From rec.arts.sf.reviews Thu Oct 30 14:18:36 1997 Path: news.ifm.liu.se!news.lth.se!feed1.news.luth.se!luth.se!feed1.news.erols.com!cpk-news-hub1.bbnplanet.com!su-news-hub1.bbnplanet.com!news.bbnplanet.com!logbridge.uoregon.edu!news.uoregon.edu!news.u.washington.edu!grahams From: PBBP24A@prodigy.com (Edward Johnson-ott) Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.reviews,rec.arts.sf.reviews Subject: Review: Starship Troopers (1997) Followup-To: rec.arts.sf.movies Date: 28 Oct 1997 22:11:42 GMT Organization: Prodigy Services Company 1-800-PRODIGY Lines: 92 Approved: graham@ee.washington.edu Distribution: world Message-ID: <635nuu$r4j$1@nntp5.u.washington.edu> NNTP-Posting-Host: homer33.u.washington.edu X-Trace: nntp5.u.washington.edu 878076702 27795 (None) 140.142.64.6 X-Complaints-To: help@cac.washington.edu NNTP-Posting-User: grahams Summary: r.a.m.r. #09557 Keywords: author=johnson-ott X-Questions-to: movie-rev-mod@www.ee.washington.edu X-Submissions-to: movie-reviews@www.ee.washington.edu Originator: grahams@homer33.u.washington.edu Xref: news.ifm.liu.se rec.arts.movies.reviews:8867 rec.arts.sf.reviews:1579 Starship Troopers (1997) Casper Van Dien, Denise Richards, Dina Meyer, Patrick Muldoon, Neil Patrick Harris, Michael Ironside, Clancy Brown Rated R, * out of ***** stars Review by Ed Johnson-Ott For more reviews, go to www.nuvo-online.com and click on "film." The rich legacy of cinema has left us with certain indelible images. The tinkling Christmas tree bell in "It’s A Wonderful Life." Bogie’s speech at the airport in "Casablanca." Little Elliott’s flying bicycle, silhouetted by the moon in "E.T." And now, "Starship Troopers" director Paul Verhoeven adds one more image that will live in our memories forever: Doogie Houser doing a Vulcan mind meld with a giant slug. "Starship Troopers," loosely based on the Robert Heinlein novel, is the story of an interstellar war between humans and giant insects. In the hands of Verhoeven, the mammoth sci-fi battle flick is one of the most astonishingly bad films ever made, a monument to inept filmmaking on a colossal scale. To put it simply, it’s a bug bomb. In "Robocop" and "Total Recall," Verhoeven displayed a gift for creating an entertaining mix of violence, special effects and social satire, and "Starship Troopers" starts off in similar fashion, with a tongue-in-cheek futuristic military recruitment ad that shows promise. Things go downhill fast, though, as we meet our heroes, a group of Buenos Aires teens preparing to graduate from high school. Inexplicably, Johnny Rico, Carmen Ibenez, Dizzy Flores and Xander Barcalow are played by square-jawed Anglo kids who look like they just stepped out of a Mountain Dew commercial. It’s a veritable "Alpha Centuri 90210" as we watch the love-smitten teens squabble in the name of love. Michael Ironside plays their teacher, who waves around a cheesy fake severed arm while lecturing about civic responsibilities. Eventually, the kids join the military, with dreams of glory in their addled little minds. One of their classmates, Carl Jenkins ("Doogie Houser’s" Neil Patrick Harris,) snags a job in military intelligence because of his strong psychic abilities. He displays his gift by psychically ordering a pet ferret to crawl up his Mother’s leg. A long, dull boot camp sequence follows, enlivened only by an extended coed shower scene where the recruits swap snappy banter as the "Showgirls" director’s camera roams over their buff bodies. Finally, a full hour into the film, the war finally starts and we meet the enemy. The bugs hail from Klendathu and colonize planets by hurling their spores into space. They attack starships by spinning around and firing deadly plasma blasts from their rears. Yes, incredible as it seems, the bugs actually kill with cosmic farts. A phenomenally large amount of money was spent creating the computer animated insects and the results are mixed at best. Sweeping distant shots depicting hordes of giant bugs racing to attack are both impressive and scary, but the close-ups are a different matter. The insects have an odd, artificial look, like origami creations with a mottled plastic coating. The attack scenes are intensely violent, as one would expect from Verhoeven, but the overall look is too phony to generate any real tension. While the action is frantic, the military strategy, wildly illogical even by Hollywood standards, grows tiresome quickly. Verhoeven tries to spice things up by throwing in more satiric news coverage, but the faux-jingoistic scenes of children "doing their part for the war effort" by squishing roaches on a sidewalk aren’t enough to make up for the long stretches of sheer dreck. One can only guess what Paul Verhoeven was trying to do here. His customary one part satire, two parts ultra-violence formula is way out of whack, and most of the film just flounders. In "Showgirls" fashion, some scenes are almost bad enough to be good. An intergalactic kegger party, with Jake Busey playing "Dixie" on a green Plexiglas fiddle, has a certain bizarre appeal. A sex scene between two of the teens achieves a smarmy charm, enhanced a few minutes later when the female receives a fatal jab from a bug, but tells her hero that she doesn’t mind dying. "It’s okay," she gasps, "I got to have you!" And then, of course, there’s Doogie’s mind meld with a bug. It’s possible that Verhoeven was attempting to create an homage to the era of the original novel. Heinlein’s pre-"Stranger In A Strange Land" books were aimed at adolescent males, and "Starship Troopers" has the antiseptic retro-future look of late 50s/early 60s sci-fi. The one cityscape shown is a Jetsons-like gleaming metropolis, with flying cars whizzing past an obvious matte painting. The hairstyles are retro too, straight from the Frankie Avalon, Annette Funicello school of fashion. Ultimately, Verhoeven’s motives are irrelevant. He has produce a gargantuan film that fails as an action film or as a social satire. It even fails to be an entertaining bad movie. Avoid "Starship Troopers" at all costs. copyright 1997, Ed Johnson-Ott From rec.arts.sf.reviews Tue Nov 4 17:50:39 1997 Path: news.ifm.liu.se!news.lth.se!feed1.news.luth.se!luth.se!feed1.news.erols.com!news-peer.sprintlink.net!news-peer-west.sprintlink.net!news.sprintlink.net!Sprint!newsfeed.direct.ca!news.uoregon.edu!news.u.washington.edu!grahams From: Jamie Peck Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.reviews,rec.arts.sf.reviews Subject: Review: Starship Troopers (1997) Followup-To: rec.arts.sf.movies Date: 2 Nov 1997 19:29:17 GMT Organization: The Retriever Weekly Lines: 98 Approved: graham@ee.washington.edu Message-ID: <63ikad$7v0$1@nntp5.u.washington.edu> NNTP-Posting-Host: homer30.u.washington.edu X-Trace: nntp5.u.washington.edu 878498957 8160 (None) 140.142.64.7 X-Complaints-To: help@cac.washington.edu NNTP-Posting-User: grahams Summary: r.a.m.r. #09610 Keywords: author=peck X-Questions-to: movie-rev-mod@www.ee.washington.edu X-Submissions-to: movie-reviews@www.ee.washington.edu Originator: grahams@homer30.u.washington.edu Xref: news.ifm.liu.se rec.arts.movies.reviews:8943 rec.arts.sf.reviews:1590 STARSHIP TROOPERS RATING: *** (out of ****) TriStar / 2:09 / 1997 / R (violence, gore, language, gore, violence, sex, gore, nudity, gore, violence) Cast: Casper Van Dien; Dina Meyer; Denise Richards; Patrick Muldoon; Jake Busey; Neil Patrick Harris; Clancy Brown; Michael Ironside; Seth Gilliam Driector: Paul Verhoeven Screenplay: Ed Neumeier Casting "Doogie Howser" star Neil Patrick Harris as mind-reading military intelligence is only one of the guilty pleasures of "Starship Troopers," a hugely entertaining, mega-budgeted sci-fi yarn directed by Paul Verhoeven, who's making quite a recovery from his 1995 G-string epic "Showgirls." Sure, "Starship Troopers" qualifies as cinematic junk food, but that's forgivable when the junk food is this tasty. Everyone needs a high-calorie change-of-pace from fall's onslaught of costume dramas and other assorted Oscar bait, and "Troopers" does the job admirably despite its flaws. For its first hour, "Starship Troopers" plays like a cheeky futuristic hybrid of "Saved by the Bell" and "G.I. Jane." In the distant years ahead, high school grad Johnny Rico (Casper Van Dien) signs up for Federal Service along with his girlfriend Carmen (Denise Richards); he gets accepted into the Mobile Infantry but she wants to travel to the Fleet Academy to become a starship pilot, so the couple is broken up. But there's temptation awaiting both of them -- Johnny's is in the form of an old friend (Dina Meyer) also in the infantry and still harboring a secret crush, while Carmen attracts the eye of her flirtatious instructor (Patrick Muldoon). Personal rivalry and sexual jealousy carry over into the final 65 minutes, when an impending alien menace begins making good on its threatening presence and obliterates part of South America, killing Johnny's parents and destroying his home. Our weakening, lovesick protagonist is given new reasons to stick around the Mobile Infantry, and is dispatched with a group of fellow fighters to the aliens' home planet, where he will head up a ground assault to end the threat for good. But the enemy is far smarter, more diabolical and numerous than the good guys give them credit for, and after an initial walloping, they must re-examine their strategy. The exposition -- played like a futuristic soap opera -- is silly, but aware of its own ridiculousness enough to merit more smiles than groans. Once we get past the campy character introductions and the numerous (but never boring) training sessions, "Starship Troopers" really kicks into high gear. Its last half is all gruesomely violent action -- a fury of severed limbs, decapitations, disembowelments, brain removal, explosions and other jolt-inducers that are really going to please the 13- and 14-year-old boys lucky enough to dodge getting carded or caught on their way into this deservedly R-rated show. The creature design and special effects are amazing as expected, and their interaction with the human actors are a realistic, imaginative high point. It's nice to see intergalactic beasties that aren't too derivative of the titular menace from "Alien." These monsters are appropriately terrifying sights, especially the Arachnids, a spider-scorpion-crab combo that's all sharp talons and even sharper legs. They attack in packs of hundreds, and it's a funny, scary sight to see these bugs take repeated hits and still crawl, jerk and struggle towards their intended victims in a determined, gooey mess. It matters not that they actually have a laughable master plan in mind (ask yourself if a species like this seems capable of carrying out such a plot); these sequences of insect warfare are numerous, bloody and immensely satisfying. The occasional dramatic moments -- one cast member's death, the final resolution to Johnny's love triangle -- are botched, a testament to how "Starship Troopers" fails to create any strong, outstanding characters. These bland Ken-and-Barbie archetypes serve the story adequately enough to keep any distractions at arm's length, but restrain the film from achieving a higher ground a la "Star Wars," where even the slightest aliens had definite personality. The acting is decent (but never spectacular); most of the performers hail from Aaron Spelling territory -- smallish roles on "Beverly Hills 90210" and/or "Melrose Place" -- and it occasionally shows. Van Dien, for example, is limited but perfectly likeable. In smaller parts are the afore-mentioned Neil Patrick Harris as Johnny's best friend and Jake Busey (Gary's son) as Johnny's sidekick; the latter excels at playing creeps (see "The Frighteners" or "Contact") but seems off-kilter as a second banana. "Starship Troopers" is based on the novel by Robert Heinlein, a sci-fi writer who hasn't exactly seen any recent adaptation justice done to any of his books what with 1994's howler "The Puppet Masters." But the overall familiarity to the "Alien" trilogy -- and the promise of great gobs of gore -- could act as a crowd-drawer. Its own possible influence, however, might well work against it when the franchise continuation "Alien: Resurrection" opens in a few weeks. We will know then which film to crown as the best summer movie of the fall. © 1997 Jamie Peck E-mail: jpeck1@gl.umbc.edu Visit the Reel Deal Online: http://www.gl.umbc.edu/~jpeck1/ From rec.arts.sf.reviews Tue Nov 4 19:49:21 1997 Path: news.ifm.liu.se!news.lth.se!feed1.news.luth.se!luth.se!feed1.news.erols.com!europa.clark.net!204.127.161.1!wnfeed!204.127.130.5!worldnet.att.net!news.u.washington.edu!grahams From: reid77@mindspring.com (Reid Davis) Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.reviews,rec.arts.sf.reviews Subject: Review: Starship Troopers (1997) Followup-To: rec.arts.sf.movies Date: 4 Nov 1997 16:52:04 GMT Organization: MindSpring Enterprises, Inc. Lines: 104 Approved: graham@ee.washington.edu Message-ID: <63njrk$1ri$1@nntp5.u.washington.edu> Reply-To: reid77@mindspring.com NNTP-Posting-Host: homer23.u.washington.edu X-Trace: nntp5.u.washington.edu 878662324 1906 (None) 140.142.64.1 X-Complaints-To: help@cac.washington.edu NNTP-Posting-User: grahams Summary: r.a.m.r. #09639 Keywords: author=davis X-Questions-to: movie-rev-mod@www.ee.washington.edu X-Submissions-to: movie-reviews@www.ee.washington.edu Originator: grahams@homer23.u.washington.edu Xref: news.ifm.liu.se rec.arts.movies.reviews:8975 rec.arts.sf.reviews:1595 By Reid Davis Clayton News/Daily Before the screening I attended of "Starship Troopers," promotional people roamed the aisles, giving out comic books of the movie. That should have been a clue. With a few exceptions, comic books are two-dimensional, don't develop characters, and feature action punctuated with day-glo "blams " and "splats." And "Starship Troopers" is one big comic book of a movie, a b-movie deluxe, including everything but the "Coming Soon To TBS" tagline. And once the average moviegoer makes that connection, it becomes a much more enjoyable ride. So what's good about the movie? Action, visuals and special effects. What's not so good? Acting, plot and dialogue...especially the dialogue! I recently read that big-budget Hollywood films are spending much larger percentages of cash on special effects and considerably less for big-name talent. I suppose the thinking is that special effects are more reliable than big-name actors as a box office draw. Plus, special effects won't embarrass studios by political grandstanding or having messy personal lives. "Starship Troopers" is a case study for this kind of approach. I mean, what else can you say for a movie that credits nine special effects companies, but features Neil Patrick Harris (Doogie Howser, M.D.) as its most recognizable star? While Harris, along with veteran character actor Michael Ironside ("Top Gun," "ER,") are the most recognizable names, the first half of the movie is carried by a cast of unknowns. While "unknown" definitely does not mean "cannot act," there is reason to believe that some of these no-names were chosen for reasons other than their acting talents. Take Exhibit A, Casper Van Dien. As "Johnny Rico," the young-man-coming-of-age whose story is central to the film, he looks like a fresh pod grown from the Hollywood body-and-face hatchery. His jaw is so square, his teeth are so white and his body is so chiseled, that the average Joe Six-pack probably will have a hard time relating to his character, much less caring. Exhibit B is no better. Denise Richards ("Carmen Ibanez") seems slightly unreal as well, having seemingly been grown in the silicone, airbrush and plastic surgery section of the Hollywood hatchery. I've seen few Barbie dolls that looked better. While I have nothing against beauty, the performance of Van Dien - whose range consists of an aw-shucks grin, steely determination and a look of vague concern - leaves a lot to be desired. Richardson, while a better actor, still doesn't seem to connect with the material. She seems to hover beautifully above it all, with only a wrinkled brow of occasional worry. Of course, one even giggles using "material" to describe a movie like this one, which is why the second half of the movie, which commences the war between human and bug-like alien is so enjoyable. The first half of the film, which shows our heroes leaving the comfortable confines of school and home and entering military service, mostly drags. There are occasional patches of (sometimes unintentional) humor, but after the scene is set, the audience is yearning to get to the action. Unfortunately, by that point the action is still about half an hour away. Once the action arrives, however, director Paul Verhoeven ("Total Recall," "Robocop") is at his best, interposing edge-of-your-seat battle scenes with tongue-in-cheek snippets from futuristic recruiting