RR Shelf Help / Starship Troopers (4K SteelBook)

Sign up for what feels like Federal Service as Paul monologues about the "Starship Troopers" 4K SteelBook 25th anniversary edition (1997) of the Paul Verhoeven directed classic. With pop color on steel case graphics, blu ray AND 4k discs of the film, in depth interviews, commentary, and FED NET mode, this may be one of the most feature packed releases we've reviewed so far. Would you like to know more? Probably hit play on 7/4 then. Thats assuming your hands are ok 🤷🏼‍♂️

Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:00

I only have one rule. Everybody listens, nobody stops. I have two rules and also shares. You listen and you share, and you don't stop listening or sharing. Hello

Intro

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and welcome, listener, to this edition of the review review Shelf Help, a corner of the review review nervous. And this is quite a big universe we're gonna be talking about today, dedicated to assisting you in making your next physical media acquisition the right one for you and for the people that you care about. It's Paul, your co-host, Paul's pretty cool people. That's in instead of saying Rico's roughnecks, we say Paul's pretty cool people.

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PCP.

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Today, it's just me. It is the proletariat. Just just me. And I'm here to talk to you about

Whatcha Got?! (Starship Troopers 4K SteelBook)

SPEAKER_02 0:54

the Starship Troopers 4K Steelbook. Why do I have this? Well, if you listen to our episode, that I think happened for my birthday. From our first season, maybe? That is a a Paul Verhoven title that I have a lot of reverence for. It was a movie that I saw in the theater. I've owned it on a couple different formats, and now I own it, I guess, on digital, Blu-ray, and 4K, because that all came in this little picky. And I own it because I have a lot of reverence for it, as I was saying, if you listen to that episode. And now that I've recently re-watched it yet again, and on 4K and not digital, in a deeper way, what a different perspective I have. It's almost as if it is partially the premise of this podcast. Thank you, Paul's pretty cool people.

SPEAKER_00 1:44

PCP.

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We're doing it. I'm gonna tell you some details,

What's It About?

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Re Starship Troopers. Would you like to know more? Of course you would like to know more. This is Starship Troopers. It is a movie that was brought to us by TriStar Pictures Sony and Touchstone Pictures Disney. So this is to a degree a Disney movie. It's from 1997. It is two hours and nine minutes. This movie was directed by Paul Verhoven. It was written by Edward Newmeyer. It stars Casper Van Dien, Dina Meyer, Denise Richards, Jake Busey, Neopatrick Harris, Brenda Strong as Sue Ellen Mishke, as Sky Captain Ruma Clanahan, as Rose, as Professor Glasses, I don't know, from Golden Girls. Yeah, Ruma Clanahan. One could say that part of the influential casting of all these incredible actors that feel appropriate, like Michael Ironside, Clancy Brown, and the way that these things flip, and the people get younger and younger, and all they've known is this life and this situation and these alternate takes on reality. It's just like what a fucking movie. What a fucking movie. This is a sci-fi action movie. This is the movie that so many parallels with aliens, so many parallels with aliens. But this is the, but what if it were fascists? Was that what the author, because this is based on a book, Robert A. Heinlein? The author was definitely going for a fascist thing, but not as bluntly as Paul Verhoven decided to do this, and Edward Newmeyer decided to do this. This team has worked together, and we'll talk about that a little bit too, because it's hard not to weigh this against Alien Dollar Sign and Robocop. Some things that predate Brazil, 1984, some Star Trek, some things that post-date. Halo, Starcraft. And I'm talking about the movie specifically here, not the novel. So we'll go into this. This is gonna be a longer episode, I think. People, we did talk about this on my birthday, but it is a sci-fi action, it is an action, action, action, action, action movie. So a lot of people will say Alien Dollar Sign is an action movie. And I'm like, I it has action elements, it definitely has action scenes, but if I compare it to Starship Troopers or Robocop, is it an action movie? I don't know. I think it's got a slower burn than some of those. And it's not as oh, this this is an interesting movie, people. We're gonna get into it today. The log line kind of synopsis of this movie. I'm gonna give you my version, and then we'll give you the official version. My version would be people end up in a situation where, as Michael Ironside puts it, democracy is flawed, it goes away. Think of it as you will, fascism. Hey, what a pressure.

