Paul Verhoeven
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The Tomorrow War (2021)
Directed by Chris McKay
influenced by Starship Troopers (1997)
Visuals Plot Themes
Large battle sequences are reminiscent of “Starship Troopers,” and screenwriter Dean seems influenced by the work of classic science fiction author Robert A. Heinlein.
In the vein of “Starship Troopers,” the creatures are so fast and numerous that the heavy firepower is never heavy enough; rather than machine guns, these conscripts need rocket launchers or laser weapons.
Specifically, the entire narrative trajectory comes across less as an homage and more as a derivation of The Terminator , Starship Troopers , and Edge of Tomorrow .
The look and particularly the sound of the White Spikes is a tad familiar to, I don’t know, 90 percent of all alien-related works of late (most of which seem to borrow heavily from Starship Troopers and/or the Alien movies in the way the creatures swarm in massive numbers but still seem to be defensible by the humans, which makes so little sense).
It’s reminiscent of the anti-fascist “Starship Troopers,” the father-daughter centered “Interstellar,” and the punch-the-air alien conflict driving “Independence Day.”
It’s derivative to the core, borrowing from like-minded genre movies like Terminator, Independence Day, Starship Troopers and Edge of Tomorrow.
The Invisible Man (2020)
Directed by Leigh Whannell
influenced by Hollow Man (2000), Showgirls (1995)
Plot Themes Visuals
Touches of Sleeping With the Enemy (1991) and Hollow Man (2000) aside, Whannell’s rebirth of The Invisible Man feels like a fresh take blending the most minimal of threads from H.G. Wells‘ novel with more urgent themes from today.
The result is a film that is less like Hollow Man (though there are some similar and less convincing visual effects at play) and more akin to Sleeping With the Enemy with the paranoia and trauma cranked to 100 as it focuses on the long-lived affects of gaslighting and abuse.
We’ve come a long way from the era of wrapping actors up in gauze, or Kevin Bacon digitized in “Hollow Man” (which is actually a pretty good flick) - “The Invisible Man” is a welcome addition to the horror remake canon, and a refreshing reminder that seeing is believing.
The narrative is a mix of Sleeping with the Enemy , The Entity and Hollow Man .
The word of the day is hyper-realism, to create fantastical situations that seem plausible enough, instead of men wearing rolls of toilet paper/bandages or unconvincing sera like in the 1990s clunker version of the story, “Hollow Man,” starring Elizabeth Shue and Kevin Bacon.
Of course, given the title and the various iterations of H.G. Wells' famous story that have come and gone over the decades -- including Paul Verhoeven's "Hollow Man" from 2000 that upped the ante in terms of R-rated brutality -- we know the titular character (whoever he or she may be) is likely going to prove that Cecilia's issues are more than just mental manifestations.
Most adaptations of novels or short stories by cult science fiction writer Philip K Dick (Paycheck, Minority Report, Total Recall) use his imaginative scenarios for action sequences but sideline his extraordinary philosophical musings.
Unlike Ridley Scott (Blade Runner), Steven Spielberg (Minority Report), and Paul Verhoeven (Total Recall), Linklater has chosen not to massage the story to make it more accessible.
From Total Recall to Minority Report , Screamers to Blade Runner , the themes have always included a Big Brother world of paranoia, some suppressive totalitarian government and a technological future that squelches individuality.
The strange, kaleidoscopic universe of writer Philip K. Dick has been transferred to celluloid numerous times, in films from Blade Runner and Total Recall to Minority Report.
If we can imagine it for you, it's true (echoes of Dick's short story, "We Can Remember It For You, Wholesale", which became Total Recall ), thus this mass media televisual dystopia of ours becomes the angry fix for our atrophied left hemispheres.
But for every Minority Report or Blade Runner, we’re stuck also with a Paycheck or (shudder) Total Recall.
The Running Man (2025)
Directed by Edgar Wright
influenced by Total Recall (1990), Starship Troopers (1997), RoboCop (1987)
Themes
It’s not as daring as something like Verhoeven’s Starship Troopers but it is electrifyingly plugged in to the ills of a corrupt society that uses propaganda and spectacle to distract from pressing issues.
…apenas roza la superficie del modelo de Starship Troopers (1997), de Paul Verhoeven, obra que sí dialoga mejor con El sobreviviente…
Parts of it have the sting of those cheerfully grotesque TV ads, news reports, and propaganda clips in the original “The Running Man” and Paul Verhoeven’s “Robocop” and “Starship Troopers,” all of which were set in societies bereft of kindness and virtue.
If you watch Paul Verhoeven’s RoboCop and Starship Troopers, you’ll experience screenplays that effectively mix mockery and venom.
