#Lenore Kasdorf Career

[letslazilymaximumcollectorblog]

Lenore Kasdorf Lenore Kasdorf (born July 23, 1948) is an American actress.BiographyKasdorf was born in New York Ci..

[johnnymundano]

Starship Troopers (1997)

Directed by Paul Verhoeven

Written by Edward Neumeier

Based on the novel Starship Troopers” by Robert A. Heinlein

Music by Basil Poledouris

Country: United States

Language: English

Running Time: 129 minutes

CAST

Casper Van Dien as Pvt./Cpl./Sgt./Lt. John "Johnny" Rico

Dina Meyer as Pvt. Isabelle "Dizzy" Flores

Denise Richards as Lt./Capt. Carmen Ibanez

Jake Busey as Pvt. Ace Levy

Neil Patrick Harris as Col. Carl Jenkins/Nazi Doogie Howser

Patrick Muldoon as Lt. Zander Barcalow

Clancy Brown as Career Sgt./Pvt. Zim

Michael Ironside as Lt. Jean Rasczak

Seth Gilliam as Cpl. Sugar Watkins

Bruce Gray as Sky Marshal Dienes

Marshall Bell as General Owen

Eric Bruskotter as Private Breckinridge

Brenda Strong as Captain Deladier

Christopher Curry as Bill Rico

Lenore Kasdorf as Mrs. Rico

Denise Dowse as Sky Marshal Meru

Amy Smart as Pilot Cadet/Lt. Lumbreiser

Dean Norris as Commanding officer

Rue McClanahan as Biology Teacher Who Looks Like Rose From TV’s Golden Girls, Because That’s Who She is.

(NB:This is a repost of  very early post I did as the original mysteriously disappeared, apparently. Well, here it is again. And I can keep reposting it if it keeps mysteriously disappearing.)

I love me some Starship Troopers, even if it is apparently a movie that’s too clever for its own damn good. Or too stupid. It’s hard to get a fix on really. I first watched this when it came out in 1997 and everyone was saying it was a load of dumb, woodenly-acted shit. I last watched it in 2018 on a visit to my aged parents with my son. All went well until Doogie Howser came on dressed in a black leather trenchcoat, jackboots and peaked hat. “Oooh, they’re like them Nazis!”, said my elderly mum. We were about  110 minutes in; the movie was almost done. Yes, mum, Nazis. Well spotted.

My mum’s old but she’s no fool. Audiences accept what you show them as normal unless you explicitly show them it isn’t. And so, yes, some people may think Starship Troopers is a gung-ho war movie, which it is. Except, you know, for all the bits which undermine that. Which is most of it. Like all the ex-soldiers having limbs missing or disfiguring scars, even while they expound the magical problem solving abilities of violence. “The Troopers made me what I am today!” declares the recruiting sergeant, before pushing back from the table to reveal his lack of limbs. Too subtle? Not subtle enough? Who the hell knows these days? Then there’s the cheesy Vid i-dents peppered throughout the movie, all jingoism and jackboots, but when the recruits finally get stuck in it’s all screaming and gore and mercy killing and retreating and, well, war and hell and all that mad animal jazz.

Sure the main cast are ridiculously photogenic; all teeth, jaw and advertisement quality hair. And then, another joke, the movie casually tosses them into a hellishly whirring blender. And the FX of the blender remained (to these eyes) convincing. The spaceships were teutonically drab and thuggish, the uniforms were all (yes, mum) Nazi-esque and the swarm bearing down on the fort remained a heart in throat moment. Visually, Starship Troopers has weathered well, I think. Acting highlights may belong to seasoned old salts like Ironside and Brown, while the gorgeous younger characters are often criticised, but I think that’s harsh; Casper Van Dien starts off a gormless, pampered lump but convincingly becomes a committed killing machine; Denise Richards is peppy and love-torn which is two things more than she’s usually asked to do, Dina Meyer is the best of the young bunch being peppy, love-torn and also a killing machine, without any gormlessness. 

Look, they are supposed to be vapid and puppyishly enthusiastic. Idiots, in essence. It’s a fascist society, so it breeds idiots. “IT’S WAR!” bellows the vid-screen. “LET’S GO!”, cheer the idiots. It’s a fascist society, so all it breeds is cannon fodder. There’s little suggestion what this fascist utopia gets up to when there isn’t a war on. But then, maybe that’s intentional. In a fascist utopia there’s probably always a war on. There’s probably been so many wars that now the only things they can go to war with are insects on the other side of the galaxy. A fascist society churning out genetically unsettling youths by the million, and all they can think to do is throw them at insects with arse cannons that fire blue poop into space, or just stab, stab, stabbity-stab anything that moves. “They’ll keep fighting and they’ll WIN!” They sure will. Forever. Verhoeven knew of fascism from personal experience, so it’s no surprise that Starship Troopers says “F*** fascism”, but maybe not loudly enough. But then you can’t ever say “F*** fascism” loudly enough

[hopelessdreamer80]

Today in Soap Opera History (November 26)

On this date in...

1978: On Dallas, Ray Krebbs (Steve Kanaly) fell for country singer Garnet McGee (guest star Kate Mulgrew), who rejected his marriage proposal to focus on her career. Garnet slept with J.R. Ewing (Larry Hagman) to get a record deal, and when a heartbroken Ray discovered her infidelity, he ended their relationship for good.

1979: On Guiding Light, Holly Thorpe (Maureen Garrett) underwent hypnosis to help her remember what happened when her husband, Roger (Michael Zaslow), was shot. Visiting her mother in Bluefield, Rita Bauer (Lenore Kasdorf) decided against having an abortion.

1984: On Days of our Lives, when Bo Brady (Peter Reckell) returned to the beach where he found his brother's "dead" body, Roman (Wayne Northrop) was no longer there.

1996: On Guiding Light, while on her deathbed Sarah Shayne (Audrey Peters) confessed to her daughter, Reva (Kim Zimmer), that she had another child she had kept secret from the family.

2008: On One Life to Live, Viki Buchanan (Erika Slezak) had a meltdown at Victor's crypt.

CREDIT: x