POLL Verhoeven

I'm looking forward to his film about Jesus, which will no doubt piss every one off. Flesh & Blood to Basic Instinct was one hell of a run for a mainstream Hollywood director, but think I'll probably go for Black Book.

Black Book, of course.

always been curious about his pre/non-Hollywood stuff. But when he's bad he is TERRIBLE... voted Starship Troopers out of the ones I've seen.

He's a high-class (and gloss) hack.

Flesh & Blood.

Hollow Man really stands out as a waste of time, doesn't it?

hollow man was totally weak but still pretty twisted and kind of entertaining. dude's got some classics up there, kind of a tough choice tbh.

I'm curious about his Dutch work too, according to wiki they were phenonemally popular in his home country. Themes seem familiar from his later Hollywood work.

'soldier of orange' is a good companion film to 'black book'. definitely the same kind of take on WW2.

first instinct is 2 go for robocop but starship troopers is dope too and turkish delight was pretty good

idk

Cannot for the life of me remember Flesh + Blood, but I'm sure I've seen it (Rutger Hauer's ahem "sword" looks awfully distinctive on the front cover.)

Probably voting Robocop.

voted total recall, which i prefer to any of the more prestige dick adaptations

(except maaaaybe a scanner darkly, for robert downey jr and woody harrelson's delivery of the bike conversation)

Nah Bladerunner's better than Total Recall.

Total Recall way behind Bladerunner and Scanner Darkly in my book - just marginally above the shitheap that is most PKD adaptations

Scanner Darkly isn't very good, but given how highly I rate the book there was no way it would be in my eyes.

Total Recall was and still is holy scripture in my household 'o boys.

C'mon, the tri-breasted woman!

have only seen robocop -->

black book was great

Starship Troopers.

Always thought Verhoeven should do a Judge Dredd film.

Black Book by far. Never rated Starship Troopers. Rewatched Robocop last month, and it wasn't as good as I remembered. Hollow Man is fucking AWFUL. But I've seen none of the earlier Dutch ones.

he deserves a worst and best poll. best would be Starship troopers or Robocop.

what movie is better than robocop? like on earth

i've seen spetters. it's terrible!

maybe if you're dutch and my age it has some nostalgic irony value, like the karate kid or something

Total Recall is probably the most accurate representation of what reading PKD is like (right down to Perky Pat Messiah and PKD's obsession with speaking German (Ahnold))
fully captures the pot-boiler flavor of PKD.

Haven't read Starship Troopers but am willing to bet it pins down the essence of the book more than defenders of the book would like to admit.

"fully captures the pot-boiler flavor of PKD."

Uh yeah but there's more to most Dick novels than just that.

no one is voting for showgirls??? it's more outrageous and twisted and brilliant than all the rest of these combined

Total Recall is holy-shit-is-this-really-happening violent. I mean, I can't think of a major studio release today that could get away with using a bystander as A SHIELD, or shooting in closeup a guy screaming as a javelin or whatever sticks out of his eye.

what's total recall missing in the PKD checklist?
high-concept paranoia, pull-rug-from-underneath ending, stiffly acting protagonist -- it's got it all!

The Fourth Man has a thing sticking out of a guy's eye as well.

no one is voting for showgirls??? it's more outrageous and twisted and brilliant than all the rest of these combined

― Tracer Hand, Wednesday, June 24, 2009 8:08 AM (19 minutes ago) Bookmark

Came here to ask this - probably the most harrowing of all his films that I've seen. For me it's between Starship Troopers and Showgirls.

Always thought Verhoeven should do a Judge Dredd film.

― chap, Wednesday, June 24, 2009 7:17 AM (1 hour ago) Bookmark

The one we have now is actually pretty good until Rob Schneider unceremoniously sinks it halfway through. Agreed though, Verhoeven on Dredd would be pretty amazing.

i've seen spetters. it's terrible!

maybe if you're dutch and my age it has some nostalgic irony value, like the karate kid or something

― moonship journey to baja, Tuesday, June 23, 2009 11:46 PM (1 hour ago) Bookmark

It actually does! It's a terrible movie, but has that value nonetheless. Went with Turkish Delight (Turks Fruit) though, because of it's sincere emotion and eroticism, and perhaps a bit of the before-mentioned nostalgia value. Yet I don't know if that indeed has to do with being Dutch.
Starship Troopers - although a movie of an entire other planet all together - is a close, close second though.