SPEAKER_01 4:52

Nothing bad can happen.

SPEAKER_02 4:54

It can only be very fascist government. Everybody serves in the military. If you want to have this is not a log line, this is fucking something else. People in the future end up in a militarist, fascist war society that goes to war with probably a passive, mostly uninterested insect race. Let's see the real one. Uh this one's much better. Humans in a fascist militaristic future wage war with giant alien bugs. I maybe give away a lot too much as I go into the are the what did the bugs do? The question is asked during the movie. So apparently their space was invaded. Conquerors kind of did the conquer thing, and the bugs were like, hey, hey, hey, hey. And some of this media, this propagandist media, is this movie also kind of has echoes of triumph of the will in it at times, I think almost direct echoes. I have seen that movie one time. It was an extremely unpleasant experience, but I want to say there are things directly related.

Sell It To Me

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But moving on, this movie does have some really amazing kind of special limited aspects. Now I believe this edition is a 4K edition from 2022. It's a few years old. I just recently re-watched it, not to spoil that. But I believe they're they're still pretty common. You'll be able to find them on your general internet marketplace or store that still sells, you know, format-based media that you like to use. The will probably pretty common that they'll have this or can probably pretty easily get it for you if you can't find it on your own. It is really cool packaging, it has some really kind of great art of the uh this is kind of what you're walking into. Like a lot of death unnecessarily. It's a very nice looking. It has a very smooth texture to it. It's got the classic black spine and the, if you remember it, the Starship Troopers graphic that had to be studio because if you when you watch the movie, it's very just white titles on black background, Starship Troopers. Like very basic, trying to look almost like a documentary or a government-funded film or something. Paul Verhoven is so specific in the way that things are done and the way that money is spent. I know that to a degree this is a niche, seeing the layers and layers and layers of the satire of something like Robocop and Starship Troopers, and how incredibly well these movies have continued to carry through time. As this one, we're nearing 30 years. The commentaries and things that come on the Blu-ray disc of this movie, because you get a digital, a Blu-ray disc, and a 4K. And the 4K has like a little reunion film that I didn't watch in the trailer and the 4K movie. And I'm sure it uses almost every bit of data on that 4K disc because baby, we're cooking with gas. It looks absolutely ph na meh no. Got a new song. Especially when you consider this is a movie that is digital, that digital effects, that is a lot of physical effects and digital effects that have come together with time so so so so so so so beautifully. Holy smokes, this movie looks so so good. It is insane how good this movie looks. I think of this versus the fifth element, which we did on this program, and that money in fifth element and the focus is so strange. And some of the decision making and the why, and even like the single match and the breath and the like I don't know. So much of the real world tangibility of Starship Troopers just has aged like fine wine. It's insane. And the commentaries that are in this movie from Paul Verhoven and Ed Newmeer, and the universe that was created from this movie, because there are like 15 whatever it is, like offshoots of this thing that went direct to video or direct to streaming or direct to whatever. And the movie is based on a book. Sure, there's a book based on the movie and novellas and comic books and offshoots and fairy smut and all sorts of shit that exists in this. They built so much in this in terms of naming all these bugs and giving them genus and species and classifications and planets and how warm these planets are and how well their exoskeletons hold up and shit is absolutely nuts. They really the givea shit was really, really fucking high on this movie. I watched this at a point on the Blu-ray with what's called FedNet, and it's a picture-in-picture thing that every so often people directly involved with the movie, be it acting, be it directing, writing, stunts, special effects, people pop in and give you what the whole filmmaking process and being on the set and doing pre- and production and post at different levels is just it's pretty incredible. The 4K disc does not include that FedNet piece, you've gotta watch that on the Blu-ray. It does not have a bunch of inserts in it or anything like that. You you mostly get the if you're in this for the commentaries and the filmmaking pieces, and happen to get a really, really nice, cool graphic pop packaging, it is a very nice thing. Having re-watched this very recently, it looks and sounds incredible. I think Paul Verhoven is so incredibly insanely specific about everything that is being said on the screen pretty much at all times. I mean, this is a person from the Netherlands that went through like Nazi occupation and is so specific in this movie about kind of showing the ugliness of that. And it's crazy. The humans are are potentially the bad guys. It's depending how you look at it. Is there a level of people going into the bugs occupied space? And they can't communicate with each other at this point, and so now they're kind of sending a stay back message. Was this gonna continue if unprovoked? There's a lot of questions that need to be asked, but Allah lets you something pretty modern, somewhere around the same time. V for vendetta. How much is the media being suffocated and edited? How much let's look at real life currently?

