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Looking for some quality comedy entertainment to check out?
Who better to turn to for under-the-radar comedy recommendations than comedians?
I actually watched it again just to kind of pregame for this chat.
I have watched it altogether hundreds and hundreds of times.
It was one of those films where, at first, I was quietly a fan of it.
I was like,This is amazing!
I dont have to be in the closet anymore!
And Im pretty well-versed in the film.
It was kind of a perfect marriage.
It wasRoboCop,Total Recall,and thenStarship Troopers.
He grew up in Nazi-occupied Netherlands.
He was working out how he was affected by that throw in of violent nationalism through these films.
InStarship Troopershes skewering that kind of propaganda and greed and all those things that made their way to America.
You cant really ask actors to act bad.
You hire bad actors and just dont say anything.
I think thats a big chunk as to whyStarshipsucceeds.
He is just amazing.
He plays the hardass Commander Rasczak.
His presence and his earnestness when he says lines like The goddamn bugs whacked us, Johnny!
or The only good bug is a dead bug!
he is just so, like I said, present.
He steals the movie.
For the most part you got some young actors who didnt really know what they were walking into.
Like, Casper Van Dien and Denise Richards definitely didnt know they were making something satirical.
So what makes it so funny is everyone is playing it incredibly straight.
Jake Busey, who I actually really love in this, is playing it like its for real.
Ive liked a lot of his work, but he is 90 percent teeth in this movie.
Nobody really knows what kind of movie theyre in.
They think theyre just in some action-adventure movie, shooting at evil aliens.
I think Neil Patrick Harris is the only one really aware of the movie hes in.
He had the budget and put it to good use.
It does hold up.
Thats the thing its all the sincerity that makes it work.
He couldve easily made all the bugs and aliens just look corny and terrible.
Theres something about the fact that everyone is trying their hardest.
Even Verhoeven, whos the only one who actually knows what the end result was going to be.
I know it strays a lot from the source material too.
From what I know, the film is virtually nothing like the book.
Youd be expecting to do something likeHalo: The Movie.
Instead its just so campy and good.
I kind of want to do aPower Rangerspunch whenever I say it.
Trump hasnt recruited any bug psychics … that we know of.
But I havent necessarily framed it or modernized it in that kind of context.
Totalitarianism is always something thats there and prevalent, no matter what.
And thats what Verhoeven is critiquing.
Youve recently parachuted into the world of satire and parody with your Bunny Earssiteandpodcast.
Im surrounded by a good enough team that we actually started pulling this off.
Daniel OBrien from Cracked, who Ive always been a fan of, came onboard too.
We also have great writers and editors for the site, like Amanda Mannen and Hana Michels.
Not to mention my great podcasting partner Matt Cohen.
So we put it all together and then it was off to the races.
Im always impressed with their pitches.
Its taken on a life on its own.
Everyone understands what it is and no one is on autopilot.
Everyone really gets it.
So its the opposite ofStarship Troopers: Everyone understands what theyve signed up for.[Laughs.]
All the aspiring Goop writers who got rejected?
But sometimes well talk about nothing.
When we have guests, we dont really interview people.
