Berkeley CSUA MOTD:Entry 30654
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2025/07/09 [General] UID:1000 Activity:popular
7/9     

2004/6/7-8 [Politics/Domestic/California, Politics/Foreign/MiddleEast/Iraq] UID:30654 Activity:insanely high
6/7     Was Starship Troopers 2 even in the theatres?
        \_ No, and it had a budget of roughly $6 million compared to the
           original's $100 mil.
           \_ Can't make it any worse.
           \_ Wow, it says the original oly made $65 mil.  (So it lost
              about $35 mil)  There IS some justice in the world.
              \_ enough justice to warrant a sequel.
              \_ Was that just theater tickets, or overall?
                 \_ http://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=starshiptroopers.htm
              \_ If the original had tried to be anything like the book it
                 might have made money.  They stole the title and the
                 character names.  The rest was bullshit.
                 \_ Best review of original ever:
            http://postviews.editthispage.com/movieVideo/StarshipTroopers
                 \_ it took a somewhat interesting book that had something
                    interesting to say for its time, discarded the stuff
                    which is no longer relevant for its shock value and filled
                    it in with other stuff which is actually relevant to our
                    current political climate.  What is bullshit about that?
                    \_ They took Heinlein's politics, turned it upside down
                       and made a bad joke of it, and then fucked up the only
                       other cool thing by ruining combat by turing the super
                       nuke and flame thrower wielding heavy infantry into sub
                       machine gun toting light infantry bug food who
                       shouldn't have stood a hope in hell of surviving 2
                       minutes on any bug planet much less actually winning
                       against them.  Bullshit.  Shall I go on?  I'd have to
                       dig up my copy to give you specific details but it's
                       more of the same.  Oh yeah, they also completely
                       skipped the Skinnies.  How long ago did you read the
                       book?  I re-read it a few months ago.
                       \_ Best review of movie ever:
                          http://csua.org/u/7n2 (independent review, humorous)
                       \_ Heinlein's politics ARE a joke. His stories are
                          1950's sci-fi fanboy fantasies. They're fun if you
                          are in your teens, but hardly great shakes. The only
                          real disappointment of Starship Troopers was that
                          Denise Richards didn't go topless. Now THAT is
                          something Heinlien would have pushed for.
                          \_ Hmm, service to one's country is a good thing...
                             joke... with rights come resposibilities... joke
                             earn voting rights by serving country... ok, yeah
                             you're right, it's just a joke, we're doing so
                             much better today with people selling their votes
                             and corrupt money burdened politics.  You should
                             go re-read your Heinlein.  It sounds like you read
                             him in your teens and missed out on what he was
                             really saying.  You also completely ignored my
                             point about the movie's silly version of combat
                             and the complete loss of the Skinnies.  Or maybe
                             you're just a troll and never read his stuff at
                             all and you're just taking the silly movie as
                             what Heinlein really had to say and what his
                             stories were like.
                             \_ That goverment model has a name, fascism. The
                                Italians tried this when WWI vets felt that
                                only they deserved to run the government. In
                                Heinlein, everyone puts out, women doubly so.
                                Pure fanboy. Tossing mini-nukes around makes
                                friendly fire so much more interesting. And
                                irradiating planets where you hope to inhabit?
                                Just a bad idea. The movie was tripe, feeding
                                off Heinlien's good name and an entertaining
                                read. But never confuse Heinlien with reality.
2025/07/09 [General] UID:1000 Activity:popular
7/9     

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Cache (191 bytes)
www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=starshiptroopers.htm
STARSHIP TROOPERS Total Gross: $54,814,377 + Overseas Gross: $66,400,000 Distributor: Sony Release Date: November 7, 1997 Running Time: N/A Production Budget: $105 million MPAA Rating: R Est.