Wright pays homage to the maestros of subversive genre films – Paul Verhoeven, John Carpenter, Sam Raimi…
I had hoped Wright might achieve something along the lines of the savage satire Paul Verhoeven mined in Robocop, but this version of The Running Man comes nowhere close.
Bloodshot (2020)
Directed by Dave Wilson
influenced by RoboCop (1987), Total Recall (1990)
Plot Themes
If trying to launch a brand new superhero cinematic universe, Sony could’ve done worse than Bloodshot, a character whose origin story is basically a ripoff of Robocop and Wolverine.
You don’t need to have seen Paul Verhoeven’s RoboCop to know where this one is headed.
Such a concept traverses much of the same territory as Universal Soldier and RoboCop, among others.
Based on a bestselling Valiant comic book title, “Bloodshot” is a cousin to action films like “Robocop” and “Total Recall” where the hero survives death and finds themselves trapped in an uncertain reality.
“It’s Iron Man meets RoboCop by way of Wolverine.
It will also remind the viewer of Robocop at times (the original one not that remake wack one).
Eszterhas and Verhoeven probably thought they were making a New Age "All About Eve."
More specifically, as has been widely observed, it's All About Eve with strippers and a much more caustic sense of nihilism (which is actually pretty impressive, given Eve's sterling nihilism credentials): wide-eyed innocent, Nomi Malone (Elizabeth Berkley) arrives in Vegas looking to be a Star! and gets her chance under the mentorship of grande dame Cristal Connors (Gina Gershon), the headliner of a major new topless revue.
It's " All About Eve " with some new touches: The star doesn't break a leg, but gets a compound hip fracture, and is philosophical about her fate because her lawyers negotiated a big settlement.
Unimpressed that Joe Eszterhas cribbed copiously from All About Eve and 42nd Street, viewers don’t even stop to address the notion that he and Paul Verhoeven—who most of the auteurist crowd have given a pass to by this point, but it doesn’t matter because Showgirls exists outside of and beyond auteurism—are directly commenting on these star-is-born pipe dreams and their culpability in force-feeding the American Dream to an audience of pop junkies.
And though much has been made about how extensively researched "Showgirls" is, its entire dramatic shape is lifted from previous films, with great chunks of everything from Eszterhas' own "Flashdance" to "All About Eve" to the Busby Berkeley-choreographed "Forty-Second Street" periodically crashing down on the proceedings like boulders.
In this licentious "All About Eve" fable, nude dancer Nomi Malone (newcomer Elizabeth Berkley) elbows and scratches her way to the top of the nudie heap, while stripper queen Cristal Connors (Gina Gershon) alternately tries to keep her down and seduce her.
Virginie Efira (who had a supporting role in Elle) perfectly channels the alluring manipulations of Benedetta, and her performance belongs in the same conversations praising Vanessa Redgrave in The Devils (1971) or Lucyna Winnicka in Mother Joan of Angels (1961).
But “Benedetta” doesn’t match the transgressive, blasphemous heights of, say, Ken Russell‘s “The Devils” (in which it wasn’t merely a wooden doll being used as a dildo but a charred human femur), because it ends all its scenes with a wink and a nudge.
What Verhoeven takes from the story is the absolute corruption of the Church and the (im)possibilities of making a modern nunsploitation flick worthy of splitting a bill with Ken Russell's The Devils .
Chappie (2015)
Directed by Neill Blomkamp
influenced by RoboCop (1987), Starship Troopers (1997), Total Recall (1990)
Plot Visuals
Their model here is clearly Paul Verhoeven's 1987 classic, "RoboCop," but where that movie gave us bloody good fun, "Chappie" offers mostly mean-spirited violence and a generally dismal worldview.
The film goes beyond the ideas put forth in Paul Verhoeven’s Robocop to a reality in which robots make up most of Johnnesburg’s police department.
With “Chappie,” the director and co-writer (with Terri Tatchell) opts for cute (like Number 5 in “Short Circuit”) combined with a “Robocop” bad corporate guy trying to take control of the killer robot biz (very much like Ronny Cox in the latter film).
Much of what transpires is borrowed heavily from Paul Verhoeven’s brilliantly biting satire, “RoboCop” especially “The Moose” – a clear (homage?) clone of the mega bipedal ED-209 that RoboCop has to go titanium to titanium with.
Meanwhile, at a robot factory overseen by Sigourney Weaver, engineer Vincent (Hugh Jackman) fumes over the poor reception of his pet project, a tank-like law enforcer that resembles RoboCop's ED-209.
