Subject: Retrospective: Starship Troopers (1997)

From: Dennis Schwartz <[email-masked]>
Date: 15 Mar 1999 05:45:36 GMT

STARSHIP TROOPERS (director: Paul Verhoeven; cast: Johnny Rico (Casper
Van Dien),  Dizzy Flores (Dina Meyer), Carmen Ibanez (Denise Richards),
Ace Levy (Jake Busey), Carl Jenkins (Neil Patrick Harris), Zander
(Patrick Muldoon), Sgt. Zim (Clancy Brown), Jean Rasczak (Michael
Ironside) , 1997)

You can watch this movie, that is based on a sci-fi work by Robert
Heinlein, either as a straight gung-ho war film, or you can see it
mostly as a spoof. Anyway you watch it won't require too much gray
matter from your brain cells, because you will either find this film
entertaining and a feast for weary eyes, or you might, like me, "think"
that this film is so bad that it really couldn't be this bad, I must be
missing something. But I have come to the conclusion that this insipid
B- movie, is that bad, despite the high production costs it took to make
it.

If there are any good parts to this film, it might be in the occasional
sardonic one liner, such as this one, that makes light of the film's
heavy assault on our sensibilities, as one soldier is telling the hero
of the story, "You're good at killing bugs." This came after a big
battle between the two opposing armies.

Basically, the film should be seen as a war movie, because its spoof of
the military, grew thin very fast for me, as it got carried away with
the cartoon characters it has stereotyped, going for an overkill on a
spoof that is so obvious in the first place, that by spending so much
time with spoofing the military, is just plain unnecessary. It is the
last half of the film that takes over the movie, anyway, as the film
becomes all about killing the bugs who have invaded a city called Bueno
Aires.That's the town all our hero kids come from in the story.

I guess the film is set in the future, but it sure looks like the
present to me despite all the computer graphics, as it makes use of its
astronomical budget to become solely a computerized special effect
movie, that should endear itself to the MTV generation. There is no
subtlety to the continual spoofs against the military personnel.The
mindless story traces a bunch of high school graduates and their
dedicated teacher, well-acted by Michael Ironside, as they all join the
military for all the reasons that prevail at the present time for why
people join.

After awhile, all the performers looked alike to me, but I wouldn't be
doing my duty as a movie reviewer, if I should fail to point out that
there is some kind of melodramatic love story going down among the four
stars of the film, Rico (Casper Van Dien), the school football hero,
loves Carmen (Denise Richards), the school beauty and math brain, who is
set on becoming a pilot, which is the reason Rico joins the military.
There is some kind of mumbo-jumbo talk among them about the difference
between a citizen and a civilian: A citizen does his duty by joining the
military and protecting the "Federation", a civilian makes lots of money
and goes to Harvard, as what Rico's folks wanted him to do. The other
part of the love story is that Dizzy Flores (Dina Meyer), a football
jock and an attractive filly, is in love with Rico, but he spurns her
attention. But persistence pays off, she joins him in the infantry,
while Carmen falls for her co-pilot, a dude named Zander (Patrick
Muldoon), and the rivalry between Rico and Zander is about as thrilling
as having a spider crawl up your leg.

I don't think you get much bang for your money out of this film, unless
you are really into special effects or found this sophomoric satire
funny or you are a reactionary, then I think you will find many things
to like about this empty hearted attempt to put WW11 into an outer space
conflagration film.

REVIEWED ON 3/14/99                                           GRADE: D

Dennis Schwartz: "Movie Reviews"

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