7. Starship Troopers
Always the bridesmaid but never the bride in reboots, the original Starship Troopers is an absolute blast. Like most good science fiction it has something to say under the surface story, with political ideas such as suffrage and citizenship taking pride of place, as well as provided an awesome satire of the fascism and heroic archetypes, with much of the military adverts appearing as shot-for-shot re-treads of Leni Riefenstahls Triumph of the Will. I personally loved that Johnny Rico and Carmen Ibanez are supposed to be Argentinean yet appear as all-American as they come, and its that sort of intriguing subtext which can make a good movie great. For my money, its one of the top films of the 90s, and its a shame any plans for a reboot currently lie in development hell. What makes it a pity is that Starship Troopers was clearly the start of something big, yet later installments never quite reached the heights to which the original aspired. What we got was two mediocre straight-to-DVD sequels that appeared hastily written and lacking the bite of their predecessor. They were excellent B-movies, thats for sure, but compared to what they couldve been, its just a damn shame. So really, it would be brilliant to see a 21st century reboot of the Paul Verhoeven-directed classic. Todays CGI has moved on leaps and bounds from the clunky special effects of the original, and would be extremely well-suited to the sort of scope a Troopers film needs in both land bug-fighting terms and in intergalactic space-battles. If they keep the satirical overtones and tempt Neil Patrick Harris back on board, they might just be onto a winner.