Visually, Chappie often feels oddly overblown, particularly in Blomkamp’s decision to visualize near-futuristic criminality through cast-off costumes and punk hair from Mad Max, which, along with the painfully obvious visual similarity of the Moose to Phil Tippet’s memorable ED-209 from RoboCop (1987), makes the film feel overly derivative.
Side Effects (2013)
Directed by Steven Soderbergh
influenced by Basic Instinct (1992)
Visuals Plot Themes
With her long dark hair pulled back and thick-rimmed glasses, Zeta-Jones may be channeling Jeanne Tripplehorn’s Dr. Beth Garner in “Basic Instinct.”
With its steady pacing and probing, supple camera work (handled by Soderbergh, under his pseudonym Peter Andrews), the film evokes classic psychodramas, from Alfred Hitchcock’s Vertigo to Roman Polanski’s Repulsion, as well as kinky offshoots such as Fatal Attraction and Basic Instinct.
Catherine Zeta-Jones appears as another psychiatrist who's only looking out for herself (in more ways than one) and -- considering how things play out -- easily could have been lifted straight from an old Joe "Basic Instinct" Eszterhas plot, while Channing Tatum plays the patient's husband who isn't in the film that much, what with being in prison and such.
It’s telling that Soderbergh watched Fatal Attraction “a lot” while preparing to shoot Side Effects (screenwriter Scott Z. Burns was probably busy studying Basic Instinct).
Douglas could be just as famous making the same post–Wall Street movies: Fatal Attraction, The War of the Roses, Basic Instinct, Falling Down, Disclosure, The Game, A Perfect Murder, Traffic.
HH½ Director/editor/cinematographer Steven Soderbergh's alleged final theatrical film is as smart and stylish as one would expect, but like his other recent artsy genre essays — "Haywire," "Contagion" — its duller than its sources (in this case, "Bigger Than Life," "Basic Instinct" and "Psycho").
"Paycheck," like "Minority Report" and "Total Recall," is loosely based on a short story by Philip K. Dick.
"Blade Runner" (1982) was good, "Total Recall" (1990) was mindless, "Impostor" (2002) was stupid, "Minority Report" (2002) was great, and now we have "Paycheck," a fast-paced little potboiler that neither helps nor hurts the Philip K. Dick genre.
Of the futuristic films based on Dick stories, "Paycheck" has more in common with the straight-ahead thriller tone of "Total Recall" than the darker "Minority Report" or the less conventional "Blade Runner."
Dick wrote the short stories and novels that were the inspiration behind some of the better sci-fi action movies to have come out of Hollywood, namely Blade Runner , Minority Report and Total Recall .
Dick's work has inspired brain-teasing films such as "Blade Runner," "Total Recall" and last year's "Minority Report."
“Oblivion” pays homage to modern classic sci-fi films such as “The Matrix,” “The Terminator,” the original “Total Recall” and tons of shout outs to “Star Wars: Episode V- The Empire Strikes Back” without making it feel like a complete rip-off.
Everything from the glorious Minority Report to last year's dreadful Total Recall remake walk a fine line between creating an impressive dystopic future world and falling in love with it; nearly all of these movies end with our heroes rejecting the sleek new technology in favor of a rougher, more human life, even if we've spent the entire film being dazzled by the future we're supposed to fear.
All of those are very much in evidence in "Oblivion," but sci-fi fans will detect additional echoes of recent genre touchstones including "Total Recall," "The Matrix," "Moon" and even "WALL-E."
There are hints of mind-tampering (Total Recall) as Jack and Vika (Andrea Riseborough), his British partner and bedmate, take orders from a computer named Sally, a magnolia-voiced Melissa Leo (think HAL in 2001: A Space Odyssey).
Although Universal’s publicity department has asked that journalists refrain from spilling the secrets of “ Oblivion ,” the major revelations, once they arrive, will hardly surprise anyone familiar with “Total Recall,” “The Matrix” and the countless other sci-fi touchstones hovering over this striking, visually resplendent adventure.
And it doesn't help that the film’s mysteries unravel so slowly that the film is three-fourths over by the time Act One breaks, nor that the plot developments are, on the whole, so by-the-numbers it’s impossible not to dwell on the crater-sized plot holes and the countless cribbings from much better movies like Total Recall, Planet of the Apes, and 2001: A Space Odyssey.
Edge of Tomorrow (2014)
Directed by Doug Liman
influenced by Starship Troopers (1997)
Plot Visuals Themes
It isn’t original in the least – at times, it recalls “Starship Troopers,” “Aliens” (Bill Paxton even turns up as a barking drill sergeant), “Independence Day,” “Source Code” and “The Matrix,” with maybe a smidgen of “RoboCop” thrown in.