Cache (6863 bytes)
postviews.editthispage.com/movieVideo/StarshipTroopers
Starring Casper Van Dien, Dina Meyer, Denise Richards, Jake Busey, Neil Patrick Harris, Clancy Brown, Patrick Muldoon, Michael Ironside. It's the near future, shortly after the Californian invasion of Buenos Aires which looks like a live action version of "The Jetsons" done by the cast of "90210". Shall I join the military, dress up as a Nazi and lay waste to the known universe? Since Michael "Bad SF is my middle name" Ironside is playing their mono-handed Civics teacher (with his amputated stump sticking out a curious extra 15 cm from his shoulder), we can safely arrive at two conclusions: We are in Bad Movie heaven, Universe, bend over. Sure enough, uber-Aryan Johnny Rico (played by that famous Argentinean actor Casper Van Dien) ends up in the grunts and is sent across to the next sound stage for routine bastardisation in Movie Cliche #253 (Boot Camp). His friends show considerably more sense and join the technical branches. Johnny's lust-thang Carmen (played by the noted Hispanic thespian Denise Richards) becomes a pilot, where she grins like a prom-queen on Prozac as she hurls around million-ton starships. Since their buddy Carl (that noted Latin artiste Neil Patrick Harris, aka Doogie Howser) can tell his ferret to crawl up his mother's leg, he naturally gets put in charge of grand strategy. Only Dizzy (the up-and-coming Spanish performer Dina Meyer, known for her subtle, tear-jerking performance alongside Keanu Reeves in "Johnny Catatonic") also joins the infantry. You see, Johnny is her lust-thang and she realises that as soon as she sleeps with him, she can be killed off and leave the movie. Carmen realises Johnny has the IQ of toast and sends him a "Dear Johnny" letter. Dizzy, in an attempt to precipitate her own demise, shows her breasts. In a training exercise, Johnny accidentally gets a fellow marine killed. The other recruits - willing to have their limbs broken, trachea crushed and be stabbed and shot at by their drill instructor - find Johnny's clumsiness unacceptable and start dropping out of the program. Although Johnny's parents look relieved just before they are crushed, everyone else knows it's time to kick some arthropod butt! Johnny and his grunts are choppered out to the Bug homeworld, where the starships are threatened by bugs belching nuclear plasma into orbit. Johnny and Co are meanwhile demonstrating the dazzling power of future military tactics: dump a bunch of guys armed with M16s on a planet and get them to wander around in a tight pack until they are eaten and thus show how the monster works. Sure 'nuff, the bugs show up and have far more charisma than the rest of the cast. Demoralised, the marines retreat, leaving their less likeable colleagues to be eaten. Digression 1: The Starship Troopers Drinking Game * Sip whenever a limb is cut off. The survivors are transferred to another unit, the 5th Generic Tough Hombres. Quelle surprise - it's lead by Michael Ironside, still serving time in purgatory for "Highlander 2". It seems they're getting sent to the poetically named "Planet P" to further the plot. But upon getting there, they are attacked by - giant mosquitoes! Unfortunately Johnny doesn't reply, "If it comes to that, I'll do both of us." The grunts come across a devastated firebase and a cowardly general. Ironside has his legs chewed off by a bug and gets Johnny to kill him - not because he is crippled but because he is trapped in a crap film. Unfortunately Johnny doesn't cap the rest of the cast for equally debilitating mental injuries. Subsequently, Dizzy gets chomped by a bug, because we got to see her breasts earlier on. Back on the starship, they load Dizzy into a coffin and eject her into space so she can land on the Genesis planet and come back in the sequel "Starship Troopers 2: The Search for Plot". Carmen struggles not to smile during the funeral, Dizzy's convenient death clearing the way for her and Johnny's lust-thang. It now becomes clear why everyone looks like Nazis: the war is being run by geeks and geeky kids think that Nazi stuff is really cool. Doogie explains he knew Johnny's team would be massacred, it was all part of the plan. Johnny has no strong objections to this, illustrating a good reason why he is in the infantry and Doogie in command. Anyway, the Doog-ster explains that since the bugs can launch asteroids from halfway across the galaxy and have them land right on top of cities, they must be intelligent. Digression 2: Southpark Troopers Wouldn't this movie be all the more plausible if it was cheap animation and