood Still or Forbidden Planet, two classic works of science fiction I've never seen. So let us list them now. The revised list now reads:

Clockwork Orange
Metropolis
Harvey
Forbidden Planet
The Day the Earth Stood Still
The Jerk

Lets get to work.