Starship Troopers (1997)
Adventure, Action, Thriller, Science Fiction • 2h 9m
Overview
Set in the future, the story follows a young soldier named Johnny Rico and his exploits in the Mobile Infantry. Rico's military career progresses from recruit to non-commissioned officer and finally to officer against the backdrop of an interstellar war between mankind and an arachnoid species known as "the Bugs."
Director: Paul Verhoeven
Cast: Casper Van Dien, Dina Meyer, Denise Richards, Jake Busey, Neil Patrick Harris, Clancy Brown, Michael Ironside, Patrick Muldoon, Seth Gilliam, Rue McClanahan, Blake Lindsley, Steven Ford, Ungela Brockman, Bruce Gray, Denise Dowse, Amy Smart, Tami-Adrian George, Julianna McCarthy, Dale Dye, Dean Norris, Marshall Bell, Eric Bruskotter, Matt Levin, Anthony Ruivivar, Brenda Strong, Christopher Curry, Lenore Kasdorf, Teo, Curnal Achilles Aulisio, Greg Travis, John Cunningham, Timothy McNeil, Robert David Hall, Brad Kane, Timothy Omundson, Patrick Bishop, Hunter Bodine, Travis Lowen, Patrick Wolff, Mara Duronslet, Tyrone Tann, Matt Entriken, Eric DaRe, Ronald L. Botchan, Walter Adrian, Stephanie Erb, Alexi Lakatos, Nathaniel Marshall, Austin Sanderford, Rhiannon Vigil, Mylin Brooks, Julie Pinson, Armand Darrius, Kai Lennox, Brooke Morales, Mike Stokey, Mary Ann Schmidt, Aaron Stielstra, Edward Neumeier, Michael Papajohn, Michael A. Valenzano, Mo Faisal, R. Lee Ermey, Matt Duggan, Whitney Hall, Betty Hankins, Kaius Harrison, Bruce Holman, Michael Gerald, Jon Davison, Dawn E. Anderson, Tony Nichols, Dan Olivo, Zoë Poledouris, Ashley Prendergast, Ray Quiroga, David Rey, Dennis Collins, Farnaz Samiinia, Joleen Sanders, Julia Self, Claude Stuart, Parry Shen, Cari Vega, Jim Temple, Justin Ward, Sam P. Whitehead, Melissa J. Ward, Johnny Mansbach, David Beckett
Director: Robert Wise
Disney 4K Blu-ray, see caps https://slow.pics/c/hE3HUCdj
Disney 4K Atmos is great, a reference quality track. It's a very slight remix (music seems to be from a better source), but it's completely seamless and faithful to the original, better fidelity than anything since the 1994 30th Anniversary Edition LaserDisc.
All DVDs (and 2010 Blu-ray) sound far worse than the 4K Blu-ray/LaserDisc and have various missing sound cues.
Director: Robert Wise
Disney 4K Blu-ray, see caps https://slow.pics/c/hE3HUCdj
Disney 4K Atmos is great, a reference quality track. It's a very slight remix (music seems to be from a better source), but it's completely seamless and faithful to the original, better fidelity than anything since the 1994 30th Anniversary Edition LaserDisc.
All DVDs (and 2010 Blu-ray) sound far worse than the 4K Blu-ray/LaserDisc and have various missing sound cues.
Director: Paul W. S. Anderson
Arrow includes the original theatrical sound mix in all its glory. All previous releases other than the 1996 AC-3 LaserDisc were tamed relative to the original theatrical DTS track.
The disc is authored by Duplitech, but doesn't exhibit any compression issues, though the image is pretty soft, that's likely just down to the stock used.
Old New Line Video LaserDiscs include an exclusive commentary track.
Director: Paul W. S. Anderson
Arrow includes the original theatrical sound mix in all its glory. All previous releases other than the 1996 AC-3 LaserDisc were tamed relative to the original theatrical DTS track.
The disc is authored by Duplitech, but doesn't exhibit any compression issues, though the image is pretty soft, that's likely just down to the stock used.
