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Of Auburn Hills

BRINGS You

THE SAME EXCELLENT FOOD OUR FAMILY
HAS BEEN SERVING SINCE 1939

Our Wondeful Tradition Is A Great Pride.

small station in California.
STARSHIP TROOPERS
Max "lost it" during some disaster
If Hitler had won the war and
coverage, right next to the rising
made Leni Riefenstahl head of Reich
anchor (Alan Alda — the contrast of
DreamWorks, she might have gotten
small, emotional Jew vs. tall, chilly
Dutch director Paul Verhoeven to
WASP is hammily explicit).
make a movie like Starship Troopers (as
Max's comeback seems launched
Supermen Stormtroopers?).
when he lucks into a hostage crisis at
Set in the mindless, metallic
the town's old-time natural-history
future, Verhoeven's film is so top-
museum. A fired security guard, Sam
heavy it required two supporting stu-
Baily (John Travolta), arrives on the
dios (Sony's TriStar and Disney's
day that Max drops in for a fluff story,
Touchstone). It has endless action
to demand the job he lost in a budget
and is huge on mutilation: ripped
cut. Sam has a shotgun, some dyna-
bodies, splattered guts, carnage
mite and a total case of jitters.
galore.
Max becomes a sort of hostage,
"Our boys" (and an allotment of
along with a group of schoolkids,
robust gals) are up against "them" —
their teacher and the snooty curator
the Arachnids, which look less like
(Blythe Danner, again mostly wast-
spiders than robotic toys. They want
ed); Quick on his feet yet fatherly in
to conquer the galaxy, and send mete-
manner, Max appoints himself advis-
orites from deep space to bombard
er, free therapist and media masseur
Earth.
for Sam, who accidentally shoots
In a big cast of able bodies that
another guard and then feels locked
might as well be faceless, the faces
into an overblown hell of his feeble
most seen in titanic close-ups are
devising.
those of Johnny Rico and Carmen
Of course, anchor deity
Hollander (Alda) comes
swooping in from New
York, along with 1 billion
other TV types. He still
hates Max and is eager to
steal the story. Max reacts
ruthlessly, aware of his tick-
lish career options, but he
also begins to like Sam,
offers him mostly good
advice, and is keen to save
the innocents.
The movie lacks the
stormy pressure of Dog Day
Afternoon. What it has is a
Johnny Rico (Casper Van Dien) warns the Mobile
scrappy, slightly satirical take Infantry of an approaching Tanker Bug in Starship
on the wolfishness of TV
Troopers.
news hounds.
The film nails the inane ratings
Ibanez. They live in Buenos Aires,
fever of broadcast news. Max seems a
though it must be a suburb of Los
pillar of street-level sanity. Though
Angeles. They volunteer for the battle
cynical, even manipulative, he has a
forces as if joining a massively mutat-
pesky conscience.
ed Peace Corps.
Unfortunately, Travolta becomes
Carmen is played by ever-smiling
The People, in a low-rent way. As
Denise Richards. Johnny's played by
Sam, Travolta fumes and flakes
Casper Van Dien, whose amazingly
behind his bulging gut, forklifting
cubical jawline and vacant span of
pathos that makes Sam a stockpile of
emotion bring back the era of Tom
cliches.
Tryon, Doug McClure and Pat
At the end, in debt to Rebel
Wayne. After hellish training that
Without a Cause, violence must occur,
makes G.I. Jane seem wimpy, the
because otherwise all we have is a
space cadets are pumped up and ready.
tango of TV egos. In Rebel, the culprit
Bring on the bugs! Though based on
was society incarnated by trigger-
an award-winning novel by Robert
happy cops. Here it is society not rep-
Heinlein, this film is far less literary
resented but overwhelmed by TV
than jauntily compiled from action
news. Rated PG-13.
comics and countless films: The D.I.,
Alien, Arachnophobia, Star Wars,
— Reviewed by David Elliott Spartacus, Drum, Japanese creature

.

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248.474.3033

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