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Starship Troopers (Special Edition)

Starship Troopers (Special Edition)

List Price: $27.95
Your Price: $22.36
Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 5 stars
Summary: "KNOW YOUR FOE!"
Review: This is an awesome film full of dazzling (and grotesque) visual effects and great and funny characters! A don't-miss extravaganza! Gung-ho! Grade: A+

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Revised Review After Re-Viewing
Review: "Starship Troopers" is a great, action-packed, shoot-'em-up, kill-the-bad-guys (bugs) science fiction adventure film with lots of great special effects. The battles scenes, both in space and on the ground, are graphic, complex, and exciting.

The movie is supposedly based upon Robert Heinlein's science fiction classic, written in 1959. He had three goals:

1) Put forth the idea that a true American patriot could be anti-war and need not be fanatically anti-Communist, a la Joe McCarthy.

2) Satirize war by glorifying it in a tongue-in-cheek manner and by shoving its horror in your face, much like "Saving Private Ryan" did seriously, and much like Archie Bunker did comedically to racism and bigotry.

3) Put forth the philosophy that freedom and responsibility are inextricably linked. Many people today have forgotten that, and moral decline is the result.

What does the movie do with these ideas? It misses the point entirely and sarcastically (not satirically) attacks war, patriotism, AND responsibility. It does this by turning the whole story into a farce, and by minimizing the role of the teacher of responsibility and sometimes portraying him as a bitter fanatic.

The young cast, whom I attacked before revising my review, actually did the best they could with a script that sometimes sounded like it belonged in a Saturday morning cartoon. In their defense, I would guess that most of the cast read the script and not the book. They also did not live through the threat of global war, which was fanned as much by McCarthy's inflammatory anti-Communist rhetoric and fanaticism as it was by Stalinism, Leninism, and Marxism. What defense does the producer and the director have?

The voice-over narration was a big mistake. It furthered the effect of having this film become a caricature of the book, and it was totally unnecessary.

If you want to watch a good science fiction adventure film with lots of special effects, action, and gore, this movie is for you. But, please do not take it seriously or think that it represents Heinlein's book faithfully. If you want to think about this movie and its ideas, please do two things first: read the book it was supposedly based upon, and either read the history of the era that birthed the book or talk with someone born before 1934 at length about the era.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Why Don't the 'Troopers' Use Black Flag?
Review: Machine guns and grenade launchers were used to get rid of bugs. Why couldn't they have used Raid or Black Flag? Those sprays would've been more effective than a whole bunch of bullets. Especially if there's a bug spraying junk from its stern and spitting fire on things. Just throw in a case of Raid into its body and then watch the fireworks. Watch the movie for its action sequences and forget the story. Thanks for the stupid commercials. If I wanted to see dumb commercials, I would have watched late night tv. Bloopers, girls gone crazy, etc. "A good bug is a dead bug." That's for sure. You should see the ant trails crawling onto my pizza. Stinkin' bugs. My poor dog even has flies buzzing around her head even after she took a bath! "Starship Troopers" isn't Paul Verhoeven's best because he'll never top Lord Arnold Schwarzenegger's "Total Recall". Although it has just as bad acting as "Showgirls," the film has dazzling special effects. Check out Denise Richards and Dina Meyer. Remember Meyer worked with Dolph Lordgren in "Johnny Mnemonic." The planet goes to war with bugs and Doogie Howser reads the mother bug's mind. Yes, no. Pretty good movie.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Sadly disappointed.
Review: The movie focuses on gore and splatter in a total useless way. Unless other movies (i.e. Dead Alive), the limbs and other parts flying in this movie do not make you laugh, do not intice any form of humour, and will leave you totally puzzled as to why they chose this approach.

Another negative aspect of this movie is the blatant positive approach of fascism and neo-nazism. Maybe my particular likes and dislikes of humour did not allow me to see the scepticism and cynicism of the director, but as far as I'm concerned, this movie blatantly promotes the anihilation of a species and the militarization of the entire globe.

On the good side: the effects used in the movie were rather spectacular, so to some people this might be enough to give this movie a good rating.

I would actually encourage people to watch this movie, so they can make up their own mind whether movies should be used (or misused) for these kind of goals. I however feel no need to watch this piece of "cinematograhic" history ever again.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Worth buying even if you own the original DVD
Review: Compared to the single disc original DVD, this new 2-disc set adds a half hour documentary and another commentary track with three of the actors from the film. In addition, the transfer on the new version is significantly better than the original. It's definitely on par with Superbit releases. While it may look a tad grainier than the original, you can see added detail. On a large projection TV it's definitely noticeable. So if you're a big fan of the film, I totally recommend picking up this new version.

