Muzman on 3/8/2007 at 18:22

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er, anyway.

I don't really understand the idea that Starship Troopers is indistinguishable from other action films or is even enjoyable purely on that level. If that was all there was to it I think it would have failed miserably. The structure is bizzare and disjointed; its hyper real, over lit colour pallette and visuals are completely out of whack with any action or sci-fi film tradition of the time (although I guess I do have to concede there's some Total Recall in there, not surprisingly) . It is almost totally unique in its mix of influences. And still I guess not everyone who went and saw it would have thought of it as I do. I guess I'm optimistic about audiences.
Regardless, I thought it was hilariously, self-consciously over the top from minute one. In fact that opening flash forward really sets the tone. And then it went and became quite pointed, when it could have just been Predator 2. To say that it's too dumb to have anything going on makes no sense to me. It beautifully satirises war, soldiering and the mythology that surrounds them. A cleverly written war drama would not necessarily have suited that end, since soldiers and citizens don't get the whole story.
Would it have been better if it had been a perfectly plotted war drama at the same time? Yeah, maybe. And would it be more impactful if it had a decent human centre, a la Robocop? Yes, most probably.
But the idea that it is indistinguishable from your standard Hollywood action film is absurd. I can't think of anything pre-ST that even resembles its tone and bombast (except maybe Showgirls. And if "Showgirls as a propaganda film" isn't genius I don't know what is).

ZylonBane on 3/8/2007 at 19:08

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I've always interpreted that otherwise nonsensical flash-forward as, "If we start this movie off with the talky stuff, everyone who came to see aliens and explosions will be bored." Quite an amazingly cynical feat of editing, really. They couldn't come up with anything exciting to happen at the beginning, so they literally copy-and-pasted something exciting from later in the film. Ta-dah!

Anyway, I'll happily admit that ST has satirical *elements*. The Robocop-inspired news segments and goofy SS uniforms can scarcely be anything else. But those few touches are hardly enough to elevate the entire film to the level of "brilliant satire". At best, ST's satire hovers around the level of "Scary Movie".

If I want to see real, properly-executed satire, I'll go watch Dr. Strangelove. There's a movie that worked as satire because so much of it was played seriously. In fact, like ST, it was based on a novel that wasn't originally intended as satirical at all.

RyushiBlade on 4/8/2007 at 17:59

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I'd like to nominate (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flying_ryan) Flyin' Ryan as possibly the best movie ever made.

Oh, sorry, wrong thread.

Trappin on 4/8/2007 at 21:26

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The drive-in always had a double feature and the second film was almost always terrible. I sat through lots of bad films and the memory of them has faded over time.. with one exception.

Mausoleum (1983) (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0085918/)

Don't be fooled by the comments at IMDB - the puppet boobs are so bad its not even cheesy-funny bad.

duckman on 5/8/2007 at 09:06

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The winner of this thread is:




I suppose I should have said "The Worst Main-Stream Movie." Every once and a while I get sucked into that "_____ says it's hilarious!" and I actually believe it, which is the case of Chuck and Larry. I can't believe you guys go over a page about Starship Troopers lol. A truly bad movie is one that is painful to watch, I didn't mean movies that were considered cheesy or dumb.