Starship Troopers 2 is probably one of the worst movies ... of about a 7 year period I think. And I only watched the first 15 minutes. I downloaded it and still felt cheated out of my money.
The first one is still great.
I remember reading about this one sometime last year... it sounded like it was going to be like nr 2.
Paul Verhoeven should be forced to do sci-fi. For the greater good.

Upvote for nr 1's popcorn greatness.

>> ^BillOreilly:
wait... they made a second one?


Yeah, I asked that same question after I saw the comments here, checked the movie out and I can firmly say that it is one of the worst movies ever made. I couldn't make it past first third of the movie, and my shit resistance is much higher than average.

Oh... my... god. Starship Troopers is one of my all-time favorite movies, but part 2 was SO BAD. This doesn't look like it will end up much better.

I believe thats a misconception, reading his other books he also comes on the side of right wing almost fascist pro-Military structure in something like Starship Troopers. Even in the end of the Moon is a Harsh Mistress, you see the narrator of the story look back on how the great revolution had fallen into disarray with over regulation and control. I don't think there is much of his personal political views in it, but rather an exploration of various stances.

With regards to marriage and incest it's interesting and totally relevant to the book contextually, we learn Luna is colony where criminals and others were simply forced to occupy much like Australia was by England, the ratio of males to females was astronomical, leading to different structures in terms of marriage, but giving more power to the female over the male due to their prized status. Its all very interesting.

Currently reading Wikipedia, I brought only one book on my trip and I read it twice already. So Wiki is filling a large void, did you know that SS uniforms were designed by Hugo Boss? No wai!

As for the book, if you can call it that it's called "The Know It All Book" and basically covers topics on Science, Philosophy, History, Visual Arts, Music, Literature and Religion. A sort of refresher course, expanding horizons and completing education shindig (I totally got that off the back cover). But at least now I can say that late 19th century Romanticism is for douche bags with some certain authority.

Recently I also read Richard Herman's "Against All Enemies", this is about as airport trash as you can get, and the man is totally phoning in Tom Clancy, still a very good page turner though afterwards I felt like I simply wasted my time. I just noticed on Nexttag that he has some perverse pleasure in having the front cover of his books ripped in two, must be some stylistic thing, but god it annoyed me when I was reading the book. It's selling for less then a dollar now... its worth less then the paper its printed on.

Before leaving Kuwait I read Fear up Harsh - An Army Interrogator's Dark Journey Through Iraq which was a great first account of someone whose idealism for helping his nation win a war slowly wanes after witnessing pressure to produce 'results', using dubious techniques. It's a very human account, highly recommended reading for those trying to get an insight into how Army Intelligence operated in Iraq, both good and bad. The comments on Amazon.com are hilarious really -

"No matter how poignant, timely, or interesting Mr. Lagouranis's story may be, or how sincere and intelligent he comes across in an interview on television, we are at war, ladies and gentleman. Our soldiers' lives are risked every day in Iraq and Afghanistan. Efforts such as Mr. Lagouranis's, written in the safety and shelter of the United States, undermine theirs so far away, and play into directly the hands of our sophisticated enemies."

Which shows the person hardly read the book at all.

On my last trip here I read two books of Robert Heinlein, The Moon is a Harsh Mistress and Tunnel In The Sky. Both excellent sci-fi books, especially the Moon Is A Harsh Mistress which reads like a manual for rebellion against an oppressive government, especially interesting if you read Starshi
p Troopers.

I also read P.D. James' Children of Men, which was adapted into the movie, and wasn't surprised that I liked the book far more then the film as it is beautifully written, far darker then the film and ends differently.

PS: If you are looking for some good Sci Fi to read, its always good to consult Hugo Award winners, here is a list on Amazon for pre-2000 winners, there is another for post-2000 as well.

PPS: I also highly recommend Life of Pi, one of the best books I read.

Now I will shut up.

w00t, Robert Heinleins vision for starship troopers finally becomes a reality.

Wow, intense Starship Troopers flashback. Service guarantees citizenship! Would you like to know more?

Starship Troopers needs to be remade properly, there is much that was cut out from the film. Specifically anything intelligent about it.

I also want a proper coverage of the Dune series beyond the first book, such as God Emperor of Dune specifically covering the Golden Path.

But most of all, I want to see a movie version of Childhood's End by Arthur C. Clarke.

Robert Heinlein's "Tunnel in the Sky" - kids in a futuristic survival 'outward bound' type school trip get stranded on an alien planet due to a freak supernova and have to fend for themselves... kind of Lord of the Flies, but cooler.

Or Heinlein's "The Moon is a Harsh Mistress"- futuristic Lunar Colony secedes from Earth with the help of a sentient super computer... one of my favorite books, basically parts of it read like a blueprint for revolution, and outlines how to set up resistance cells and civil unrest.

Both could make good movies, provided they had a director willing to look past the possibility of turning them into special effects orgies... like they did with his "Starship Troopers"... which, by the way, was a fantastic little book, and nothing like the movie that shares its name.

-Haldeman's "The Forever War" (and please no cheese like Starship Troopers turned out to be)
-May's "Galatic Milieu", "Intervention" and "Pliocene Exile" books

and though fantasy I would love to see Cook's "Black Company"

yeah wazant, but there are purists of pinball like there are the same for lp's......there just ain't a viable new market for it....yer best bet for profit in pinball machines, is to repair and service them, or have a shop that caters, specialty-wise......The market is dried up for pb, hence this viddy post......

My favs are Starship Troopers, Firepower, Mars Attacks is cool.....old school pinball-lovers can reminisce here
http://www.pinballmuseum.org/

and this cat's got a great set of photos from there, all on flickr
http://www.flickr.com/photos/pmtorrone/sets/72057594124018534/

The film was from 1997. Full info for the film can be found on Wikipedia's Starship Troopers film entry.

Nice quote Choggie! Course with our current chickenhawk leadership I would almost be in favor of requiring military service to run for political office. Something like the service gives citizenship (PDF) seen in Robert Heinlein's Starship Troopers.

Such an absolute butchery of Bob Heinlein's brilliant plot, dialogue, and manifesto.

As a personal favor to me, after watching this clip, go read the book. Starship Troopers by Robert A. Heinlein. Classic "hard" science fiction from the master exploited and travestied by Hollywood.

Yay, Starship Troopers. I ordered the DVD in Australia because here in Germany there was no unrated version back then.