videos and news bulletins that owe much to 1940s war propaganda. The visuals, another of Verhoeven's special talents, are first rate, summoning up a fully realized future world with seamingly effortless ease. And the special effects, of course, cannot be faulted. I'll bet most folks will see this movie only because of the jaw-dropping preview featuring thousands of marauding alien "bugs" swarming over the hillsides. Heck, that's what got me in the door... But don't expect another "Men In Black." While "MiB" featured the same comic-book approach, it had zippy dialogue and a plot that you had to keep from blinking in order to get. "Starship Troopers," on the other hand, is weighted down by dumber than dumb dialogue: "She's down here." "How do you know?" "I just know." And the plot offers nothing but cliches: "young man finds himself and gains the respect of others...friends bonded together by war...man wants unattainable woman and then finds his true match right in front of his nose..." Unlike "MiB," nothing here takes the moviegoer by surprise. Is "Starship Troopers" a good movie? If you are the kind of person who often finds yourself watching "Movies For Guys Who Like Movies," sure it is. However, if you demand a bit more from your b-list "candy," prepare to find yourself groaning early and often. Also, be wary of young ones begging to be taken to see this film. While the movie resembles a comic book, it also includes copious amounts of blood and gore, as well as some completely gratuitous nudity. In fact, some of the movie's best acting takes place in a co-ed shower scene, where men and women have to pretend that taking a shower in the same room is no big deal. (After all, it's the military...and the harrassment at Aberdeen Training Grounds never happened, right?) So for those who must have their big-budget special effects on a big screen, go ahead and see this. Otherwise, wait for it at your video store...or on TBS. From rec.arts.sf.reviews Wed Nov 5 22:02:12 1997 From: James Berardinelli Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.reviews,rec.arts.sf.reviews Subject: Review: Starship Troopers (1997) Followup-To: rec.arts.sf.movies Date: 5 Nov 1997 17:36:15 GMT Organization: None Lines: 148 Approved: graham@ee.washington.edu Message-ID: <63qaqf$c7m$1@nntp5.u.washington.edu> NNTP-Posting-Host: homer20.u.washington.edu X-Trace: nntp5.u.washington.edu 878751377 12534 (None) 140.142.64.4 X-Complaints-To: help@cac.washington.edu NNTP-Posting-User: grahams Summary: r.a.m.r. #09654 Keywords: author=berardinelli X-Questions-to: movie-rev-mod@www.ee.washington.edu X-Submissions-to: movie-reviews@www.ee.washington.edu Originator: grahams@homer20.u.washington.edu Path: news.ifm.liu.se!genius.dat.hk-r.se!news.lth.se!feed1.news.luth.se!luth.se!feed1.news.erols.com!news-peer.sprintlink.net!news.sprintlink.net!Sprint!worldnet.att.net!news.u.washington.edu!grahams Xref: news.ifm.liu.se rec.arts.movies.reviews:8987 rec.arts.sf.reviews:1596 STARSHIP TROOPERS A Film Review by James Berardinelli RATING: *** OUT OF **** United States, 1997 U.S. Release Date: 11/7/97 (wide) Running Length: 2:09 MPAA Classification: R (Extreme violence, profanity, nudity) Theatrical Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1 Cast: Casper Van Dien, Dina Meyer, Denise Richards, Jake Busey, Neil Patrick Harris, Clancy Brown, Michael Ironside, Seth Gilliam, Patrick Muldoon, Marshall Bell Director: Paul Verhoeven Producers: Alan Marshall and Jon Davison Screenplay: Ed Neumeir based on the novel by Robert A. Heinlein Cinematography: Jost Vacano Music: Basil Poledouris U.S. Distributor: TriStar Pictures Whenever a motion picture tackles a literary classic of any genre, fans of the written work hold their collective breaths, hoping for the best, but dreading the worst. On rare occasions, something like THE GODFATHER emerges -- a movie that not only fulfills the promise of the book, but improves upon it. Unfortunately, most of the time, we're saddled with atrocities like BRAM STOKER'S DRACULA or LEO TOLSTOY'S ANNA KARENINA. And, while it's unfair to lump science fiction writer Robert Heinlein into the same category as Tolstoy, the author is a recognized great in his chosen genre, and 1959's STARSHIP TROOPERS represents one of his best-known novels. So what about the film? Those anticipating a rigorous adaptation will be dismayed. On the other hand, anyone in the mood for a "popcorn movie" experience will find that STARSHIP TROOPERS fills the role handsomely. Probably the best way to approach STARSHIP TROOPERS is to divorce it from its intelligent and gripping pedigree. Many of the most intellectually stimulating aspects of the book have been stripped away, and those that remain are only shadows of their former selves. (It's still a lot smarter than INDEPENDENCE DAY, however.) Viewers offended by the "watering down" of themes in this summer's superlative motion picture version of CONTACT will be horrified by what has happened here. Nevertheless, taken on its own terms, the movie entity STARSHIP TROOPERS offers an enjoyable two hours. At its best, the film recaptures the kind of taut, visceral thrills offered by James Cameron's ALIENS. At its worst, it replicates the feel of a futuristic episode of TV's BEVERLY HILLS 90210. STARSHIP TROOPERS represents director Paul Verhoeven's comeback attempt after the disastrously-received NC-17 cult favorite, SHOWGIRLS. This time around, Verhoeven returns to the genre that has been most kind to him. STARSHIP TROOPERS is his third science fiction endeavor, following in the footsteps of ROBOCOP and TOTAL RECALL. And, as was true for both of those films, Verhoeven applies his own unique style to the material. Much of STARSHIP TROOPERS is presented tongue-in-cheek, and the level of violence and gore (bodies being ripped limb-from-limb and so forth) is so extreme that viewers will quickly become desensitized to it. The story begins sometime in the future on Earth, where society has evolved into what producer Jon Davison calls a "fascist utopia." It's there, in the city of Buenos Aires, that we meet STARSHIP TROOPERS' protagonist, Johnny Rico, played by relative newcomer Casper Van Dien. Rico, along with classmates Carmen Ibanez (Denise Richards), Carl Jenkins (Neil Patrick Harris, TV's Doogie Howser), and Dizzy Flores (Dina Meyer, from DRAGONHEART), is preparing for the future as high school graduation approaches. All four friends are considering joining the Federal Service -- the futuristic equivalent of today's military. Carmen wants to be a pilot, Carl wants to enter the intelligence ranks, and Rico and Dizzy are headed for the infantry. To add a little spice to their interaction, a romantic triangle has developed between Rico, Carmen, and Dizzy. While the early sequences of STARSHIP TROOPERS can seem like a prime time soap opera, complete with cheesy dialogue and unconvincing character development, it's clear that Verhoeven knows what he's doing. None of this is played completely straight; at times, STARSHIP TROOPERS' first half-hour treads a line between overblown melodrama and parody. Plus, there are the ROBOCOP-like propaganda "news breaks" that are used to provide expository material and advance the narrative. Although none of the characters are fleshed out much beyond the comic book level, we nevertheless find our sympathies aligning with them. The largely no- name cast is not heavy on dramatic acting ability, but everyone is appealing and enthusiastic. The stars of STARSHIP TROOPERS, especially Van Dien and Dina Meyer, manage to maintain a certain level of human interest in a film that eventually becomes special effects-driven. Following the high school portion of the film, the setting shifts to the infantry military school where Rico and Dizzy suffer through basic training under the tutelage of a hard-nosed instructor (Clancy Brown). We've seen this stuff many times before, most recently in G.I. JANE. The most memorable sequence of this segment is a co-ed shower scene designed to remind us that Verhoeven has no compunction about displaying the naked human body, even in a science fiction epic. Eventually, we get to the action. Humanity is at war with a race of lethal bugs who hail from the planet Klandathu, located halfway across the galaxy. They nuke an Earth city and mankind retaliates by launching an invasion of their homeworld. Rico and Dizzy are members of the invading army, and Carmen pilots the ship taking them there, but the campaign turns into a debacle. The death toll is phenomenal and the enemy scores a clear victory. The war, however, is just beginning. If viewers are going to gripe about any aspect of STARSHIP TROOPERS, their complaints will be registered against the first half of the film, not the second. Once the war starts, there's hardly any time for relaxation. Verhoeven orchestrates the battles between CGI aliens and human actors with consummate skill, creating extended sequences that crackle with tension and excitement. STARSHIP TROOPERS is essentially an old-fashioned war movie in a science fiction setting, and the film makers adhere to many of the conceits of that genre. The humans are good and the bugs are bad, and there's little room for sentimentality amidst all the machismo. John Wayne would have felt very much at home. Technically, STARSHIP TROOPERS is a mixed bag. Some of the scenes, such as an endless wave of spider-like aliens swarming across a rocky desertscape or a crippled spaceship breaking in half, involve impressive displays of motion picture magic. On other occasions, however, the effects work looks fake. Perhaps we've gotten to the point where we expect such precision and perfection from special effects that anything less is immediately noticeable. In the final analysis, STARSHIP TROOPERS is flawed but fun, and, if marketed correctly, will likely make a healthy profit (although it will be interesting to see how the "R" rating affects its ultimate box-office performance). And, while the outline of Heinlein's story and many of the characters remain intact, only echoes of the rich and controversial political subtext have survived. If you want content, read the book. If you want a skillfully-directed, fast-paced ride through space and into war, see the movie. In a year when so many blockbusters have disappointed, STARSHIP TROOPERS ranks as one of the better examples of lightweight, big budget entertainment. Copyright 1997 James Berardinelli - James Berardinelli e-mail: berardin@mail.cybernex.net Now with more than 1300 reviews... The ReelViews web site: http://movie-reviews.colossus.net/ "For me, the cinema is not a slice of life, but a piece of cake." - Alfred Hitchcock From rec.arts.sf.reviews Mon Nov 17 18:54:15 1997 Path: news.ifm.liu.se!news.lth.se!feed1.news.luth.se!luth.se!www.nntp.primenet.com!globalcenter1!news.primenet.com!nntp.primenet.com!su-news-hub1.bbnplanet.com!news.bbnplanet.com!logbridge.uoregon.edu!news.uoregon.edu!news.u.washington.edu!grahams From: cjc@interport.net (Cheng-Jih Chen) Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.reviews,rec.arts.sf.reviews Subject: Review: Starship Troopers (1997) Followup-To: rec.arts.sf.movies Date: 10 Nov 1997 03:59:22 GMT Organization: Interport Communications Lines: 91 Approved: graham@ee.washington.edu Message-ID: <6460qq$bh6$1@nntp5.u.washington.edu> NNTP-Posting-Host: homer15.u.washington.edu X-Trace: nntp5.u.washington.edu 879134362 11814 (None) 140.142.64.7 X-Complaints-To: help@cac.washington.edu NNTP-Posting-User: grahams Summary: r.a.m.r. #09727 Keywords: author=chen X-Questions-to: movie-rev-mod@www.ee.washington.edu X-Submissions-to: movie-reviews@www.ee.washington.edu Originator: grahams@homer15.u.washington.edu Xref: news.ifm.liu.se rec.arts.movies.reviews:9148 rec.arts.sf.reviews:1631 This film is a brilliant dystopia, depicting a nightmare world in which arena football has become the national pasttime. The arena football motif carries through the film, where we see, over and over again, people we'd hope would be sensible do remarkably stupid things. OK. Stop. "Starship Troopers" is based -- I use this word loosely -- on Robert Heinlein's novel of the same name. I'm not sure about the history of science fiction, but this novel may have been the first to coin the phrase "bug hunt," which we see most famously in "Aliens." It's combat science fiction, centering on the actions of soldiers from the future, who are recognizably types from today, only with bigger, fancier guns and spiffier uniforms. The film picks up the plot points and the names: there's a big battle, where the humans get their asses kick. Then there are other battles, and finally, this "brain bug" is captured at the end, giving the humans the key to victory. Woo hoo! The film, however, is just plain empty. It skips through the novel's plot points, but there's very little behind it beyond a massive special effects budget -- the animated bugs make Jurassic Park's dinos look like something we saw in King Kong (no, wait, they were things we saw in King Kong) -- and the soap opera antics of the gruff foot soldier, the dashing starship pilot (who, apparently, is named "Ace"), the woman that they love, and this other woman who pines for the GFS. The heart of the novel is its moral vision. You may disagree strongly with what Heinlein thinks, but you can't say that this novel isn't animated by his moral code. The code is expressed in the trooper's actions, his progress through the ranks, the lectures he receives, the conversations he overhears and the implicit comparison between bugs and humans. The film's fatal flaw is that it is entirely lacking in a moral vision. At most, it makes very nodding, very satirical references to it. No code or vision powers the film; all we have are special effects and soap opera. And when the protagonist finally declares that he understands the morality of this universe, that he knows the difference between "citizens" and "civilians", it's merely a point of melodrama, a tying of plot threads, and a reference to a question he couldn't answer previously. There's no conviction. But, the one positive thing about Starship Troopers, the movie, in the future, will become fodder for MST3K. To wit: 1) Where else will we "Doogie Howser, Psychic Nazi"? Crow T. Robot will have been saying, "Our minds are linked, your thoughts are my thoughts..." at one point. You'll know when. 2) The continuing mis-casting of Michael Ironside, who, once again, plays the gruff professional soldier. I'm sure he can play a caring, sensitive role, if only they'd let him. Well, maybe not. 3) The insistence of all the troopers to get in real close to the bugs, despite the fact that they have guns, and the bugs have claws. It's sort of like those bad action movies, where the villan, who has a big gun, decides that, yes, getting really close to Steven Segal is _no problem_ -- he can't kick my gun away! [Actually, this leads to one of the major deviations from the book -- these movie bugs apparently haven't really developed technology. In the novel, there are bugs with ray guns, who pilot space ships, and they're clearly intelligent and scheming. Humanity has an equal opponent, and you can think of bug society as contrast and comparison to human society. I find this scarier, in a way, than the must-invent-wheel-must-discover-fire bugs they have in the movie.] 4) 24th Century Technology, in which they've invented a new form of information storage that looks remarkably like carbon copy. 5) 24th Century Music, which looks remarkably like 1980s music, but with less hair. 6) Tug-o-war with the brain bug. Humanity has apparently lost the ability to manufacture the "bulldozer", and must resort to "Ten Commandments"-like teams of rope-pullers. 7) Arena football. Played with a silver football. 