Starship Troopers

Director Paul Verhoeven blends the conflicting elements of intentional camp and perverse sincerity into a single tone—and he doesn’t resort to simple irony.

In its early scenes, 'Troopers 'is basically a goofy high school movie, complete with love triangles, a big game, and a school dance (and sex) after. Once they've begun infantry training, the flexing of machismo so over the top, it can only be satire.

More effective as a satire than as an action extravaganza.

Lacks the courage of the book's fascist conclusions.

Lacking the sophistication of the average comic book, it compensates with panoramic attack sequences, reminiscent of the Japanese swarm attacks in American war movies.

A jaw-dropping experience, so rigorously one-dimensional and free from even the pretense of intelligence it's hard not to be astonished and even mesmerized by what is on the screen.

Cruelly visionary... You should see Verhoeven’s immense satiric mastery on the big screen, you should. (Beware those who identify with the bugs.) You want to know more.

Despite the high-tech special effects, director Verhoeven allows for a lot of campy fun. This movie does not take itself seriously.

The biting and ballsy social commentary of Verhoeven still holds up.

A strong, almost outrageous representation of the military-industrial complex in the States, Verhoeven's sci-fi film benefits from being over the top in everything: its acting, its convoluted plot, its politics.