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Starship Troopers [Blu-ray] [1997]
![Starship Troopers [Blu-ray] [1997]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51Mg5BRS9fL._SL160_.jpg)
Set in a fascist future where kids must do military service to qualify as citizens, own property or even have babies, the film's dark Vietnam and Nazi-era parallels are all the more disturbing given its deceptively sunny Beverly Hills 90210 teenage cast (though scenery-chewing veteran Michael Ironside steals the movie as tough-talking Lt Rasczak). The CGI arachnids are among the most convincing and dangerous-looking creatures ever seen on screen, and with the movie clocking up the highest number of blanks ever fired on a film set, it's also pretty loud. Verhoeven went on to be Executive Producer of the Roughnecks: The Starship Troopers Chronicles animated TV series a couple of years later. --Paul Tonks
RRP: £26.99
Our Price: £17.97 (subject to change)
Editorial
Amazon.co.uk Review
A gloriously over-the-top treat, Paul Verhoeven's Starship Troopers takes the militaristic moralising of Robert Heinlein's pulp classic and sets about undermining it mercilessly. Johnny Rico (Casper Van Dien) desperately wants to join the Mobile Infantry and kill some Earth-threatening alien bugs. He also desperately wants Carmen (Denise Richards), but only gets to fulfil one ambition in the second of Verhoeven's futuristic satires (also cowritten with his RoboCop scriptwriter Ed Neumeier).
Movie: 4.5/5 Picture Quality: 3.5~4.5/5 Sound Quality: 3.75~4.25/5 Extras: 2/5
Review date: 2008-07-14 Rating: 10 out of 10
Studio: BVHE (Outside U.S.A) / Sony Pictures (U.S.A)
Region: A / B / C
VC-1 BD-50
Running time: 2:09:37
Average Video Bit Rate: 26.56 Mbps
Movie size: 37,491,136,512 bytes
Disc size: 40,984,117,470 bytes
LPCM 5.1 4608Kbps English / Dolby Digital AC3 5.1 640Kbps
* Deleted Scenes (8 min., SD)
* Scene Developments with Audio Commentary (9 min., SD)
* Making-of Featurette (8 min., SD)
* Screen Tests: Johnny and Carmen (4 min., SD)
* Teaser Trailer (2 min., SD)
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Reviews
Love the film, but...?
Review date: 2008-04-23 Rating: 8 out of 10
I happen to love this film - very intelligent indeed.
However, does anyone know whether this blu-ray release includes the director's commentary track? This was the best feature on the standard definition DVD.
Answers appreciated.
Absolute Classic
Review date: 2008-04-05 Rating: 10 out of 10
Starship Troopers is one of those films that truly sets itself apart from the rest and lets us reminisce about the great gritty Sci-Fi movies of the late 80s & early 90s.
This has over the top gore, the typical love story and cheesy dialogue that would put most chick flicks to shame.
The Story: In a very distant future high school kids are encouraged to join the military in order to gain citizenship which is something that has to be done to become a full citizen. This brings us to our main characters Johnny Rico (Casper Van Dien) & Carmen Ibanez (Denise Richards) who are 2 young and enthusiastic students who are madly in love. Carmen joins the Military in order to fight against the bugs of Klendathu, a planet on the other side of the Milky Way Galaxy. Rico joins the military along with Carmen but after a rough time and the unexpected death of one of his friends while in training, Johnny decides to quit. However something unexpected happens, the bugs of Klendathu launch an asteroid at Earth which ultimately destroys Rico's home of Buenos Aries, this changes his mind and he begs his commanding officers to let him back in because he wants revenge.
Johnny is brought back into the military and is put onto the front line in the humans first attempt at attacking the bug homeworld which is a disaster on a monumental scale. Rico is one of the victims of this massacre and is brought home to recover, but that doesn't stop his determination to get revenge on the bugs. Back home a number of propaganda commercials are being run telling the country that although the humans suffered a massive loss we all need to do our part.
The Review: Now this is a pretty good film with a very unique premise and look which does give a nostalgia of how the 1980s movies percieved the future. It's very graphic and very gritty, Paul Verhoeven clearly didn't want to hold back anything when telling a story of love, friendship, revenge and quite simply heroism. The story is quite cheesy in the sense that it's a typical hero movie when a guy starts off at the bottom, something tragic happens to him which somehow gives him superhuman ability to defeat a horde of angry, emotionless bugs.
This is something that a lot of people would hate as in todays cinema a lot is demanded when it comes to depth and realism, to me however I found this incredibly enjoyable and I think this is something that we need to see more of in future movies as we truly have a character to root for all the time.
Van Dien I feel has always been a very underrated actor, he may not be the most diverse actor in the world I agree, but at the same time he has the ability, charisma and timing to have been somewhat of a memorable action movie star.
A very good film which is somewhat of a classic that I think will live in the hearts of film fans for years to come.
CGI is very good, non-cgi is slightly grainy
Review date: 2008-01-03 Rating: 8 out of 10
Good film. This is probably one of my best blu-ray discs. The space scenes are very crisp and look superb. The non-cgi scenes are slightly grainy but still not as bad as some 'remastered' blu-ray discs I have seen.
If you liked the film and have it on standard dvd and have a blu-ray player I would recomend buying this and getting rid of your standard copy. The improvement is definitly worth it.
Surprisingly good for it's age
Review date: 2007-08-28 Rating: 8 out of 10
There are 43 Amazon reviews on the standard definition version of this film so I will comment on the Blu-ray aspects only. I did not expect to see such an old film come out in high definition format. This movie is largely made with computer generated graphics which probably explains why the image quality is so high. The many action scenes are pin sharp with vivid colours and no motion blurring. Looks amazing and even if you don't love the movie worth having to demonstrate the full benefits of high definition. When the non computer generated scenes are viewed there is a slight but noticable drop in image quality with slight grainyness hence only the 4 star rating.
Product Details/Specifications
Actor(s):
John Cunningham
Dale Dye
Eric Bruskotter
Christopher Curry
Casper Van Dien
Director(s):
Recording label: Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainm
Manufacturer: Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainm
EAN: 8717418129217
Binding: Blu-ray
Number of items: 1
Format: Anamorphic, Widescreen,
Release date: 2007-08-06
Aspect ratio: 1.85:1
Audience rating: Suitable for 18 years and over
Running time: 130 minutes
Theatrical release date: 1997
Language: English (Original Language)
Language: French (Original Language)
Language: Spanish (Original Language)