Entertainment
The Best Way To Watch RoboCop Completely Ruins The Movie
By Chris Snellgrove
| Published
For this ‘80s kid, RoboCop (1987) is one of the best films ever made. As a young movie nerd, I watched the movie for its spectacle, including conniving bad guys, kooky sci-fi, and some of the best action scenes in Hollywood history. Growing older, though, I realized the real strength of the movie was its trenchant satire and social commentary. Director Paul Verhoeven held an unflinching mirror up to America, and he willingly interrupts his sci-fi opus with fake ads meant to highlight the inevitable dangers of where society was headed.
Now, RoboCop is streaming for free on Tubi, and this is arguably the best way to watch this ‘80s epic. You see, Tubi is a free streaming platform with ads embedded into every film, which is fine: a few ads are a small price to pay for this streamer’s sprawling platform of titles. However, the ads on Tubi have arguably gotten weirder than ever, including AI slop being used to sell everything from pay-to-win apps to gambling services. Now, in a truly meta moment, you can stream Verhoeven’s vision of future America and compare how strange our modern advertisements have become to the hilarious fake ads he created nearly four decades ago.
Cops And Robots
The premise of RoboCop is that in a dystopian Detroit, law enforcement is now handled by a creepy megacorporation. They want to be tough on crime, so they take a recently slain police officer and revive him inside a cybernetic body. Now, as RoboCop, this mechanical lawman is the bane of criminals throughout the city. However, there is still a glimmer of humanity beneath his dark visor, and that spark of who he was may help the city’s top cop save the day. Assuming, of course, it doesn’t get him killed before that can happen.
The cast of RoboCop includes some very fun surprises, including Ray Wise (best known for Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me) and Ronny Cox (best known for Total Recall). The movie also stars Kurtwood Smith (best known for That ‘70s Show) as one of the most memorable villains to ever grace an action movie. But the real star of the show is Peter Weller (otherwise best known for The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension), who is amazing as both hero cop Alex Murphy and RoboCop, a technological powerhouse who may very well be the future of law enforcement.
As an ‘80s kid myself, I had a simpler view of RoboCop. When I was younger, I loved the fact that the title character looked like an action figure, and that he fought bad guys as two-dimensional as the ones in my beloved Saturday morning cartoons. It helped, of course, that the very concept of this hero felt like something out of the fevered imagination of a sugar-addled child. After all, what’s cooler than a cop in the eyes of a kid? A robot cop, naturally!
Ironically, as I grew older, I appreciated how RoboCop functioned as a hilariously on-the-nose criticism of America’s police force. The individual cops are mostly decent people trying to make their city a better place, but they are caught up in a corporatized system that prioritizes profits over people. That system will do more than chew you up and kill you: it will then transform you into a robot zombie whose only function is to reduce human jobs and increase shareholder values. Regardless of your personal politics, that message is more resonant today than it ever was back in the waning twilight of Reagan’s America.
Tomorrow’s Future Shock, Today
Like many great franchises, no future films or shows were able to capture the magic of the first RoboCop film. Without Paul Verhoeven’s deft touch, later installments focused only on the surface-level coolness of having a nearly unkillable cop fighting everything from high-tech gangbangers to rival robots.
But it’s the satire that makes this first film an enduring classic, and the satire manages to be as hilarious as it is incisive. The most blatant satire comes from the bevy of fake ads that remind you that this is a world in which sex, violence, drugs, and even robotic cops are all just ways that a soulless corporation will try to sell you something.
Watching the film on Tubi now truly does make RoboCop that much more surreal, as your film about a corporate dystopia obsessed with money is periodically broken up by AI ads created by companies that didn’t want to pay real actors. In retrospect, Verhoeven gave us the most potent kind of satire: the one that accurately portrayed our own bleak future with unflinching accuracy and undeniable style.
RoboCop himself poses existential nightmare questions for audiences: like, how can anybody rage against the machine when the system makes us part of its gears? Today’s corpse is tomorrow’s cop, proving that even death cannot free you from the endless reach of our corporate overlords.
If you want to experience this eerily prescient movie in the best possible way, you don’t have to spend so much as a dollar. All you have to do is stream RoboCop for free on Tubi. Afterward, you might just spend the rest of your life quoting it. Because of that, make sure everyone in the room is cool before you start trying out your best impersonation of Kurtwood Smith’s hilariously iconic line: “b*tches leave!”
Entertainment
New Music Friday May 29: Paul McCartney, Ariana Grande, Hilary Duff, Latto, Tim McGraw, Riley Green and More
Happy New Music Friday! The weekend is here, which means more streaming, new playlists and the best that music has to offer — and ET has you covered for everything in between.
