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Starship Troopers (1997)
Starship Troopers (1997)
1997 | Action, Sci-Fi
Not so much an adaptation of Heinlein's novel as a parody of it, Verhoeven's SF spectacular works equally well as storming action movie and outrageous black satire. Johnny Rico (Van Dien) joins the army for the wrong reasons, finds himself rising through the ranks as Earth provokes a war with the invertebrate Arachnids and finds itself facing a much more dangerous opponent than expected.

Verhoeven displays his usual uncanny ability to turn a movie on a dime - one second this is a deliberately cheesy deadpan comedy about growing up in a fascist utopia, the next it's delivering a genuinely thrilling action sequence that pushes the boundaries of CGI. Much, much smarter than it initially appears - even the decision to cast good-looking but essentially wooden young people (e.g. Denise Richards) in the lead roles seems calculated to make a point. Michael Ironside is genuinely good as the grizzled old soldier; another belting score from Basil Poledouris. Also weirdly prescient of the way the US and its media reacted after 9/11. Thoroughly enjoyable on many levels.
  
Near Dark (1987)
Near Dark (1987)
1987 | Horror, Mystery, Western
Quite ingeniously keeping a large chunk of the actors carried over from the movie 'Aliens' this was one of the better modern day vampire movies.
One thing that you will notice straight off the bat and that's the budget which is incredibly low and it shows mainly through its lack of locations and lots of reasonably well written dialogue, what I dont get is this films rise to classic status.... it's ok at best considering its cast and i remember having watched it not being able work out if i liked it as much as others who raved about it.
I am and was a big fan of Bill Paxton however I felt he overcooked his role a little and went from hugely intimidating to a parody of most of the characters he has played over the years.
Adrian Pasdar who I believe is a versatile actor was the best thing in the movie.
I understand this movie has somewhat of a following, it's not one I find myself revisiting however, and Bigelow has gone on to create some very good films.