Starship Troopers 3: Marauder (2008)

If you got the dark humour and brilliant satire of the original Starship Troopers, then you will love Starship Troopers 3: Marauder.

From the outset it's clear that writer/director Ed Neumeier gets it - something I'm not sure the makers of the rather disappointing Starship Troopers 2: Hero Of The Federation did.

Helped by the return of Casper Van Dien as Johnny Rico (where would Casper be without the Starship Troopers franchise?) and a widening of the satirical targets to, topically, embrace religious fanaticism, this latest release breathes new life into a series many thought long dead.

Fans of the original novel will also be pleased by the fact that we finally get to see Mobile Infantrymen fighting alien bugs while wearing powered battle armour - the "Marauder" of the title.

As with the original, Starship Troopers 3 is very much a part of the Federation universe - almost a recruitment film for the war on bugs - and, again, like the original the over-the-top jingoism and heroics are served with a slice of sexiness; this time in the form of the poor man's Angelina Jolie - and the only reason anyone watched Star Trek: Enterprise - Jolene Blalock as Captain Lola Beck.

Escaping from a front line massacre, Beck's ship - carrying Sky Marshall Anoke (Stephen Hogan), probably the most interesting character in the film - is shot out of the sky and has to escape to desert planet OM-1 and await rescue.

However, for some reason, the Federation don't seem that eager to rescue their stranded Sky Marshall, until Intelligence Officer Dix Hauser (Boris Kodjoe) sends in Johnny Rico and a squad of Marauders.

Obviously, for budgetary reasons, there were never going to be any scenes to rival Starship Trooper's Zulu-like siege by legions of bugs, but this second sequel has its fair share of action and excitement, as well as black humour and almost slapstick violence.

Alien Anarchy!

"Oh, shi...!" A hapless scout finds himself trapped
between Predator and prey.

Nearing the end of unpacking the various boxes under and around my newly erected games table, I rediscovered my wonderful, pre-painted Aliens Vs Predator Horrorclix figures... and immediately wondered how they would measure up against the AT-43 figures I already had displayed on the table.

I pictured a scenario where the UNA had set up camp around a deserted town that happened to be an alien queen's nest.

The UNA have been ambushed by the xenomorphs, but a gang of Predators are also on the way through the surrounding forests to wipe out the alien nest; but will they assist the UNA troopers or just count them as additional trophies?

More pictures can be found below.

I've thought about trying to rebase the Horrorclix, but then again I might be able to persuade Nick to join me in a game "by the book" - I imagine it's pretty staright forward to translate the games' grid-based rules into tabletop measurements, by simply substituting one inch for each square.

Contact (1997)

It must have been listening to NASA podcasts about the size and age of the universe that prompted me to take Contact down from the "unwatched DVDs" shelf where it has languished for almost a decade!

I've always been a big Jodie Foster fan, since I first saw her in Bugsy Malone and Taxi Driver, when I was far too young to be thinking innocent 'naughty thoughts' about Tallulah in the former and far too young to even be watching the latter.

Taxi Driver was the first video I ever personally rented when my parents bought our first top-loading video cassette player back at the dawn of time ... and then I had a rule that every film had to be watched FIVE times before I would return it!

While sharing the screen in Contact with an incredible cast - Matthew McConaughey, John Hurt, James Woods, Tom Skerrit, Angela Bassett, Rob Lowe, William Fichtner, Jake Busey, David Morse, to name but a few - it's Foster who owns this film as single-minded, driven astronomer Ellie Arroway.

Written by science visionary Carl Sagan - based on his own novel - this is a hard science film that tackles head-on the dichotomy of science and religion in the face of mankind's first extraterrestrial contact, which probably explains why it wasn't a blockbuster hit - despite its stellar cast. This is no E.T., but also it's not a dry science documentary. With its cerebral take on alien contact, it has more in common with 2001, but is less "trippy".

Almost two-and-a-half hours in length the film may seem a bit of a bum-number for some - especially given that there are no death rays or brain-sucking monsters - and the action takes about 35 minutes to really get going, but the wait is worth it (if you can handle the slightly unconvincing romance between scientist Foster and religious scholar McConaughey).