Movies That Were Probably Made By a Spasm of Six Year-Olds on Acid: The Top 75 Action Films Poll Results Thread

ha! I just added it on NF.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v212/etienne_saint/starshipppp.png

#17 (TIE)

STARSHIP TROOPERS

Paul Verhoeven
1997
United States
(408 points, 12 votes)

I keep wondering what Starship Troopers would be like if it did get all point-serious at the end -- if it was a tragedy, where all the fun jingoism and such wound up with the square-jawed children being universally massacred, or else dominating aliens that we turn out to be sympathetic toward. That would pretty much suck, I think, which reassures me that it really is about the aesthetics -- the aesthetics call for the triumphant ending (with all its attendant hollowness and satire and grotesquerie). Which, ha, means that right now Starship Troopers is like a future-vision of what people wanted to think the Iraq war would be like, at first ("U.S.Earth! U.S.Earth! ... It's frightened!"), whereas a real-world complexity-of-politics turn at the end would make it just a bad future version of what the Iraq war is actually like.

― nabisco

A lot of Starship Troopers is basically the same kind of humor as when South Park did the Braveheart battle against the evil turkeys, except with the added sick twist that the shit in Starship Troopers is kinda stuff some people will still go for in a non-funny way. (This is the other angle of the concept, which involves making this over-the-top camp thing knowing full well that some movie audiences would just swallow it whole.)

― nabisco

that is to say, i don't know that many directors besides verhoeven could put over the cartoonish elements of this film with such conviction, but also get the tone of the satirical passages just right. i think perhaps a slight confusion or ambivalence on verhoeven's part (concerning the somewhat elaborate meanings of the screenplay) functions nicely here. i also think it's important to remember how much a screenplay can dictate, or at least suggest, ways that a scene can be shot/staged/etc. neumeier's script is very detailed.

― Amateur(ist)

"Starship Troopers" - Verhoeven is a mad genius!

too low maybe

xxxp - would Morbs survive a surprise win by The Birds in a Hitchcock poll?

E, I wish I were you so I could watch NxNW for the first time!

What a thrilling experience.

Starship Troopers sincerely makes me wanna live in a fascist khakistocracy

Love that those two are tied tbh.

Also, if you haven't seen Charade, maybe you should queue that on Netflix as well. xp

The very first porn I was ever in was called Rear Window.

― CANDY aka JUNK (some dude), Friday, February 17, 2012 12:20 PM (1 minute ago)

good thing it wasn't rope

or I Confess.

or The 39 Steps

Point Blank was my #1!!!!!!

im glad ST didnt make the top 10. i love it though! they used models for the spaceships so those effects still look pretty good. one of basil poledouris' best scores, along with robocop and conan.

I can't really get behind The Thing as an action movie, although it's definitely an awesome movie.

Had a totes different experience the last time I saw it, imagining the Thing as the protagonist who's just trying to survive and escape from a hostile environment the only way it knows how. The movie totally works on that level, to the extent that I feel it was somewhat intentional on Carpenter's part to not paint the Thing as pure evil incarnate.

sure there are gonna be 15 films better than ST but it is very pleasurable

http://i.imgur.com/OBk0C.gif

those were some good posts to quote re: ST too

jake busey's neon green violin

would Morbs survive a surprise win by The Birds in a Hitchcock poll?

if you can't kill me with these two films being tied, you've done your worst.

Had a totes different experience the last time I saw it, imagining the Thing as the protagonist who's just trying to survive and escape from a hostile environment the only way it knows how. The movie totally works on that level, to the extent that I feel it was somewhat intentional on Carpenter's part to not paint the Thing as pure evil incarnate.

I like viewing HAL in 2001 the same way, imagine you made a mistake at work so then your colleagues decided to kill you! it was self defense I tell you.

loool morbs

Wow, I can't believe Starship Troopers 2 & 3 are gonna place higher than the original.

i was so fucking disappointed when i saw a bit of ST 2.

and i like all the cheapo japanese Scanners knock-offs

I can deal with someone thinking that The Birds is Hitchcock's best. I can't deal with people thinking Le Samourai and Starship Troopers are the same kind of film.

