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
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