MrVibrating

21 May 2013

Smart and satirical

Most people tend to get hung up on the gore in this movie. This isfully understandable, as it's very action-packed and filled to the brimof exploding bugs and body parts flying. But once you go beyond that,you realize Verhoeven has turned Heinlein's interesting book to asmart, clever and scrutinizing satire of America and heroism ingeneral.The plot is simple: Alien bugs attack Earth. MI, Mobile Infantry, issent on D-day-like suicide missions to eliminate the bugs. The effectsin this movie are really cool, with bugs looking and moving veryrealistic, and with gorgeous space fights. It's strange this movie gotmade in 1997... the effects of today are not as good.The characters are all morons, but that's the way it's supposed to be.The actors are nothing special, except Ironside, who get's a pretty bigrole as a change.There are lots of questions in this movie, about democracy, military,and sovereignty towards the unknown. It's just hidden under a fun,flesh-filled and awesomely cool action movie. Dig a bit and you'll seeall kinds of interesting topics.Don't miss this one!

20 May 2013

Not as deep as you might wish it to be.

Alright, this movie was horrible. Like the person a couple of reviews before me, I would have to say I "got" it. I had a long disussion about the social commentary of this movie, and came to the conclusion there was none. Any of Verhoeven's attempts to be cerebral fall flat because of poorly executed intentions. Facism, Nazi-ism, and nationalism aside, I don't need to hear it from Casper Van Dien's mouth. I also don't need to see it alongside someone's brains being sucked out of their head. Wake up, it's not graphic realism, it's shallow sensationalism. You can't lay the trappings for every little fourteen-year-old with a libido to go to the movie theater to see Denise Richards prance around and then try to say you're also doing something "impo'ent". Besides, you already see her naked in another movie she made, I don't ask for her to shatter my ideals of the role of an intelligent, successful, female during a war in a over-zealous society and humanity. All in all, you can't have you cake (box office success) and necessarily eat it, too (intellectual praises). I don't like closet success "deep" movies, but there is something to be said for quiet, poignant movies which don't have to yell, kick, scream and be top-selling DVD to say something. Apocalypse Now was graphic, but justified, and was still successful. Think "Apoc. Now", not "Clueless", if you want to be remembered for making a point. Oh, yeah, the DVD packaging with all the add-ons was a bonus, though.

poisonrock29

15 May 2013

What a ride

Wow what a wild ride this was. Starship troopers doesn't have a dullmomentin the entire movie and it will keep you on the edge of your seat right uptil the end. This is what i call an action packed movie, full of specialeffects and enough gore to repulse even the most die hard gorehounds. Thecast is terrific with upcoming names such as Casper Van Dien, DeniseRichards, Dina Meyer and Patrick Muldoon, what a great idea to put up andcoming names in this, rather than a bigshot moviestar who would only stealthe spotlight. Starship troopers may be two hours long, but it doesn'tdragon with meaningless drama the way alot of recent movies do, this one isonefor your home DVD collection, i think this is one of the very best moviesof1997.

14 May 2013

Why cant I give it the 0 stars it deserves?

This is the worst movie I have ever seen in my entire life. I feel the same way about this movie as I do about Natural Born Killers (the second worst movie I have ever seen). They both are supposed to have a message written in blood, but they fail miserably in making any point at all (IMO). No matter what the director says his intentions were, it was obvious to me that he intended only to entertain the male teenage crowd who likes blood, explosions, sex, and nudity. As bad as the movie was, I still plan to read the book because I do like GOOD science fiction (which the movie was not according to the rules for SF).

11 May 2013

Use the disc as a frisbee

I've seen better acting in elementary school plays

Levent Onbes

10 May 2013

It was a poetic MOVIE

Starship Troopers movie has been purified some social message anxietyandVerhoven has been do it for only Visul Cinema.You can find a lot of movie in it.(Western,Historical,Emotional,Warect.....)I watch Star Troopers on DVD every week and I'll go on.....

tommyuk

07 May 2013

Verhoeven has style !

