Starship Troopers (1997)
A movie review by Michael J. Legeros
Copyright 1997 by Michael J. Legeros
(TriStar)
Directed by Paul Verhoven
Written by Ed Neumeir, based on the novel by Robert A. Heinlein
Cast Casper Van Dien, Dina Meyer, Denise Richards, Jake
Busey, Neil Patrick Harris, Clancy Brown, Michael
Ironside, Seth Gilliam, Patrick Muldoon, Marshall Bell
MPAA Rating "R" (for graphic sci-fi violence and gore, and for some
language and nudity)
Running Time 129 minutes
Reviewed at General Cinemas at Pleasant Valley, Raleigh, NC
(07NOV97)
==
Big bugs are the order of the day in STARSHIP TROOPERS, an honest- to-God, old-fashioned combat movie set in a retro, fascist future where impossibly square-jawed grunts still carry machine guns, endure the abuses of drill sergeants, and get sent away to exotic, faraway places to be slaughtered en masse. Okay, there is *one* thing that's new: men and women fight together. And bunk together. And even shower together, as in a gratuitous, humorous boobs-n-butts bath scene from SHOWGIRLS director Paul Verhoven. Relax, Mr. V. is no longer orbiting the hirsute moon of Eszterhas-- he's back in ROBOCOP territory, fusing social satire with gory violence and, perhaps, pissing in the face of the studio's target audience-- teenage boys already clogging the Internet with their grousing nit-picks. Granted, the director *is* poking fun at everything that he can lay his hands on, but he's also trying to channel his own wartime experiences as a youth. So, while you *will* get the gore-- am- putations, decapitations, eviscerations, and immolations-- be prepared for cheesy dialogue, glaring plot holes, and, at the end, and just when you think you've grown used to the tone, movie monsters that look like giant human sex organs. Hilarious. Now, for *my* nit-picks: occasion- ally the action runs a bit long; the dramatics don't deliver quite enough emotional impact; and, at times, I was distracted by actors aim- ing their rifles a little too high to realistically hit their computer- generated foes. With Casper Van Dien, Dina Meyer, Denise Richards, Jake Busy, Neil Patrick Harris, Clancy Brown, and a meaty Michael Ironside.
Grade: B+
-- Mike Legeros - Movie Hell http://www.nonvirtual.com/hell
-- Mike Legeros Corporate Training SAS Institute Inc, Cary, NC, USA, Earth legeros@unx.sas.com (w) legeros@pagesz.net (h) Everyone who ate apples in England in 1850 later died.
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