"Does this hurt? Does this hurt???"

"...and she was sweeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeet, mmmm! I took her out! BAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!"

"I got the muscle to shove so much of this factory up yer smelly wop ass that you'll shit snow for a year."

"Guns! Guns! Come on, boys! Tigers are playin'... to-night! I never miss a game."

"You... just... FUCKED! with the wrong guy!"

"Cops don't like me. So I don't like cops."

"I LIKE IT!!"

Do I have to mention the awesome and hilarious fake TV commercials? Or the ED-209 robot?

voted total recall - considered showgirls, black gook (not fixing that) but noted cumbeards shakey and AiSF voicing their disapproval of TR only strengthens my stance

One of the few directors where I've seen basically everything they've done (at least his films, haven't seen his TV stuff from the 1960s). Probably going to vote for Soldier Of Orange (difficult to vote against Rutger Hauer), but could just as easily vote Robocop or Black Book

Flesh + Blood is one of the most strangely overlooked AWESOME movies ever. I can understand someone voting Robocop over it, but F+M gets my vote every time.

Spetters is so terribly dutch. It has some nostalgic value but it ain't my thing really (as I'm Belgian).

voted total recall, which i prefer to any of the more prestige dick adaptations

oO How on earth did you blurt out that line?!? Blade Runner! Come on! :-)

I haven't seen Black Book. I didn't pick Flesh'n'Blood even though I do remember the juicy scenes. So I went with Starship Troopers.

His work is incredibly varied, but there's something about his style which is instantly recognisable regardless of genre.

And yeah, Starship Troopers ftw. (With Black Book and Total Recall close behind).

voted total recall, which i prefer to any of the more prestige dick adaptations

oO How on earth did you blurt out that line?!? Blade Runner! Come on! :-)

Blade Runner may look better and have better actors, but I think Total Recall does the whole PKD paranoia/identity/existentialism thing better. It's hard to say which one is better though.

blade runner is gay as hell and no one wants to admit it

Fourth Man was a belter, Verhoeven does not make bad movies ever but I know people who I'm gonna ignore will disagree. I'm voting RoboCop here because I think it will be the movie he's most remembered for, because it spawned 14 million straight-to-video rip-offs and because it totally fleshes out all his hi-larious cynical old fuck capitalism fetishes with the best splatter to laughs ratio.

Also cankles kind of otm

or to expand, Blade Runner is aight but it's fucking shit at filming PKD whereas Total Recall is way closer to his spirit.

Black Book was a great movie and totally recommended to anyone who hasn't seen it, but Starship Troopers and Robocop are some obscenely classic re-re-re-watchable shit. Tough choice.

Fuck. And Total Recall. Still haven't seen Showgirls though. Sounds amazing.

"The Fourth Man" and "Soldier of Orange" are both absolutely perfect. The rest of his work? Not so much.

Okay, I'll give ya "Robocop" as well.

I always assumed he'd had some sort of frontal lobotomy between his Dutch films and his Hollywood films, as seemingly all thought, finesse and restraint went right out the window.

Hmmm, I wonder if comedy anarchist Verhoeven might be doing that deliberately or not?

I'm convinced the lobotomy is just "veneer". You could assume that Starship Troopers is just a silly movie he made and that the critique was unintentional. But he is aware of it. Sort of adopted the Hollywood fluo-silliness but simultaneously mocking American culture.

Yeah I dunno how anyone could watch those war propaganda "The More You Know" shorts/their Robocop predecessors and not see Verhoeven with hand outstretched and perpendicular to the face, thumb touching the nose.

I have a friend who honestly swears that "Showgirls" is actually an extended, malicious practical joke by Verhoeven on Elizabeth Berkley.

hahahahaha

there's a weird meta overlap in showgirls, where vacuous, ambitious elizabeth berkley's sex appeal is being exploited as a commodity in a movie about ambitious, vacuous girls whose sex appeal is exploited as a commodity

what's total recall missing in the PKD checklist?

its not that it misses anything so much as it ADDS a totally inappropriate level of violence and action movie silliness. The body count in PKD's stuff is usually pretty low, there's never any of this "let's run around shooting people" shit

That's because books aren't films, and films shouldn't try to be books.

Also I can imagine Verhoeven not giving much of a stuff about his source material.

