Released 1997
Stars Casper Van Dien, Dina Meyer, Denise Richards, Jake Busey, Neil Patrick Harris, Clancy Brown
Directed by Paul Verhoeven

"Saved by the Bell" in space. Dreadful shoot-em up science fiction film, which has too little action. Furthermore, the action it does have is repetitive and dull. The first hour is spent watching kids that are supposed to be just out of high school (yeah, right) go through teen-age angst and rejection by their loves in a military boot-camp. The best part of the movie is the willingness of the drill instructor to severely injure the recruits. We eventually get to the war with the gigantic insects from the planet Klendathu, but the humans must have been trained in Iraq. They're militarily retarded. Instead of fighting the bugs from a distance with jets, grenades, and artillery, they prefer standing 20 yards away and blasting away with machine guns. That way lots of humans can get skewered and slaughtered. Stupid. Insulting.

The only good thing to say about this movie is the special effects are well done. There are few scenes where they're not seamless. Unfortunately, the effects aren't remotely interesting enough to save this debacle.

Bill Alward