Old New Line Video LaserDiscs include an exclusive commentary track.
Director: John McTiernan
Director: John McTiernan
Director: Jean Vigo
Director: Jean Vigo
Director: Jean Vigo
Director: Jean Vigo
Director: Jean Vigo
Director: Jean Vigo
Directors: Jean Vigo & Boris Kaufman
Directors: Jean Vigo & Boris Kaufman
Director: Danny Boyle
Criterion 2026 4K Blu-ray (UPC 715515334617)
Criterion 2026 4K Blu-ray (UPC 715515334617) > Criterion 2024 4K Blu-ray > Film4 4K Blu-ray
5.1: Universal EU Blu-ray - Criterion and Lionsgate are missing LFE, otherwise the same
Stereo: Criterion 4K Blu-ray
Film4 4K Blu-ray is on a BD-66, both Criterion releases are on BD-100 discs.
Criterion 2024 release bitrate: 94.67 mbps
Criterion 2026 release bitrate: 93.66 mbps
Film4 bitrate: 62.00 mbps
Director: Danny Boyle
Criterion 2026 4K Blu-ray (UPC 715515334617)
Criterion 2026 4K Blu-ray (UPC 715515334617) > Criterion 2024 4K Blu-ray > Film4 4K Blu-ray
5.1: Universal EU Blu-ray - Criterion and Lionsgate are missing LFE, otherwise the same
Stereo: Criterion 4K Blu-ray
Film4 4K Blu-ray is on a BD-66, both Criterion releases are on BD-100 discs.
Criterion 2024 release bitrate: 94.67 mbps
Criterion 2026 release bitrate: 93.66 mbps
Film4 bitrate: 62.00 mbps
Director: Paul Thomas Anderson
Like previous releases, the 4K Blu-ray was scanned from an interpositive rather than the original camera negative at Paul Thomas Anderson’s request which may explain the softness.
Director: Paul Thomas Anderson
Like previous releases, the 4K Blu-ray was scanned from an interpositive rather than the original camera negative at Paul Thomas Anderson’s request which may explain the softness.
Director: Michael Mann
Arrow 4K Blu-ray is encoded by FiM encode is better than Criterion, see caps https://slow.pics/c/Z2RRQAAT
Criterion 4K Blu-ray vs Blu-ray: caps colors are more different and nuanced than anticipated even in the SDR-converted caps and the usual gain in highlight detail is also apparent. Encode looks excellent except for the brightest areas as usual.
Arrow/Criterion 4K Blu-ray. Only imperceptible differences in bit-depth: 20 vs 24.
Arrow and Criterion 4K Blu-rays have differing extras, Arrow LE has Theatrical cut Blu-ray from older HD master, most likely from a 2K scan of an interpositive.
Director: Michael Mann
Arrow 4K Blu-ray is encoded by FiM encode is better than Criterion, see caps https://slow.pics/c/Z2RRQAAT
Criterion 4K Blu-ray vs Blu-ray: caps colors are more different and nuanced than anticipated even in the SDR-converted caps and the usual gain in highlight detail is also apparent. Encode looks excellent except for the brightest areas as usual.
Arrow/Criterion 4K Blu-ray. Only imperceptible differences in bit-depth: 20 vs 24.
Arrow and Criterion 4K Blu-rays have differing extras, Arrow LE has Theatrical cut Blu-ray from older HD master, most likely from a 2K scan of an interpositive.
Director: Paul Verhoeven
88 Films Blu-Ray
88 Films Blu-Ray
Director: Paul Verhoeven
88 Films Blu-Ray
88 Films Blu-Ray
Director: Paul Verhoeven
OOP Arrow LE has Theatrical Cut not on the standard release
Director: Paul Verhoeven
OOP Arrow LE has Theatrical Cut not on the standard release
Director: Paul Verhoeven
Lionsgate and StudioCanal 4K Blu-ray share the same video master: both have considerable improvement over the old awful Blu-ray but marred by teal grading and DNR. Lionsgate is additionally better compressed than StudioCanal.