I'll grant you that the bodycount oneliner action is more ahnold than PKD but:

“On Mars”, Quail said hoarsely, “I killed a man. After getting past fifteen bodyguards. Somearmed with sneaky-pete guns, the way you are.” He had been trained, by Interplan, over afive year period to be an assassin. A professional killer. He knew ways to take out armedadversaries ... such as these two officers; and the one with the ear-receiver knew it, too.If he moved swiftly enough—The gun fired. But he had already moved to one side, and at the same time he choppeddown the gun-carrying officer. In an instant he had possession of the gun and was coveringthe other, confused, officer"

owned

http://www.dnr.state.oh.us/Portals/9/images/diversity/songbirds/quail.jpg

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

Starship Troopers? SCANDAL

Allow me to present a rebuttal:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QdZqKVcI9m8

Admittedly, Robocop was bogged down by an inexplicable amount of Boddicker-free filler, but I think it's a strong movie even with all that stuff about the metal policeman.

closeted gayz voyed for Casper whipping scene

(I abstained)

Verhoeven trivia:

In this Flesh + Blood scene, Jennifer Jason Leigh's maid is played by none other than BART SIMPSON.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ad2LNbqgusI

for me it's black book and show girls in a tie
then robocop and starship trooper tied for second
then total recall
then all the rest

haven't seen fourth man or soldier of orange though

Showgirls 7
Black Book 6

You people are mad, or on drugs. Or both.

on mad drugs

top 4 movies OTM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z3YIU64sy8A

HA HA HA, you think this is the real Quaid...? ... IT IS!

Didn't ever see the results but YAY Robocop/Total Recall split!

http://www.avclub.com/articles/for-his-next-awesomely-insane-thing-paul-verhoeven,46412/

I watched a bunch of trailers for his lesser known films (Rutger Hauer seems to be in most of them), Flesh+Blood appealed most. Katie Tippel looked intriguing too. Anyone seen the majority of these?

Spetters, Soldier of Orange, Fourth Man and Turkish Delight are all worth watching

Flesh & Blood is great, Michael Parkinson walked out of it in disgust

Didn't ever see the results but YAY Robocop/Total Recall split!

― boring movies are the most boring (Eric H.), Wednesday, September 2, 2009 4:01 PM (6 years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Widespread critical appreciation of both of these films make me feel like "taste" is not completely arbitrary, b/c I remember even as an 11/12-year-old watching them feeling like there was something special about them beyond the typical action flick.

http://variety.com/2016/film/global/first-look-paul-verhoevens-elle-trailer-isabelle-huppert-1201699088/

Could be trouble, but at this point I trust him.

oh! i get it! i'm dreaming! this is all part of the delightful vacation your company has sold me.

From the Guardian's Cannes coverage:

“We thought it would be an American movie,” says Verhoeven. “We basically translated the novel into English and I knew a very good American scriptwriter. We were basically replacing Paris with Chicago or Seattle. It was only when we got the reaction of female American stars that we started to realise this kind of story without a revenge was not for the American market.”

Cannot wait

There's a strange cheesiness to this guy's movies that's not like other cheesy movies. It's a kind of uncanny creepy cheese I can't stomach for long.

Poll closed forever ago, but Robocop by far.

seeing Elle next weekend

Might be good except looking at that interview Huppert lends a cred to what could be shabby material. Verhoeven needs something thrashy to make something great or really awful, but always compelling and which sticks.

Slant ranks 'em all

i saw Spetters last night for the first time, which was ooookay except for, say, the rather disturbing portrayal of a character coming out as gay after being gang-raped by some toughs in Rotterdam.

ditto Total Recall which rather massively dumbs down that Dick story, but features all kinds of crazy shit (telepathic Martian rebel leader hanging from a guy's torso, dwarf prostitute firing a machine gun, more punctured human heads than any 'R' movie ever).

oh yeah Elle is the best thing i've seen from this guy. it's quite funny and also a very tough watch.

ditto Total Recall which rather massively dumbs down that Dick story, but features all kinds of crazy shit (telepathic Martian rebel leader hanging from a guy's torso, dwarf prostitute firing a machine gun, more punctured human heads than any 'R' movie ever).