Also, the new commentary track with Casper van Dien, Dina Meyer, and Doogie Howzer is just hilarious. Director Verhoeven is on it, too, but he mainly keeps his mouth shut and lets the actors talk about lots of funny anecdotes.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: did someone mention starship troopers...
Review: i thought that the adaptation for the time-period was nothing but a challenge. interpreting the author is no small feat. the values and vision the producers, script-writers, director(s)leadership, sprecial-effects (macyverism),..the many unmentioned participants including the hearts of the actors can bring to the viewing audience; a story that draws upon their own expectations.

true, that as of august 2002, many movies are filled with pizzazz; extraordinary camera techniques, seeminly an abundant budget and the extraordinary efforts a movie production puts into its baby (movie).

i thought that this strived a bit from the novel, but the story and time-line had to be condensed..what can you do with a limited time?

certainly i am no expert, but i've waited for the dvd...it was worthy of the wait.

that's my critism, and i'm sticking to it.....

-thomas

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Low level sci-fi soap opera !
Review: I am a fan of independent movies . But I love good sci-fi too. I was totally surprised by this one . What a waist of money !? What a waist of good idea !? What a waist of my time !?
1. Visual effects are good , but NOTHING else !
2. Soap opera story , soap opera lines .
3. Future technology , and they have to shoot 50 rounds of ammo to kill a bug ???
4.Give me a break ! I don't want to talk about this movie anymore !

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Rediculous combat, misplaced satire, teen soap plot
Review: My friends and I couldn't wait to see this movie when it came out, but left the theater vastly disappointed.

My biggest criticism is of the way the military of the future is portrayed so wimpily: We're invading another world, and what equipment does our hi-tech army of the future possess? Machine guns. More machine guns. And that's about it. (Except for the occasional large bomb overratingly-called a "mini-nuke"). What is missing? Let's see: No tanks, no rocket launchers, no futuristic weapons, virturally no air support, almost nothing besides soldiers with pathetic small-caliber weapons getting overrun by the bugs. The military of today would put up a far better fight than this miltary of the future.

The thing is, there's no tanks, fighters, etc in the Starship Troopers novel, either, but that's because all the soldiers wore power armor that essentially removed the need for tanks, fighters, etc. Where the heck's the power armor in the movie? Missing for some reason, perhaps so they can show the actor's pretty faces, or save money on production costs.

I like Robocap a LOT. But while Heinlein's political agenda in the book is somewhat of a fat target for parody, this story is not well served by the Robocop-like treatment, which gives me the feeling that Verhoeven didn't have much respect for the source material, or maybe just not for the genre in general. Which brings me to my next complaint, which of course is the much-hated 90210-teen heartthob story stuff. Was this really necessary?

Honestly, imagine if this movie had been done seriously, it could have been a fantastic hardcore action movie with marines in power armor fighting for their lives, facing off against the bugs. Think "Aliens" times 1000. Instead we get a semi-funny movie with lame action and 90210-like teen whining that essentially parodies the book it is based on. I know which movie I'd prefer.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: A great film about war and American imperialism
Review: Suffice it to say, the critical reception that Starship Troopers received in the United States was nothing short of idiotic. The fact that so many critics couldn't see the film as a satire about exuberant and blinders-on patriotism--or whined that the film itself was fascist--shows just how shallow many film reviewers in this country are. Verhoeven's interpretation of Robert Heinlein's classic novel--while perhaps not being completely faithful to the source material--is a wonderful science fiction film, one that will only grow in stature over time.

I get the sense that many people were unable to get beyond the film's surface, inviting the derisive nickname '90210 In Space'. The surface depicts a groups of bland, squeaky-clean all American types (playing Argentinians, which was another satirical touch about U.S. imperialism that more than a few morons missed out on) graduating high school and going to war against a bunch of alien bugs. It's pretty simple, and it has more than a few of the usual war cliches: boot camp, the invasion, tragic loss, romance, etc. But Verhoeven made this film in the style of a propaganda film, one that is attempting to recruit young people into a war against a misinterpreted group of people. For example (small spoiler) I think the asteroid that destroys Buenos Aries is simply a coincidental catastrophe that is used by the government in this future 'utopia' to incite a war. It brings to mind the entire post-9/11 hysteria that swept the U.S., in which we cried out for war and it was delivered to us (not that we don't need to eradicate terrorism, but the parallels are somewhat eerie in many ways).

Over time, I've grown to admire this film more. At first it seemed like an entertaining science fiction bloodbath with some dark humor about fascism around the edges, but now it seems more and more like--dare I say it?--the Dr. Strangelove of the '90s. This is probably the most subversive film to come out of the Hollywood machine in many years. An underappreciated masterpiece.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: gory
Review: this a great movie action packed not as good as the alien series though this movie is very gory it shows guts hearts brains people gutted and chopped tp piecies RATED R FOR- STRONG SCIFI ACTION VIOLENCE GORE NUDITY AND LANGUAGE


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