'Nuff said. I have to credit the film with one good thing, besides the special effects. There was a nice reference to Fritz Lang's "Metropolis" at the beginning. -- The Internet: an empirical test of the idea that a million monkeys banging on a million keyboards can produce Shakespeare. From rec.arts.sf.reviews Mon Nov 17 18:54:20 1997 From: Doug Skiles Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.reviews,rec.arts.sf.reviews Subject: Review: Starship Troopers (1997) Followup-To: rec.arts.sf.movies Date: 14 Nov 1997 17:08:00 GMT Organization: Performance Motors, Ltd. Lines: 90 Approved: graham@ee.washington.edu Message-ID: <64i0hg$ra$1@nntp5.u.washington.edu> Reply-To: rskiles@mail.win.org NNTP-Posting-Host: homer17.u.washington.edu X-Trace: nntp5.u.washington.edu 879527280 874 (None) 140.142.64.7 X-Complaints-To: help@cac.washington.edu NNTP-Posting-User: grahams Summary: r.a.m.r. #09788 Keywords: author=skiles X-Questions-to: movie-rev-mod@www.ee.washington.edu X-Submissions-to: movie-reviews@www.ee.washington.edu Originator: grahams@homer17.u.washington.edu Path: news.ifm.liu.se!genius.dat.hk-r.se!news.lth.se!feed1.news.luth.se!luth.se!news.algonet.se!newsfeed.direct.ca!news.uoregon.edu!news.u.washington.edu!grahams Xref: news.ifm.liu.se rec.arts.movies.reviews:9130 rec.arts.sf.reviews:1627 STARSHIP TROOPERS (1997) Starring: Computer Generated Bugs And Lots Of 'Em, Plus A Lot Of People You've Never Heard Of And Let's Hope It Stays That Way Directed by: Paul Verhoeven, Written by: Edward Neumeier, Based on the novel by Robert A. Heinlein Rated R by the MPAA for gratuitous nudity, gore everywhere, strong language all over the place, and probably a lot of other stuff that didn't need to be in there Reviewed by: Doug Skiles Oh, man. Where do I begin? Okay, how about with this: STARSHIP TROOPERS is one of the worst movies to hit theaters in a long time. In fact, it might even be the worst *major* release film to come out in years... or even a decade. This is bad beyond belief. I would *not* suggest paying money to see this. There's a good chance you'll regret it. If you see it for free, you could still want to walk out. Go right ahead. The movie starts off with cheesy 90210 scenes set in the future world of... Buenos Aires. Here we meet the group of horrendously bad actors and actresses playing obnoxious, easy-to-*despise*-with-a-passion characters that have love triangles, love rectangles, and love hexagons screwing up their life. Before long they all go off and join the military, primarily in the interest of having sex with the other youngsters that joined. They train. They strut around nude for no reason whatsoever. After an hour of making the audience scream in agony, they start fighting bugs. The big bugs look nice, even though their design is only "okay." Unfortunately, the fights are boring since we *want* all of the characters dead anyway. Cue more agony. Then some characters have sex. Then some more die. ***Who cares???*** Cue more agony. The movie ends, the audience runs out to their cars, vomits over the pavement, and attempts to drive home. Unfortunately, after that torture, they can't think straight, don't pay attention to the road, and many are in ugly car wrecks. You remember how BATMAN & ROBIN was bad? Well, BATMAN & ROBIN kicked this movie's sorry butt, people. STARSHIP TROOPERS does not succeed as an action movie. It does not succeed as a drama. It does not succeed as a war movie. It does not succeed as a comedy. It does not succeed as a satire. It does not succeed as a parody. It succeeds as being horrible. Terrible. Gut-wrenchingly bad. I wanted to run away from that movie every minute. But I paid my money and I owed it to others to see if the movie got any better. So I stayed. It never got better. Frequently, it did the impossible, and got *worse*. The movie as written, acted, directed, and basically just feels as a whole like it's about on the mental maturity level of a FREE WILLY 4. The whole thing feels like a movie that only three-year-olds could enjoy... except for the ridiculously gratuitous blood and gore, and pointless nudity. It's written for little children, but children should definitely *not* go anywhere near it. Of course, I recommend the same for everyone. Don't go anywhere near it. Verhoeven's got a streak going now. His last movie was SHOWGIRLS. He seems to be trying to see how bad his movies can get before people finally stop coming. SHOWGIRLS was a failure, but it appears that, though it'll be lucky to make near its budget, this movie will still do okay gross-wise. Is it really *all* bad? Well, no. TROOPERS has about four or five lines of dialouge/short humorous scenes that are actually funny, mostly from the "Do you want to know more?" commercials that pop up throughout the story, promoting the joys of the joining the troopers. So that adds up to about 30 seconds of entertainment and still about one hour, 59 minutes, and 30 seconds of miserable torture. I'm totally confused as to the way that some people are really enjoying this movie. But I do admit it. So, if you're willing to possibly put yourself through torture, go ahead and see it, and decide for yourself if you love it or hate it. I don't know how anyone or any*thing* could love this movie, but hey, to each his own. Feel free to give it a shot. Of course, in the interest of saving your souls, I don't recommend it. But guess what? ALIEN RESURRECTION comes out November 26th, and, having already seen some of it and having read the script, I assure you that it will blow pretty much everyone away. Though opinion on STARSHIP TROOPERS is reasonably split, it'll be difficult to find someone that *won't* like ALIEN RESURRECTION when they've seen it. This is possibly the year's best intense action film, or at least *one* of the best. If you really want to see alien warfare that's played out intelligently and seriously, see ALIEN RESURRECTION. Please, avoid this. Rating: F or (no stars) From rec.arts.sf.reviews Mon Nov 17 18:54:25 1997 From: Marty Mapes Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.reviews,rec.arts.sf.reviews Subject: Review: Starship Troopers (1997) Followup-To: rec.arts.sf.movies Date: 14 Nov 1997 17:08:07 GMT Organization: Indra's Net, Inc. -- Public Access Internet. Lines: 94 Approved: graham@ee.washington.edu Message-ID: <64i0hn$rb$1@nntp5.u.washington.edu> NNTP-Posting-Host: homer17.u.washington.edu X-Trace: nntp5.u.washington.edu 879527287 875 (None) 140.142.64.4 X-Complaints-To: help@cac.washington.edu NNTP-Posting-User: grahams Summary: r.a.m.r. #09789 Keywords: author=mapes X-Questions-to: movie-rev-mod@www.ee.washington.edu X-Submissions-to: movie-reviews@www.ee.washington.edu Originator: grahams@homer17.u.washington.edu Path: news.ifm.liu.se!genius.dat.hk-r.se!news.lth.se!feed1.news.luth.se!luth.se!news.algonet.se!newsfeed.direct.ca!logbridge.uoregon.edu!news.uoregon.edu!news.u.washington.edu!grahams Xref: news.ifm.liu.se rec.arts.movies.reviews:9131 rec.arts.sf.reviews:1628 Starship Troopers A film review by Marty Mapes Copyright 1997 Marty Mapes ***1/2 (out of 4) The war in Vietnam changed the face of American war movies for good. War movies now show the horror, futility, and irony of nations fighting. But before, once upon a time, war was the heroic, romantic proving grounds where boys became men. By providing an inhuman enemy, STARSHIP TROOPERS is able to make war fun again. STARSHIP TROOPERS is not a science fiction movie; it is a war movie (specifically, a WWII movie, according to effects-man Phil Tippett). Like GATTACA, only its setting is futuristic, giving the movie a science-fiction look and feel; the story itself breaks the sci-fi mold. What are the conventions of war movies? A big cast. Lots of characters with names, not all of whom will survive. Caricatured people from different walks of life coming together in the military. Clear class demarcation between strategists, flyboys, and grunts. Big, well-choreographed battle scenes. Characters growing from "boys" to "men." The African-American infantryman dying first. War-inspired racism. This movie has them all. Our heroes (Carmen [Denise Richards], Johnny [Casper Van Dien], Carl [Neil Patrick Harris], and Diz [Dina Meyer]) are just graduating high school, contemplating their futures in a world on the brink of war with Klendathu, a planet of giant insects. There are many options — college, professional athletics — but like in GONE WITH THE WIND, "joining up" is the only real option to any self-respecting youth. Our side needs you; all your friends will be joining up; it's the best way to prove yourself a man; and besides, this is history in the making. Being the right age at the right time in one of humanity's greatest moments is fate and destiny and downright fun! To really spark the characters' (and the audience's) interest, slickly made propaganda films (reminiscent of the commercials in Verhoeven's ROBOCOP) call all red-blooded humans to action in the adventure of a lifetime. Making it even more irresistible, things at home are untouched by the war. None of the awful destructive reality of war discolors the young people's enthusiasm for going off to kill the enemy. They're doing it as much for fun and camaraderie as for duty (again, reminiscent of GONE WITH THE WIND). The movie is really well made, and it's hard not to get caught up in the thrill of going to war. But Verhoeven doesn't let us forget that the emotional hype has a dark side to it. For example, a newsreel tells us that a man is caught, tried for murder, convicted, and executed, all within 12 hours. Another newsreel refers to a group of "Mormon Extremists;" actually, they were hoping for a peaceful solution to the war. Another newsreel encourages war racism among kids too young to fight: cockroach stomping is a great way for little Johnny to feel like he's really killing gooks, too. These subjects are awful, but they're presented with all the enthusiasm of real propaganda films, and the audience is hard-pressed not to give in to the emotion of the moment. (That's why you should see this movie during a crowded show, not when you're the only one in the theater.) The world of STARSHIP TROOPERS is an interesting place. Details about military service, citizenship, and Earth history add to the satirically dark tone of the movie, though not very subtly. For example, a civilian (with no military service) is not a citizen, and can't vote. Democracy failed and "the Veterans" took over politics. These details seem unnecessary at first, but they help explain many of the characters' motives and they further distance the audience from the war-glorifying world on-screen. Clearly, this movie is intended as a special-effects blowout, and the effects are indeed great. A bug stampede around the camera has all the tense energy of a "real" stampede. Battle scenes at an abandoned fortress are choreographed and edited masterfully (and they look like BEAU GESTE and INTOLERANCE). But if you have a taste for film history or for war movies, there is more to STARSHIP TROOPERS than computer-generated insects. The special effects action is a great start, but deeper, you can find lots of interesting commentary on war movies and on war itself. A friend of mine once proposed that the nations of the world should set aside some remote island to be used for war. Any young man who felt the need to go off to kill and die in glorious battle could choose a side, hop over to War Island and engage in battle until he grew up or until he died. The rest of us could go about our lives unaffected. Really, that's what STARSHIP TROOPERS is all about. It gives itself enough distance from reality so that our lives aren't really affected by the horrors of war, and then it taps into that young-man eagerness for life-or-death adventure. Intellectually, I can't really condone that message, but I have to admit that this will be a guilty pleasure of mine for years to come. Check out more current movie reviews at http://www.indra.com/~mmapes/ From rec.arts.sf.reviews Mon Nov 17 18:54:30 1997 Path: news.ifm.liu.se!news.lth.se!feed1.news.luth.se!luth.se!news-ge.switch.ch!in2p3.fr!oleane!146.19.11.1.MISMATCH!newsfeed.eerie.fr!newsfeed.nacamar.de!newsfeed.ecrc.net!cpk-news-hub1.bbnplanet.com!news.bbnplanet.com!news-peer.sprintlink.net!news.sprintlink.net!Sprint!worldnet.att.net!news.u.washington.edu!grahams From: aw220@FreeNet.Carleton.CA (Alex Fung) Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.reviews,rec.arts.sf.reviews Subject: Review: Starship Troopers (1997) Followup-To: rec.arts.sf.movies Date: 17 Nov 1997 17:08:07 GMT Organization: The National Capital FreeNet Lines: 203 Approved: graham@ee.washington.edu Message-ID: <64ptln$b7d$1@nntp5.u.washington.edu> Reply-To: aw220@FreeNet.Carleton.CA (Alex Fung) NNTP-Posting-Host: homer28.u.washington.edu X-Trace: nntp5.u.washington.edu 879786487 11501 (None) 140.142.64.4 X-Complaints-To: help@cac.washington.edu NNTP-Posting-User: grahams Summary: r.a.m.r. #09831 Keywords: author=fung X-Questions-to: movie-rev-mod@www.ee.washington.edu X-Submissions-to: movie-reviews@www.ee.washington.edu Originator: grahams@homer28.u.washington.edu Xref: news.ifm.liu.se rec.arts.movies.reviews:9166 rec.arts.sf.reviews:1633 STARSHIP TROOPERS (TriStar - 1997) Starring Casper Van Dien, Dina Meyer, Denise Richards, Jake Busey, Neil Patrick Harris, Clancy Brown, Seth Gilliam, Patrick Muldoon, Michael Ironside Screenplay by Ed Neumeier, based on the novel by Robert A. Heinlein Produced by Jon Davison, Alan Marshall Directed by Paul Verhoeven Running time: 129 minutes ** (out of four stars) Alternate Rating: C Note: Some may consider portions of the following text to be spoilers. Be forewarned. ------------------------------------------------------------- I screened STARSHIP TROOPERS at a theatre in Ottawa that, to me, had a rather unusual policy -- while an earlier-scheduled screening ran, ticketholders for a later screening of the film were queued *directly outside* the screening room, in the lobby, until the completion of the current screening. (For all I know, this may be standard practice elsewhere, but I've never encountered this before -- usually they don't allow you to loiter in the theatre, based on my experience). Consequently, I patiently waited along with a growing queue of patrons outside the screening room for STARSHIP TROOPERS, where the last fifteen minutes of the film could be heard echoing throughout the hall -- all that I could make out were nonstop alien insectoid squeals and roars, the shouting of troops under siege, sporadic bursts of gunfire, and a suitably heroic anthem playing. This aural experience essentially encapsulates the latter (and, disturbingly enough, superior) half of Paul Verhoeven's STARSHIP TROOPERS, which in spirit is essentially a B-film with a mega A-budget (a reported $120 million). The film's final action-packed hour is complete carnage, as the human troops do battle with gigantic alien insects of all shapes and sizes on the planet of Klendathu. While the bug battle scenes are neither fresh nor inventive, they are relatively exciting to watch, and the visual effects are spectacular. It's the first half of STARSHIP TROOPERS which is the most unbearably excruciating to endure. Although both are science-fiction films, in a sense STARSHIP TROOPERS is a literal antithesis of Andrew Niccol's GATTACA, released two weeks earlier: while the latter film is more cerebral in nature, concerned more with ideas than special effects, and has an icy sheen, STARSHIP TROOPERS is loud, noisy, and throbbing with comicbookish machismo. Yet STARSHIP TROOPERS is not a mindless film merely depicting giant beasts to be slain in heroic fashion. The film has a subtext which is strictly militaristic, and depicted in tongue-in-cheek fashion by Mr. Verhoeven. In this totalitarian society of the future, the esteemed title of "citizen" is earned through a rite of passage in military duty, while "civilians" are looked upon condescendingly. STARSHIP TROOPERS' gung-ho protagonists are remarkably bloodthirsty --consider that in this film, unlike most sci-fi films, it's the humans who are the invaders, and witness the relish in his voice and charged bloodlust in his eyes as the aptly-named Johnny Rico (Casper Van Dien) directly addresses the camera with "I say we kill them all!" or the sheer excitement of the recruits as the outbreak of war is declared. STARSHIP TROOPERS pokes fun at the war-is-fun, ultra-macho killing mentality by wholeheartedly embracing it -- it has a goofy rah-rah jingoistic feel that would do Roland Emmerich proud; the scene where our protagonists proudly pose with their new "Death From Above" tattoos emblazoned on their biceps speaks volumes. Indeed, what can one say about a film where a declaration of "It's afraid!" is greeted by a chorus of cheers? (I'm not even going to touch thetopic of the Nazi-style uniforms sported by the troopers, most prominently by Carl Jenkins (Neil Patrick Harris).) That this undertone will likely be lost to the majority of STARSHIP TROOPERS' audience is not due to subtlety; the film hardly buries this theme, and is often blatant in its representation. It's simply that this message is being pitched in a context where its usage is mostly ineffectual and in some cases even appears apt. While shots of little children cheerfully stomping on insects will cause chuckles, scenes of the troopers' homicidal tendencies being stirred up prior to engaging in battle will have the effect of similarly enticing the us-versus-them, xenophobic mentality of many in the audience. The film opens with a teaser sequence on the alien planet as chaos and mayhem ensues, and the bodycount skyrockets courtesy of the bloodthirsty insects overrunning and essentially decimating the human contingent. Much has been made of the film's violence, which is admittedly brutal but not overly so -- it's much along the same aesthetic as Mr. Verhoeven's ROBOCOP, which