Starship Troopers at Drafthouse Lake Creek

It takes a certain type of movie to make it to midnight-movie cult status, and on first glance the big-budget gloss of Starship Troopers would seem to preclude such distinction. When was the last time Con Air or Timecop played to a packed house of screaming fans in the middle of the night?

But hang on a minute: this is a film by Paul Verhoeven, and whatever else you can say about him, the man has never made a boring movie in his life. And the script is by Ed Neumeier, whose other collaboration with Verhoeven, Robocop (which incidentally plays the midnight slot next week), is seriously one of the greatest films of the 20th century. Between the latter's fascination with the foibles of American foreign policy and the former's obsession with extreme gore and gratuitous sex, you have a recipe for a film that develops into an excellent satire on gung-ho police state fascism even as it wallows in close-up shots of brain-sucking alien bugs and extended shower scenes. Stir in remarkable effects work by the legendary Phil Tippett (who worked on both Robocop and Jurassic Park) and you have a recipe for success that not even Casper Van Dien can spoil. So, the plot? Future military state killer bugs desert combat oh man that's gotta hurt!