Starship Troopers [23]

Dir. Paul Verhoeven Stars: Casper Van Dien (Tarzan and Jane, On The Border) as Johnny Rico, Dina Meyer (Dragonheart), Denise Richards (Wild Things), Jake Busey (Contact), Neil Patrick Harris (the stage musical "Rent" and TV's Doogie Howser), Clancy Brown (The Shawshank Redemption), Seth Gilliam (Courage Under Fire), Patrick Muldoon (television's Melrose Place), Marshall Bell (Total Recall) and Michael Ironside (Total Recall).

That's right... the same group that brought us such memorable classics like Basic Instinct, Total Recall, Robocop and the ever popular Showgirls now brings us Starship Troopers. (I've had that song by Yes in my head all day now...)

There has been a lot of hope/hype for this movie in certain circles so let me clarify just a few things right up front.

It's Violent. I don't mean Friday the 13th or Freddie Kruger violent... we're talking the real deal. In the numerous and gratuitous death/dismemberment scenes nothing is left to the imagination. Leave the kiddies and possibly the wives at home for this one.

This is NOT the next Star Wars. Nope... no siree Bob... Star Wars was a "feel good" movie (With the possible exception of Empire, but that's another review.) and Starship has a few moments between the blood and guts where the audience is feeling good about something (In my case it was the fact that I was alive... but that's just me.) but there is no overwhelming sense of good and evil in the movie. (More on this later)

Basic plot: (For those of you that either haven't read the books or already seen the film.) Follow along in the lives of young warriors as the peace lovin' earthlings invade on the "bugs" space. See said earthlings die a grizzly death. THIS MEANS WAR! (O.k. I hear you saying. It’s a Paul Verhoeven flick... how much plot can there be?)

Just like the Heinlein books, there is a tremendous amount of "story" but the plot gets lost in the special effects. This is a fact that is occurring all too much these days. Speaking of special effects: Two words AWE-SOME! If you are an FX freak like myself, it's worth the price of admission. (Made SPAWN look like it was done by a couple of guys with an AMIGA)

Before everyone thinks I'm panning this movie, let me just state that at a personal (read: gut) level, I dug it tremendously. Non stop action, a teeny, tiny smattering of nudity (Yea... Verhoeven again...) and FX to die for I can say to a certain segment of the audience to charge on out there and get some tickets.

One of the highlights of the film is the "Media Clips" played throughout. Similar to the way background was given in Robocop, the theme comes across as either a recruiting film or simple propaganda. The other trademark was the total lack of regard of life by the human race. As in Robocop, there are stories of violence, public executions, "Bug" killing techniques and other various and sundry items sprinkled throughout the clips. They do help to give a sense of completion to the story, just as they did in Robocop. Sometimes these little vignettes hit closer to home than one might think.

This is getting longer than I wanted so let me finish up by saying that I give this movie a score of 23 on the 29 pt scale. Unless you are turned of by even the remotest hint of action, then it would be closer to a 12. It's got solid acting, a great FX line up and action all over the place. Keep an eye on Jake Busey, he does a great supporting role in this film.

I'll stress this again: Leave the kiddies at home. If I had kids, I'd let 'em see this when they turned 17 or so. If your not sure, see it in the theater if for no other reason than the audio. {SD}

Expectation 1

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Review 1 (This)

Review 2

Review 3

Review 4

Added: April 7th 2004
Reviewer: SD
29 Point Scale Score:    [23]

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