featured blood spurting out of wounds; here, we have impalement by insectoid pincers, decapitations, and bodies torn apart limb from limb, but none of it is excessively gory as STARSHIP TROOPERS spends little time to linger or dwell upon it, instead determinedly charging forward. The action gives way as STARSHIP TROOPERS employs the groanworthy "One year earlier" device, and we rejoin the film's protagonists in a more peaceful setting -- high school graduation day, Earth. (Buenos Aires actually, although before it was revealed in the film, I would have never guessed -- I thought it was Beverly Hills.) Yes, our heroes are fresh-faced youngsters, and for the first half of the film we're to endure their dopey generic tribulations: amorous rivalry, parental strife, and so forth. It's so remarkably campy and simple-minded that it makes the cliched, paper-thin characters of INDEPENDENCE DAY look like inspired screenwriting. STARSHIP TROOPERS' first hour is complete cornball material -- with these youthful pretty faces, it's like having the cast of MELROSE PLACE serving as our grizzled warriors against the alien marauders. (New troopers introduced later in the film seem to be have been enlisted straight out of SWEET VALLEY HIGH and drafted from THE BABYSITTERS' CLUB.) I shun television so I can avoid corny, eye-roll-inducing melodrama like this, so an hour's worth of it in a feature film doesn't exactly inspire high marks with me; are we supposed to care at all about these characters and their silly love lives? (I later learned that much of the young cast have indeed appeared in the various Aaron Spelling TV productions -- egad.) There's an exchange between Johnny Rico and fellow trooper Ace Levy (Jake Busey) where Ace sympathetically clucks, "They want to be friends after they tear your guts out." Johnny sadly retorts, "I *deserve* to get my guts torn out." In the audience, I silently agreed -- surely somebody other than those in the audience deserved to suffer for the aggravating first hour of STARSHIP TROOPERS. It's exasperating enough to make one stifle an anguished scream. Barely stifle. After an interlude which features perhaps the worst use of Mazzy Star's "Fade Into You" that one can possibly imagine and some obligatory nude scenes from self-professed breast fetishist Mr. Verhoeven, our protagonists find themselves in fierce battle with spectacularly-rendered giant insects on a barren alien world. The insectoid marauders look terrific, although the manner in which they are ultimately dispatched is familiar stuff and their indestructibility and ferociousness varies depending upon the necessity of the plot. Nevertheless, the sight of thousands of computer-generated insects scurrying forth in attack formation is breathtaking, while the space battle scenes in orbit around Klendathu is solid if not outstanding work. After the first attack by the troopers has been thoroughly trounced by the defending aliens, they conclude that there must be a a "smart" bug masterminding the insectoid military strategy, and STARSHIP TROOPERS ultimately focuses on the protagonists targeting this unseen entity. That this bug is deemed "smart" because the human interlopers were simply too stupid to bomb down the planet before pulling their commando-style raid seems to have been overlooked -- hasn't anything been learned from the Gulf War? (The bug also appears to be "smart" because it enjoys brain milkshakes and literally absorbs knowledge from its victim -- how inventive.) While I haven't seen much of Paul Verhoeven's Dutch film output from the 1970s and early 1980s, I've seen nearly all of his English-language work and his 1987 film ROBOCOP is my favourite from his oeuvre -- a fine sci-fi action film which works both as pure visceral entertainment, and also on a more philosophical level. (I admittedly haven't seen his SHOWGIRLS, but I feel fairly safe in assuming that it won't challenge for the top spot on his resume.) STARSHIP TROOPERS marks somewhat of a reunion for many of the key players in the making of ROBOCOP: prolific Basil Poledouris composed an anthemic score which vaguely echoes that for the 1987 film, cinematographer Jost Vacano's photography is crisp and sharp, and screenwriter Ed Neumeier once again sprinkles various amusingly satiric news/propaganda insert clips throughout the film which depict the state of this future society -- it's striking and telling how much these blurbs resemble old WWII propaganda footage in tone and spirit. Hey, I'd buy that for a dollar! Barring these satiric interludes, this is not a great screenplay, full of cornball B-film cliches, such as an impossible heroic survival of an attack which leaves the rest of the cast presuming that he's perished, and noble deathbed gestures and proclamations. This is the kind of script where when a character declares, "I'd expect any one of you to do the same for me", you know it's because someone will have to, and where when you see Johnny Rico perform a triple flip in a football game, it's merely a matter of time before the same maneuver is used at a fortuitous moment in the film. Among the cast, Michael Ironside (who appeared in Mr. Verhoeven's TOTAL RECALL) and Clancy Brown are the two brights spots as characters they often play elsewhere, and play well -- Mr. Ironside as the humourless, tough-as-nails Lieutenant Rasczak, and Mr. Brown as drill sergeant Zim (echoing his best performance in Frank Darabont's THE SHAWSHANK REDEMPTION as the tough screw prison guard). None of the rest of the cast makes much of an impression (although Mr. Van Dien is, as of this writing, now getting seven-figure deals for future projects), though Denise Richards acts in the film as if she's auditioning for a toothpaste commercial. Standing outside that screening room in Ottawa, I observed the reactions of the patrons exiting -- most had a little goofy grin, glazed eyes, and a slightly dazed expression on their face. There was, however, one guy who burst through the screening room doors shouting to anyone who would listen, "It sucks! It sucks!" Although I would neither be that dramatic nor severe, I could somewhat see his point -- particularly if he had burst out of the theatre after an hour, instead of two. - Alex Fung email: aw220@freenet.carleton.ca web : http://www.ncf.carleton.ca/~aw220/ -- Alex Fung (aw220@freenet.carleton.ca) | http://www.ncf.carleton.ca/~aw220/ "I'll never forget you. You're too weird." - David Krumholtz, ADDAMS FAMILY VALUES From rec.arts.sf.reviews Fri Jan 30 16:34:25 1998 Path: news.ifm.liu.se!news.lth.se!feed1.news.luth.se!luth.se!fu-berlin.de!news-peer.gip.net!news.gsl.net!gip.net!news-peer.sprintlink.net!news.sprintlink.net!Sprint!worldnet.att.net!news.u.washington.edu!grahams From: "Choo Eng Aun, Jack" Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.reviews,rec.arts.sf.reviews Subject: Review: Starship Troopers (1997) Followup-To: rec.arts.sf.movies Date: 5 Jan 1998 17:10:45 GMT Organization: None Lines: 78 Approved: graham@ee.washington.edu Message-ID: <68r46l$n6i$1@nntp5.u.washington.edu> Reply-To: NNTP-Posting-Host: homer21.u.washington.edu X-Trace: nntp5.u.washington.edu 884020245 23762 (None) 140.142.64.6 X-Complaints-To: help@cac.washington.edu NNTP-Posting-User: grahams Summary: r.a.m.r. #10480 Keywords: author=choo X-Questions-to: movie-rev-mod@www.ee.washington.edu X-Submissions-to: movie-reviews@www.ee.washington.edu Originator: grahams@homer21.u.washington.edu Xref: news.ifm.liu.se rec.arts.movies.reviews:9753 rec.arts.sf.reviews:1721 STARSHIP TROOPERS (1997) Reviewed by Jack Choo Directed by Paul Verhoeven Starring : Casper Van Dien (Johnny Rico) Denise Richards (Carmen) Dina Meyer (Dizzy) Michael Ironside Running Time : 2hrs 15mins Overall rating : *** out of ***** INTERGALACTIC PEST WARFARE STARSHIP TROOPERS is a US$100++ million action film. I can't say if Hollywood is wasting money on such films because at the end of the day, the business part of film-making rules in Hollywood. The trailers have probably given you the idea that this film is a special-effects laden piece of work and in this department, it does not disappoint at all. Perhaps if we look into the direction of Paul Verhoeven, we can understand why STARSHIP TROOPERS is what it is. He gave us the violent ROBOCOP (his US film debut), then onto the sexual-thriller BASIC INSTINCT, the clever TOTAL RECALL and most recently, his infamous work on the violently illicit SHOWGIRLS. Violence is a recurring thing in all his films, not action and in STARSHIP TROOPERS, he has shown his love for mayhem yet again, this time with a lot of money. I have not read the Robert Heinlein book in which it is supposed to be based on but from what I hear over the internet, fans of the book are running amok, burning down theatres showing the film. Of course I was joking but you get the idea. Verhoeven has interlaced STARSHIP TROOPERS with media inspired propaganda advertisements of the military in conveying this film. This is perhaps the more interesting feature of the movie and they are almost always very funny. Audiences who feel like they are watching bits and pieces of SWEET VALLEY HIGH and BEVERLY HILLS 90210 are advised not to worry, it has been obviously intended but intention does not necessarily coincide with preferences, thus the feeling of being cheated out of the $7 that you paid. The actors and actresses were actually from the above mentioned shows. The story has a group of teenagers living in an almost sterile, militarized society and inspired to join the military. Johnny Rico enlists himself in the military in his quest to win Carmen's love, who incidentally is fanatical whn it comes to flying starships. Rico ends up with a ground-based grunt squad while Carmen gets to pursue her dreams of commanding a starship. When the city of Buenos Aires was devastated by an asteroid sent from the Klendathu system, a system infested with primal bugs the size of elephants, Earth unites and sends their brave your men and women to rid our planet from this threat. The bugs are not as primitive as we may expect, they have special bugs for special purposes. We have the standard grunt-bug which goes around stabbing people, the giant-cannon-bug which fires plasma blasts from its abdomen at starships hovering above and of course the flying-bug, their version of our fighter planes. The CGI effects are amazing, not so because they are anything new but rather the sheer numbers and fluidity in movements when they swarm across the landscape of Klendathu. Verhoeven's conveyance of violence is at-your-face level. He does not use hints of terror or gore, he shows them in full glory, in widescreen. Singapore audiences may not be able to `enjoy' fully the action because of censors here and there but to give you an idea of what to expect; heads fly off, bodies dismember and brains are sucked. Many people I know hated the film. I can't say I loved it myself but I did like it for its satirical view of the future and also of course, the CG effects. Plot and scriptwise, STARSHIP TROOPERS is no better than any normal B-grade film. Verhoeven's direction was such that the movie did not try too hard at all; the parameters for the film have been more or less laid out in the beginning and audiences should be able to tell whether they are gonna hate it or love it right from then on. It is more of an alternative-mainstream movie, very much like MARS ATTACKS!, released a year ago. Bottom line: watch at your own risk, do not bring children, not so much because of its violence but more of how it is potrayed (I'd prefer the world `glorified' actually). Go for the special effects and action. And if you can actually tell yourself that you can enjoy a cheesily written and scripted action film, by all means, it should do you some good. From rec.arts.sf.reviews Fri Jan 30 16:35:20 1998 From: Martijn van Turnhout Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.reviews,rec.arts.sf.reviews Subject: Review: Starship Troopers (1997) Followup-To: rec.arts.sf.movies Date: 19 Jan 1998 19:39:50 GMT Organization: World Access/Planet Internet Lines: 65 Approved: graham@ee.washington.edu Message-ID: <6a0a66$j9f$1@nntp5.u.washington.edu> NNTP-Posting-Host: homer17.u.washington.edu X-Trace: nntp5.u.washington.edu 885238790 19759 (None) 140.142.64.1 X-Complaints-To: help@cac.washington.edu NNTP-Posting-User: grahams Summary: r.a.m.r. #10641 Keywords: author=turnhout X-Questions-to: movie-rev-mod@www.ee.washington.edu X-Submissions-to: movie-reviews@www.ee.washington.edu Originator: grahams@homer17.u.washington.edu Path: news.ifm.liu.se!genius.dat.hk-r.se!news.lth.se!feed1.news.luth.se!luth.se!cam-news-hub1.bbnplanet.com!cpk-news-hub1.bbnplanet.com!news.bbnplanet.com!news-peer.sprintlink.net!news.sprintlink.net!Sprint!worldnet.att.net!news.u.washington.edu!grahams Xref: news.ifm.liu.se rec.arts.movies.reviews:9899 rec.arts.sf.reviews:1733 ---------------------------------------------------- * = Waardeloos. ** = Matig. *** = Goed. **** = Uitstekend. ***** = Meesterwerk. ---------------------------------------------------- "Starship Troopers" **** Hoofdrollen: Johnny Rico: Casper Van Dien Dizzy Flores: Dina Meyer Carmen Ibanez: Denise Richards Jean Rasczak: Michael Ironside Ace Levy: Jake Busey Carl Jenkins: Neil Patrick Harris Sgt. Zim: Clancy Brown Geregisseerd door Paul Verhoeven. Geschreven door Ed Neumeier, gebaseerd op Robert A. Heinlein's boek. Speeltijd: 129 minuten. Iedereen maakt wel eens een fout. Na goede films zoals "Robocop", "Total Recall" en "Basic Instinct", ging Paul Verhoeven de mist in met "Showgirls". Verhoeven liet het hier niet bij zitten en begon met "Starship Troopers". Sommigen dachten dat deze film na het floppen van "Showgirls" ook gedoemd was te mislukken. Niet dus, want Verhoeven is met deze SF-film weer helemaal terug. In de toekomst wordt het heelal bedreigd door gigantische bugs, gevaarlijke insecten die hun vrije tijd doorbrengen met het doden van andere wezens. Zij planten zich voort door middel van sporen en gebruiken asteroïden om zich te verspreiden in het heelal. Talloze soldaten worden gebruikt in de strijd tegen deze bugs, zelfs scholieren die net hun studie voltooid hebben. Een van die scholieren is Johnny Rico, gespeeld door Casper van Dien. De enige echte reden waarom Rico het leger in wil, is om indruk te maken op z'n vriendin Carmen, gespeeld door (de bloedmooie) Denise Richards. Carmen is gevleid, maar wordt langzamerhand toch verliefd op iemand anders. "Starship Troopers" doet ontzettend veel aan een soap denken, met name de hoofdrolspelers lijken zo weggeplukt uit 'Melrose Place'. Paul Verhoeven heeft de film met een grote knipoog gemaakt, wat vooral te zien is aan de geestige nieuwsberichten die de film onderbreken. Ook de gevechtscènes moet je niet serieus nemen, want als je dacht dat "Robocop" gewelddadig was, think again. In "Starship Troopers" worden mensen in tweeën gehakt, doorboord, verbrand en bij een paar worden zelfs de hersenen uitgezogen. Kortom, plezier voor het hele gezin. Niks gecompliceerd dus, maar gewoon een vermakelijke film. Zo kun je "Starship Troopers" het beste beschrijven. -- "Life's like a box of chocolates... You never know what you're gonna get." E-mail us at: mailto:janvanturnhout@pi.net 'Filmpje!' is located at http://www.geocities.com/Hollywood/Boulevard/8429/ where you can also subscribe to my mailing-list! From rec.arts.sf.reviews Fri Jan 30 16:35:26 1998 From: David Wilcock Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.reviews,rec.arts.sf.reviews Subject: Review: Starship Troopers (1997) Followup-To: rec.arts.sf.movies Date: 30 Jan 1998 06:04:03 GMT Organization: None Lines: 88 Approved: graham@ee.washington.edu Message-ID: <6arqgj$jpr$1@nntp5.u.washington.edu> NNTP-Posting-Host: homer25.u.washington.edu X-Trace: nntp5.u.washington.edu 886140243 20283 (None) 140.142.64.7 X-Complaints-To: help@cac.washington.edu NNTP-Posting-User: grahams Summary: r.a.m.r. #10817 Keywords: author=wilcock X-Questions-to: movie-rev-mod@www.ee.washington.edu X-Submissions-to: movie-reviews@www.ee.washington.edu Originator: grahams@homer25.u.washington.edu Path: news.ifm.liu.se!genius.dat.hk-r.se!seunet!news2.swip.net!mn6.swip.net!nntp.uio.no!Cabal.CESspool!bofh.vszbr.cz!cpk-news-hub1.bbnplanet.com!news.bbnplanet.com!news-peer.sprintlink.net!news.sprintlink.net!Sprint!worldnet.att.net!news.u.washington.edu!grahams Xref: news.ifm.liu.se rec.arts.movies.reviews:10049 rec.arts.sf.reviews:1738 STARSHIP TROOPERS A review by David Wilcock (C)1998 Starring Casper Van Dien, Dina Meyer, Denise Richards, Jake Busey and Michael Ironside Directed by Paul Verhoeven Paul Verhoeven's American movie career has certainly had its ups and downs. Starting off with the excellent Robocop (1987) and Total Recall (1990), he then started to give us terrible 'sex' films, such as the stylish yet mediocre Basic Instinct (1992) and the downright awful Showgirls (1995). So, he is obviously better at directing action films, and Starship Troopers sees him return to the action genre. Whether it is actually any good or not is debatable. The films opens well, with a twenty second newsreel telling us about an attack from giant bugs (much like the classic B-movie Them!), and showing us an entire squadron of soilders getting mained, ripped apart, and generally dying in nasty ways. The film then cuts to 'One year later', and this is where the problems begin. The first problem is that the first thirty minutes of this film is more like an episode of Beverly Hills 90210. We are introduced to the characters, and the whole 30 minutes is like watching a very dodgy afternoon soap. Anyway, Casper Van Dien plays Johnny Rico, who wants to join the Starship Troopers so he can stay with his girlfriend Carman, played by Denise Richards. Dina Meyer plays Rico secret admirer, Dizzy, who also joins the Troopers, and basically we see Rico and Carman being gooey with each other, and Dizzy trying to get into bed with Rico. The audience has to suffer this until the bugs destroy the whole of Buenos Ares. War is declared, and Rico, Carman and Dizzy all go and kick some alien butt. The plot is forgotten, the film forgets the meaning of dialogue (e.g the dialogue is crap) and it just gets on with the death, violence, and sex. The action scenes are good, with the bug special effects looking very professional. However, after the 3rd bug attack, it all gets a bit repetative. The main problems is that there is not enough species of bugs. There are about five in this film, and only two do anything intresting (the brain and tank bug) The rest are sadly dull. However, the deaths in this film are suitably gory, with arms, heads and legs getting ripped off, and even one unlucky person getting his brains sucked out. The film isn't as violent as Total Recall, and swearing is pratically non existent. This seems odd, as the first thing I would say when a giant bug is heading towards me wanting to rip me apart would defintely be "Oh f***!" The cast (mainly a bunch of newcomers) are average, but this film dosen't really require great performances. If I had to choose a best performance, it would go to Michael Ironside (Scanners, Total Recall) who is suitably hard-ass as Lt. Jean Rasczak. The special effects, especially the larger bugs, are great, and the many companies who contributed to the effects (including Industrial Light & Magic) have done a great job. Sadly, though, the model heads and hands look appaling fake, much like Total Recall. Why they didn't use CGI is beyond me, as it would of looked much better than the models the film uses. Paul Verhoeven directs well, especially with the "Federal Interlink" sequences, a series of televison 'adverts', something he pioneered with in Robocop. The action is well directed, but the first 30 minutes are horribly done, almost directed like a television programme. The screenplay, based on a book by Robert A. Heinlein, is pretty bad, mainly because it set's up all these characters, and then forgets about their backgrounds when the war against the bugs actually begin. Starship Troopers, then, although mostly fun, has some major flaws that affect it. Perhaps if the first half hour had been cut, it would of been more enjoyable. If you can get past this, and some other dull parts during the war, you'll probably enjoy this film, especially if you were looking for an outragesouly violent action movie. Just don't expect a good script, a strong plot and excitement straight from the start. Just about recommended. OVERALL=**1/2 out of ***** REVIEW BY DAVID WILCOCK DAVID WILCOCK david.wilcock@btinternet.com Visit the Wilcock Movie Page! http://wilcockmovie.home.ml.org -OR- http://www.geocities.com/hollywood/9061 From rec.arts.sf.reviews Mon Feb 2 17:03:01 1998 Path: news.ifm.liu.se!news.lth.se!feed1.news.luth.se!luth.se!feed2.news.erols.com!howland.erols.net!news-peer.sprintlink.net!news.sprintlink.net!Sprint!worldnet.att.net!news.u.washington.edu!grahams From: Seth Bookey Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.reviews,rec.arts.sf.reviews Subject: Review: Starship Troopers (1997) Followup-To: rec.arts.sf.movies Date: 27 Jan 1998 05:48:48 GMT Organization: None Lines: 82 Approved: graham@ee.washington.edu Message-ID: <6ajsg0$51u$1@nntp5.u.washington.edu> NNTP-Posting-Host: homer14.u.washington.edu X-Trace: nntp5.u.washington.edu 885880128 5182 (None) 140.142.64.1 X-Complaints-To: help@cac.washington.edu NNTP-Posting-User: grahams Summary: r.a.m.r. #10759 Keywords: author=bookey X-Questions-to: movie-rev-mod@www.ee.washington.edu X-Submissions-to: movie-reviews@www.ee.washington.edu Originator: grahams@homer14.u.washington.edu Xref: news.ifm.liu.se rec.arts.movies.reviews:10111 rec.arts.sf.reviews:1741 Starship Troopers (1997) Seen on 3 January 1998 for $3 at the Cineplex Odeon Worldwide There are some movies you go to, no matter how dumb you know they are going to be, because you want to see the gorgeous star, or you want to see giant arachnids eat people and cut them in two, or just because you were bored one Saturday afternoon and $3 is a good price to pay for crap. Guilty on all counts in my trip to Starship Troopers, and in the words of Bart Simpson, it was "craptastic." The special effects were spectacular, but the story left a lot to be desired. Set in one of those not-so-distant futures, the Earth is ruled by the one-world government of the Federation, where you only become a citizen if you serve your planet with military service; everyone else is merely a "civilian," none of whom are allowed to vote. Part of this one-world lifestyle is that a city like Buenos Aires is populated by WASPy looking teenages with perfect teeth. They even call it "BA." Why not just set it in LA and get it over with already? The Earth is being run by veterans and it's threatened by Klandathu, a planet run by arachnids whose meteors threaten send their bug eggs to us, and endangering our one-world way of life, and our perfect teeth. In what clearly is *Beverly Hills 90210* versus *Them*, the heros are the high school graduates of Buenos Aires High School--the dumb stud Johnny Rico (Casper van Dien, unknown except for One Life to Live viewers), his brainy girlfriend Carmen Ibanez (Denise Richards), his genius friend Carl Jenkins (Neil Patrick Harris, best known as Doogie Howser), and the girl who loves him, Dizzy Flores (Dina Meyer). Johnny's parents don't want him to join the military, but you know how kids are in the not-so-distant future. They have minds of their own. Johnny, however, thinks with his penis (the only part of his body we do not see in this movie), and joins the mobile infantry to impress Carmen. Of course, being 18 and smart, she is put in charge of a big spaceship almost immediately, and flies with Zander Barcalow (Patrick Muldoon, of *Melrose Place* and *Days of Our Lives*). All the while, Johnny is in boot camp, where his new best friend is also his obnoxious rival, Ace Levey (Jake Busey). Soon, it turns out that the "bugs" are much smarter than anyone ever thought, and 12 million people are killed, including most of the beloved folks of "BA." This allows the movie to degenerate quickly into nonstop action, as humans have to fight off endless hordes of giant human-slicing, gore-producing arachnids, on their planet. The special effects really are fantastic, but the second half makes almost no sense. At one point, space ships are able to incinerate most of the bugs, but when the fortress is surrounded by bugs, that ability disappears. The laser weapons used at boot camp also disappear, and the gang is fighting off the bugs with machine guns. HUH? Oh, and if they can fly across the galaxy, why can't the giant spaceships get out of harm's way? The movie does feature one very interesting and entertaining element: the Federation's propaganda ads, exhorting people to join the army, do their part, and crush bugs while mother's look on delightedly. The ads bring out the movie's subversive side, poking at the fascist veteranocracy running the world. But, once war breaks out, it's all-out "save the Earth with your bare hands with your high school friends." The intelligent injections of satire, which worked so well in directory Paul Verhoeven's liberal sci-fi movie *Robocop*, just adds to the movie's mayhem. Obscure jokes, the the Mormon's planet colony, will be lost on most people. So, if you like this sort of nonsense, you will love Starship Troopers. You'll go for the special effects, but you will stay for Casper van Dien's buttocks in the co-ed showers. Based on the then-controversial novel by Robert A. Heinlein. Rated R for graphic sci-fi violence and gore, and for some language and nudity. ----------------------------------------------------------------- Copyright (c) 1997 Seth J. Bookey, New York, NY 10021 More movie reviews by Seth Bookey, with graphics, can be found at http://www.geocities.com/Athens/2679/kino.html From rec.arts.sf.reviews Wed Feb 4 15:08:39 1998 From: Ralph Beard Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.reviews,rec.arts.sf.reviews Subject: Review: Starship Troopers (1997) Followup-To: rec.arts.sf.movies Date: 3 Feb 1998 05:48:07 GMT Organization: None Lines: 58 Approved: graham@ee.washington.edu Message-ID: <6b6b2n$dde$1@nntp5.u.washington.edu> NNTP-Posting-Host: homer04.u.washington.edu X-Trace: nntp5.u.washington.edu 886484887 13742 (None) 140.142.64.7 X-Complaints-To: help@cac.washington.edu NNTP-Posting-User: grahams Summary: r.a.m.r. #10876 Keywords: author=beard X-Questions-to: movie-rev-mod@www.ee.washington.edu X-Submissions-to: movie-reviews@www.ee.washington.edu Originator: grahams@homer04.u.washington.edu Path: news.ifm.liu.se!genius.dat.hk-r.se!seunet!news2.swip.net!mn6.swip.net!nntp.uio.no!news-feed.inet.tele.dk!bofh.vszbr.cz!cpk-news-hub1.bbnplanet.com!news.bbnplanet.com!news-peer.sprintlink.net!news.sprintlink.net!Sprint!worldnet.att.net!news.u.washington.edu!grahams Xref: news.ifm.liu.se rec.arts.movies.reviews:10135 rec.arts.sf.reviews:1742 Review: Starship Troopers Directed By Paul Verhoeven Reviewed by Ralph "Leechboy" Beard Plot - Bugs threaten Earth. Men kill bugs. Much zaniness ensues Rating ***/12 stars or 7.5 (You decide) Review - Before I start the review I must say this, I saw this with just about the perfect film crowd - Enthusiastic, cheering, sci-fi movie lovers ready to suspend disbelief. This is just what you need to really enjoy Starship Troopers, and I must say I did. I was fully expecting Verhoeven to go all Speilberg and do a serious movie, especially after the mess that was Showgirls. Fat chance, Verhoeven returned back to the genre that got him into the A-list, violent tongue-in-cheek sci-fi. Starship Troopers has all the hallmarks of Verhoeven’s previous forays Robocop and Total Recall dumb storyline interjected with sharp barbs directed at the media and government. Based on 1950’s thinly veiled anti-communist (Change “Bugs” for “Commies” in the dialogue and you’ll see) sci-fi novel by Robert A. Heinlein. Starship Troopers is filled with macho characters spewing forth “Kill em all” style phrases, and, if not for ads, this would have been the cheesiest pro-war flick since Green Berets. ST’s best scenes involve the army’s Join Up propaganda, hilarious 1-2 minute ads that serve to inform us about the story while sending up the “War is good” theme that engulfs the rest of the film. I enjoyed Starship Troopers immensely, as did six of the seven people I saw it with. The seventh, lets call him “The Fool”, was less enthusiastic, and when I asked him what he thought of the flick, it went something like this – “The special effects were better than the cast” True, the cast is not exactly As Good As It Gets; however this isn’t exactly Hamlet. This is a big bug movie; all it needs it some good looking people to attack the bugs. It has them, Casper Van Dien, Dina Meyers, Denise Richards, etc. are okay, they didn’t annoy me, that’s all I ask of them. There were memorable performances however from Michael Ironside as the hard-as-nails team leader, and very surprisingly from Clancy Brown in his first good role since Highlander, as the tough drill instructor (Mind you, there’s been a hell of a lot of good parts for drill instructors, eg Lee Ermey in Full Metal Jacket, Viggo Mortenson in GI Jane, Warren Oates in Stripes and Louis Gosset Jr. in Officer and A Gentlemen). The effects are what make the movie, and they are astounding to look at, the bugs are awesome and the explosion fantastic. There is no doubt in my mind that this would have been a considerably worse movie if Roland Emmerich had directed, Verhoeven gives us what ID4 was distinctly lacking, death. For all the big explosions and aliens, ID4 did not show us the outcome of war, death, Starship Troopers is littered with dead bodies, decapitations and dismemberments. Almost all the cast is impaled or injured in some way, showing us without a doubt that this war is hell. So are there problems with Starship Troopers? Sure, it starts off slowly, I would have deleted all the scenes with Van Dien's parents, some more dramatic sequences don’t work and the ending is a bit of a let down but through all of this I just kept remembering that Starship Troopers is a big dumb sci-fi flick. It’s thoroughly enjoyable, yes, but I’m not going to be holding my breath for the best script Oscar for it. The point is - I had FUN watching it, something that hasn’t happened for me at the movies in a long time. From rec.arts.sf.reviews Fri Apr 3 21:43:15 1998 Path: news.ifm.liu.se!news.lejonet.se!newsfeed5.telia.com!masternews.telia.net!fu-berlin.de!newsfeed.direct.ca!news.u.washington.edu!grahams From: s302728@student.uq.edu.au (Rudiger Landmann) Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.reviews,rec.arts.sf.reviews Subject: Review: Starship Troopers (1998) Followup-To: rec.arts.sf.movies Date: 1 Mar 1998 19:08:26 GMT Organization: None Lines: 92 Approved: graham@ee.washington.edu Message-ID: <6dcbna$61m$1@nntp5.u.washington.edu> Reply-To: s302728@student.uq.edu.au NNTP-Posting-Host: homer28.u.washington.edu X-Trace: nntp5.u.washington.edu 888779306 6198 (None) 140.142.64.7 X-Complaints-To: help@cac.washington.edu NNTP-Posting-User: grahams Summary: r.a.m.r. #11237 Keywords: author=landmann X-Questions-to: movie-rev-mod@www.ee.washington.edu X-Submissions-to: movie-reviews@www.ee.washington.edu Originator: grahams@homer28.u.washington.edu Xref: news.ifm.liu.se rec.arts.movies.reviews:10594 rec.arts.sf.reviews:1804 /Starship Troopers/ hovers somewhere between a spoof of 1950s American propaganda films and a tongue-in-cheek action movie, and probably would have benefitted from being one or the other rather than not quite either. The film falls short of being true satire, but although /Dr Strangelove/ it ain't, it nevertheless has an idiosyncratic appeal. One of the most prized videos in my collection is a documentary called /Atomic Cafe/, a collage of early nuclear-age American propaganda films: clumsy, jingoistic, and riddled with half-truths, they are the chilling testimonies of a government hoping desperately to appear in control of a situation which it is not. The opening scenes of /Starship Troopers/ are clearly drawing on the language of these films, but sadly, this "frame" for the story is largely lost, recurring only intermittently throughout the film. When it comes back right at the very end, with the on-screen reminder to the audience that the fight against the bugs is continuing and that the Troopers are going to WIN!, the effect has been undermined to the point where it really doesn't hold any more meaning. This is a pity, as with a more consistent push in this direction, /Starship Troopers/ might have been a much more blackly humourous piece. On the other hand, this "frame" may have been discarded completely, making /Starship Troopers/ comparable to such films as the /Evil Dead/ series, or Peter Jackson's efforts such as /Bad Taste/ and /Brain Dead/, or director Paul Verhoeven's own /The Running Man/. The over-the-top, excessive violence of the boot camp scenes early in the film seems to point in this direction, but its sheer gratuitousness is not followed through in the rest of the movie. Similarly, if it is to be read in this light, the ending is left very weak indeed, and on this count alone, the movie doesn't really work as an action film, tongue-in-cheek or not. Leaving generic considerations aside, perhaps the greatest strengths of the film are in its imagery and visual language. The use of the Nazi- (even Gestapo-) style uniforms for the Troopers is predictable, but noteworthy for the way in which they send dissonant visual cues to the audience. Since this style of uniform is meant to say "evil", the fact that the protagonists are shown