SPEAKER_01 12:22

Nothing bad can happen. It could be a good idea.

SPEAKER_02 12:23

The movie is so insanely prescient, and there's a level of that that is depressing. Robocop does this with what if corporations took this all over? What if everything was about making money? What if running the police was about making money? And there's a level of satire that makes it palatable. There's a level of what seems at the time in the 80s and even now fantastical and futuristic about it. And this movie kind of does a similar thing, but I guess kind of similar to Brazil, but much more militaristic than Brazil. What if essentially the militaristic government ran everything? And you can really feel the level of kind of intelligence or awareness between different ranks, different people who have had different experience. My good God, the way that Michael Ironside talks about certain things. What an actor. Holy fucking shit. Like having Brenda Strong and Clancy Brown and Dean Norris and all these incredible fucking actors as the authority figures, and the way it makes all these younger actors look so much less capable, just as people and so young, as a lot of these high school kids are played by like clearly 30-year-olds. And we get to the end of the movie and it's like actual 16, 17-year-olds, people are getting younger and younger. Captain Carmen Ebenez at the end of the movie, and it's like, holy shit, she's easily 20 years. We've lost basically a generation of command in the military in this moment, as we're hopefully gonna get the bug. But by the end of the movie, fucking I can't help it. I watched so much Doogie Hauser, and he's a very good actor. And Neil Patrick Harris puts his hand on the brain bug and he's like, it's afraid. It's like you can see in the CG, in the direction of the CG, like clearly, yeah, that dog is afraid. Please just like I want to be left. I don't want to do this. I don't even want to be doing this, but it has this, it has to eat this guy's brain, like for its own survival. It's all survival instinct, it feels what a thing. I don't know. The the movie definitely has uh you want this future war against nothing for nothing other than to make the rich and powerful more rich and powerful? Because I don't know, fucking a look around. I'm sure I'm I'm in an echo chamber here. Text us, please. It's anonymous. You can say what you like. This movie shows classism and fascism at an extremely high echelon of functionality instead of like pass. I want the Star Trek the Next Generation future. Like we gotta whoop some Romulan ass here there, but mostly I'm I'm talking to fucking Gynon about why data's kind of a prick and sipping her old gray in my ready room, maybe smoking a blizzy. I don't know, chilling. That's the future I prefer. Nobody cares that I'm bald. Who cares? We've moved past that. I've always wanted the Verhoven Neumeyer corporate government fascist overlord baddie movie, anti-billionaire movie. I'm sure they have moved past that. They've said, I think all you could say about here's the terrifying fascist future, here's the terrifying corporate future, four quarters in one hand, dollar bill in another. It's all bad.

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What? Oh no.