Edge of Tomorrow borrows liberally from films such as Groundhog Day , Starship Troopers , and Independence Day , but that doesn’t stop it from emerging as a terrific entertainment all its own.
…scenes will remind you of James Cameron's " Aliens " and its literary predecessor " Starship Troopers ."
If there is any satirical edge to the film, a la Paul Verhoeven’s Starship Troopers, perhaps it’s here.
Instead, with a script that embraces its own lunacy, clever direction from Doug Liman, and a charmingly self-aware performance from Tom Cruise, it's the unexpectedly endearing love child of "Groundhog Day" and "Starship Troopers."
The Substance (2024)
Directed by Coralie Fargeat
influenced by Showgirls (1995), RoboCop (1987), Starship Troopers (1997)
Visuals
There is precious little restraint to The Substance. Fargeat, with cinematographer Benjamin Kracun, sexualises parts of the film in a manner so deliberately excessive it reminds one of Paul Verhoeven’s Showgirls.
When Sue takes over Elizabeth's show, Fargeat springs an even wilder set piece, a workout number so robotically sexual that it suggests a Jazzercise session restaged as a lap dance from Paul Verhoeven's Showgirls.
Much like director Paul Verhoeven (RoboCop, Starship Troopers), Fargeat's brilliance lies in her perverse creativity and unique delivery of her message.
Much like director Paul Verhoeven (RoboCop, Starship Troopers), Fargeat's brilliance lies in her perverse creativity and unique delivery of her message.
The Neon Demon (2016)
Directed by Nicolas Winding Refn
influenced by Showgirls (1995), Black Book (2006), Total Recall (1990), Basic Instinct (1992)
Dialogue Themes
And like “Showgirls," which was also directed by a foreigner in the U.S., Paul Verhoeven, it has a surface sheen that distracts from the dark humor underneath.
The early “Who’s she fucking?” barbs of the first meeting of models recall Paul Verhoeven’s Showgirls, but the film’s vision of the beauty industry is fierce.
Decades after 1967’s Valley of the Dolls and decades prior to 2016’s The Neon Demon, Dutch director Paul Verhoeven‘s Showgirls, the over-the-top tale of ill-gotten fame, busted dreams and the skeezy, grimy underbelly of Las Vegas, dragged its garish arse across screens across the world.
Perhaps the most apt cinematic point of comparison for The Neon Demon is Showgirls , Paul Verhoeven’s disgustingly glitzy satire of fame.
Elle — which is directed by returnee from Hollywood Paul Verhoeven (of Total Recall, Showgirls and, more recently, Black Book) — is essentially a startlingly enjoyable character study with an extraordinarily difficult starting point.
Elle — which is directed by returnee from Hollywood Paul Verhoeven (of Total Recall, Showgirls and, more recently, Black Book) — is essentially a startlingly enjoyable character study with an extraordinarily difficult starting point.
It might, for example, be a self-generating cyborg spore that was planted in pop culture sometime around 1987 and is only now germinating, a laboratory hybrid of DNA fragments scraped off the edges of "Blade Runner," "Total Recall" and other less salubrious sources.
Director Gary Fleder (Don't Say a Word) has turned to legendary sci-fi writer Philip K. Dick (whose work also served as the template for Blade Runner and Total Recall) and accidentally delivered a documentary, of sorts.
Mouldering in a can for over a year (the film would smell pretty stale regardless past 1980), Impostor is the umpteenth adaptation of a Philip K. Dick story (whether directly or indirectly), a fable of identity that pales in comparison to an acknowledged classic like Blade Runner, an ambitious blockbuster like Total Recall , and an under-seen sleeper like Screamers.
Impostor is based on a short story by Philip K. Dick, the noted writer whose work inspired the classic sci-fi movies Blade Runner and Total Recall.
Impostor is based on an interesting story by cult sci-fi writer Philip K. Dick, whose works have contributed to at least three other movies: Blade Runner (1982), Total Recall (1990) and Screamers (1995).
Ender's Game (2013)
Directed by Gavin Hood
influenced by Starship Troopers (1997)
Themes Plot Visuals
With shades of Starship Troopers and a Disney Channel sense of cultural diversity, director Gavin Hood (Tsotsi, X-Men Origins: Wolverine) flirts with fascism while avoiding some of the other traps Card created in his narrative.
I couldn’t help but think of Paul Verhoeven’s Starship Troopers, another avenue for bug-like aliens attacking Earth, and how much fun that was.
Orson Scott Card's "Ender's Game" -- a science-fiction classic that is in part a rebuttal to "Starship Troopers" -- envisioned a war of extermination against another bug race, and ended with a similar breakthrough of psychological contact with the inhuman enemy.