wearing them signals that something is very much amiss in the society being portrayed. The impossibly flawless looks of the main cast, especially when juxtaposed with the Ms and Mr Average looks of the rest of the soldiers, are another sign to the viewer that this is supposed to be caricature, not realism. Another interesting piece of imagery is the design of the major evil in the film - the "Brain Bug" revealed close to the end of the movie. Like all war films, /Starship Troopers/ is packed with phallic imagery, in this case mostly belonging to the protagonists in the form of their weaponry. In contrast, then, the sinister intelligence behind their enemies is soft and rounded, with mouth parts that resemble labia within which nestles a "sting" that can suck a man's brain out, recalling the mythological succubus, or perhaps Lilith's "vagina dentata". Comparisons of the film's imagery to James Cameron's /Aliens/ is inevitable, and this introduces some interesting intertextualities, since /Aliens/ seems to have been inspired in some ways by Heinlein's original /Starship Troopers/ novel. The Troopers wear very similar helmets and armour to the Marines in /Alien/, and the aliens in the two films move and behave in the same insect-like fashion. Indeed, one of the Marines in /Aliens/ asks whether the mission they are on is going to be "just another bug hunt". The scenes in /Starship Troopers/ where the subterranean tunnels are being explored bear a strong resemblance to Cameron's film, even to the point of a wounded soldier being left behind by his companions with a live grenade in order to take some of the enemy out with him when it goes off. The soft sponginess of the brain-bug also echoes the spongy egg-laying apparatus of the alien queen in /Aliens/. There are other equally loose similarities to be found in the way in which the soldiers are strapped into their "drop ships" (called the same in both films) and in the soldiers' explorations of a human "last stand" against the aliens in both films (incidentally, both films also have powers-that-be deliberately exposing humans to the alien menace for the sake of scientific research). Dismemberment also provides strong images in both films, with /Starship Troopers'/ bugs literally tearing humans limb from limb in the same way that the Alien Queen dismembers Bishop near the end of /Aliens/. Many of the older characters in /Starship Troopers/ also have missing limbs which serve as a permanent reminder of their encounters with the bugs, as the dismembered doll's head that Newt carries around with her reminds her of hers. Really, there's not much more to say about this film. Being as tongue-in-cheek and caricaturish as it is, there is little in the way of script, acting, or direction that can be discussed in any depth. Suffice to say, then, that /Starship Troopers/ is an enjoyable, although predictable, film that doesn't take itself too seriously. If you're looking for serious drama, clever satire, or light entertainment, this isn't the place to look, but if you enjoy B-grade sci-fi action laced with traces of political cynicism, this is definitely worth a look. Ruediger Landmann http://student.uq.edu.au/~s302728 From rec.arts.sf.reviews Mon Apr 27 15:56:49 1998 Path: news.ifm.liu.se!news.lejonet.se!linkoping.trab.se!malmo.trab.se!feed1.news.luth.se!luth.se!news-stkh.gip.net!news-peer.gip.net!news.gsl.net!gip.net!howland.erols.net!wnfeed!204.127.130.5!worldnet.att.net!news.u.washington.edu!grahams From: Jason Overbeck Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.reviews,rec.arts.sf.reviews Subject: Review: Starship Troopers (1997) Followup-To: rec.arts.sf.movies Date: 18 Apr 1998 16:08:43 GMT Organization: AT&T WorldNet Services Lines: 32 Approved: graham@ee.washington.edu Message-ID: <6haj6b$hs6$1@nntp5.u.washington.edu> NNTP-Posting-Host: homer35.u.washington.edu X-Trace: nntp5.u.washington.edu 892915723 18310 (None) 140.142.64.4 X-Complaints-To: help@cac.washington.edu NNTP-Posting-User: grahams Summary: r.a.m.r. #12054 Keywords: author=overbeck X-Questions-to: movie-rev-mod@www.ee.washington.edu X-Submissions-to: movie-reviews@www.ee.washington.edu Originator: grahams@homer35.u.washington.edu Xref: news.ifm.liu.se rec.arts.movies.reviews:11247 rec.arts.sf.reviews:1878 STARSHIP TROOPERS **** OF **** How many times has a person come up to you and compared a science fiction movie to Ben Hur or Gone With the Wind? Don't worry, I wont compare Troopers to those, and fact be told neither would anyone else. Picking to make a film about giant bugs, war and teen-angst is not going to burn up the critic top picks or win many oscars, yet Starship Troopers picks these disreputable genres and transcendes them to make an epic. This is the kind of film that Independence Day or Mimic could have been with imagination, style, humor, and graphic carnage. This film is fun in some sick minimalist way. We see graphic telling of a war with huge killer bugs, and along the way building a very funny satire on high school and the way technology is leading us. This film is like Star Wars in the fact that they create not only a world new to us but a new telling of an old story with incredible detail and precision. The film is also directed by the Dutch pro Paul Verhoeven who's work I greatly admire. His idea of a film is as much violence and sex as he can fit (With the MPAA Ratings), the later is kept to suprising minimum, you become shocked by the onslaught of drippingly grotesque eyecandy and then made to laugh, not only by the outrageous way it is drawn out but also at the style of news clips and media coverage of the war. Starship Troopers was a flop in the US because most figured they woud get another stupid film like Independence Day or The Lost World. That is not the fact at all. This is one of the years best movies and one of the most fun to sit through. Adults: Just don't sit through it with young ones. From rec.arts.sf.reviews Tue May 19 12:47:46 1998 Path: news.ifm.liu.se!news.lejonet.se!newsfeed5.telia.com!masternews.telia.net!news-nyc.telia.net!howland.erols.net!news-peer.sprintlink.net!news.sprintlink.net!wn3feed!worldnet.att.net!140.142.64.3!news.u.washington.edu!grahams From: thecat@zip.com.au (Jeff Walters) Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.reviews,rec.arts.sf.reviews Subject: Review: Starship Troopers (1997) Followup-To: rec.arts.sf.movies Date: 13 May 1998 03:58:19 GMT Organization: The Zipsters Lines: 101 Approved: graham@ee.washington.edu Message-ID: <6jb5or$nbm$1@nntp5.u.washington.edu> NNTP-Posting-Host: homer36.u.washington.edu X-Trace: nntp5.u.washington.edu 895031899 23926 (None) 140.142.64.2 X-Complaints-To: help@cac.washington.edu NNTP-Posting-User: grahams Summary: r.a.m.r. #12435 Keywords: author=walters X-Questions-to: movie-rev-mod@www.ee.washington.edu X-Submissions-to: movie-reviews@www.ee.washington.edu Originator: grahams@homer36.u.washington.edu Xref: news.ifm.liu.se rec.arts.movies.reviews:11611 rec.arts.sf.reviews:1909 **Starship Troopers** Reviewed by Jeff Walters There was alot of Aliens Resurrection vs Starhip Troopers talk last year and both were tagged as movies to watch at the Box Office. It came as a fairly big surprise when both movies fizzled and died on release. Dissappointment aside, which movie emerged on top? Well, in my opinion - it's Starship Troopers. Alien's Resurrection was the movie I was waiting for in 1997 and I had very high hopes for it. Dissappointment was sadly the end result. Besides one or two nice action scenes (the underwater sequence was brilliant) the movie just really failed to make any real impact. Quickly souring on bug-theme movies I wasn't really looking forward to Starship Troopers and walked into it with my sights set low. This movie is no masterpeice of cinema - that is for sure. But damn it was entertaining, something A4 really failed to be. One thing you can't do with this movie, is take it seriously - no sir. First time I saw it I was half-expecting a serious film and didn't enjoy it as much - but the second time I saw it I knew what to expect - and man was this film better the second time around. The key is to accept that the movie in no way takes itself seriously - so you must do the same. The cast appears to be handpicked from Aaron Spelling's stables. The script keeps the multiple syllable words to an absolute minimum ("You're some big fat smart bug aren't ya?") and the tactics used by the troopers and ships in combat would have any retired army veteran rolling around laughing hysterically. ('Duh yeah, let's park our ships here where they can be shot out of the sky like last time or better yet - let's walk down through this narrow canyon where falling rocks betray the presence of bugs up high...no wait...I've got an idea - then let's send a guy up out of the canyon to be hacked to death!'). Smart this movie ain't. With all this sarcasm and cheap jibes at the movie you're likely wondering why I gave this movie 3 1/2 out of 5 stars? Well, to put it simply - this movie is fuuuun. The special FX are simply awe inspiring. The bugs are the best CG creatures you'll see in a movie. Forget the Jurassic Park dinos or Alien 4 cockroaches - these bugs look incredibly real...and more then slightly frightening. They are quick deadly and very difficult to kill. There are also many different types of bugs. My favourite is the big bettle-like bug that spits something resembling napalm at it's enemies - very nice. The scenes involving the massive starships are also beautifully rendered, though it would have been nice if these ships saw some kind of action besides getting shot down by planet-launched balls of 'bug-plasma'. Ok...onto the characters. Casper Van Dien (Johnny Rico) is likable enough in the lead role, but no-one would accuse him of depth or his character of intellect. Dina Meyer (Dizzy Flores) is actually pretty good as one of the two female leads, her character has much more life to her than most of her co-stars. The pick of the cast are Michael Ironside as the no nonsense teacher turned combat leader, Rasczak, and Clancy Brown as the incredibly tough and likely certifably insane Sergeant Zim. He is the real scene-stealer of the movie and his somewhat unorthodox methods for getting messages across to his troops is hilarious if twisted (He turns the word 'MEDIC!' into the ultimate one-liner). Ace Levy (played by Jake Busey, who is a dead-ringer for relative Gary Busey) also provides some good comic relief through the training section of the movie. The weak links of the cast? Two big ones. Denise Richard's Carmen Ibanez has gotta be one of the dullest characters you'll see. Talk about a barbie doll. She has zero one liners, no character and a smile that seems to have been surgically fixed in place. Even when her love interest (Patrick Muldoon) has his brains sucked out of his skull by the 'big fat smart bug' she seems to be unable to stiffle the gameshow host smile. Never seen this actress before. No wonder why. The other big mis-cast is Neil Patrick Harris as the geeky psychic, Carl. Why did someone have to dig up Doogie Howser? I thought we were finally rid of the runt. The action scenes involving the troopers are very thrilling indeed. Especially when Rico does his rodeo act on the back of one of the bettle-bugs or when the small squad of troopers try to hold the Fort against staggering odds. It takes quite a while to reach the cool action seqeunces though, about 50 minutes of training and scenes back on earth. Though you start itching for the action, the lead up parts are still entertaining in their own way. The hilarious 'propaganda' commercials spaced through out the film keeps the audience's attention. The ending is a total anti-climax unfortunately. After a short 'rescue the girl' sequence the movie ends abruptly leaving the audience fairly unsatisfied. Though the movie is long enough as is I would have happily sat there for an extra 15 or so minutes if it meant a more involved and thrilling ending. All up - I really enjoyed this movie. It is a very violent movie, but it is delivered in such a way so that it is never disturbingly so. As long as you don't try to take this movie seriously - you should enjoy it as well. There is talk of a sequel already and I certainly hope it eventuates as there are many loose ends left to be tied up. 3.5 out of 5 stars From rec.arts.sf.reviews Wed May 20 11:29:00 1998 Path: news.ifm.liu.se!news.lth.se!feed1.news.luth.se!luth.se!fu-berlin.de!newsfeed.direct.ca!news-peer.gip.net!news.gsl.net!gip.net!newsfeed.internetmci.com!207.172.3.49!feed2.news.erols.com!erols!wn4feed!135.173.83.24!wn3feed!worldnet.att.net!140.142.64.3!news.u.washington.edu!grahams From: alberto.farina@iol.it (Alberto) Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.reviews,rec.arts.sf.reviews Subject: Review: Starship Troopers (1997) Followup-To: rec.arts.sf.movies Date: 13 May 1998 02:55:17 GMT Organization: Lavacani Associati Lines: 68 Approved: graham@ee.washington.edu Message-ID: <6jb22l$kni$1@nntp5.u.washington.edu> NNTP-Posting-Host: homer39.u.washington.edu X-Trace: nntp5.u.washington.edu 895028117 21234 (None) 140.142.64.2 X-Complaints-To: help@cac.washington.edu NNTP-Posting-User: grahams Summary: r.a.m.r. #12420 Keywords: author=farina X-Questions-to: movie-rev-mod@www.ee.washington.edu X-Submissions-to: movie-reviews@www.ee.washington.edu Originator: grahams@homer39.u.washington.edu Xref: news.ifm.liu.se rec.arts.movies.reviews:11625 rec.arts.sf.reviews:1911 "Starship Troopers" (USA, 1997) >From "Starship Troopers" I was expecting more or less a film in the vein of "Robocop". That is, a SF movie which could both deliver good wham-bang action (with that kind of excessive and cartoonish carnage I occasionally enjoy) and a deeper and sharp satire on a number of issues such as militarism, consumerism, xenophobia, media power, economic force and so on. I still rate "Robocop" as the best and the smartest SF movie of the 80s, along with "Blade Runner" and closely followed by "Terminator" and I was hoping Verhoeven would manage to do the trick again. Nothing I read on the movie had given me reasons to expect a different movie than that. But I'm sorry to admit the movie did not live up to these expectations. It sure delivers on the level of popcorn fun, with action sequences that were unlike anything I had seen before: the second half of the movie, with the attacks of hordes of giant bugs to the fort and the bloody duels between bugs and humans, went closer than anything in achieving the powerful dynamism of the best superheroes comic books... something movies always have had trouble in recapturing. I can understand someone was taken aback by the massive gore feast, but I don't blame Verhoeven for being coherent to his style. It probably should have been up to Disney to market it as an adult entertainment rather than the star-wars-like family show that one would be led to expect from the trailers. But on this side -even if it had annoying logic loopholes that you could not help but notice (how about one of the characters -don't remember the name, she was Casper Van Diem's love interest... you know, the pilot girl- being pierced from one side to another by one of the giant bugs' claws... then joining her friends in the fight and carrying heavy weapons as if nothing had happened?)