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Bookmark this pageStarship Troopers (1997)
Director: Paul Verhoeven
Movie review
From Time Out Film Guide
High school graduates Johnny Rico, Dizzy, Carmen and Carl enlist in the armed forces of the Federation. Training takes its toll, and Johnny is on the point of throwing in the towel when space insects wipe out his home town Buenos Aires. The infantry are despatched to the outer limits of the galaxy to give 'em what for, but...you guessed it. An adaptation of a Robert A Heinlein novel, this replays World War II as sci-fi spectacular - and this time we're rooting for the fascists. Presumably director Verhoeven meant it as a sour, ironic joke. If so, he's kept an admirably straight face. His totalitarian utopia looks like a daytime soap: bright, clean, empty. And his lead players might be caricatures of Aryan perfection. It falls to Ironside's motivational teacher/commander, Rasczak, to whip them into shape ('If you don't do your job, I shoot you!'). It says a lot about the director that the movie only kicks into life when the carnage starts. The bugs make up in numbers what they lack in charm, the scale of the battle scenes takes the breath away, and the violence is unremittingly gruesome. On the surface, this is grotesque, reactionary trash, yet by the end, when Verhoeven turns a giant brain-sucking maggot into an object of pity, it's hard not to be impressed by the sheer perversity of the enterprise.Author: TCh
User reviews of this film
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- Paul Rose said...
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Posted on Sep 20 2008 17:38
Fantastic good old fashion science fiction.
Good from start to finish.
Shame the sequels are diabolical. - Report as inappropriate
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- leon_tatlock said...
- Posted on Apr 18 2008 12:16 yes man!!!!!!!!!!!!!
- Report as inappropriate
Cast & crew
Director: Paul Verhoeven
Producer: Alan Marshall, Jon Davison
Cast: Casper Van Dien, Dina Meyer, Denise Richards, Jake Busey, Neil Patrick Harris, Clancy Brown, Michael Ironside full cast
Genre(s): Science Fiction
Duration: 129 mins
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