Well this is the one that started it all. And what a collection of stars and future stars in the making and working together for the first time. But this time I'm going to start from the bottom and work my way to the top. let's start off with actor Brian Tochi, a great character actor who's been around for a long time some people may remember him from the Revenge of the Nerd movies he was the nerdy "Takashi" or the voice of Leonardo of the Teenage Ninja Mutant Turtles. he's been around for quite a while he started his career as a child actor appearing in one of the original Star Trek episodes! so it makes me wonder why at this juncture in his career he would take a role in this film as basically nameless extra!? He will simply credited as a male Trooper and to tell you the truth I didn't see him for nothing!
then we have two real military personnel who are now actors and I'm talking about military correspondent Dale Dye and Sergeant R. Lee Ermey. Dale was credited as a general but I don't remember seeing him and Lee Ermey was credited only as a voice on a speaker when the soldiers were getting their weapons.
next we have former President Gerald Ford's real son Steven Ford and a thankless role that that made him practically invisible among The Ensemble. but I was happy to see that one of my favorite actors who only had a brief 10 to 15 second cameo bit, really stood out. I'm talking about Timothy Omundson. he was the "Psychic" and one of the commercials to promote the war against the bugs. with his striking clear blue eyes and devilish looking appearance he stood out immensely. and how ironic that he would be here later on a TV show as one of the main characters call Psych!
real life amputee actor Robert David Hall has a nice Cameo bit role. that is used the full effect. Actress Amy Smart was seen briefly as Denise Richards friend and co-pilot but too bad they didn't use her more and as I said she was just seeing briefly But she look very cute in her uniform. another actor named Matt Levin, who like Timothy Omundson, has strikingly intense clear blue eyes, had a nice bit role as one of the Troopers named 'Kitten'.
actor Marshall Bell had a very brief appearance as a cowardly General and is so in shock what happened to his platoon he can no longer function. actor Dean Norris had a very nice role as the commander of the Troopers. Also actor Clancy Brown had a very great role as one of the stern but kind-hearted Sergeants. Golden Girl star Rue McClanahan had the role as one of the teachers at the school but I didn't even recognize her with all that weird makeup they put on her!? But it was nice to see her name in the credits. Old Reliable bad guy Michael Ironside has somewhat of a dual role because at first he's presented as one of the teachers and later it turns out Denny's the commander of the Roughnecks I don't know how I felt about him and his role it's like he was good but then again it's like he wasn't maybe it's because he always playing so many bad guys that we finally see him in a kind of a good guy role it kind of threw me off haha. there is even a young Seth Gilliam who many know him from the Walking Dead's father Gabriel, he has a nice role as a gun-ho roughneck Trooper. Gary Busey's son, Jake, is cast here as a big comical goofball kind of reminding us of his dad. Neil Patrick Harris is cast as a citizen who is recruited as a psychic and I would have been some nice potential there but we don't see him too often almost to the very end of the movie too bad they didn't use him more or had more scenes with him.
no I come to the love rectangle of Patrick Muldoon, Denise Richards, Casper Van Dien and the lovely Dina Meyer. Four very attractive leads. it was very interesting the way they made this where Denise is attracted to Patrick well Casper is attracted to Denise and Dina is attracted to Casper. Casper only joined because Denise joined and Deena join only because Caspar joined but Denise, Casper and Dina were spared a untimely death had they remain in Argentina. It was sad though that Dina did ultimately die but she felt it was worth it because she finally "got together" with Casper so in a way she thought it was worth it.
so like this film it is not a great film but it is a good enough film to be checked out
Review of Starship Troopers
