Johnny Rico (Casper Van Dien) falls for Carmen (Denise Richards) so joins the army to be with her.

Unfortunately he is infantry, she is airforce. They are parted, she dumps him, only to be reunited by interplanetary mayhem and following a moment of brain suck-out madness involving her new boyfriend and a monster.

"A comic book parody of its genre. All the fun of the comic strip without the inconvenience of having to turn the pages."

"Sort of like Star Wars but with more administration - (note form 12-48)."

"The knife thrown into the hand of the recruit was shocking at first, but rewind and look closely and the hand looks too big. It didn't actually go through his hand at all! This ruined my enjoyment of this movie. I want my money back."

"A bit like one of those High School TV shows set near a beach, but in space, more violent and the threat of a nice evening meal being ruined by pissed-off giant crunchy creatures ten times your size."

"On one level this movie appears to be as dumb as a peanut, look closer and it is a reasonable semi-intelligent satire on its genre and society's structure's and mores."

"Much less camp than Star Wars and with no annoying metal robot."

"I have never seen a musical set in space and whilst this movie is not a musical, it only needs a few songs and you are there."

"If Elvis had been 30 in 1997, when this movie was made, he would have been its star."

"Thank goodness the man was only junior to his girlfriend for about 10 minutes of screen time. He was suitably then promoted, upholding the traditional paternalistic societal role play."

"This movie is surprisingly long, just when you thought it has finished it starts up again."

The girl who loved Rico all along (Private Dizzy Flores - Dina Meyer) and tried to warn him about Carmen, is killed.

Rico eventually gets promoted (above Carmen) to lead his own unit.

Everyone who hasn't died violently by closing time lives happily ever after.

Industrial strength "space dust" type sweets (the ones that explode in your mouth causing potential dental emergency surgery if you put too much in at one time).

Yes possibly into one of the most scary 3D movies never made.

If you have mild-to-screaming levels of arachnophobia give this movie a miss.

No, there are plenty of group hugs, in the army testosterone-fueled and let's-get-tattooed-together kind of way.

From administrators with no legs to teachers with no left arms, the disabled are well catered for in this movie.

Dogs could become visibly distressed if a spider drops on their nose during this movie; The dropped spider, looking about the size of one of the creatures in this movie due to perspective, could lead the dog to cause much damage. Make sure he sleeps outside for a week afterwards.

Cats may whine throughout - give them a small measure of alcohol and enjoy their drunken antics, perhaps videoing them for future home movie tv shows.

Domesticated bugs could stage a mild protest during this movie - hide matchsticks which they could make into banners.

Don't join the army.

A space-cowboy pop gun with caps.

An entertaining ride down a familiar path. Tongue in cheek at times, teen soap opera at others, the action is very good. Not brainless by a long shot, although still basically an actioner.

The scene in which all the creatures attack was quite cutting edge in its time.

October 9 , 2002