― Supercreditor (Dr Morbius)

I like it but it might be the most violent film I've ever seen: human shields on elevators, pokers sticking out of eyeballs, arms crunched off, Schwarzenegger checking into a Hilton...

Flesh+Blood is ranked way too low in that list, and Basic Instinct way too high.

human shield on an escalator

i found Starship Troopers profoundly stupid; MAD Magazine looks like Swift in its light

I cannot recommend the Troopers commentary track w/ Verhoeven and the cast enough. Let's just say there are some sublime moments of intellectual disconnect.

at the NYC retro PV will be appearing with Casper whatzisDiem at a Troopers screening. Perhaps there'll be a whipping.

Because I saw Total Recall when I was 12, I don't think I realized until just now how truly fucked up it is.

That said--and while I haven't seen either film as an adult--I remember finding the violence in RoboCop more unnerving than that in TR when I was a kid.

Yes, Robocop has a cruel streak that gives its violence a real nastiness. TR is basically expensive splatstick.

robocop has that melting guy who gets hit by a car and explodes, which i guess is funny but disturbed the shit out of me when i was a kid

when i went through a bunch of verhoeven movies a few years ago, i was surprised at how much i still loved total recall, which i watched all the time when i was a kid; i guess it dumbs down its source material but it's so fun and well-constructed and michael ironside

Robocop was on TV last week when I was getting a haircut. The violence really is brutal in that one.

I liked Flesh & Blood a lot; I'm surprised it wasn't higher on that list, in this post-Game of Thrones era.

total recall has stuff in it left over from a cronenberg treatment that doesn't have any reason to be in the film. if you tell verhoeven about three boob lady there's no way he's cutting it.

Sharon Stone's best performance imo

and yes on Michael Ironside

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q1FS_vKJl8U

Total Recall is terrible u guys are crazy

Nah, it's the best kind of trash: sustained, well-wrought trash.

I find it joyless and offensive unlike his other, better sustained well-wrought trash tbh

part of it's that I just can't watch Arnold, he's such a painfully terrible actor, I can't get past it. Then there's the relentless misogyny, the butchering of the source material, the willfully stupid plot contrivances, it looks cheap... idk I can't think of anything to recommend it. At least with Robocop and Starship Troopers it feels like something sly and subversive is going on. Showgirls is pure nonsensical camp. But Total Recall is just some reactionary Republican wet dream, it's creepy.

Basic Instinct is the Hollywood effort I take no joy in, despite the Jan de Bont factor

i don't see a whole lot that's 'Republican' about TR, unless all their divorces are done w/ a bullet. Agreed that Stone is a blast in it. It is dense, entertaining trash (with a brain, sort of).

Once the Schwarz came on board, it was apparently rewritten to his "strengths." In the previous incarnation they'd been considering Matthew Broderick for the lead.

She looks smashing in period Madonna suits too.

i get bored w/ Ironside's deadeye shtick after 10 mins. He even did it in a Charles Burnett film.

Total Recall is just some reactionary Republican wet dream, it's creepy.

― Οὖτις, Monday, November 14, 2016 6:01 PM (two hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I'd argue that it's knowingly so, as opposed to 90% of the other action movies released from like '80-'92.

it fades to white at the end, suggesting Ahnuld has gotten a long-overdue lobotomy

i also love the scene where the head of Rekall (?) comes in and explains why everything is a dream, before A.S. sees a bead of sweat and offs him. Nice narrative jerk.

SWALLOW IT

certainly more 'eventful' than The Matrix. And the climax is a hologram rip of Lady from Shanghai.

but really, check out that gang rape in Spetters sometime. So fucked up.

Total Recall >> Robocop

Blasphemy. I do enjoy the TR >>> Blade Runner challops from earlier itt though

It's not that hard to imagine Broderick in a Cronenberg version of TR, really

i believe spetters was his attempt at being as offensive as possible -- not only with the rape but also with the suicide of the guy who lost his legs being treated positively.

didn't find that positively presented

According to the Dutch filmmaker, the reason Hollywood’s remakes (“Total Recall,” “Robocop”) and sequels (“Basic Instinct,” “Robocop,” “Starship Troopers) of his films fail is “the studios always wanted not to have a layer of lightness, a layer of irony, sarcasm, satire.”

Referring to the announcement that the new “Starship Troopers” reboot would go back to science fiction author Robert A. Heinlein’s original novel was particularly troubling to Verhoeven.

