Your Favorite Directors

[BurtReynoldsMoustache]

Originally Posted by MT2008

Sorry, but I like "Starship Troopers". It's one of the best mindless sci-fi/action movies from the '90s.

Will you at least concede that, given the original source material, it was wasted potential?

[MT2008]

Originally Posted by BurtReynoldsMoustache

Will you at least concede that, given the original source material, it was wasted potential?

I haven't read all of "Starship Troopers" myself (tried to when the movie came out, but it wasn't the kind of novel I could read very well at age 12). However, I think Verhoeven's take on the source material was about as good as anyone could have done. I mean, how do you take a novel which (positively) depicts a quasi-fascist world order, and make a good movie out of it (especially in the 1990s, when everyone looks back on the McCarthyist era with disdain)?

[mpe2010]

Originally Posted by MT2008

Sorry, but I like "Starship Troopers". It's one of the best mindless sci-fi/action movies from the '90s.

Not to mention it was filmed within an hour of where I live.

[k9870]

Starship troopers is entertainment, and damn good entertainment at that, dont go looking for deep underlying morals and philosophy, watch it to see kick ass rifle/shotgun hybrids blowing bugs apart

[MT2008]

Originally Posted by mpe2010

Not to mention it was filmed within an hour of where I live.

That's interesting. Is it true that people in your area still find spent .223 blanks lying around from all of the gunfire scenes? (I once read that "Starship Troopers" set a record for blank ammunition fired on a movie set.)

Originally Posted by funkychinaman

I don't think Starship Troopers the book is filmable. It's a political science book with some sci fi thrown in. I think if Verhoeven simply called it "Alien Bug Hunt" or whatever, people would've seen it for what it was and enjoyed it more.

Exactly. And the problem is that Heinlein's brand of politics hasn't aged very well (either today, or 15 years ago when the movie was filmed). It's pretty hard to make a movie out of a utopian novel where the author actually admires the utopian world he's conceived. Verhoeven's approach was a satirical depiction of the novel's militaristic society, which is (I think) probably the best anyone could have done. I realize that "Starship Troopers" is regarded as a classic, but so were Mike Hammer novels (which came out around the same time), and I think it would be quite difficult to make a movie adaptation of those, in this day and age.

Originally Posted by funkychinaman

All this talk of Starship Troopers, and yet only one mention of Total Recall. But yes, Verhoeven, like Brian De Palma, have had many dry years of late.

I'm actually not the biggest fan of "Total Recall", though it is an enjoyable movie in its own right.