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