After watching James Cameron's film 'Aliens' in 1986 (which I believewas loosely based on the Starship troopers novel) I have to admit Iwasn't really all that impressed with 'Robocop' in 1987.At the time Ithought the best parts of Robocop where the ED209 boardroom scene andthe in-between TV Commercial shorts which where quite funny.I have togive credit to Robocop though because I really like the way Paul pushedthis idea to the limit and incorporated it into Starship Troopers withthe satirical Federation broadcasts.He has an amazing talent forvisualizing classic Sci-Fi and I think he did a fine job on TotalRecall based on Philip K Dick's short story 'We Can Remember It for YouWholesale'. I think Verhoeven is a fantastic director who is not afraidto poke a bit of fun at Heinlein's fictional idealistic future and usalso at the same time in our own crazy world.Don't get me wrong I loveHeinlein's novels and hope some day that another Director might try andvisualise the Mobile Infantry closer to the MI in the novel.I wouldhope that such a director might adopt some of this film's brilliantconcepts such as the Arachnids organic weaponry.I think Heinlein wouldhave been just a little bit impressed with the CGI in this fine film

TheHande

06 May 2013

Grossly Under-rated

In my view there is nothing sadder than a science fiction film thatfails to find its audience. Starship Troopers is a noted departure frommost space action and adventure flicks because of its underlyingmessage which criticizes fascist ideals, even if it does so in a ratherover-the-top manner.Paul Verhoeven always brings an element of comedy into his sci-fiescapades which makes films like RoboCop interesting even if they atfirst glance seem stupid and overtly violent. What I feel is most sadabout Starship Troopers is the new lengths it took special-effects andwas still ignored.The movie does have its weaknesses and I've always felt that the endingwasn't quite on par with the rest of the film. The gritty and darkunder-current of this action-escapade is what makes it stand out andanyone who thinks they know what serious science fiction is about needsto watch this film before they can truly claim any knowledge in thefield.

Mark Tomlinson

04 May 2013

Does a great action film make a great film? No.

Great action film ... but that wasn't the point. Heinlein hadhis characters squashing bugs not because they are scary, butbecause thats what children do. There were supposed to be somefundemental questions asked here, like "does might make right?""Does justice always prevail?" But the squeeky clean, shallow,Beverly Hills 90210 cast just didn't pull it off.

Vidhead

03 May 2013

Blood, bugs and babes

I loved this film. Verhoeven sure makes amends for Showgirls with StarshipTroopers. Based on Heinleins horrible fascist tract, Verhoeven turns itintoa very bloody and very funny yarn about militarism, the media, and umbugs.Ya gotta love the sight of Doogie Howser S.S. and seeing all those MelrosePlace types getting sliced and diced by giant bugs was immenselyenjoyable.I know a lot of people took it all rather seriously but get out Robocopforan indication of where the director is coming from then sit back andenjoy.One of those rare films that improves on the book (which admittedly wasn'tmuch anyway).

Brian Maranta

01 May 2013

Blech

Hated it. Really, really hated it. Probably because it was purported to bethe movie version of a novel I really enjoyed. Starship Troopers is one ofmy favourite novels by my all-time favourite Author, Robert A. Heinlein.This movie has only a passing resemblance to it. The Power Armour suitsthatwere central to the book are missing in the movie because, AFAIK "wecouldn't make it look right." The bugs in the movie are basically mindlessinsects, while in the book they are an advanced, intelligent, technologicalrace that uses space ships, weapons and explosives. Why the difference?Because Verhoven "couldn't imagine a bug with a gun." Did heeven read the book? If you liked the book, don't bother with the movie. Ifyou haven't read the book, please do so; find out what you've missed, whatthis movie *could* have been.

Truitt Adams

01 May 2013

Great action, mediocre story, LOVED IT!

People have taken this movie WAY too seriously. I didn't see it in thetheaters, and I count that as one of the biggest regrets in my life. Irented this movie and in the course of two weeks I watched it 15 times.Everyone that came over I had to show it to them. I guess a majority of thepeople who have complaints about this movies are older and don't really getwhere the younger generation would like to see movies head. I'm 24 and Ihave put this movie in my Top 10 of All Time list.The effects were very impressive. The Arachnids were fast, scary, and outfor human blood in every battle scene. The gore was heavy and the body-counthigh. And how can you deny that Carmen Ibanez? She was so hot! Sure therewere some hokey lines ("The only good bug is a dead bug." "They sucked hisbrains out.") But all in all it was a good Sunday afternoon nothing to domovie to watch.I say lighten up people. Not every movie has to be The Piano. Let us havesome fun at the theaters and quit being so critical about this movie.Hopefully there will be a sequel so I can see this one in the theaters. Gorent this movie, drink a lil' beer, and get ready for a wild time. As thecritics say, "It's pure movie fun."