Rate It

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I will rate this title, the whole deal, the package itself, the steel book and all the features. I'm gonna give it a 4.5. I there's usually like a no, I'm gonna give this a five. I think it looks nice on the shelf. It's kind of like a Kino Lorber steelbook, everything in terms of size-wise and everything. There's a uniformity to it. Starship Troopers. Oh no, Paul, what are you realizing about yourself? But there trust, there's a very nice pop of color on it. It's very cool. It has nothing to do with the original artwork from the movie, the case itself outside of the spine. Oh no, okay. I'm gonna give it a five. It's really, really cool in terms of how in-depth it goes with the filmmaking and 115-degree days in Wyoming with big giant prosthetics and people for the very first time creating these things that were then used in Lord of the Rings and The Matrix and all sorts of things. It's a really groundbreaking movie, too, as I'm just sitting here talking about it. I need to look at the movie without going layer by layer by layer, and keeping in mind that Robocop does exist. Robocop is something so unexplainable to me for a zillion reasons. I hold it in such a high regard, removing art and artists at points, as we do with so many things, I guess, that are chip-man, this movie and just talking about this is making me think so many things, and I need to stop. It's too effective, Paul Verhoeven. It's too effective at its mission. Oh no. I give this movie a 4.5, partially because the level of how depressingly accurate this movie feels like it could be by the 23rd century time. All is well. And I do, like I say, I hold Robocop and White Man Can't Jump in a couple other movies in like such an insanely high regard, and I feel like this isn't quite there. This isn't quite aliens. I need the like slowdown or the relentless, insane, crazy violence, the level of stress. And I don't ever again, it's to the movie's credit, but I'm just wired that way. If you're like, no, let me have it, let me have it. If you haven't seen this movie and you can see it for the way that I'm telling you about it, and the filmmaker stated and quoted intention. There are people that have uniforms and badging and coloration and quotation and movement and things that are extremely intentional to evoke feelings of the Nazi party and Nazi regime. And the movie is massively effective at that. And at points, it's there's a level of unpleasantness. It reminds me of Gremlins 2. This is maybe the the blend of corporate, and I mean that's just a corporate fascism, I guess, though. But where Robert Picardo of Star Trek Voyager crumples Billy's drawing and says we have pleasant corporate approved things. And boy, this is one of those things that exists in that universe, but again, the government flip-flop. I I still give the movie a 4.5. Some of the acting is like a little tough. The movie is massively oppressive. This is maybe the highest echelon of this is for a really, really specific person, either a person that's just like TNT, two o'clock on a fucking Saturday, 5 o'clock on Sunday, Starship Troopers, I'll watch it twice in the weekend. I don't give a shit. Then if you can do that and you're just like, yeah, man, fucking entertain me, dazzle me, this movie will fucking dazzle and entertain you without pumping the brakes at any point in time. There are various little like plot holes or slowdowns or little things or dumb shit like that, where you're like, don't dazzle me, partly because the movie is so insanely purposeful about its messaging and about its imagery and these news reels that happen in the movie and how young people are, and the things that are said or questions that are asked that are like thrown away. It is, man, again, it can be like a hammer over the head. So I still I'm gonna leave it at four and a half fairrets. We have a lot of ferrets on this one. Four and a half fierrets, but still, you don't have to be an empath to know what I'm thinking. I'm so glad you hung in with me for this very long episode of the Review Review Shelf Help. It looks nice, it's a good movie, and anyone who you know that's like really highfalutin that's like Starship Troopers. I only watched Driving Miss Daisy and Green Book. Well, fuck off. Starship Troopers, baby. We're here for it. Have them listen to this episode, have them fall in line with your thinking. No one's right or wrong. It's okay. But if you like Green Book, you're wrong. This episode of the Review Review

Outro

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Shelf Help is brought to you by the Review Review Podcast. Our book and themes are by Jamie Henwood. You can follow the review review on Insta Flashes and Blue Sky at Review X2 Podcast. And if you want, you can follow me. That's completely optional, totally your choice, not important. At Paul ActsBadly, it's there if you have any interest. The review review is available. That's the optional thing. The review review is available almost everywhere, including Buzz Sprout and Good Pods. Vroom vroom.