In some ways, Orson Scott Card's "Ender's Game" is Robert Heinlein's "Starship Troopers" rewritten as a young-adult novel, but with the same monstrous insect invaders and clear-eyed, conformist defenders.
We see the initial alien attack in newsreel flashbacks on television stations that have adopted Paul Verhoeven’s Starship Troopers-style, neo-fascist aesthetic.
Blade Runner (1982)
Directed by Ridley Scott
influenced RoboCop (1987)
Characters Plot Themes Visuals
This is very informative and we learn that Neumeier was slightly inspired by working as an uncredited member of the art department on the Ridley Scott film Blade Runner (1982).
The character was conceived from Blade Runner (man hunting robots) and a combination of Marvel Comics’ alien humanoid robot hunter Rom and Judge Dredd.
Neumeier, inspired by Blade Runner and Judge Dredd, wrote the first treatment in 1981 about a robot cop becoming increasingly human, but it was rejected by many studios as it seemed incomplete.
Slightly more deserving of your attention are the wonderful Blade Runner and Will Smith's under-rated sci-fi action film I, Robot which has a bit more action to it than Ridley Scott's sci-fi masterpiece.
Like "Blade Runner," ''Brazil" and, for that matter, "1984," it is set in a not terribly distant future in which things have universally gotten worse.
Neither Verhoeven nor screenwriters Michael Miner and Edward Neumeier are particularly didactic in their social commentary; mainly, they wanted to make a movie that looked and felt as cool as Blade Runner , but with some more verisimilitude and a few laughs.
Fabrice du Welz heeft zich duidelijk laten inspireren door beroemde erotische Amerikaanse thrillers van eind jaren tachtig, begin jaren negentig, zoals Fatal Attraction (1987) en Basic Instinct (1992), en leunt bovendien wat op Stephen Kings boekverfilming Misery (1990).
Mais une étrange jeune fille, Gloria, va s’immiscer dans la vie de la famille et bouleverser l’ordre des choses… Après avoir terminé sa trilogie ardennaise avec Adoration , le réalisateur veut s’attaquer à un nouveau genre de film : le home invasion , mais façon thriller érotique des années 90 ( Liaison Fatale , Basic Instinct, etc.) avec une touche de film de genre à la Dario Argento.
Si le film se regarde sans déplaisir grâce à une ambiance visuelle parfaitement maîtrisée, peuplée de clairs obscurs et de contrastes que le choix d’un tournage en 16mm fait vibrer d’une profondeur inhabituelle, le manque d’originalité sur ce sujet maintes fois abordé au cinéma ne lui permet pas de rivaliser avec ses mythiques prédécesseurs dont le cinéma américain a pu s’enorgueillir dans les années 80 et 90, parmi lesquels on peut citer, entre autres Pulsions de Brian de Palma, Liaison fatale d’Adrian Lyne, le facteur sonne toujours deux fois de Bob Rafelson, Basic Instinct de Paul Verhoeven).
Upgrade (2018)
Directed by Leigh Whannell
influenced by RoboCop (1987), Total Recall (1990)
Visuals Themes
In the end, the clear borrowing from the great, snarky original 1987 “RoboCop” (near-future cityscape and all) almost overpowers “Upgrade.”
The ghosts of “eXistenZ” (1999) and “The Terminator” (1984) may linger at its edges, but Paul Verhoeven’s “RoboCop” (1987) is the most obvious influence haunting “Upgrade,” whether one’s comparing their social commentaries or a parallel fascination with matters of the steel and flesh.
It’s not a scattershot approach, per se; what it is, is deliberately weird, pulling signifiers from a range of nominally similar films (Robocop, say, or Videodrome, or even the notably more sunny Robot & Frank) but deploying them in ways that keep the viewer off kilter.
But Upgrade didn’t just meet this very low bar—it stands as a worthy successor to the Paul Verhoeven movies (RoboCop, Total Recall) by which it was clearly inspired.
Despite overtly referencing Hitchcock - Tramell's dresses directly mirror Kim Novak's in Vertigo, as do some of the shots - Basic Instinct is a far more lurid affair than anything by the master of suspense.
Traces of it can be seen in everything from “Basic Instinct” to David Lynch’s “Mulholland Drive,” and countless other thrillers.
All of this leads to wild car chases that may remind movie fans of "Bullitt," San Francisco settings that bring to mind "Vertigo" and, as Stone's character becomes more of an enigma, a character that echoes Kim Novak or Tippi Hedren in Alfred Hitchcock's later thrillers.