Howard Train

27 April 2013

One for a rainy day

Well, the good news is that Starship Troopers has terrific actionsequences.If you like a bit of sci-fi horror, this should definitely float yourboat.Soldiers get torn limb-from-limb with gay abandon, bugs explode to showertheir attackers with green goo, and huge starships explode, break apartanddrift in pieces through the formation. Communal unisex showers are abonus,too - if you like a bit of softcore pornography, this should definitelybloat your boat.The movie's premise is interesting at worst, fascinating at best. Earthhasunited beneath a supposedly "fascist" (though not racist - we arepresentedwith a fully inclusive society, at least as far as human beings areconcerned) government, based in Geneva. Interstellar expansion has broughtconflict with a range of diverse insectoids, and now the Mobile Infantry -the US Marines with a new name - are being sent in to win thewar.The movie follows their progress, interspersed with various bits ofpseudo-interactive news that give us the big picture. This is aninterestingand (as far as I know) original device that really does work to give asenseof the wider setting.The characters are just what one might expect from any cod-action movie:thegung-ho type who runs straight in and gets killed, the coward who runsawayand gets killed, the shouty "I wipe my arse with thistles one a fortnightifI'm lucky" officer type, the ace pilot, the arrogant smoothie, theheartachedrama queen, the introspective one... you've seen them all before, ineverycrap movie ever made.It's crew cuts and c-cups all the way, I'm afraid, so this is one of thosefilms where you have to forget about the characters and just enjoy theaction sequences. Unfortunately, it's hard to empathise with cardboardcutouts, so it's hard to care for them. The battle scenes would be so muchless mundane if there was any reason to like or even notice theprotagonists.It's a shame that so much potential was wasted. Aside from bits of newsfootage and occasional scenes around Buenos Aires in the first portion ofthe film, we see little of the society these people are supposed todefend.Are there any poor people? Where do they live? How do they get about? Isemployment a privilege or mandatory, widespread or precious? Does thegovernment lie to the extreme left, the extreme right or somewhere inbetween?Videophones, dropships, miniature nukes, warp drives, yelling militarytypesand eight-legged aliens with no visible genitals, all the proper sci-fistuff is present and correct. But some of these clichés can be a littlehardto swallow - for example, with mobile videophones on the market since2003,are future telecommunications really to involve us standing in a corridorand talking to a plasma screen?That interactive news begins to grate after a while. The sequences getsillier and sillier as the movie goes on, and at times it feels likeyou'rewatching a sci-fi spoof, rather than the real thing. When they get toobloody, a ruddy great "CENSORED" sticker is slapped over the dismemberedcowor whatever it is. Very silly, but not very funny.Like many films before it, Starship Troopers tries to cover too many basesat once. Is it a political allegory, an adventure or an action flick? Anensemble drama or a first-person narrative?Really, Starship Troopers is a daft B-movie with a better budget. Theacting's pretty good, and the dialogue glides along without too manyhiccups(it's a damn sight better than anything George Lucas ever wrote, forexample). The CG sequences are a couple of years ahead of their time,too -the machinery, vehicles and other technological knick-knacks look just asgood as they did in 2001's Final Fantasy.If you like your extreme violence then you'll enjoy Starship Troopers.It'sof a similar level (four out of five carotids on my scale) to SavingPrivateRyan, but where that movie was claustrophobic, detailed and grainy,Troopersis expansive, liberal and very, very red. There are thousands of soldiersonscreen at any one time, and a good proportion of them get ripped asunderbymandibles, claws and spikes. On the other hand, if you're expecting anywit,intelligence or genuine thrills then you're in for a disappointment.The opening half-hour hints at so much more - politics, morals, strategy -than what made it into the script. If a remake is ever in the works, I'dsuggest the following:1) Exchange slapstick for irony. Irony's funnier.2) Explain. Explain characters. Explain the background. What year is it?Howdid we get from here to there?3) Lose the clichés. They're neither funny nor believable.4) Get some tension in there. Jurassic Park and Alien we both similar toparts of Starship Troopers; both were far better movies.But keep the shower scene, I mean - wow.....!

27 April 2013

IS NOT VERHOEVENS BEST!!!!

This is not Verhoeven's best.Look at Robocop,Total Recall,Basic Instinct.Was Starship Troopers better than all of those? I normally like Verhoeven because I like violence and am probably as morbid about it as he is.But Starship didn't have ENOUGH of it.It basically was a violent movie so give us a large dose of it!!!! what are you afarid of? I didn't like Edward Neumier's script or Heinlein's novel either.It was unnecessarily long and had pointless chit chat that bored me.I didn't particularly like Basil Poledouris's music like I normally do.But it was a one-time see movie.

djoltes

24 April 2013

OK if you want action. Terrible if you want Heinlein.