used the "Southpark" characters? CARTMAN: I hate dat, da way dose bugs crawl up yo' arse and suck your brains out. KYLE: Good point Kenny, there's probably a form of bug we haven't seen yet, a brainbug. Back they go to the disused quarries of Planet P But Carmen and the faux competitor for her affections, Zander (hitherto known as "Deadmeat"), crash on the planet in the middle of the attack. They are captured by the bugs and before Carmen can explain her "don't worry, be happy" philosophy to the insects, they suck Zander's brain. Johnny gives a stirring speech that they can't just go and rescue her, because the attack is too important. And who better to mindmeld with a giant slug than Doogie Howser! He does the Spock thang and announces that the brainbug is afraid. So am I Doogie, so am I Digression 3: Five Military SF Books That Would Make Better Films 1 The Forever War 2 The Forever War 3 The Forever War 4 The Forever War 5 Any Lensman book. There will undoubtedly be those who will defend "Starship Troopers" by saying that it is a comedy. Certainly there are moments that are intended to be funny, but it is no more a comedy than "Total Recall" or \"Robocop". Similarly, some may say that the future depicted is meant to be dystopian and terrible. The lie is put to this by again invoking Verhoeven's other two SF films. Both of them depicted unpleasant regimes, even ones with which the characters cooperated with and supported. But the heroes never liked their worlds, or showed it as a viable or desirable one. If Verhoeven is attempting to be satirical, he fails utterly and my suspicion is that he is attempting to have it both ways, to both laugh at and cheer the fascist, testosterone-poisoned, gungho histrionics. The situation is not helped by a wooden cast that can only aspire to being B-grade, dialogue that gives the word "cliche" a bad name, and a plot that could be second guessed by undiscovered tribes in the Phillipine jungles. "Starship Troopers" is possibly the worst SF movie ever made "nostar", a leprous turd of a film that's so horribly demented that it immediately is assumed into the pantheon of Truly Bad Movies, with a crassness score of 4 Lamberts. In fact it is so terrible that you should rush out and see it now because you will not believe how bad it is.
Cache (6863 bytes)
csua.org/u/7n2 -> postviews.editthispage.com/movieVideo/StarshipTroopers
Starring Casper Van Dien, Dina Meyer, Denise Richards, Jake Busey, Neil Patrick Harris, Clancy Brown, Patrick Muldoon, Michael Ironside. It's the near future, shortly after the Californian invasion of Buenos Aires which looks like a live action version of "The Jetsons" done by the cast of "90210". Shall I join the military, dress up as a Nazi and lay waste to the known universe? Since Michael "Bad SF is my middle name" Ironside is playing their mono-handed Civics teacher (with his amputated stump sticking out a curious extra 15 cm from his shoulder), we can safely arrive at two conclusions: We are in Bad Movie heaven, Universe, bend over. Sure enough, uber-Aryan Johnny Rico (played by that famous Argentinean actor Casper Van Dien) ends up in the grunts and is sent across to the next sound stage for routine bastardisation in Movie Cliche #253 (Boot Camp). His friends show considerably more sense and join the technical branches. Johnny's lust-thang Carmen (played by the noted Hispanic thespian Denise Richards) becomes a pilot, where she grins like a prom-queen on Prozac as she hurls around million-ton starships. Since their buddy Carl (that noted Latin artiste Neil Patrick Harris, aka Doogie Howser) can tell his ferret to crawl up his mother's leg, he naturally gets put in charge of grand strategy. Only Dizzy (the up-and-coming Spanish performer Dina Meyer, known for her subtle, tear-jerking performance alongside Keanu Reeves in "Johnny Catatonic") also joins the infantry. You see, Johnny is her lust-thang and she realises that as soon as she sleeps with him, she can be killed off and leave the movie. Carmen realises Johnny has the IQ of toast and sends him a "Dear Johnny" letter. Dizzy, in an attempt to precipitate her own demise, shows her breasts. In a training exercise, Johnny accidentally gets a fellow marine killed. The other recruits - willing to have their limbs broken, trachea crushed and be stabbed and shot at by their drill instructor - find Johnny's clumsiness unacceptable and start dropping out of the program. Although Johnny's parents look relieved just before they are crushed, everyone else knows it's time to kick some arthropod butt! Johnny and his grunts are choppered out to the