“It said in the article [that] the production team of that movie of the remake, that they would go back more and more towards the novel. And of course, we really, really tried to get away from the novel, because we felt that the novel was fascistic and militaristic,” said Verhoeven. “You feel that going back to the novel would fit very much in a Trump Presidency.”

http://www.indiewire.com/2016/11/paul-verhoeven-slams-starship-troopers-remake-fascist-update-perfect-trump-presidency-1201747155/

but really, check out that gang rape in Spetters sometime. So fucked up.

― Supercreditor (Dr Morbius), Tuesday, 15 November 2016 02:44

Pretty nasty gang rape in Flesh + Blood too.

"nasty" is the main descriptor for that movie really, though it's also pretty funny. it's the only movie set in medieval times that I've seen that feels as gross as it must have actually been

I was going to say I couldn't imagine a big film being made like that now but it was probably an oddity at the time too.
I read that Verhoeven originally didn't intend there to be a female love interest and regretted including that. It would have been a totally different film without it.

i believe spetters was his attempt at being as offensive as possible

well, i saw Turkish Delight ('73) last night, based on a big Dutch bestselling novel, and hoo boy! The missing link among Love Story, Last Tango in Paris, and Judd Apatow.

PV did a Q&A after, chalked up the whole nudity/every-bodily-fluid vibe to the unleashing of the Dutch sexual revolution etc.

or as simonabrams wrote on L'boxd, "A sophomore film. Also sophomoric!"

going back to what shakey said a couple of days ago on total recall

Then there's the relentless misogyny, the butchering of the source material, the willfully stupid plot contrivances, it looks cheap... idk I can't think of anything to recommend it.

part of the reason i like total recall a lot is that the stupid plot contrivances and the cheapness actually kinda work in its favour when you take the view that everything after arnold goes for the procedure at rekall is his implanted memory, which is supported by the fact that the rekall team summarise the entire plot of the movie before it happens. quaid is supposed to be paying for the memory of a trashy numbskull spy adventure on mars, which is exactly what he gets, and so do we.

i'm still kinda bummed that verhoeven and schwarzenegger never got to make their megabudget crusades movie :(

Yeah the pulpy ridiculousness of Total Recall is what makes it work.

as much as i love the social-commentary splatter of robocop and starship troopers sometimes i just wanna watch some subtext-free gore y'know?

Ah yes, the "i meant to do that" defense

i kinda thought i might get that response but a) death of the author etc etc, i think it is a valid reading of the film either way and b) i'm pretty sure i remember from the dvd commentary that it is verhoeven's explicit intent that quaid is dreaming and the over-the-topness of everything post-rekall is absolutely intentional

i guess we're not gonna see eye-to-eye on this one but i'd advise anyone with an interest in the movie to listen to the commentary if they haven't already cuz it's a fuckin hoot - verhoeven getting super-excited about the amount of fake blood they packed into squibs while arnold robotically points out in excruciating detail exactly what's happening on-screen and pedantically explains the paper-thin motiviations of his character

Arnold is vulnerable in the movie, eh? He's never vulnerable. Even in the scene where the doctor comes in and goes, "You think you're here on Mars? Well, haha, you're not!" I mean, Arnold is very vulnerable there, yeah? And Arnold is a great guy to work with, in fact. Probably the most dedicated... well, Isabelle is dedicated, too, but Arnold! Arnold is the most dedicated guy I've worked with. He works very, very hard. He's willing to try everything to make the movie work. And he has no ego. I could say to Arnold, "That scene doesn't look good. Watch this video, it's not good, what you're doing. Let's do another take," and he would take direction. I mean, he's obviously not a trained actor in any way, but his really wanting to get the best out of himself and out of everybody is rare.

http://www.metro.us/entertainment/paul-verhoeven-talks-elle-and-how-hollywood-really-is-now-all-about-money/zsJpkj---H2mJKQWBL49nA/

i think Elle needs its own thread

part of the reason i like total recall a lot is that the stupid plot contrivances and the cheapness actually kinda work in its favour when you take the view that everything after arnold goes for the procedure at rekall is his implanted memory, which is supported by the fact that the rekall team summarise the entire plot of the movie before it happens. quaid is supposed to be paying for the memory of a trashy numbskull spy adventure on mars, which is exactly what he gets, and so do we.

otm

xp sure - by all means start it! it's not out here in the uk in march but i'll happily check the thread out once i get the chance to see it

a discussion

http://www.filmcomment.com/blog/film-comment-podcast-paul-verhoeven/

xp to Morbs: Turkish Delight is, to this day, the most successful Dutch film of all time. 3.3m people (on a population of 13.5m) saw it at the cinema back then.

