on Robert A. Heinlein's classic sci-fi adventure. Casper Van Dien, Dina Meyer, Denise Richards, Jake Busey, Neil Patrick Harris, Patrick Muldoon, and Michael Ironside star as the courageous soldiers who travel to the distant and desolate Klendathu system for the ultimate showdown between the species.  (less)

alien bugs. Ed Neumeier, who penned the Verhoeven film, is back as writer and director, as is Casper Van Dien as lantern-jawed hero Johnny Rico. Now a full-fledged colonel, he is dispatched to a planet where the military faces opposition from both the insect army and dissenting citizens. But after a trumped-up murder charge lands him on death row, Rico discovers that he's being sent on a secret mission to rescue a Sky Marshal (Stephen Anouke) who's gone missing deep in bug territory. Neumeier uses the well-worn military movie tropes to launch a satiric assault on all manner of current real world issues, from ultra-patriotism and military torture to religious fundamentalism and even pop culture as prop...  (less)

cowriter Ed Neumeier take inspired cues from Robert Heinlein's classic sci-fi novel to create a special-effects extravaganza that functions on multiple levels of entertainment. The film might be called "Melrose Place in Space," with its youthful cast of handsome guys and gorgeous women who look like they've been recruited (and in some cases they were) from the cast of Beverly Hills 90210 . Viewers might focus on the incredible, graphically intense action sequences (definitely not for children) in which heavily armed forces from Earth go to off-world battle against vast hordes of alien "bugs" bent on planetary conquest. The attacking bugs are marvels of state-of-the-art special-effects technology, and the space battl...  (less)

Trackers (including the four bonus episodes), and The Homefront Campaign . While Paul Verhoeven's dark, satirical adaptation of Robert Heinlein's Starship Troopers seriously strayed from the novel, this Verhoeven-produced TV series--part sequel, part remake, all CGI animated--hews closer to the spirit of the novel, a space-age twist on a World War II battle adventure. Roughnecks: The Starship Troopers Chronicles is a series of military skirmishes and assignments on a variety of fronts, such as Bug City, water-dominated Hydora, the desert planet Tophet, the jungle planet Tesca, fiery Klendathu, and good old Earth. The episodic nature works perfectly within this framework, and the mix of Marine grit ("No ret...  (less)

alien bugs. Ed Neumeier, who penned the Verhoeven film, is back as writer and director, as is Casper Van Dien as lantern-jawed hero Johnny Rico. Now a full-fledged colonel, he is dispatched to a planet where the military faces opposition from both the insect army and dissenting citizens. But after a trumped-up murder charge lands him on death row, Rico discovers that he's being sent on a secret mission to rescue a Sky Marshal (Stephen Anouke) who's gone missing deep in bug territory. Neumeier uses the well-worn military movie tropes to launch a satiric assault on all manner of current real world issues, from ultra-patriotism and military torture to religious fundamentalism and even pop culture as prop...  (less)

CGI revolution, Phil Tippett (with returning screenwriter Ed Neumeier) makes a woefully uninspired directorial debut with this makeshift sequel to Paul Verhoeven's 1997 blockbuster, retaining the jarhead militarism of Robert Heinlein's original novel while serving up more bugs, an all-new cast of attractive young stars, and all-too-familiar plot elements borrowed from a dozen better movies. "Bigger is better" is out of the question under such meager budgetary circumstances, so Tippett and Neumeier compensate with gruesome bugfights and gross-out effects at regular intervals, some standard-issue nudity, and escalating paranoia (echoing Carpenter's The Thing ) when a new breed of bugs use human hosts (à la T...  (less)

in space. When beautiful pilot Carmen is forced to crash land their powerful spaceship on icy, unpredictable terrain, heroic Rico, Flores, T'Phai and Co. set out to complete their work: finding a powerful toxin they can use against the deadly insects taking over the universe. What they encounter instead arefire-breathing bugs and asteroid-shaking earthquakes which plunge the Troopers and their ship further into the center of the planet. Now, their only mission is survival, and when the Troopers realizethe true nature of the asteroid, even survival seems out of reach.  (less)

killer bugs appear. Lieutenant Razak accepts help from a newly designed Trooper robot, who quickly saves the team from an intense ambush of massive crawlers. But the Skinnies have more than one surprise in store for the Troopers, proving again that the universe-wide bug war is far from over. 96 minutes.  (less)

cowriter Ed Neumeier take inspired cues from Robert Heinlein's classic sci-fi novel to create a special-effects extravaganza that functions on multiple levels of entertainment. The film might be called "Melrose Place in Space," with its youthful cast of handsome guys and gorgeous women who look like they've been recruited (and in some cases they were) from the cast of Beverly Hills 90210 . Viewers might focus on the incredible, graphically intense action sequences (definitely not for children) in which heavily armed forces from Earth go to off-world battle against vast hordes of alien "bugs" bent on planetary conquest. The attacking bugs are marvels of state-of-the-art special-effects technology, and the space battl...  (less)