- I had fun. On the other side, however, the movie seems to me much less satisfying when it comes to the expected satirical edges. Although I find it interesting that the movie plays as a Star Wars gone nasty (the gore becoming a way to expose the hidden violence in the George Lucas film, where entire planets were destroyed in a clean and almost harmless-looking blast) I was expecting much more than that. Verhoeven was brilliant in dressing up his actors as nazis, as if he wanted us to root for them and yet be aware that the humans' war is an imperialistic aggression (one of the journalists in one of the hilarious TVnews footage mentions the fact the bugs' aggressiveness was awakened by the earthlings' attack on their planet). But the message was there only if you really looked for it knowing what you can and should expect from that director. The idea of being called "A Citizen" only if you had done your share of military service is clever... although I have a feeling it comes from Heinlein in the first place (but I haven't read the book yet, so I'm just guessing). But it remains a suggestion and it is not developed in any direction. It remains unclear what real Citizens have more than the others... The Michael Ironside character -the pacifist teacher who reappears halfway through the movie as an official in the army- is at the very least underdeveloped and you get a feeling you're missing valuable information there which could throw some light on why he has so radically changed his mind. Also underdeveloped is the only character that shows at least a hint of depth beyond the two-dimensionality of the others... Dina Meier's Dizzy is the only major character that you feel you'd be interested to know more about. Also, Meier is the only face which does not make her look like a close relative of Barbie and Ken... I would not be surprised in seeing her coming up again with or without Verhoeven in juicier roles... as it happened to one Sharon Stone before her... alberto.farina@iol.it From rec.arts.sf.reviews Fri May 29 13:13:05 1998 Path: news.ifm.liu.se!news.lth.se!feed1.news.luth.se!luth.se!feed2.news.erols.com!erols!wn4feed!135.173.83.24!wn3feed!worldnet.att.net!140.142.64.3!news.u.washington.edu!grahams From: James Sanford Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.reviews,rec.arts.sf.reviews Subject: Review: Starship Troopers (1997) Followup-To: rec.arts.sf.movies Date: 29 May 1998 04:52:22 GMT Organization: University of Washington Lines: 37 Approved: graham@ee.washington.edu Message-ID: <6kleu6$83v$1@nntp5.u.washington.edu> NNTP-Posting-Host: homer03.u.washington.edu X-Trace: nntp5.u.washington.edu 896417542 8319 (None) 140.142.64.2 X-Complaints-To: help@cac.washington.edu NNTP-Posting-User: grahams Summary: r.a.m.r. #12652 Keywords: author=sanford X-Questions-to: movie-rev-mod@www.ee.washington.edu X-Submissions-to: movie-reviews@www.ee.washington.edu Originator: grahams@homer03.u.washington.edu Xref: news.ifm.liu.se rec.arts.movies.reviews:11822 rec.arts.sf.reviews:1917 STARSHIP TROOPERS Directed by Paul Verhoeven You could call it "Teenage Nazi Power Rangers" and youngsters would still probably be trying to sneak into this very R-rated gorefest that pits beautiful, vacant-eyed young freedom-fighters against gigantic space bugs who spit flaming meterorites out of their backsides and, when they're not shredding their human victims, go to the trouble of sucking their brains out. There's a surplus of brainlessness in director Paul Verhoeven's ("Basic Instinct," "Showgirls") lavish sci-fi spectacular which often seems to be just on the verge of self-satire. Too bad it didn't have the courage to make that leap, since it's certainly it's hard not to laugh at the movie's plodding first hour, a sort of semi-futuristic "90210" episode in which recent high school graduates rebel against their parents and suffer the pains of unrequieted love while planning to join the Federation Alliance, a space corps whose uniforms and symbols carry eerie echoes of the Third Reich. Finally, after several reels of yawn-inducing soap-opera, the kids get to see some combat action as the irritable insects bomb Buenos Aires (which looks a lot more like Pasadena), setting the stage for all-out war. The special-effects are a mixed bag, with some cheesy-looking blue-screen and model work giving way to the genuinely impressive computer-generated monsters. Unfortunately, despite a lot of talk about how smart the bugs are, all they seem to do is kill: Soldiers are cut in half, impaled on spiky legs, set aflame, beheaded, etc. Verhoeven relishes dishing out the gore (he also directed "Robocop" and "Total Recall," remember), even though all but the most bloodthirsty in the crowd will have had their fill long before the movie's messy --and anti-climactic-- finale. The acting by all concerned makes the cast of "Melrose Place" look like the Royal Shakespeare Company, as statuesque model-types bark out lines like "Everyone fights, no one quits!" and "Kill 'em! Kill 'em all!" with clueless conviction. Only in the big co-ed shower scene do you finally realize why these no-name thespians were hired. Hint: It had nothing whatsoever to do with their line-readings. James Sanford From rec.arts.sf.reviews Sat Jun 6 20:40:30 1998 Path: news.ifm.liu.se!news.lth.se!feed1.news.luth.se!luth.se!cam-news-hub1.bbnplanet.com!news.bbnplanet.com!newsfeed.xcom.net!feed2.news.erols.com!erols!wn4feed!135.173.83.24!wn3feed!worldnet.att.net!140.142.64.3!news.u.washington.edu!grahams From: Michael Chen Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.reviews,rec.arts.sf.reviews Subject: Review: Starship Troopers (1997) Followup-To: rec.arts.sf.movies Date: 6 Jun 1998 16:03:54 GMT Organization: Telstra Internet Browse Server Lines: 100 Approved: graham@ee.washington.edu Message-ID: <6lbp9a$niq$1@nntp5.u.washington.edu> NNTP-Posting-Host: homer38.u.washington.edu X-Trace: nntp5.u.washington.edu 897149034 24154 (None) 140.142.17.35 X-Complaints-To: help@cac.washington.edu NNTP-Posting-User: grahams Summary: r.a.m.r. #12709 Keywords: author=chen X-Questions-to: movie-rev-mod@www.ee.washington.edu X-Submissions-to: movie-reviews@www.ee.washington.edu Originator: grahams@homer38.u.washington.edu Xref: news.ifm.liu.se rec.arts.movies.reviews:11879 rec.arts.sf.reviews:1924 STARSHIP TROOPERS (1997) Film Review by Michael Chen Rating: * (out of ****) Rating: 2 (out of 10) Director: Paul Verhoeven Starring: Casper Van Dien, Denise Richards, Dina Meyer, Jake Busey Novel by: Robert A. Heinlein Screenplay by: Ed Neumeier Duration: 129 minutes This is one of the worst big-screen film experiences I’ve had for a while. With this film, plus “Showgirls” and “Basic Instinct”, Paul Verhoeven has stamped himself as currently one of the worst blockbuster directors. His celebrated film “Total Recall” was – I admit – successfully scripted, but it nonetheless contained directorial flaws. Obviously nobody wanted to invest too much money in a production from someone like Verhoeven, the result being that much of the special effects in “Starship” seemed fake. But not EVERYTHING bad in the film was the director’s fault, even though he was one of the guys who employed the actors. It is surprising that none of the actors received nominations for the Razzie Awards (I expected five for the acting categories). Casserole Vanity Devoid, Dense Ribald, Dingy Miasma, and Jackass Bushy are in serious need of acting school. No, they have to pass primary school drama classes first. While “Total” was written well, “Starship” is purely pathetic. All right, it is SUPPOSED TO be a fast-paced entertainment film, and you’re SUPPOSED TO turn off your intellect (completely) and enjoy the action sequences and special effects (that is, guts and gore). As a matter of fact, I found the activity incredibly boring, a complete waste of more than two hours. Half of the film was a bad episode of “Beverly Hills 90210” (Dina Meyer was in "Beverly Hills"), while another quarter was simply nothing (things like presenting irrelevant information in an irritating way on the web), and the rest was a display of humans fighting computer-generated images. The battles were all the same – jumping around, shoot or get stabbed – and on barren planets that only had giant insects. There weren’t even any stunts, which I consider slightly more exciting than pictures running around. I wonder what the insects eat, if there’s nothing but them on the planets? There is so much laughable treatment in this film, and it is frankly not amusing when jokes are intended. This type of story is obviously aimed at 10-year-olds, who can’t see it anyway because of the violence and some sexuality. But then, there are always 16-year-olds who have that frame of mind. The pointless plot begins when Johnny’s (Vanity Devoid) girlfriend Carmen (Richards) decides that she wants to join the troopers to fight the insects who are throwing asteroids at Earth. Johnny then signs up as a trooper also, after an overacted argument with his parents. But there is another girl, Dizzy (Meyer), who likes Johnny and then there is another boy who likes Carmen, which results in a love quadrangle, which isn’t better, because it means augmented worse-than-stereotyped soap opera, increased bitchiness, and more bad Beverly Hills + Melrose. And the result of this love quadrangle at the end is also rather stupid. Anyway, getting back to the thing you might call plot, Johnny is too stupid to be a pilot and has to join the infantry, while his girl and the other dude are in the same league. Dizzy comes chasing Johnny and joins the infantry also. They then start training, which contains what Roger Ebert calls IPS (Idiot Plot Syndrome, moments when only an idiot would have made such obvious mistakes), then real combat. And guess what? That’s about as complex as it gets. Oh, and one of their friends, Carl (Neil Patrick Harris a.k.a. Doogie Howser M.D.), becomes involved in war intelligence, and his abilities at the end are really corny and make me want to spray insecticide on someone for it. He’s my fifth nom for a Razzie. The troopers fight, fall in love, die, kill, and try to act. Naturally, they win, or sort of half-win. Of course, in between (and at the end) there are soldiers chatting and smiling while carrying grievous wounds caused by bug legs. The bugs also suffer from IPS: why would you release hold of your captive before killing it? Isn’t it also amazing that Earthlings haven’t invented better hand-held weapons by then? The only question that remains is why I gave it one star instead of zero. Well, maybe a-quarter (of a star) for the originality of the co-sex shower scene and the (very) brief moments of suspense, another quarter for copying “Zulu” and letting the good guys (the bugs) win, and half a star for the sucking-out of the brain of one of those people who call themselves actors (but there should have been more, the troopers deserved to die). ****: Classic ***½: Highly recommended; Excellent ***: Recommended **½: Okay; Passable **: Time-Killer *½: Ill-advised cure for boredom *: Keep an alarm clock beside you, also usually suitable to end a relationship ½: Try to restrain yourself from inflicting pain to anything nearby, including yourself and the screen, on realisation of how much time and money you have wasted Zero: No comment Heartily welcome any questions, comments, and criticisms to microchip81@hotmail.com. From rec.arts.sf.reviews Thu Oct 8 11:58:16 1998 Path: news.ifm.liu.se!news.lth.se!feed1.news.luth.se!luth.se!news-peer-europe.sprintlink.net!Sprint!news-peer.sprintlink.net!news-backup-east.sprintlink.net!news.sprintlink.net!192.220.250.21!netnews1.nw.verio.net!netnews.nwnet.net!news.u.washington.edu!grahams From: turtonm@my-dejanews.com (Michael Turton) Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.reviews,rec.arts.sf.reviews Subject: Review: Starship Troopers (1997) Followup-To: rec.arts.sf.movies Date: 8 Oct 1998 05:13:34 GMT Organization: Deja News - The Leader in Internet Discussion Lines: 94 Approved: graham@ee.washington.edu Message-ID: <6vhhlu$12ro$1@nntp3.u.washington.edu> NNTP-Posting-Host: homer12.u.washington.edu X-Trace: nntp3.u.washington.edu 907823614 35704 (None) 140.142.17.37 X-Complaints-To: help@cac.washington.edu NNTP-Posting-User: grahams Summary: r.a.m.r. #14655 Keywords: author=turton X-Questions-to: movie-rev-mod@www.ee.washington.edu X-Submissions-to: movie-reviews@www.ee.washington.edu Originator: grahams@homer12.u.washington.edu Xref: news.ifm.liu.se rec.arts.movies.reviews:13862 rec.arts.sf.reviews:2122 Starship Troopers Reviewed by Michael A. Turton (turton@cc.fy.edu.tw) _Starship Troopers_ proves once again that nothing debases good sci-fi faster than contact with a Hollywood director. The merest glance at this multimillion-dollar clunker shows that the reasons for Hollywood's inability to do science fiction are not technical. Rather, they lie in the impoverished vision and formulaic storytelling that have come to dominate filmmaking in Southern California. Inspired by Robert Heinlein's classic adolescent sci-fi novel, _Starship Troopers_ tells the story of a group of young men and women who volunteer to fight the Bugs, aliens who have taken to launching meteors full of their spores into human space to colonize human worlds. On this absurd premise (not Heinlein's; he had a much richer storytelling gift) is hung a predictable storyline and buckets of expensive but unimaginative special effects, as well as some gratuitous breasts. There's no denying that the combat scenes are graphic, with people ripped in half, limbs chopped off and blood everywhere, yet one cannot help but feel that the gore is there to shock, and not out of some commitment to artistic integrity, however hollow. This is because the combat itself is so unbelievable. Although the humans have warp drive, they have no artillery. In fact, they appear to have forgotten a couple of thousand years of military tactics and technology, for they have no area weapons, indirect fire weapons, small arms larger than an automatic rifle, guided missiles, flamethrowers, delayed action bombs or tactical air support, never mind biological and chemical weapons. Tactical communications are limited to a shouted voice. Yet during training they practice with energy weapons that are capable of blowing off heads. Why aren't they used in combat? Instead, the soldiers of the future face their enemies with grenades, automatic rifles, and miniature nuclear weapons (from which they are not shielded), as well as some gratuitous breasts. There are numerous other problems as well. Ships in space in formation are much too close and it is clear from the positions of ships in the fleet and the controls of individual ships that the designers never learned to think in three dimensions (contrast the level flight of the ships with the far more realistic space combat scenes in _Babylon 5_). All planets have blue skies and ecologies which consist of only two species, humans and bugs, both colonizers from elsewhere. A meteor launched from the other side of the galaxy zeroes in on a city on earth. In reality, any such object would have had to have been launched when our ancestors had not yet become Homo Sapiens. The human political situation is vague at best. How many colonies are there? Where are they? We are told only that democracy failed and the military took over to stabilize society. There are some glimpses of the government, particular of savage punishments, but Heinlein's vision of a society based on individual responsibility is recast as a quasifacist police state. The violence sadly remains true to its Hollywood roots, with guns that never jam or need ammunition, main characters who have a superhuman ability to function regardless of injury. and acting that would shame the homecoming play at high school. Fortunately there is a varied collection of gratuitous breasts. The Bugs themselves are visually interesting, but they suffer from the same kinds of inconsistencies which plague the movie in general. Although we are told that they are not individuals as we are, they bicker and snarl amongst themselves like mammalian predators jockeying for position in the pride. The "Brain" bug eats human brains by sucking them from the skull, presumably to find out what we think. How it gets any information from crushed and mangled alien proteins is a mystery. Perhaps it should have tried the gratuitous breasts. The storyline, which tracks the volunteers from high school to through training into combat, eliminates the sentimental masculine melodrama that makes the original novel such a favorite of young males. It too lives in the eternal Now. One recruit says he joined to go career and become and officer; later he turns down a leadership position on the grounds that he just wants to fight; later still he shows up as an NCO. The characters are almost totally inhuman in their response to the death around them. They seem to feel neither sadness, relief nor anger. Rico is never shown having any serious emotional reaction to the death of his parents. Heinlein's original story is underpinned by a complex web of relationships among the military officers who dominate Rico's career, but these are gone from the film, as is his vision of an ethnically-mixed society, for everyone in _Starship Troopers_ is either white or black (this being Hollywood, the hero is a blue-eyed blond). The boy-has-girl, boy-loses-girl, boy-finds-girl plot that stitches the story together is advanced by the too-convenient death of romantic distractions, as well as some gratuitous breasts. New faces give the movie whatever appeal it may have. The actress playing Carmen Ibanez has the loveliest smile to grace the big screen in ages. And of course Disi twice bares a pair of fine gratuitous breasts. Both as a movie and as an SF story, _Starship Troopers_ is an offensive failure. I give it 1 star out of 5. Not worth renting, even for the gratuitous breasts. Copyright 1998 Michael A. Turton turton@cc.fy.edu.tw -----------== Posted via Deja News, The Discussion Network ==---------- http://www.dejanews.com/ Search, Read, Discuss, or Start Your Own From rec.arts.sf.reviews Thu Feb 11 16:28:34 1999 Path: news.ifm.liu.se!news.lth.se!feed2.news.luth.se!luth.se!feed1.news.rcn.net!rcn!logbridge.uoregon.edu!news.u.washington.edu!grahams From: me@alanine.ram.org (Ram