That was mentioned ("like twice Star Wars" Verhoeven said), and voted Greatest Dutch Film of the Century in 1999. Sad!

just call me "ilx silverware" btw (i've "learned nothing")

Don't think thats sad tbh, it's a good movie. The list of 25 most viewed Dutch movies contains six Verhoevens, and quite some other smut films from the 70s :)

Elle was pretty good but probably like my 7th fave of his. I hope he gets a chance to make one more American movie during the Trump years.

elle needs its own thread yeah. i just finished it and i'm extremely upset

As Variety‘s Elsa Keslassy reports, he plans to re-team with Elle producer producer Said Ben Said on three further projects, “a French resistance drama, Lyon 1943 (working title), a film about Jesus (to be shot in French) and a movie turning on a Medieval women monastery based on a real story that occurred in Italy and will be transposed to France. Verhoeven revealed he also had a project set in the US: An English-language film called The Rogue which he’s doing with American producer Bill Mechanic.”

http://variety.com/2016/film/global/paul-verhoeven-on-elle-star-isabelle-huppert-producer-said-ben-said-future-projects-exclusive-1201938937/

as someone who's actually read his book on the subject I maintain there is absolutely no way he ever gets his Jesus movie made

IIRC he hasn't yet figured out how to film the parables.

i just watched the fourth man and the placement of the fourth man in that verhoeven ranking upthread is rong rong rong

I don't think I've ever seen the entirety of that one, for some reason, despite all the times I borrowed the (now quite rare/expensive, I think) early-Verhoeven box from the video store I used to work in

Likes: Verhoeven
Dislikes: Eszterhas

I had never seen Basic Instinct - I started it once years ago, when I was snobbier, and could barely watch - and now that I have:

1) Looks great! Not bad, Jan de Bont.
2) For all it luridness, it's pretty old fashioned.
3) Like at least half of his stuff, it's Hitchcock with a wink (I think), totally ridiculous to the point of hard boiled parody. It's super hard to discern if this is simply the writing or how Verhoeven is approaching the writing. (This is more of a problem with Showgirls, or of course, maybe just a problem with Eszterhas.)
4) Great score! Goldsmith does Herrmann.
5) Stephen Tobolowsky!

i think basic instinct is maybe goldsmith's best ever score

Poltergeist for me.

There's this, Poltergeist, Omen, Apes, Patton, Alien, Chinatown ... those are the ones that come to mind.

Oh, forgot 6) Rob Bottin!

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/C-SSul3XkAAEdb_.jpg

Seems like this is going to happen!

https://variety.com/2017/film/global/paul-verhoeven-approaches-blessed-virgin-with-elle-star-virginie-efira-1202399023/

My humble rankings.

Verhoeven + that concept + soeteman sounds like a winner to me

Watching Total Recall for the first time in maybe 15 years. Verhoeven and DP Jost Vacano had such a weird, almost unique look going on, totally drab and flat (both the look *and* Arnie) but it works, not least because the blood is so rich and vibrant. Arnie, for his part, is totally game for this strange mix of almost old-fashioned cornball and state of the art and the gleeful embrace of sheer absurdity. I kept thinking to myself how patient he must have been for all these crazy set pieces, esp. considering he's the least coked out looking/acting of the whole cast.

yeah it’s super-entertaining and the supporting cast is great - sharon stone in particular has a blast playing a character which probably seemed pretty flat on the page

i watched this again fairly recently and one thing which really struck me is how good arnold is as the super-spy quaid who appears in video messages to the regular quaid - he’s got this laidback cockiness that schwarzenegger never really played in any other role, weirdly. i wish we got to see more of that side of arnold onscreen during his career!

also the visual of construction-worker arnold holding a jackhammer will never not be amazing and hilarious

Boy, “Benedetta” gets a poop joke in there less than five mnutes into the movie and then it just keeps going.iCan’t say I didn’t enjoy lots of it, though, regardless. This is full throttle trashy Verhoeven.

i wanna see the nun titty movie so bad

You ain't never seen Jesus like this!

