Even stupider! Genius!
This is the one with the over-the-top soundtrack by Queen, right?
That’s the one.
FLASH! …he saved every one of us… FLASH!
I was coming in here precisely to list Starship Troopers. I simply can’t understand how people miss that the whole thing’s a huge send-up and that it’s hilariously funny. The cod-Nazi uniforms? The hysterical news flashes? The casting of shiny square-jawed teens so pretty they make your corneas wince?? it’s all firmly tongue in cheek and such a fun romp. I mean, Michael Ironsides in tights! How can anyone think you’re supposed to take that seriously, who the hell ever took Michael Ironsides seriously in anything?
I’ve read the book. Wouldn’t recommend it, except you’ll figure out where Verhoeven got the idea for the Nazi uniforms 
With Dennis Hopper and Debi Mazer, you’d think this might be a good space movie, but Space Truckers is about as cheesy as it gets.
Actually, he’s the sidekick and doesn’t know it. He’s totally Wang’s sidekick.
-Joe
Can It Be Love. Self-deprecating and tongue-in-cheek even by the standards of teen sex/grossout comedies, WRT which nobody involved has ever expected to get within sniffing distance of an Oscar nomination.
I don’t know about Manos… from what I hear it was made on a bet. That to me doesn’t sound like a movie that was made to be serious.
Amen to that. I really don’t see Heinlein’s appeal to anybody who doesn’t use pictures of Ayn Rand when masturbating. Whenever somebody claims this board is full of liberals I think how it’s also full of Heinlein fans.
You or someone else made that suggestion that last time I suggested this. I won’t dispute it, but that doesn’t change the fact that he’s a jerk.
The image is priceless, but I’ll bet Heinlein hated Ayn Rand. I can’t imagine him agreeing with her or liking her fiction. I can’t imagine him liking her writing even if he agreed with her politics.
I was just discussing this topic this morning. Apparently it’s a running controversy whether the Roger Ebert/Russ Meyer authored Beyond the Valley of the Dolls is nudge-nudge, or just bad. There is evidence that it’s the former; Austin Powers international Man of Mystery apparently lifts entire lines of dialog from it (this from a co-worker; I haven’t researched it myself.).
How about the recent “Ocean’s 12”? As any kind of “real” movie it was dog poop, but seen as a total put-on, it was hilarious (or rather some hilarious moments).
Starship Troopers is just the tip of the Verhoevan iceberg. His entire body of work drips contempt for the audience, all the while serving up heaping helpings of bone-numbing stupidity. Verhoevan always knows he’s making stupid movies, sometimes the actors in the movies are in on the joke, sometimes not.
For instance, Elizabeth Berkley was the victim of very elaborate practical joke by Verhoevan in Showgirls, while Gina Gershon knew it was a joke. Sharon Stone was always in on the joke too. Other actors, not so much. You actually feel bad for them, being manipulated so, but then Verhoevan tries to convince you they are just dumb actors who deserve it every bit as much as the audience.
Compare and contrast Verhoevan’s body of work, pandering to the audience’s baser instincts with contempt, vs a director that panders but doesn’t hold himself above the audience, like say, Roger Corman. Verhoevan wants to punish the audience for wanting to see naked tits, Roger Corman made movies about bare tits because he liked bare tits himself.
Depends on the bet. The bet was that Hal Warren could make a good horror film on a tiny budget. So at least he tried. It also appears he believed to have succeeded until the film premiered.
Adds dropzone’s name to list…
Some white guy? Some white guy!? I believe you mispelled the phrase “Academy Award winning actor Ray Milland”.
Where’s the source of the “good horror” claim? I’ve only ever heard as just ‘make a movie’ on that small of a budget.
How do you know he knows it?
Nice Girls Don’t Explode is a favorite of ours - stumbled across by accident on HBO or some such channel, nearly 20 years ago. We haven’t seen it on TV since then, so we finally bought a copy! Definitely does not take itself seriously.