Samudrala) Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.reviews,rec.arts.sf.reviews Subject: Retrospective: Starship Troopers (1997) Followup-To: rec.arts.sf.movies Date: 4 Feb 1999 19:20:13 GMT Organization: Movie ram-blings: http://www.ram.org/ramblings/movies.html Lines: 55 Approved: graham@ee.washington.edu Message-ID: <79crtd$st8$1@nntp3.u.washington.edu> NNTP-Posting-Host: homer04.u.washington.edu X-Trace: nntp3.u.washington.edu 918156013 29608 (None) 140.142.17.40 X-Complaints-To: help@cac.washington.edu NNTP-Posting-User: grahams Summary: r.a.m.r. #16496 Keywords: author=samudrala X-Questions-to: movie-rev-mod@www.ee.washington.edu X-Submissions-to: movie-reviews@www.ee.washington.edu Originator: grahams@homer04.u.washington.edu Xref: news.ifm.liu.se rec.arts.movies.reviews:15691 rec.arts.sf.reviews:2253 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Starship Troopers http://www.ram.org/ramblings/movies/starship_troopers.html Buried within /Starship Troopers/ is some semblance of satire and social commentary, but trying to eke out intellectual content amidst cheesy effects, groan-inducing dialogue, and terrible acting is a thankless task. Based on the novel by Robert A. Heinlein, the setting for the movie is in a future where man is fighting a war for survival with giant bugs from the planet Klandathu. Given the weapons and the intelligence of the human characters I would've loved to have seen the bugs win, but unfortunately this is Hollywood: The standard scenario for killing a bug involves firing several machine gun (!) rounds at the bug, and then, as the bug keeps going and going and decapitates a few soldiers, someone with a slightly higher IQ figures out grenades or bazookas work better. Of course, the humans don't learn and repeat the same modus operandi each time. And they call the bugs stupid. The focus of the movie is on a group of high-school friends: Johnny Rico (Casper Van Dien), a Good Citizen, Carmen Ibanez (Denise Richards), his love interest, Dizzy Flores (Dina Meyer) who is interested in Johnny, and Carl Jenkins (Neil Patrick Harris) who is interested in Dizzy. All of them are patriotic and want to do their duty to the human race and so after graduating from high school, they join the Federal Service: Johnny and Dizzy end up joining the mobile infantry, Carl ends up in military intelligence ("two words combined that don't make sense"), and Carmen becomes a pilot. The motivation for the battles between the bugs and our band of losers tenuously involves the capture of a "brain bug" so they can figure out how these bugs think. The effects, particularly those involving the space ships, are incredibly underwhelming for the most part. It amazes me how so much money could've been spent making this film (~$100 million) and produce scenes that look like they were made with cardboard. The bugs are done really well, however, though the green goo is overused. The ditziness of Carmen (the constant smile) gets tiresome after a while. There is lots of gratuitous nudity. Oh yeah, with respect to the intellectual depth: in many ways /Starship Troopers/ exemplifies what a joke the notion of a military state is, particularly with the newsreel clips and recruitment ads that are interspersed through the film. The newsreel clips also illustrate how the art of the sound byte can be used to manipulate the masses. Unfortunately the commentary takes a second place to the cheesy effects. /Starship Troopers/ has its moments, but I recommend skipping it. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- email@urls || http://www.ram.org || http://www.twisted-helices.com/th Movie ram-blings: http://www.ram.org/ramblings/movies.html From rec.arts.sf.reviews Thu Feb 11 16:33:55 1999 Path: news.ifm.liu.se!news.lth.se!feed2.news.luth.se!luth.se!news-peer-europe.sprintlink.net!news.sprintlink.net!Sprint!news-peer1.sprintlink.net!-program!newsfeed.berkeley.edu!news.u.washington.edu!grahams From: James Brundage Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.reviews,rec.arts.sf.reviews Subject: Review: Starship Troopers (1997) Followup-To: rec.arts.sf.movies Date: 31 Jan 1999 20:05:48 GMT Organization: None Lines: 43 Approved: graham@ee.washington.edu Message-ID: <792d2s$6ve$1@nntp3.u.washington.edu> Reply-To: "Mr. Brundage" NNTP-Posting-Host: homer22.u.washington.edu X-Trace: nntp3.u.washington.edu 917813148 7150 (None) 140.142.17.35 X-Complaints-To: help@cac.washington.edu NNTP-Posting-User: grahams Summary: r.a.m.r. #16428 Keywords: author=brundage X-Questions-to: movie-rev-mod@www.ee.washington.edu X-Submissions-to: movie-reviews@www.ee.washington.edu Originator: grahams@homer22.u.washington.edu Xref: news.ifm.liu.se rec.arts.movies.reviews:15634 rec.arts.sf.reviews:2249 Starship Troopers may win the war, but looses the battle. As Reviewed by James Brundage Lets take movies from the side that they really are. The side that almost no one ever sees that isn't in the business. The side that lacks the glamour of the interest or the entertainment. The side of a bunch of lawyers, CPAs and rich kids all gathered together to make more money. Its a side that doesn't really have much to show, that isn't anything more than people in Armani in a room deciding the entertainment of a nation. Think of them as car dealers, brokering to you a beat up Pinto that's been repainted and is going for pretty cheap, and you have a good idea of what Starship Troopers is like. Picture the conversation : "What does this movie have to offer you? Its fun, its sci-fi. The human race fighting for survival, that sorta thing. It has relationships. Its based on the 1959 classic. Its has something for everyone." Okay, you think, the movie sounds okay so far, but what about when he begins the next bit, talking to you dressed in a cheap suit and a K-Mart tie, arms spread out in a hug and pot belly accented. "And, free of extra charge, we've got some goodies for you. It comes with plenty of violence for all you gore-hounds out there, with a human and alien body count close to 5,000 shown. And, of course, millions more die behind the scenes. We torture one scared alien. Like unnecessary nudity? We've got that too. "And we've got this wonderful old-fashioned new negative utopia angle for you to try. You have to serve in the military to be a citizen. We've got a bug shooting things out of its but. We've got cockroaches being smashed to little-itty bitty bits for all those city-dwellers. We've got psychics for all those watches of the Sci-Fi channel. We've got cheap relationships for you who don't want to get too deep into the movie. But, for those who try to get deep into the movie, we try (no promises) to give you a nice bit of humanity with our impossibly drawn-out death scenes (but they're terribly faked for all you conservative parents). Not a lot of profanity, but, hey, you can't win them all. "So, do you want to take it for a spin?" From rec.arts.sf.reviews Wed Mar 17 15:58:20 1999 Path: news.ifm.liu.se!news.lth.se!feed2.news.luth.se!luth.se!news.algonet.se!algonet!news.maxwell.syr.edu!newsfeed.berkeley.edu!news.u.washington.edu!grahams From: Dennis Schwartz Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.reviews,rec.arts.sf.reviews Subject: Retrospective: Starship Troopers (1997) Followup-To: rec.arts.sf.movies Date: 15 Mar 1999 05:45:36 GMT Organization: University of Washington Lines: 78 Approved: graham@ee.washington.edu Message-ID: <7ci6q0$ino$1@nntp3.u.washington.edu> NNTP-Posting-Host: homer29.u.washington.edu X-Trace: nntp3.u.washington.edu 921476736 19192 (None) 140.142.17.35 X-Complaints-To: help@cac.washington.edu NNTP-Posting-User: grahams Summary: r.a.m.r. #17219 Keywords: author=schwartz X-Questions-to: movie-rev-mod@www.ee.washington.edu X-Submissions-to: movie-reviews@www.ee.washington.edu Originator: grahams@homer29.u.washington.edu Xref: news.ifm.liu.se rec.arts.movies.reviews:16407 rec.arts.sf.reviews:2273 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" ozus@sover.net [Image] © ALL RIGHTS RESERVED DENNIS SCHWARTZ http://www.sover.net/~ozus From rec.arts.sf.reviews Sat Jan 5 15:58:33 2002 From: Modemac Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.reviews,rec.arts.sf.reviews Subject: Retrospective: Starship Troopers (1997) Approved: ramr@rottentomatoes.com Followup-To: rec.arts.movies.past-films Date: Fri, 07 Dec 2001 03:31:09 -0000 Organization: Posted via Supernews, http://www.supernews.com Message-ID: X-RAMR-ID: 30404 X-Language: en X-RT-ReviewID: 270128 X-RT-TitleID: 1080606 X-RT-AuthorID: 1917 Summary: r.a.m.r. #30404 X-Questions-to: ramr@rottentomatoes.com X-Submissions-to: ramr@rottentomatoes.com X-Complaints-To: newsabuse@supernews.com Lines: 139 Path: news.island.liu.se!news.Update.UU.SE!puffinus.its.uu.se!newsfeed.sunet.se!news01.sunet.se!news.kth.se!uio.no!news-spur1.maxwell.syr.edu!news.maxwell.syr.edu!news.he.net!news!sn-xit-03!sn-post-01!supernews.com!news.supernews.com!not-for-mail Xref: news.island.liu.se rec.arts.movies.reviews:2366 rec.arts.sf.reviews:166 It's been a few years now since Paul Verhoeven's adaptation of Robert Heinlein's STARSHIP TROOPERS faded from the public spotlight. That's a good thing, because this is not one of the high points of science fiction movies. But in spite of the critical drubbing this movie received (especially from the legions of dedicated fans of Robert Heinlein, most of whom consider the novel "Starship Troopers" one of his best books), it's far from the worst science fiction movie around either. It may not be worth paying full price for, but I found the movie on sale for six bucks, and it's worth it at that price. For sheer, exciting, gory, brain-dead (if not mindless) entertainment, STARSHIP TROOPERS certainly gives you two hours of everything you expect in a Paul Verhoeven movie: action, excitement, blood, gore, action, nude scenes, and more action. If only the plot was brave enough to put some real brains in; if it had, we might have had a true science fiction classic here. Verhoeven shows his familiarity with Heinlein's story by taking the plot and exaggerating it by several factors. He includes most of the famous scenes of the book, especially the boot camp sequences and a corporal punishment scene, where the hero is sentenced to ten lashes with a whip. Verhoeven removes the "powered armor" made famous in Heinlein's book, and that's a mistake; evidently, his intent was to make the action scenes look like moments from James Cameron's ALIENS. The uniforms, weapons, and monsters are closely copied from Cameron's film; which is ironic in its own way, because Cameron obviously borrowed from Heinlein's own "Starship Troopers" when he made ALIENS. But there's a fake, cartoony, comic-book quality to the entire movie that keeps us from taking it at all seriously. This is good, because if Verhoeven tried to give us a grim and gritty, ultra-realistic look at "war" like PLATOON did, then this exceptionally gory, massively violent movie would probably have sent audiences rushing out of their seats. (It had trouble bringing them in, as it was; the movie was a box-office flop.) The boot camp scenes are entertaining, and we accept them even though they're blatantly fake. Watch the scene where Sargeant Zim greets the troops for the first time, and compare it to the opening of FULL METAL JACKET; the tension and the horror of Stanley Kubrick's film is completely absent here. But it's entertaining, nonetheless. If there's one thing that can certainly be said about STARSHIP TROOPERS, it's this: the movie is not boring. Quite a few movies have taken on a new level of irony or "meaning" since the September 11 attacks, and this movie is one of them. It's interesting to compare the similarity of the plot device -- sudden surprise attack leaves thousands dead; the world mourns; we go to war; the hero stays with the army because he lost his family in the destroyed city of Buenos Aires. The loss we all suffered in real life does give make this seem somewhat more believable, though not much so; it's still cartoony, but not quite as far-fetched now as it was when the movie was released. This movie has gained some small benefit in the "new" American culture. But even so, it would still benefit more of the screenwriter had dared to include a brain in the story -- and I don't mean a brain bug, either. I certainly can't deny that Verhoeven is a talented director, and nearly every scene in the movie is full of movement and energy, and the special effects are very good...but the sheer idiocy of a number of the plot devices makes the movie hard to swallow, and it kills whatever emotions we've built up. I've heard the arguments that the point of the entire story is to take a satirical look at military propaganda, and Verhoeven's success with ROBOCOP certainly shows that he knows satire. And when we compare the actions of the "Federation" as it goes to war to the real-life American campaign against Afghanistan and "terrorism," we can certainly be glad that our military commanders were smarter than the ones in this movie. Strictly in terms of plot, STARSHIP TROOPERS deserves some kind of an award for sending an army to invade enemy territory using some of the dumbest, most idiotic tactics I've ever seen in a "war movie," be it serious or satirical. You could make a list of the stupid mistakes made by the "military commanders" here -- keeping their starships huddled together so that it's easy to crash into each other; sending their troops into unknown enemy territory at night, armed only with machine guns, not having any air support or heavy armored vehicles, and not even using their portable nukes when they need them; and so on, and so on. I can only assume that this stupidity was deliberately put in by the screenwriter. I've read Heinlein's novel, and the movie does follow the book (mostly); so it seems likely that the stupidity of the military was exaggerated even more, as a deliberate move on Verhoeven's part. Of course, the brain-dead military commanders only match the stupidity of the movie's ostensible hero, Johnny Rico. He's caught in a love triangle, though we know how it's all going to end. It's just enough to make him a two-dimensional Movie Hero, complete with a perfect hairdo that never gets mussed. He pines for his lady-love Carmen Ibanez; but she only has eyes on becoming a starship pilot. And he completely misses the unrequited love of his teammate, high school companion, and total babe "Dizzy" Flores. The idiocy of this running "romantic" theme matches the idiocy of the military tactics of the film, suggesting that the whole thing is meant to be one big cartoon. Verhoeven's misogynistic streak also reveals itself here, but it's kept under control more than in his other movies; the most offensive bit here is probably Dizzy Flores, whose entire life is dedicated to landing Johnny Rico in bed. Of course, Rico is too stupid to realize this until it's nearly too late; but at least we get to see some gratuitous nudity. Verhoeven is one of those rare directors who doesn't flinch when it comes to either violence *or* sex. When we see a Verhoeven action scene, we know there's going to be over-the-top violence (and quite often too much of it, as in TOTAL RECALL); and we can certainly expect over-the-top sex as well from the man who gave us SHOWGIRLS. And yet, the movie is still bursting with energy. There's not one moment in the entire movie when the pace flags. The action scenes are well-done (and there are many); the camera moves constantly, but never in a way that calls attention to itself (I hate those MTV video-style directors who swoop the camera all over the place with no rhyme or reason, as in THE CROW); and the film's reported $100 million budget is certainly well-displayed on the screen. The bug attacks in particular are outstanding, and they are far and away the best parts of the entire movie. Add on the cartoonish propaganda segments that occur every so often ("Would you like to know more?"), and the result is a big, splashy, dumb way to waste two hours. I's impossible to take this movie seriously, and that's why I enjoyed it when I watched it with friends. We whooped and hollered and exclaimed our astonishment as we watched the characters make one dumb move after another -- "You've got NUKES, you idiots! Use 'em!" "Dizzy wants you so bad, you moron! [CENSORED] her already!" As far as bad movies go, I'd rather experience one like STARSHIP TROOPERS, with its exciting action scenes and its sheer lack of seriousness, than a slow-moving slug of a film reeking with self-importance like BATTLEFIELD EARTH or even GODZILLA (the 1998 version). This movie is made for adults -- and it could have been a true classic if it dared to treat its audience like adults. -- First Online Church of "Bob" http://www.modemac.com/ ========== X-RAMR-ID: 30404 X-Language: en X-RT-ReviewID: 270128 X-RT-TitleID: 1080606 X-RT-AuthorID: 1917