Starship Troopers

You know, were this film maybe twenty minutes shorter then it would be quite a decent sci-fi action film. Sure, the cast is made up of pretty/handsome lightweight acting talent led by Casper Van Dien ("Rico”) but they do all gel quite well, providing us with quite a reasonable escapist effort. "Rico" is determined to enrol into the military to gain much sought after citizenship and to fight against the marauding Klendathan bugs. The story marries loads of typical gung-ho boot camp scenarios with some well photographed action scenes as our hero and his team of kick-ass buddies take on the gazillions of bugs intent on sucking out brains, tearing folks limb from limb and, generally, being a bit nasty! The dialogue is terrible, but that doesn't matter - this is a shameless piece of entertainment aimed squarely at folks who want to switch off their brain and watch a shoot-em up with loads of pyrotechnics, special effects and a bit of harmless eye candy. There are a couple of cameos from "Doogie Howser" himself (Neil Patrick Harris) - as a mind reading fellow clad in a rather SS-style uniform; Clancy Brown and Michael Ironside provide the physical (if not exactly cerebral) muscle and eagle eyed folks might even spot "Blanche" from the "Golden Girls" (Rue McClanahan) early on too. Never going to win any prizes for the script or the acting, but the effects were Oscar nominated and the action - after a rather slow start - proves to be pretty end-to-end, and enjoyable. No point watching if your brain needs stimulation, but worth it otherwise.

Almost a classic. Maybe it is a classic. Another semi classic or classic by Verhoeven. The "in your face" action is set to science fiction, this time with soldiers battling giant bugs from space. These are big bugs. I mean BIG BUGS! And they're mean and evil. The characters are especially likable. The comic relief in this one comes mostly from the fight scenes to anonymous characters in "commercials". The directing is probably what makes this as great as it is, but the writing is pretty dog gone good, too. While I prefer RoboCop, this is a great replacement movie for it, being the same style, if you can't see RoboCop. Some people prefer this one. The difference is so minute that you're safe either way.

I remember when I watched this movie at the theatre in 1997. It was unlike any movie I had ever seen... dismemberment, blood & guts all over the place. But it was all in context. Verhoeven really had a way with deceptively smart satire and this movie is full of it (all the school children stomping on cockroaches saying "I'm doing my part"). This is a Paul Verhoeven masterpiece. Probably the most watched movie in my collection (right up there with RoboCop). Absolutely NO similarities with Robert A. Heinlein's controversial Hugo Award-winning bestselling book of the same name. I loved the book and I loved the movie. And both for very different reasons!