[8]

Director Paul Verhoeven (RoboCop, Basic Instinct) continues his knack for combining violence, gore, dark humor and social commentary in this loose adaptation of Robert A. Heinlein's serialized novel about humankind's future war against a race of insect-like aliens. I can almost enjoy the movie for the action alone. It escalates beautifully, with plenty of exciting sequences and spectacular visual effects. But it's the satirical edge that helps distinguish Starship Troopers. The whole movie is designed as a recruitment film for a fascist society. When our 'heroes' win in the end, the movie has its tongue firmly in cheek, dressing them as full-blown Nazis while Leni Riefenstahl-like propaganda leads us into the closing credits.

Sure, you can make fun of the leading actors. Casper Van Dien and Denise Richards are so plastic they should have ‘Rubbermaid’ stamped across their faces. But their perfect Aryan features only reinforce the film’s satiric underpinnings. Verhoeven cast beautiful people and directed them to play stupid because they represent the arrogance and ignorance that almost allowed Hitler to take over the world.  At least, that’s my take on it. (Then again, he also directed Showgirls…) The bombastic musical score by the late Basil Poledouris is an exciting listening experience on its own, one of the composer’s finest works and one of the best film scores of the ’90s.

Starship Troopers is a smart movie parading as a vacuous one, so it gets misunderstood. If it makes you feel sick and queazy, that’s kinda the point. But even if you miss the point, Verhoeven’s got you covered.  You still get to watch pretty people blow shit up.

With Dina Meyer, Neil Patrick Harris, Michael Ironside, Clancy Brown, Jake Busey, Patrick Muldoon, and Marshall Bell. (Look for a cameo appearance by ‘Golden Girl‘ Rue McClanahan.)

Oscar nomination: Best Visual Effects