Paul Verhoeven's tenure in Hollywood saw the director continually pushing the limits of what was acceptable in terms of violence & sex in mainstream film making, with results ranging from the stone-cold classic 'RoboCop' to the frankly embarrassing 'Showgirls'.  Although only a (possibly mentally unstable) few would claim 'Starship Troopers' to be his best work, it does sit comfortably high up in the quality stakes of this period of his work.

In adapting Robert A Heinlein's notoriously right-wing sci-fi book, Verhoeven & 'RoboCop' screenwriter Ed Neumeier load the film heavy with satire, constantly undercutting the gung-ho militarism with sly jokes & intentionally cheesy dialogue.  With a cast of beautiful young teens (mostly unknowns at the time), Verhoeven shoots the film almost like a teenage soap opera, a sharp contrast to the raging violence that dominates the film.  Reading interviews with Casper van Dien, it seems even years later he was blissfully unaware of how mischievously the film constantly takes the piss out of him & his co-stars.  Perhaps more to the point, with the current shape of the world, the film's delightful sabotage of right-wing policies makes the film more relevant today than it was 10 years ago when it was made.

But subtexts, schmubtexts.  The most immediately bracing thing about 'Starship Troopers' is its bevy of full-tilt action sequences & eye-popping special effects.  Whilst the latter are inevitably not as impressive now as they were 10 years ago, the riotous action scenes, packed with violence & gore, deliver on kinetic thrills even as they are undercut with those pesky subtexts.  With a two-act structure echoing 'Full Metal Jacket', the first half concerns itself with training camp, meaning that virtually all the action sits in the second half – but once the action starts there's simply no let-up in the best roller-coaster fashion.  The result is a rollicking ride – witty, intelligently stupid & balls-to-the-wall fun.  I could go on, but frankly there's no point – you've all seen it before, haven't you?

Sony recently announced a US blu-ray release of 'Starship Troopers', only to unexpectedly drop it from the schedule.  Thankfully Buena Vista are the distributors of the film in the UK, & they have brought the film out with a damned solid release.  The box states that it is encoded for Regions A,B & C (as are all BV's back-catalogue BD issues), although since my PS3 is RB only I can't verify whether this is correct.  Regardless, the 16x9 1080p transfer (using the AVC MPEG 4 codec, tech-heads) is very impressive stuff with a strong level of detail & many of those 'wow' moments that make you glad to have gone HD – particularly during the spaceship exteriors & frenetic bug battles.  If anything, it's almost too good – the seams of those 1997 special effects occasionally showing themselves!  A ream of audio options has Dolby 5.1 options in English, French or Spanish, DTS 5.1 in French or Spanish, & PCM 5.1 in English.

All the extras are carried over from BV's previous UK DVD release, &  includes Deleted Scenes, a featurette, Scene Developments (w/commentary), screen tests, plus trailers.  In addition there's a Blu-Scape feature – essentially a series of landscape shots showing off the wow! factor of HD, & movie showcase, which skips straight to the most visually impressive scenes.  It's not a bad bunch, but not particularly amazing given that Sony's current R1 DVD includes more goodies.

Whilst Sony's eventual US release may outdo this in terms of bonus features, the picture quality isn't likely to be pretty much identical to this damned fine transfer.  With it's (reputedly) all-region format & immediate availability, it's a release I don't regret forking out my hard-earned for, & an easy thumbs-up for fans of the film.