Lionsgate 4K Blu-ray has the original theatrical 2.0 track, sourced from LaserDisc (absent on StudioCanal 4K Blu-ray), but the 5.1 track has issues which are not present on their new Blu-ray (LFE channel is missing, and instead it's the back left surround duplicated)
Director: Paul Verhoeven
Lionsgate and StudioCanal 4K Blu-ray share the same video master: both have considerable improvement over the old awful Blu-ray but marred by teal grading and DNR. Lionsgate is additionally better compressed than StudioCanal.
Lionsgate 4K Blu-ray has the original theatrical 2.0 track, sourced from LaserDisc (absent on StudioCanal 4K Blu-ray), but the 5.1 track has issues which are not present on their new Blu-ray (LFE channel is missing, and instead it's the back left surround duplicated)
Director: Paul Verhoeven
Vinegar Syndrome 4K Blu-ray (replacement disc), the subtitles on the initial release has some issues.
Vinegar Syndrome 4K Blu-ray (replacement disc)
Vinegar Syndrome 4K: The 5.1 track on the initial release has an error. This is corrected on the later "v2" discs.
Director: Paul Verhoeven
Vinegar Syndrome 4K Blu-ray (replacement disc), the subtitles on the initial release has some issues.
Vinegar Syndrome 4K Blu-ray (replacement disc)
Vinegar Syndrome 4K: The 5.1 track on the initial release has an error. This is corrected on the later "v2" discs.
Director: Paul Verhoeven
Director: Paul Verhoeven
Director: Paul Verhoeven
Director: Paul Verhoeven
2025 Sony 4K Blu-ray
2025 Sony 4K Blu-ray
2025 Sony 4K Blu-ray
2025 Sony 4K Blu-ray
Director: Michael Apted
Original matrixed Dolby Stereo: 2003 Sony/Columbia NTSC DVD 2.0
5.1 remix: 2024 Sony Blu-ray
The 5.1 track on the UHD is a remix originally included on the 2024 Blu-ray, but missing the LFE track. The UHD 2.0 track is a downmix of the faulty 5.1, severely lacking bass.
The digital track on the earlier LaserDisc is most likely the same as DVD, minus the lossy compression.
Director: Michael Apted
Original matrixed Dolby Stereo: 2003 Sony/Columbia NTSC DVD 2.0
5.1 remix: 2024 Sony Blu-ray
The 5.1 track on the UHD is a remix originally included on the 2024 Blu-ray, but missing the LFE track. The UHD 2.0 track is a downmix of the faulty 5.1, severely lacking bass.
The digital track on the earlier LaserDisc is most likely the same as DVD, minus the lossy compression.
Director: Rob Reiner
Director: Rob Reiner
2026 Sony/Columbia 4K Blu-ray
2026 Sony/Columbia 4K Blu-ray
2026 Sony/Columbia 4K Blu-ray
2026 Sony/Columbia 4K Blu-ray
Director: Albert Brooks
Director: Albert Brooks
Director: Frank Capra
Sony Frank Capra Boxset 4K Blu-ray
Sony Frank Capra Boxset 4K Blu-ray
Director: Frank Capra
Sony Frank Capra Boxset 4K Blu-ray
Sony Frank Capra Boxset 4K Blu-ray
Director: Luc Besson
StudioCanal / Gaumont / Sony 4K Blu-ray
SC caps. Great-looking 4K master except for DNR'd higher-gen shots such as the opening sequence. StudioCanal resolves finer detail but has encoding issues in highlights, the non-Original Camera Negative shots and traces of chroma noise. Sony used a low-pass filter which makes the film look less sharp and finely detailed but the encode is more consistent.
Director: Luc Besson
StudioCanal / Gaumont / Sony 4K Blu-ray
SC caps. Great-looking 4K master except for DNR'd higher-gen shots such as the opening sequence. StudioCanal resolves finer detail but has encoding issues in highlights, the non-Original Camera Negative shots and traces of chroma noise. Sony used a low-pass filter which makes the film look less sharp and finely detailed but the encode is more consistent.
Edit History
12/18/2024
