Starship Troopers Review

Messages: Surface themes about valor, bravery, military duty, fighting to victory against relentless enemy. But...a subversive undercurrent hints at a harsh society in which a powerful military establishment has taken over, with soldiers and Nazi-like elite officials granted superior rights and privileges to go with the responsibilities. The "good guys" are not necessarily good guys.

Role models: Heroic, fearless types abound, and males and females are equally take-charge and tough. Disabled veterans (missing limbs, especially) are commanding figures. There is a diverse ethnic mix of characters.

Violence: Extreme splattery gore in the monster battles, with humans sliced to pieces by insect claws and mandibles, crushed by machinery, melted by creature acid, and, by the finale, getting their brains sucked out. "Arachnids" are dissected and shot to pieces too. Human-on-human violence includes bones broken in brutal cadet-training lessons and fistfights. A character is shot in the head. The hero is literally whipped bloody in a disciplinary action. Real insects (giant cockroaches) are smashed, in a satire of human revenge-lust.

Sex: Toplessness, as Johnny and a fellow soldier have sex before a fight. Mobile Infantry, male and female, shower together with no qualms about it.

Language: The s-word, "bastard."

Consumerism: An onscreen plug for the telecommunications giant ATT.

Drinking, drugs and smoking: Troops drink beer in a victory celebration.