Boobirt Stylish but barely mediocre overall

Afouotos Although it has its amusing moments, in eneral the plot does not convince.

Hadrina The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

Allison Davies The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

bryanf-85728 Paul Verhoevan's Starship troopers is a fantastic dark comedy masquerading as a cheesy science fiction movie. It is tragic that no one- not the critics or the audience gave this film a chance because the underlying theme is deep and worth debating. Much like all of Verhoevn's films this one contains everything from nudity (both male and female) and extreme gore and violence. Time will probably be more considerate to this movie as it is nowhere as bad as its ratings or box office performance imply. (Rico and space bugs are a treat for those who like layered satire)

Osmosis Iron A very misunderstood movie, it's a satire and a very good one! It has a very nice look to it, and the effects were awesome at the time. If you "get it" it's a really funny and enjoyable ride, while also being a good sci-fi action movie.

Dave This is an excellent action war science fiction satire with fast-paced battle scenes. Star Wars is boring nonsense compared to this.Why isn't Starship Troopers more popular? When I've mentioned it to people, most of them have never heard of it.

Leofwine_draca Being a massive fan of Paul Verhoeven's work, I was very pleased to be able to see this in the local cinema – where the BBFC kindly decided to award it a 15 certificate! The decision was later changed to 18, and its easy to see why. Along with ROBOCOP and TOTAL RECALL, this makes up the Dutch director's gore trilogy : science fiction actioners packed with as much extreme violence and gruesomeness as possible! Verhoeven has a bigger budget around this time, so nominally sets about filming a serious Robert Heinlein '50s sci-fi story. Instead the film turns out to be an epic, action-packed cartoon adventure ride, with cardboard characters and a whole lotta mayhem going on! Verhoeven also has time to satirise those gung-ho American characters but the whole thing is performed with such a love and sense of humour that you can't help but settle back and enjoy the ride.The special effects are out of this world and make STARSHIP TROOPERS one of the best effects films I've watched. The future is portrayed in a subtle way and seems real, even the battles in outer space. The aliens themselves are only CGI, but it's good CGI – especially those huge beetle bugs that crawl outta the ground to burn the enemy! The action comes thick and fast and is loaded with extreme gore. Numerous decapitations, people being impaled, burned, and all sorts of nastiness. The sickening 'brain sucking' climax really pushes things over the edge a la Peter Jackson. Verhoeven takes a moment to reference the British classic ZULU with a nail-biting siege attack, whilst a period at boot camp sees trainees being flogged, knifed, and having their arms smashed for failing! It's not hard to see the similarities to the Nazis, down to the uniforms and the trench coats, so you get to snigger as well as enjoy the action.The acting is the one weak spot of the film, with Denise Richards and Casper Van Dien absolutely terrible as the clear-cut, one-dimensional young, beautiful heroine and hero – but maybe that was the point??! Otherwise we have solid support from the always reliable Jake Busey (making his dad Gary proud) and Doogie Howser himself, Neil Patrick Harris, as a member of the SS! Old pros Clancy Brown and Michael Ironside are on hand to supply the toughness. The film goes on a long time without losing focus, although the ending does seem to be a little abrupt in retrospect. Nevermind – this is a humorous, gruelling, ultra-violent, sometimes sick, always exciting war film like never before!