The Greatest Video in Existence

That is all.

My Top 5 Songs of the Week (03/16 - 03/22)

Okay, so...

I'm officially out of school and that means I'll have more time to write stuff to post and NO MORE JOURNALISM CLASS.

Just kidding, of course. I'm so bummed it's over.

My Top 5 Songs of the Week (03/08 - 03/15) | MUSIC

The past week was a pretty hectic one, with me having to prepare for finals and all that jazz, but I’ve managed to save some time for music here and there. The past week also saw me in the mood for a lot of Dad’s music.

Bear in mind that you won’t be seeing too many more “recent” songs on this list, as I took a little trip back in time and got lost in some old-but-gold(en) eras.

My Top 5 Songs of the Week | MUSIC

(Hi, guys! I know it’s been a while since my last post – I’ve been both too busy and too lazy to write, but I’ll try my best to keep posting over the remainder of the year.)

Music is one of my five fiery passions. It’s up there right next to writing, football, video games, and fantasy & sci-fi movies. I listen to a lot of it, and I grew up especially around a lot of it.

I grew up in a mostly musical family. My mom used to be a choir singer back in the day and my dad’s a bit of an 80’s-music aficionado. My tito (or “uncle” for everyone else who isn’t Filipino) plays a mean guitar, too. I grew up around a lot of different types of music, particularly around a lot of 90’s alternative, and exposure to all different sorts of music over the years (thanks to a certain video game) has led me to broaden my palate to what it is today.

"Starship Troopers" (1997) | DEEP-FRIED GOODNESS

Think of Ender's Game, but with blood, boobs, and blood.

Welcome to a segment I like to call Deep-Fried Goodness. In this segment, I mostly just ramble on about old movies I like, or have made some lasting impression on me in one way or another. Today's subject is, well... Starship Troopers!

Growing up, I was exposed to a lot of my Dad's stuff. I was introduced to Star Wars at the age of 3, and to Jurassic Park not long after. Lord of the Rings followed shortly after, and I was very pleasantly acquainted with The Scorpion King not too long after that. In time, I was eventually introduced to Starship Troopers.

I know what you're thinking. What kind of parent would let a child watch Starship Troopers?!

To be clear, I didn't watch the movie in its entirety - just most of the epic battle sequences.

Most especially this one.

I was around 7 or 8 at the time, and I found the whole Battle of Klendathu sequence to be both really freaking awesome and pants-sh*ttingly terrifying at the same time. By then, the most violence I'd been exposed to was Half-Life 2. Seeing someone get sawed in half by an Arachnid was simultaneously the coolest and the grossest thing I had ever seen in my life.

Unfortunately that was the only thing I remembered about that movie, and a lot of the details about that battle scene became memories I kept in the back of my head right next to the other (somewhat more) forgettable aspects of my childhood...

Right next to this game.

Starship Troopers would never cross my mind for another 11 or so years, until I saw my littlest brother mercilessly slaughtering them on Garry’s Mod.

And I actually don't regret watching it at all.

Directed by Paul Verhoeven and released in 1997, Starship Troopers was a hellishly brutal sci-fi war movie starring Casper van Dien, Dina Meyer, Denise Richards, and... Neil Patrick Harris?

No, really.

The movie's supporting cast consisted of Michael Ironside, Jake Busey, Seth Gilliam, and Mr. Krabs himself, Clancy Brown.

Starship Troopers revolves around the adventures of a young soldier named Johnny Rico, who joins the Terran Mobile Infantry at the objection of his parents. It's really nicely paced, as well as riddled with political satire that plays on the United States' militaristic world view. It's an action movie that provokes thought, surprisingly, and brings to the table an equally thought-provoking message: "War makes fascists of us all."

As for the more literary aspects of the film, to be perfectly honest, Starship Troopers isn't exactly well-written with regards to character dialogue, but more than makes up for its sappy writing with really nice characterization, albeit very minimalistic. While these characters can sometimes be as flat as a board, they're still really fun to watch, and the character dynamic makes for some really interesting and memorable exchanges between characters.

In fact, these a**holes killed off more of my favorite characters in 2-and-a-half hours than Game of Thrones has in 4 seasons.

The action sequences (as I had mentioned earlier) are, for lack of an adequate term, fan-freaking-tastic. Normally, one wouldn't expect gore-fests to have a proper sense of tension, or at least feel as if one side is actually fighting for something, but, hot damn, does Paul Verhoeven mix it and mix it well. I don't know how he did it, but Verhoeven genuinely made me feel as if humanity was both truly at risk and driving themselves towards their own doom. 

And, besides; there are fewer things in life more satisfying than seeing a Tanker bug explode.

It's like a chitinous, squirming burrito.

Starship Troopers is an... acquired taste, per se. It's not for the faint of heart. It's not for those looking for a deep movie experience, so to speak. For folks like me, it's hard to not like Starship Troopers. It's charming in its own visceral and barbaric way. It's a gory, action-packed bloodbath that is, truthfully, fun to watch. So, for anyone interested in sci-fi cult classics, this is a must-see.