Riley Green will be co-hosting CMA Fest presented by SoFi with Lara Spencer which will kick off June 4 in Nashville. The three hour concert event will be filmed during the 53rd CMA Fest and will air June 25 on ABC and stream next day on Hulu. Riley has also announced his fourth studio album, That’s Just Me, will be out on September 18. His new summer anthem “Think As You Drunk,” which pays tribute to Toby Keith, is out now.
Role Model has announced his third studio album, Chuck Timely & The Hourglass, which will arrive on August 7. Last week, he began teasing his new album with select fans from his community receiving old-fashioned acquaintance cards int he main from the mysterious “Chuck Timely.” Role Model’s first single from the new album “High Hopes 3000” will be out on June 3.
Alex Warren kicked off his Finding Family on the Road Tour earlier this week at Bridgestone Arena in Nashville. During his sold out show, Alex brought out Luke Combs for a special duet of his hit song “Ordinary.”
The Professional Rodeo Cowboy Association’s Music City Rodeo kicked off May 28 at Bridgestone Arena in Nashville with headliner Miranda Lambert. Miranda sang her new single “Crisco” and Little Big Town made a surprise appearance and joined her on stage for a couple songs. Charley Crockett and Jon Pardi will headline this weekend.
Plus, new music from Paul McCartney, Ariana Grande, Latto, Tim McGraw, Cody Johnson, Riley Green, Carlos Santana, Becky G, Cara Delevingne, Bebe Rexha, aespa, Labrinth, Lauren Alaina and more.
The Boys of Dungeon Lane – Paul McCartney
Stream it now: Apple / Spotify
“hate that i made you love me” – Ariana Grande
Stream it now: Apple / Spotify
Mine – Hilary Duff
Stream it now: Apple / Spotify
“Pawn Shop Guitar” and “Song for America” – Tim McGraw
Stream it now: Apple / Spotify
“Mi Gran Amor” – Carlos Santana & Becky G
Stream it now: Apple / Spotify
“Take Me Back (Leave Me There)” – Cody Johnson
Stream it now: Apple / Spotify
“Think As You Drunk” – Riley Green
Stream it now: Apple / Spotify
Big Mama – Latto
Stream it now: Apple / Spotify
“I Forgot” and “Out of my Head” – Cara Delevingne
Stream it now: Apple / Spotify
“Sad Girls” – Bebe Rexha & David Guetta
Stream it now: Apple / Spotify
“Mr. October” – Wyclef Jean feat G Herbo
Stream it now: Apple / Spotify
LEMONADE – aespa
Stream it now: Apple / Spotify
“Over and Over” – Little Big Town
Stream it now: Apple / Spotify
Cosmic Opera Act II – Labrinth
Stream it now: Apple / Spotify
“Better Off” – Lauren Alaina
Stream it now: Apple / Spotify
Do Not Disturb: Late Checkout – Young Miko
Stream it now: Apple / Spotify
“Don’t Lose Your Head” – Tiësto
Stream it now: Apple / Spotify
K-POPS! (Music from and inspired by K-POPS! Motion Picture)
Stream it now: Apple / Spotify
“Kill It” – The Band Perry
Stream it now: Apple / Spotify
Detour – Kim Petras
Stream it now: Apple / Spotify
Epilogue: The Cellar Tapes – Don Williams
Stream it now: Apple / Spotify
“Come My Way” – Sơn Tùng M-TP & Tyga
Stream it now: Apple / Spotify
“Mad About It” – Dasha
Stream it now: Apple / Spotify
I HOPE THIS HELPS – Alana Springsteen
Stream it now: Apple / Spotify
Be Sweet To Me – Violet Grohl
Stream it now: Apple / Spotify
“Can You Be Mine” – Justin Blau & Timbaland
Stream it now: Apple / Spotify
“Strange Little Game” – Jessica Lowndes
Stream it now: Apple / Spotify
“BIRTHDAY” – Faouzia
Stream it now: Apple / Spotify
“Baby Driver” – 070 Shake
Stream it now: Apple / Spotify
“Brighter” – Michael James Scott
Stream it now: Apple / Spotify
“She Knows” – David Nail
Stream it now: Apple / Spotify
EI8HT – Shinedown
Stream it now: Apple / Spotify
“Beneath The Pines” – Zach John King
Stream it now: Apple / Spotify
“dark magic” – Quadeca
Stream it now: Apple / Spotify
Entertainment
Forgotten Star Wars Easter Egg Celebrates The 90s' Most Controversial Drug Film
By Chris Snellgrove
| Published
Unless you’re counting the spice that Han Solo smuggled, or maybe the death sticks that Obi-Wan turned down, Star Wars isn’t a franchise that most fans associate with drugs. Nonetheless, one of this millennium’s earliest video games set in a galaxy far, far away included a blatant homage to one of the most controversial drug films ever made. This was in the form of an Easter egg that kinda/sorta includes Ewan McGregor, the highly acclaimed actor who played Obi-Wan Kenobi in the much-maligned Prequel Trilogy.
