Casper Van

Casper: A Spirited Beginning
$14.98
I use to have this movie on vhs and I recently purchased a copy on dvd. I totally forgotten how great and fun this movie is. I use to watch Casper cartoons and just loved this little character. The movie is just as wonderful as the cartoons. You will love the special effects and you will fall in love with Casper. The dvd special features includes a Casper cartoon. If you have children {or even if you don't} order this one and sit back and have some laughs.

Starship Troopers [UMD for PSP]
$14.94
When I saw "Starship Troopers" the first time, I was appalled. It looked like a (really bad) fascist propaganda movie. The fascism was so overt, that I started wondering why nobody else was reacting the way I did!

It's because it's parody, stupid.

"Starship Troopers" is nominally based on Robert Heinlein's famous novel, but in reality it's a parody, criticizing Heinlein and his bizarre vision of a society in which only war veterans have full citizenship rights. In the process, the movie also makes fun of American militarist propaganda, and indeed militarist propaganda in general. In many ways, "Starship Troopers" is a deliberate turkey. It looks like the worst Nazi movie ever made, but it's supposed to look that way.

"Starship Troopers" is actually quite intellectual!

The funny thing is that many people just don't get it. Some love the movie precisely *because* it looks like a militarist propaganda movie. Others hate it for the same reason. Still others, i.e. the most devout Heinlein fans, see "Starship Troopers" as a walking insult to Heinlein's great novel, which some people treat almost as a second Bible. (Prediction: soon, somebody will point out that Federal Service is broader than the military.)

The plot of the film doesn't deserve closer scrutiny. "The Federation" (spouting an eagle as symbol - the American eagle? Or a Nazi eagle?) is under attack by a race of monstrous, intelligent spiders from the mysterious planet Klendathu. A group of beautiful, perfect and young adults, fresh out of high school, decide to volunteer in the military. Their leader is a completely crazy old vet. Curiously, the fascist military dictatorship is multi-racial and gender-blind. When the attack on Klendathu fails, the White male dictator resigns, being replaced by a Black female. Ironically, this "political correctness" is freely based on Heinlein, who was indeed anti-racist, but real American propaganda movies can also be multi-racial ("Iron Eagle" comes to mind). Later in the movie, the beautiful Nazi kids finally put their act together and manage to defeat the bugs on another planet, where they are promptly joined by a team of SS-looking scientists. There, the movie ends, inconclusively. Along the way, we are treated to some really hefty special effects (naturally, the bugs are much larger and even more "alien" than in the novel).

Strange fact: shortly after the premier of "Starhip Troopers" in Sweden, a new Swedish translation of Heinlein's original novel was published...with a picture from the movie on its front cover!

That's almost postmodern. The parody is used to sell the thing parodied. Gee, what a mindjob.

Naturally, I have to give this ridiculous Nazi slapstick five stars.

Aces N' Eights
$12.95
This above-average but violent made-for-television western pits the villainous land-hungry railroad against the defenseless, small-time ranchers whose lands lay on the route sought by the railroad. Stuntman/action director Craig R. Baxley helms this exciting B-movie horse opera with flaw to spare. The color photography constantly thrusts you into the thick of the gunfire and the handheld camera work lends a versimilitude to the action that enhances this oater. Casper Van Dien is actually tolerable for a change and the beard gives him a lot of maturity. Late in the action, he puts on a poncho and vaguely resembles Clint Eastwood. Basically, Van Dien plays a gunslinger who has tried to hang up his six-gun and reform himself. Naturally, the villains compel him to strap on his hog-leg one more time. The sturdy cast includes Bruce Boxleitner as a believable gunfighter. Ernest Borgnine of THE WILD BUNCH plays one of the chief ranchers that the railroad has been harassing about his land. "Sugarland Express" star William Atherton is an unscrupulous local railroad official who has no qualms against killing to make a point. Of course, the devious Chicago-based railroad company doesn't want to pay a penny more for the land. "Aces 'N Eights" springs a couple of surprises along the way without violating any of the formula conventions of westerns. The Dennis Shryack and Ronald M. Cohen screenplay observes all the cliches and then wields them with style. For example, the Bruce Boxleitner gunfighter is reminiscent of Ben Johnson's gunfighter in "Shane." Jack Noseworthy stands out as a member of the railroad who has come to negotiate a peaceful settlement between the railroad and the landowners. The gunfights are noisy but not bloody. The treacherous hired guns working for the railroad terrorize and murder land owners and their wives to scare them into selling out. The finale is a well-staged gunfight between the heroes and the villains with a surprisingly conclusion.

Casper Van Dien autographed Starship Troopers 3 Agent DVD magazine
$30.00
COMPLETE July 2008 Agent DVD magazine with Starship Troopers 3 cover, autographed in silver by star Casper Van Dien and director/writer Edward Neumeier. ONLY TWO AVAILABLE FOR SALE.