Starship Troopers
Director: Paul Verhoeven
Year Released: 1997
Rating: 3.0
Stunningly effective indictment of war-era propaganda and colonialism that works because it's so deadpan - Verhoeven started with a generic sci-fi concept (soldiers invading a planet inhabited by ravenous, overgrown insects) and tweaked it to fit in his own anti-war sentiments and subversive details (open sexuality straight out of Brave New World, Neil Patrick Harris decked in Nazi garb, the 'Brain' alien that has a face like a vagina, the football star who wants to join the military instead of going to Harvard ... and vacation, and on and on). The inclusion of horrific violence and countless mutilated bodies is a little crass for a movie with plenty of comedic intentions (though it does say something about how sometimes human beings are disposable in wartime), but Verhoeven has showed in past films, like Soldier of Orange and Showgirls, good taste is not his forte.
