POLL Verhoeven

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.