I wonder if perhaps, immediately after Showgirls, they were just hunting for more tacky junk from a filmmaker they regarded as an irredeemable schlockmeister. And yet, critics at the time of its first release were, by and large, quite hostile, viewing it as a brainless celebration of violence and machismo. It's so ridiculous and crude in its depiction of vulgar militarism, it can only be a ridiculous piece of over-the-top mockery. That film wears its satire right on the surface, for anyone to pluck it it's the American Verhoeven film that I think is the most open about its intentions after the first, 1987's RoboCop (a film which it otherwise closely resembles I think they form a matched pair just as much as Showgirls does with the 1992 Basic Instinct). This is not, I think, the case with Starship Troopers. I take it to be the case that most of director Paul Verhoeven's six American films are satires, pretty vicious, smart, and lacerating ones at that (the only exception is the last of them, 2000's Hollow Man, though I am happy to hear defenses of why I've gotten that one wrong), but I concede immediately that the satire in something like 1995's infamous Showgirls is buried pretty deep, and you have to put in the work of spelunking to find it. Starship Troopers is maybe the clearest articulation I can name of the disappointing fact that you can never, ever make satire too obvious for some people. A review requested by Gabe, with thanks to supporting Alternate Ending as a donor through Patreon.ĭo you have a movie you'd like to see reviewed? This and other perks can be found on our Patreon page!
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