It's wild.

and, yeah, it's trash with verve

attempting a ranking of verhoeven films which will make no sense whatsoever

total recall
showgirls
elle
robocop
the fourth man
benedetta
starship troopers
katie tippel
black book
turkish delight
soldier of orange
flesh & blood
hollow man
spetters

still haven't seen: business is business, tricked

thought Elle was surprisingly good but otherwise am not that interested in his films

really liked Total Recall at the time. I should see it again, but I already know I'm going to be disappointed

watched Showgirls again recently. loved the scene showing her companionship with the drifter she hitchhikes a ride with at the beginning of the film, who robs her. she ends up getting the better of him at the end

Total Recall ruled when I watched it last year.

Really love Soldier of Orange. Just a great buddy war film, although I can understand if one would consider it lacking in Verhoevenesque tendencies. It’s played pretty straight.

He's made only two films in the 12 years since this poll and yet I think he's due for a repoll.

ive always liked-but-not-loved robocop, but total recall just delivers a full buffet of insanity and then some, outrageously fun when i revisited it recently, forever #1 PV for me

GIVE ZEZE PEOPLE ZEH AIIIR

black book higher for me, maybe no. 2 after showgirls and just ahead of total recall

i need to see it a second time for sure

Benedetta was quite good but I feel just a little underwhelmed. Still worth seeing.

Benedetta was enjoyable enough in the old-fashioned sense of trashy-arty Euro films like Just Jaeckin’s ‘Emmanuelle’ and ‘The Story of O’

it’s wild how I always have to be reminded that he did Basic Instinct. which I’m assuming was his biggest earner?

and Robocop.

It's been years since I've seen Soldier of Orange, but I remember liking it a lot.

Huh, I wonder what happened to the RoboCop documentary, "RoboDoc"? This piece claims it finally wrapped (after four years) over a year ago:

https://deadline.com/2021/04/robocop-robodoc-documentary-peter-weller-movie-paul-verhoeven-1234747420

looks like RoboDoc is finally coming to streaming:

https://bloody-disgusting.com/movie/3775706/robodoc-the-creation-of-robocop-four-part-docuseries-premieres-august-29-on-screambox/


but what I really revived this for is to say that I finally watched Benedetta and it was a lot of fun! every powerful character see-sawing between what they believe and their ambitions was great. was not expecting it to be as funny as it was

How long as that been in the works, a decade?

having seen Reservation Dogs before Benedetta, I kept thinking of her visions in terms of the visions in that show. which isn’t that far off, really

Benedetta is wonderful, and I highly recommend reading its source material, Immodest Acts, too. I love its really dry humour.

Not listed in the poll, but his experimental Dutch mini-feature TRICKED is definitely worth a watch.

Gave Showgirls a fresh rewatch thanks to the new 4K and it feels even more of an otherworldly miracle now, in the nu-puritanical ‘20s

Not one vote for Soldier of Orange? Surprising.

While he hasn’t found a sci-fi project that piqued his interest, Verhoeven has plenty to keep him busy. He is currently preparing to shoot a political thriller called “Young Sinner,” which would mark his fist American film since he released “Hollow Man” in 2000. Verhoeven said that the film, which sees him reteaming with “RoboCop” writer Ed Neumeier, could be ready to enter production as early as this year.

“I’m working with Ed Neumeier, who wrote RoboCop. You could say it’s a political thriller, if you want, situated in Washington,” he said of the project. “The last couple of years I’ve been working in France because I couldn’t find something interesting here at that time. But Ed came up with a really interesting proposal. For two years we have been working on the screenplay. It should be done in two months and then we can find out if someone can finance it.”

BTW, Verhoeven is 85!!!

That probably sneaks up on a lot of American viewers - he had a long and extensive filmmaking career before making Robocop.

Thankfully he makes a lot of appearances in NYC - highly recommended, but Lincoln Center usually records and uploads his talks so you can see them on their YouTube channel. A few recommended ones:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h6_0CwGuiMc

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0QotxGy4CKk

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4O5QZncVjuw

He's definitely a filmmaker who's grown on me in recent years. Starship Troopers alone seems very underrated and sadly a film that the country's lived down to thanks to the increasingly warped right wing.

(FWIW, I would've voted for Black Book)