90s Movie Review - Starship Troopers

Director: Paul Verhoeven
Genre: Action/ Science Fiction/ Adventure
Runtime: 129 minutes
Year: 1997
Starring: Casper Van Dien, Dina Meyer, Denise Richards, Jake Busey, Clancy Brown, Neil Patrick Harris, Michael Ironside, Patrick Muldoon, Eric Bruskotter, Seth Gilliam

Description: Humans in a fascist, militaristic wage war with giant alien bugs.

Review: Sometimes you’re just in the mood for a fun 90s action/ sci-fi flick. The Paul Verhoeven directed film is then a perfect choice for that. The Dutch director managed to impress audiences in his early years with strong and extremely violent action/ sci-fi films “RoboCop” and “Total Recall”, but lost confidence of American audiences with “Showgirls”. The film was labeled tasteless and pulp. Two year later, Verhoeven came back strong with “Starship Troopers” a movie that ridicules American patriotism. I have always loved this film.
Whether or not is sent a clear message to the Americans, the film was received with open arms by many fans of science fiction and explicit action. In the more than two-hour feature film we see how young students Johnny Rico, Carmen Ibanez and Dizzy Flores enlist in the army of the galactic government and fight a murderous race of alien insects species, called Arachnids. The computer-animated and powerful adversaries of humanity are imposing characters who tear apart an consume subordinate humans with great regularity and brutality while the Earth is constantly threatened by approaching meteorites coming from their home planet.
The film relies mainly on strong special and visual effects and excessive violence and bloodshed. The acting is not so great. Casper Van Dien got the role of Johnny Rico, an action hero with the looks, who signs up for the army when his girlfriend has a clear preference for men who join the resistance against the Arachnids. The role of the charming lady is played by Denise Richards, who clearly has to rely on her looks.
The filmmaker shift the focus on the acting to the background by cramming his film full of explicit scenes full of blood and gore, and he alternates the chilling visuals with a good dose of humor. Clancy Brown is the perfect choice to portray the hilarious and ruthless drill instructor Zim (I think a nod to his chilling role in “The Shawshank Redemption”), while Michael Ironside steps in to take on the incisive school teacher and Squad leader of the infantry Jean Rasczak. These are characters that give the film some extra, but underscore the fact that “Starship Troopers” is nothing more than a highly entertaining no-brainer full of excessive violence and cheesy one-liners. And there’s absolutely nothing wrong with that

Rating: 4/ 5