If you're just after an action flick with lots of gore and explodingbodies, this isn't a bad movie. If nothing else, it has Dina Meyerwhich makes up for a lot (even Casper Van Dien's wooden acting). JakeBusey is pretty good, and Michael Ironside is typically pretentious andoverbearing as the leader of the Roughnecks.On the other hand, if you're looking for an actual adaptation of theclassic novel, this isn't it. The whole story has been reworked,characters have been changed around, and the plot barely resembles thebook. The main character (indeed ALL the main characters) are white,whereas "Johnny" was actually a Filipino named "Juan 'Johnny' Rico" inthe book. While the movie preserves some of the book's oftenheavy-handed political message, it's largely consumed by actionsequences that never appeared in the book.I also found it amusing that, apparently hundreds of years into thefuture, the movie depicts space faring human soldiers being droppedinto combat with no armor support, no heavy weapons aside from a fewbazooka-like nukes, and hand weapons that are nothing more than hightech machine guns. Given that they're supposed to have fought the Bugsbefore, wouldn't they know these MGs were barely effective against theenemy? Why, then, would they drop millions of soldiers onto Klendathucarrying the same guns? And with no air support? Come on...Sorry, it just doesn't make sense.

nick_savvides

23 April 2013

Great for teens, maybe not for adults

this is a sci fi film which most appeal to older teens or young adults.the script can be a little corny at times and the story is weak but thedirector makes up for this shortage with some fantastic action set piecesand lots of great gore. throw in some wonderful visuals and you have gotyourselves a great night in.Another good thing about this gorefest is that the director has decidedtocast a bunch of relatively unknowns so during the course of the film youhave no idea who's going to be turned into pulped mess. but at times yourealise that certain actors are going to make it for definite.the "news broadcasts" can be a little annoying at times but that doesn'treally matter when you have a gorefest for a movie. 4 out of5

anonymous

23 April 2013

This was one of the worst big-screen film experiences I'd 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 TROOPERS 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.

skaterpunk80

22 April 2013

one of the best for sure!

yes starship troopers doesnt have big hollywood names but it still isdefinently one of the best!!!!the graphics are amazing and the acting is quite goodi give it 8 outta 10

Duncan Brown

21 April 2013

A couple of kids from ARGENTINA kick bug booty

A witty tongue in cheek poke at WWII propaganda that all participatingcountries saw spices up some fairly mediocre acting & dialog. Theaction scenes were fairly enjoyable, the "attraction" that variouscharacters were supposed to feel came off as tepid, and it seemed as ifthey all were obsessed with each other but felt that everyone aroundthem was easily replaceable. I guess if you go into it suspending yourbeliefs & are just looking for a fun time without really having tothink for 2 hours... go ahead and watch this movie. It's certainlyenjoyable when you just let yourself go, heh.Another note... regardless of what the other reviewer stated, thesekids are NOT from America (USA, The States, etc)... they're from BuenosAries, Argentina. Did you miss the 8,000 times they mentioned that'swhere they're from? It's the reason why Rico changed his mind aboutleaving, his home town of Buenos Aries was destroyed. Stop jading yourreviews & maybe someone could actually learn from them.

edgy

21 April 2013

Premium Science Fiction

Sort of a cross between Star Wars andGattaca, only with giant-size arachnidsinstead of imperial stormtroopers.Remember Luke's "parents" killed in theoriginal Star Wars? Well, Verhoeven payshomage to that scene and others, butpresents the clichés in such an innovativefashion that I found myself worried aboutthe fates of the four primary characters.The high school antics and all the NealPatrick Harris appearances are clearlyplayed for laughs.The movie is reallyabout two pairs of lovers (shades ofArchie comics), but who really belongswith whom? This is the subplot betweenall the war campaigns against the bugs.It seems that Dizzy (my favorite) will winover our hero with her loyalty, spunk anddedication. Verhoeven, however, is havingfun when he lets Rico fall instead for thevoluptuous Denise Richards. Yes, size matters! The would-be lovers of Ricoand Carmen eventually suffer very violentdemises.Woven into the structure of the film are small tributes to such films as AnOfficer and a Gentleman, Braveheart andAliens. It's a tour de force film from Verhoeven, with satire, sarcasm,philosophy (i.e., fascism), relentless action and eye-popping CGI mixedtogether.The incredible FX include the hordes of bugs and the realistic gore,especially the decapitations and severed limbs (perhaps inspired byBraveheart).All in all, a wonderful treat from Verhoeven. It can be enjoyed as aseriousstory or as a profoundly ironic film.In either case, it is a journey not to be missed. I give it 9 out of 10stars.