The game in question is Obi-Wan, an early Star Wars title for the original Xbox. If I’m being honest, the game is really, really bad, like the younger, far dumber brother of beloved third-person titles like Jedi Outcast. There’s almost nothing remarkable about the game except for a bizarre video that plays the first time that you beat it. You see, anyone who makes it to the end of this stinker is treated to a montage of Phantom Menace action scenes narrated by a bad McGregor impersonator doing a cringeworthy, Star Wars version of the opening monologue from Trainspotting!
The Star Wars Game That Time Forgot
These days, pretty much nobody talks about the Star Wars: Obi-Wan game for the original Xbox, and there’s a good reason for that: it sucks! It was a third-person action game in which you took control of the titular Padawan as he hacked and slashed his way through the events of The Phantom Menace. It’s inferior to pretty much every other Star Wars game of this era, which is why (unlike titles such as Knights of the Old Republic, Republic Commando, and even Star Wars Episode I: Racer) it was never ported or re-released.
The only really notable thing about Obi-Wan is that after you beat it for the first time, you are treated to a weird monologue from voice actor Lewis MacLeod. In his best (which is still the worst) Ewan McGregor impression, he starts ranting about all the things you can choose (like the Dark Side, the Council, destiny, and the Force) before rhetorically asking, “Why would I want to do a thing like that? I chose not to choose the Dark Side. I chose something else. And the reasons? There are no reasons. Who needs reasons when you’ve got a lightsaber?”
So Much Worse Than Death Sticks
Now, if that Obi-Wan monologue sounded like pure gibberish, don’t worry. That doesn’t mean you’re having a heart attack or anything. What it does mean, though, is that you’ve probably never seen Trainspotting, Ewan McGregor’s 1996 breakout film. The movie begins with a similar monologue in which his character pontificates on things you can choose (like a career, a family, and fixed-interest mortgage repayments) before reminding us that you don’t have to make such choices if you have enough drugs. “Why would I want to do a thing like that? I chose not to choose life. I chose something else. And the reasons? There are no reasons. Who needs reasons when you’ve got heroin?”
This cheeky monologue sets the tone for Trainspotting, a movie about a young heroin addict trying to get clean. Unfortunately, he wanders from one misadventure to the next, which includes everything from overdoses and HIV scares to a prolonged sexual relationship with an underage girl. Because of its focus on all these heroin-related exploits, the movie gained a somewhat controversial reputation, and one-time presidential hopeful Bob Dole claimed the film was morally depraved and glorified drug use. Despite this, Trainspotting became director Danny Boyle’s breakout film (especially after getting an Academy Award nomination). It was also a breakout movie for lead actor Ewan McGregor, who would soon be cast as Obi-Wan Kenobi for the Star Wars Prequel Trilogy.
From Heroin To Hero
Even though a presidential nominee had been calling Trainspotting morally depraved only half a decade previously, there was no nationwide controversy when the Obi-Wan game homaged the film. This was most likely because the original controversy was completely ginned up. Instead of glamorizing drugs, the movie shows the horrors (and, admittedly, the humor) of heroin addiction. Between that and its Academy Award nomination, it’s hard to think of this film as being truly offensive, just like it’s hard to imagine enough people playing the Obi-Wan game to even care about the homage.
Nonetheless, this video game Easter Egg is a perfectly preserved moment of an entirely different era. It was a time when a mainstream Star Wars game could homage one of the ‘90s most controversial films with a bizarre rant that invited us to compare lightsabers to heroin. To this day, this ruffles a few fans’ feathers, but as for me? I chose not to choose being offended. And the reasons? There are no reasons. Who needs reasons when you’ve got clicks?
Entertainment
My Packing List for Leaving the House
Nailed it. By the wonderful Grace Farris.
P.S. Flirting at the library and mom’s bag of surprises.… Read more
The post My Packing List for Leaving the House appeared first on Cup of Jo.
New Music Friday May 29: Paul McCartney, Ariana Grande, Hilary Duff, Latto, Tim McGraw, Riley Green and More
What happens when companies become too AI-pilled?
