Reviews

I first saw this film about 16 years ago. I had recently seen an episode from "Hancock's Half Hour" entitled 12 Angry Men which involved Tony Hancock trying to convince a Jury that Sid James was innocent. The episode was excellent and then after looking in the paper I noticed that this film was to be shown. I thought it only right to see the inspiration behind the aforementioned episode. I must have been 15 at the time but from the moment Martin Balsam first asks the members of the Jury to raise their hands I was hooked. The highly talented cast give superb performances that are enhanced by the excellent camera work, brilliant script and thought provoking subject matter. I recently saw the remake starring Jack Lemmon and thought it to have some great twists on the original. Particularly on Ed Begley's character from the original film. All in all though, what makes the original is the intimacy the camera has on each member of the jury, the claustrophobic atmosphere of the movie and the tension between the characters. Sidney Lumet has created a masterpiece here and thoroughly deserves to be in the top 100 movies of all time.

I was dying to see this when I was 13 but I was too young to get in at the pictures. I saw the trailer when I went to see Superman 3. I finally hired it on video and loved it. I think at the time, it was the look of the helicopter that I was drawn too. Big bulky and menacing. (The scene where we first see Blue Thunder with the sun rising behind it is sheer class.) I've got the DVD and always enjoy watching this film, I love Roy Scheider in most films he's in and he's excellent in this one. Also thought Daniel Stern was great as Murphy's observer. The series was quite cheezy but enjoyable in it's own way. Universal latched on to the super hi-tech helicopter theme as Airwolf followed soon afterwards. The helicopter in Airwolf was a Bell 222 whereas Blue Thunder was a converted Gazelle helicopter that was given a facelift to make it look bulky and menacing, a little bit like an Apache. Back to the movie. The plot is quite thin and there are a couple of scenes that are a bit far fetched but if you're looking for a film with good helicopter chase sequences in it, they don't come much better than this. Catch you later.

Peter Weller plays Alex Murphy, a good cop who is killed in the line of duty by a ruthless gang of villians led by the very excellent Kurtwood Smith. His dead body is then used in an experiment to create the perfect law enforcer...Robocop. All goes well until Robocop starts remembering his previous life and tries to piece together Murphys past which leads him to discover the events leading up to Murphy's death. This film could have been ruined had it not been for the excellent script, great special effects, brilliant performances by the cast including Ronny Cox as the villanous Dick Jones and not forgetting Peter Weller in the title role. Check out Nancy Allen in what some have said is the best role of her career. Dutch director Paul Verhoeven throws in some excellent satire with adverts like Nuke-Em which appears after a news report on the threat of nuclear confrontation. Not forgetting the news reports themselves which feature some excellent Irony "Top story, the Star Wars orbitting Peace Platform misfired today, three ex president's are amongst the dead." Every base is covered in this film and we feel empathy for Murphy's character throughout. It's amazing to think that this film cost a third of what Robocop 2 cost to make but is far superior than the two sequels and the tv series's put together. It's just shows that money is not everything when it comes to making one of the greatest Sci-Fi Action films of all time. Imagination, character development, good story and great script is. I cannot go without mentioning the excellent stop motion scenes involving ED-209. This was before CGI but the effect is superb. If you haven't already seen this film then you must.....Must...MUST. THAT IS THE LAW......Thank you for your co-operation.

I approached this film with an open mind and little by little, two hours seemed to last for two days. Kirk Douglas plays the father of a telekenetic boy called Robin who has the unique ability to make people bleed to death and also make fairground rides go faster(a useful gift indeed). John Cassavetes plays Kirk Douglas's ex partner and ex friend who abducts Robin for his own sinister scheme. (We never find out what that is.)Douglas is helped by a telekenetic girl played by Amy Irving but unfortunately, Douglas and Irving's relationship isn't allowed to develop as they meet up far too late in the film. What also let's this film down is a lame script, a slow plot and some poor slow motion over the top death scenes which are far too unnecessary for this film. A far cry from Carrie which dealt with the subject of Psychic ability far better than this load of tripe.