(or The Lady Eve and Knocked Up)

Serious question, Morbs - does 'fun' or 'enjoyability' have any value in your aesthetic criteria? I mean in the sense that something that's simply fun to watch can be better than a serious, accomplished film that isn't as joyous?

what is this thing called fun you speak of?

final one for awhile, 11-15 later.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v212/etienne_saint/roadwarr.png

#16

THE ROAD WARRIOR

George Miller
1981
Australia
(411 points, 13 votes)

The Road Warrior was simply everything a teenage boy could want in a single action movie.

― Alex in NYC

i love these movies. i have to admit that gibson really has a ton of charisma on screen.
i think i prefer The Road Warrior because it's just so relentless.

― ryan

My dad rented Mad Max and the Road Warrior for me when I must have been 8 or 9 and they blew my mind. Before that I was so into the whole slick '80s neon futuristic vision of the world but these movies turned me all cyberpunk.

― walter kranz

i was so fucking disappointed when i saw a bit of ST 2.

― contreatable logorrhea (Noodle Vague), Friday, February 17, 2012 11:39 AM (8 seconds ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I wasn't disappointed. Going into it knowing it wasn't Verhoeven & obv just exploiting the success of the first movie. As far as I'm concerned, ST has nothing to do at all with 2 & 3. No, I wasn't disappointed, I was just disgusted with myself for being willing to sit through anything that has explosions, guns or blood in it, regardless of how godawful it is.

if you can't kill me with these two films being tied, you've done your worst.

― Literal Facepalms (Dr Morbius), Friday, February 17, 2012 11:37 AM (4 minutes ago)

you issue the best challenges, srsly

ya lookin to get yaself some gasoline

rw 4ever.

haven't watched Mad Max 1 or 2 since the mid-80s i think, so i found it difficult to remember them apart and just gave the first 1 my votes

2 days ago I saw a rig that could haul that tanker

if you want to get out of here... talk to me

xxxxp

maybe i saw the wrong ST 2 bit cos it was so cheap and didn't have any decent action in it?

Starship Troopers features one of the all time awesome commentary tracks from Verhoeven.

I paraphrase: "People criticize the movie for glorifying fascist. It is not glorifying fascism! These guys are THE BAD GUYS! That is why they are WEARING BLACK! THEY ARE DRESSED LIKE NAZIS! NAZIS!"

But better, in his awesome Dutch accent.

Road Warrior is so badass.

LOSERS WAIT

let me guess if youve actually seen starship troopers morbs

tbf it's not like he'd behave at all different if he had

but anyway, comparing films like 'le samourai' and 'starship troopers' and 'nxnw' is GREAT! it's an awesome thought experiment imho. (and they are all more similar than you'd prob like to think.)

does 'fun' or 'enjoyability' have any value in your aesthetic criteria?

When you're as critical as Morbs is (and I mean this in a polite way) you're too busy dissecting films you watch for flaws and/or deeper meaning to have any actual fun with them.

morbs seems to always come back to this argument that boils down to being against aesthetic open-mindedness in any way

Road Warrior is the only Mel movie I can stomach because it really is just so good. not because of him tho, really.

does he actually dissect anything? I've only ever seen broad strokes

I have seen it, s1ocki. It was OK, and DUMB, and hence not in the top 20 of anything except maybe Paul Verhoeven films.

dumb in what way

never seen a man beat the snake before

I paraphrase: "People criticize the movie for glorifying fascist. It is not glorifying fascism! These guys are THE BAD GUYS! That is why they are WEARING BLACK! THEY ARE DRESSED LIKE NAZIS! NAZIS!"

*dying* at this btw

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VkOqiweYfwQ

look at it

xxxp