Sound On Sight Radio #109 – Starships, Troopers, Showgirls, Delight.
Both the Netherlands’ favorite filmmaker and Hollywood’s greatest purveyor of cynical sleaze, Paul Verhoeven is many things to many people. but we can all hopefully agree that he is anything but boring. In our first look at his remarkably diverse filmography, Simon, Ali and returning guest star Mariko MacDonald take a look at three of Verhoeven’s most divisve films: the space-opera fascism of “Starship Troopers,” the blackly comic romance of “Turkish Delight,” and one of the ’90s worst-reviewed films, “Showgirls.”
Download show in a separate window
The Sound On Sight podcast was launched in late 2008 from the ashes of a radio show titled, The Naked Lunch, a show which aired on CJLO, 1690 AM in Montreal. Our podcast is marketed principally towards students and genre enthusiasts, and typically features in-depth discussion and debate on contemporary film. Throughout the years, the podcast has been nominated one of the best film shows world wide by several outlets including, MovieMaker Magazine. 
Pingback: Lost Time - Gamerwife
Pingback: Lost Time « Filmgurlland
last new years eve i was talking to a friend of my girlfriend, who’s a left-wing/ women’s rights type of person – and SHOWGIRLS is one of her favourite movies.
i was talking to her about this for quite a while, and i know for a fact, that she wasn’t mocking me. i rewatched the movie since, and talked to her again about it two more time (briefly).
she totally convinced me, that SHOWGIRLS has to be seen as SATIRE. just a completely over-the-top point of view, at how women are turned into nothing but (sexual) objects nowadays.
the acting still isn’t great and the storytelling lacks … a lot, but if you just for a second try to accept the SATIRE-idea, and then have a look at starship troopers (which a lot of people probably didn’t get as satire, but just a cool action-movie), i think it actually makes sense.
maybe. a bit.
PS: i like boobies.
I still think that everyone on board with Showgirls excluding the director took it seriously and was in no way trying to address any issues. So the joke was on them and Verhoeven rocks but the movie is still not good. WORD!
We lost the news intro?! That thing was like seven seconds of pure audio gold!
I will download the news intro from an older show and take if from there of maybe find something better.
I remember when I worked at the Palace and had to kick all these under age kids out of movies. Those were good times.
I remember going to see Showgirls for about $2.00 at the Palace when I was 16. There was the requisite dirty old man in the back row corner seat. That`s about as much as I remember about it, with the exception of all the breasts. No 16 year old forgets that.
I lost the intro – I need to do a new one :(
You need to bring back the News intro music too!
I can’t wait for Bruno. Just go to youtube and look up clips from the show. Hilarious stuff.
“Black Book,” “Flesh and Blood,” “Robocop” and “Total Recall” are all great and deserve another show. I haven’t seen “Basic Instinct” or “Spetters” yet.
“Ex Drummer” is maybe the most deranged movie I’ve ever seen.
I’m not really a fan of Basic Instinct, but I love Total Recall, Flesh + Blood, Robocop, and Black Book. Definitely check out Spetters though.
Yeah, I saw Ex Drummer a few days ago. I thought it was really funny. But yeah, it’s deranged too.
For the ladies I say Basic Instinct is the way to go in terms of recommendations. For the fellas, I say Robocop and yes Robocop is the best film. We will be doing a review on Robocop when the new on comes out! I can’t fucken wait.
I’ve always enjoyed Starship Troopers. I saw it with my dad back when I was about eight years old. At that time it scared the living crap out of me. Then I watched it a few years later and I thought it was awesome. I saw it again for the third time ever a few months ago and I thought it was a good satire of war. I still really dig that film. I have also read the book and I liked that too, but I think of them both as separate source material. By the way, don’t bother with the sequels. I saw the second one on HBO a while back and it wasn’t really that special. I saw the third one back in December and it was alright, but neither even touch the original.
Showgirls is pretty funny. I know a lot of people that actually think that’s a good film, although I personally think it’s not. It’s certainly not the worst film I’ve ever seen. I find it to be rather watchable, but it’s the kind of film where I constantly am rolling my eyes when I’m watching it. I thought Berkley was alright at times, but other times she pretty much failed. That pool scene with her and Kyle MacLachlan was insane. Ugh.
I still haven’t been able to find Turkish Delight. I’ve wanted to see it for some time now, but I just haven’t found it. I’ve seen Spetters though. I liked that one. Flesh + Blood was good too. I think the best film of his to see first is Robocop. I just think that’s his most accessible film. Have you guys seen Black Book yet? You guys should have a show where you watch Belgian films and you should watch that along with black comedies like Man Bites Dog and Ex Drummer.
I am sorry but Starship Troopers is the least accessible Paul Verhoeven film. In fact I am surprised no one picked Basic Instinct which is by far the best movie to recommend from his resume.