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Studio:Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainm

Director:Paul Verhoeven

Cast: Casper Van Dien, Eric Bruskotter, John Cunningham, Christopher Curry, Dale Dye

Running Time:130 minutes

Amazon.co.uk Review

A gloriously over-the-top treat, Paul Verhoeven's Starship Troopers takes the militaristic moralising of Robert Heinlein's pulp classic and sets about undermining it mercilessly. Johnny Rico (Casper Van Dien) desperately wants to join the Mobile Infantry and kill some Earth-threatening alien bugs. He also desperately wants Carmen (Denise Richards), but only gets to fulfil one ambition in the second of Verhoeven's futuristic satires (also cowritten with his RoboCop scriptwriter Ed Neumeier).

Set in a fascist future where kids must do military service to qualify as citizens, own property or even have babies, the film's dark Vietnam and Nazi-era parallels are all the more disturbing given its deceptively sunny Beverly Hills 90210 teenage cast (though scenery-chewing veteran Michael Ironside steals the movie as tough-talking Lt Rasczak). The CGI arachnids are among the most convincing and dangerous-looking creatures ever seen on screen, and with the movie clocking up the highest number of blanks ever fired on a film set, it's also pretty loud. Verhoeven went on to be Executive Producer of the Roughnecks: The Starship Troopers Chronicles animated TV series a couple of years later. --Paul Tonks

Product Description

Casper Van Dien, Eric Bruskotter, John Cunningham, Christopher Curry, Dale DyeDirector: Paul Verhoeven

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- Brilliant satire

I think a lot of people, including some reviewers here, soft-pedal or miss the really brutal satire at work here. It was trashed by one US reviewer when it came out as 'Melrose Place Goes to War' (in reference to a now long defunct Beverly Hills 90210 knock off), which in a sense it is, but that's the point. It presaged our current conflicts, but the film is more relevant and funnier now than ever, dressing up beautiful people in post-Wehrmacht garb and sending them off to have their brains sucked out while in the heartland women encourage their kids to stamp on bugs. Otherwise, the effects are cartoonish but fun and the world scarily recognisable...

- Works on different levels

What some reviewers and probably many viewers fail to realise with this film is that it cleverly works on two levels. Yes there is the fun shoot-em-up, man-versus-the-bug-aliens with a too-cute cast with great special effects and a fast pace. However, this film is deliberately cheesy/plastic in places and doesn't too-honestly portray the book for the very reason that it is actually satirising Heinlein's original work and his overtly McCarthyite 1950s American militaristic politics and moralising. The film cleverly makes fun of all those attitudes and its particularly sad that this side of the film is lost on most viewers because some political observers might consider that modern American politics in the Bush era is heading in the same direction as Heinlein and the 1950s.

- Deeper than you might think - if you want to!

A true pleasure to watch! This film falls into two categories: the late night gung-ho, watch with a few beers, action genre. And the 'hmmm what if?' look at a future society.

Reflections of the world today are given and amplified. The issues concerning the role of government, the people and of course the military are addressed in an enjoyable yet not oppressing or condescending manner. Philosophy for the masses!

If you want to analyse it, analyse it. If you want to just kick back with a friend, stick on a film and have a few cold ones, then you can do that too!

- Movie: 4.5/5 Picture Quality: 3.5~4.5/5 Sound Quality: 3.75~4.5/5 Extras: 2/5

Version: E.U / BVHE Touchstone / Region Free
VC-1 BD-50
Running time: 2:09:37
Movie size: 37,491,136,512 bytes
Disc size: 40,984,117,470 bytes
Average Video Bit Rate: 26.56 Mbps
LPCM 5.1 4608Kbps English
DD AC3 5.1 640Kbps

* Deleted Scenes (8 min. SD)
* Scene Developments with Audio Commentary (9 min.SD)
* Making-of Featurette (8 min.SD)
* Screen Tests: Johnny and Carmen (4 min. SD)
* Teaser Trailer (2 min. SD)

Movie: 4.5/5 Picture Quality: 3.5~4.25/5 Sound Quality: 3.5~4/5 Extras: 4/5
Version: U.S.A / Sony Pictures / Region Free
MPEG-4 AVC BD-50 / High Profile 4.1 (1080p) / High Profile 3.2 (480p)
Running time: 2:09:27 [could be due to an editing error that trims the running time by 4 to 6]
Movie size: 35,201,273,856 bytes
Disc size: 44,711,666,541 bytes
Average video bit rate: 23.00 Mbps

Dolby TrueHD English 1834 kbps (5.1/48kHz/16-bit)
Dolby TrueHD French 1971kbps kbps (5.1/48kHz/16-bit)
Dolby Digital 2.0 192 Kbps

Subtitles: English / English SDH / French / Spanish
Number of chapters: 16

* 2 Audio Commentaries
* Documentary
* Featurettes
* Screen Tests
* Deleted Scenes
* FX Comparisons
* FedNet Mode Picture-in-Picture Commentary (Profile 1.1)
* BD-Live Content (Profile 2.0)
* Recruitment Test
* Blu-Wizard

- One of the most under-rated films ever made

I absolutley love this movie and for a time it was my favourite movie of all time. It has great action, philisophical insights, comedy and tragic romance. I can honestly say that I almost cried at one part of the film. The comedy is dark, ambigious and subtle and fits into the story perfectly without trivialising the serious nature of the film. I think it is also one of the first movies I have seen where women play, and in some cases superior, role to men in the act of warfare, without it looking corny or unrealistic. In my view, this is one one the first true comtemporary feminist films made for anyone who bothers wathing it properly. Not that feminism interests me much.

In addition, the action, both on the ground and in space, was as good as any other sci-fi out there.

I was amazed that this movie was slated so hard by the critics, because I can't really fault it.

By the way, it is very differnt from the book. In fact, I think it is far better then the book. The cap troppers in the film are much more vulnerable and human than the almost invincible troopers in the book. The movie was interesting all the way through, while the book dragged in places and, in my opnion, wasn't as deep.