Bug homeworld, where the starships are threatened by bugs belching nuclear plasma into orbit. Johnny and Co are meanwhile demonstrating the dazzling power of future military tactics: dump a bunch of guys armed with M16s on a planet and get them to wander around in a tight pack until they are eaten and thus show how the monster works. Sure 'nuff, the bugs show up and have far more charisma than the rest of the cast. Demoralised, the marines retreat, leaving their less likeable colleagues to be eaten. Digression 1: The Starship Troopers Drinking Game * Sip whenever a limb is cut off. The survivors are transferred to another unit, the 5th Generic Tough Hombres. Quelle surprise - it's lead by Michael Ironside, still serving time in purgatory for "Highlander 2". It seems they're getting sent to the poetically named "Planet P" to further the plot. But upon getting there, they are attacked by - giant mosquitoes! Unfortunately Johnny doesn't reply, "If it comes to that, I'll do both of us." The grunts come across a devastated firebase and a cowardly general. Ironside has his legs chewed off by a bug and gets Johnny to kill him - not because he is crippled but because he is trapped in a crap film. Unfortunately Johnny doesn't cap the rest of the cast for equally debilitating mental injuries. Subsequently, Dizzy gets chomped by a bug, because we got to see her breasts earlier on. Back on the starship, they load Dizzy into a coffin and eject her into space so she can land on the Genesis planet and come back in the sequel "Starship Troopers 2: The Search for Plot". Carmen struggles not to smile during the funeral, Dizzy's convenient death clearing the way for her and Johnny's lust-thang. It now becomes clear why everyone looks like Nazis: the war is being run by geeks and geeky kids think that Nazi stuff is really cool. Doogie explains he knew Johnny's team would be massacred, it was all part of the plan. Johnny has no strong objections to this, illustrating a good reason why he is in the infantry and Doogie in command. Anyway, the Doog-ster explains that since the bugs can launch asteroids from halfway across the galaxy and have them land right on top of cities, they must be intelligent. Digression 2: Southpark Troopers Wouldn't this movie be all the more plausible if it was cheap animation and used the "Southpark" characters? CARTMAN: I hate dat, da way dose bugs crawl up yo' arse and suck your brains out. KYLE: Good point Kenny, there's probably a form of bug we haven't seen yet, a brainbug. Back they go to the disused quarries of Planet P But Carmen and the faux competitor for her affections, Zander (hitherto known as "Deadmeat"), crash on the planet in the middle of the attack. They are captured by the bugs and before Carmen can explain her "don't worry, be happy" philosophy to the insects, they suck Zander's brain. Johnny gives a stirring speech that they can't just go and rescue her, because the attack is too important. And who better to mindmeld with a giant slug than Doogie Howser! He does the Spock thang and announces that the brainbug is afraid. So am I Doogie, so am I Digression 3: Five Military SF Books That Would Make Better Films 1 The Forever War 2 The Forever War 3 The Forever War 4 The Forever War 5 Any Lensman book. There will undoubtedly be those who will defend "Starship Troopers" by saying that it is a comedy. Certainly there are moments that are intended to be funny, but it is no more a comedy than "Total Recall" or \"Robocop". Similarly, some may say that the future depicted is meant to be dystopian and terrible. The lie is put to this by again invoking Verhoeven's other two SF films. Both of them depicted unpleasant regimes, even ones with which the characters cooperated with and supported. But the heroes never liked their worlds, or showed it as a viable or desirable one. If Verhoeven is attempting to be satirical, he fails utterly and my suspicion is that he is attempting to have it both ways, to both laugh at and cheer the fascist, testosterone-poisoned, gungho histrionics. The situation is not helped by a wooden cast that can only aspire to being B-grade, dialogue that gives the word "cliche" a bad name, and a plot that could be second guessed by undiscovered tribes in the Phillipine jungles. "Starship Troopers" is possibly the worst SF movie ever made "nostar", a leprous turd of a film that's so horribly demented that it immediately is assumed into the pantheon of Truly Bad Movies, with a crassness score of 4 Lamberts. In fact it is so terrible that you should rush out and see it now because you will not believe how bad it is.