Gingerbread Man on 3/8/2007 at 14:50
Yeah. Much as I'd love to entertain the argument that Starship Troopers as the generic and muddled Expensive American Action Film was the deepest sort of meta-satire (in the vein of PIL's "You'll Dance To Anything" -- which itself is a case of double reversie no-touchbacks satire which may or may not have completely failed to hit the mark depending on how deeply you want to peel back the inherent contradictions) the plain fact is that it's just a relatively cheap, entirely predictable, and not-particularly-distinguishable-from-all-the-others late 90s space movie.
Which is probably not what Verhoeven was aiming for, but probably something he's happy enough with in the final analysis.
"satirising typical American action / sci-fi movies" would be a fun way to look at it, but I think that's over-reaching and far too generous (not to mention more than a little disingenuous)
Chimpy Chompy on 3/8/2007 at 15:10
Are we arguing satire vs not satire, or good satire vs lame satire?
Cos the satirical elements look rather obvious, even if it's a fairly 6/10 movie overall.
charlestheoaf on 3/8/2007 at 15:47
Quote Posted by ZylonBane
Jesus Christ, how many times do I need to say this:
Because it's indistinguishable from them.Now, it's been a long time since I've seen this movie, and I really don't remember much about it (uncluding the quality).
All I remember is that when watching it as a kid, I at least recognized the satire in the commercial bits (the squishing of the bugs particularly in mind). Other than that, I can't recall much of the movie outside of a school scene or two, and a couple of explosions.
It's been a while since I've read the book as well, so I may be a bit inaccurate in my memories here, but I don't think the movie really had much to do with the it at all. I think the whole bug-war bit (at least the protagonist being involved) was only a forth or less of the book, and iirc there weren't too many plot similarities there either.
Rogue Keeper on 3/8/2007 at 15:58
Most of people who contributed to this thread have far too good film taste to be competent to vote for the truly worst movie ever.
Many titles mentioned are were widely marked as controversial, only a few are generally recognized as hopelessly bad and some others were so bad they're actually good, but in fact they grew into cult movies. I think that a truly terrible movie should be neither widely popular and comercially succesful, nor it should enjoy support of devoted enthusiast community consisting of people who unlike the mainstream audience are the only ones who "got it right".
Get out of the A-movie cinema and watch more indie junk. The worst movies ever were forgotten long time ago, they're not being discussed over and over again - it actually marks their timeless qualities. Controversy is a quality, passed through the test of time.
Thirith on 3/8/2007 at 16:12
That may be true in many cases, but Ed Wood's films are bad films by any standard. They may also be cult classics, but actually watching an film by Ed Wood becomes painful roughly ten minutes into it. They're not so bad they're good.
DaBeast on 3/8/2007 at 16:32
Quote Posted by ZylonBane
Jesus Christ, how many times do I need to say this:
Because it's indistinguishable from them.How hard is that to understand? By your reasoning I could point to any random blisteringly idiotic action movie, don my monacle, and loudly proclaim, "No no no! This is SATIRE!".
Will you ever stop being the kind of American the rest of the planet hates?
You're like an even more nerdy simpsons comic book guy. You're opinions are correct because they are yours. You don't bother actually trying to look at someone elses opinion you just see that it differs from your own and jump on it.
Thief13x on 3/8/2007 at 18:01
Quote Posted by Thief13x
my buddy is bringing beerfest over to my place tonight with a 30pk Coors so i'll have to get back to you on how the movie is in the state of mind it was meant to be watched in:cheeky:
NICE...haaha I was a little bummed about the ending, I was so gone I didn't even know it was supposed to be the ending and all of the sudden the screen went to credits
Lady Taffer on 3/8/2007 at 18:04
If you have to get stoned or drunk to enjoy a movie, it's a bad movie. :tsktsk:
Thief13x on 3/8/2007 at 18:06
ur a bad movie
