I've written before that I belong to a circle of friends who are complete degenerates. We play poker a lot and when we run out of money we put up DVDs from our collections onto the table. But one DVD I never risked gambling away was my Criterion version of Robocop. It was one of the first discs I purchased and was probably the most expensive one I'd gotten at the time. Amazingly, this DVD has become now poker material.

Yes, the new 20th Anniversary Collector's Edition has made its way to the DVD shelves and features not only the theatrical cut, but the extended, unrated version previously found only on the laser disc and Criterion DVD editions. Remember how horrifying Murphy's death was when you first saw this classic back in '87? It's still pretty hard to watch, but the unrated cut is even more merciless.

Man, it's been twenty years since this movie came out. Back then my only worries in life were which G.I. Joe to buy, getting picked for Nerf football and the Soviets. Director Paul Verhoeven has made a few solid films since Robocop, but nothing that tapped into pop culture so convincingly. Did I say tap? I meant stormed. I left the theater in '87 walking like Robocop. A crackhead, to others watching I'm sure, but in my head I was Robocop. I was Murphy. I was badass.

What's beautiful about this movie is that it manages to balance satire and real danger. The violence here may be over-the-top, but you still fear it. It's the antithesis to one of my favorite six-pack movies, Starship Troopers (also directed by Verhoeven). Verhoeven made Starship ten years after Robocop and he showed us how easy it is to get lost in the aesthetics of filmmaking, forgetting the meat-and-potatoes aspects of storytelling. Oh, and likable characters.

In Starship, comedy is again derived from Verhoeven's keen sense of satire (and Casper Van Dien acting). It's just as violent as Robocop, but you don't care enough about anyone so you never really feel the threat. Hell, I wanted to join the giant insects of Klendathu and whoop some Roughneck butt!

But in Robocop, you always care about Murphy. Dude had the worst death like ... ever. His wife and kids have moved on. He's hasn't any real legs or arms to speak of any more. He feels like a freak. And I don't even want to know how to he goes to the bathroom. He's somewhat human, but his humanity becomes more real than Van Dien's Johnny Rico.

I'm not one to double-dip purchase, but this film, which Senor Villalobos rightly named one of the ten best films of 1987, is too good to pass up. Besides, it gives me one more bargaining chip at the poker table.

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Dre writes three times a week for Film.com when he isn't losing his entire DVD collection. E-mail him!

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