Movies directed by Paul Verhoeven

Deep within the cloistered confines of a convent, a young nun becomes embroiled in an intensely erotic lesbian affair while using her wiles to advance and maintain her position. While this might easily be the synopsis of a porn movie, octogenarian...

When Paul Verhoeven took Hollywood by storm during the mid-1980s, he had been a successful director overseas for two decades. During his U.S. tenure, he produced a string of iconic films that remain in the consciousness today, including Robocop, Basi...

Robocop was among the biggest surprises of 1987 - a sci-fi action film with a silly title that turned out to be a biting satire of big business practices. A tribute to the perspicacity and skill of director Paul Verhoeven, Robocop is capable of sa...

In my original, unpublished review of Basic Instinct (dated March 21, 1992), I wrote the following: "There's a fine line between eroticism and exploitation, and Basic Instinct treads it, using nudity, sex, and violence to cover up the limitations o...

In 1990, the MPAA introduced the NC-17 rating to provide an outlet for legitimate adult fare -- non-pornographic motion pictures with content deemed too strong for the under-17 crowd. The first movie released with an NC-17 was Henry and June...

Total Recall is not a typical Arnold Schwarzenegger shoot-'em-up. Yeah, there are a lot of explosions and gun fights, but the storyline eschews the direct route, preferring a more interesting path. This is one of those futuristic action films tha...

In the 1980s and 1990s, Paul Verhoeven made a name for himself in Hollywood, directing such high-profile films as Robocop, Basic Instinct, and Starship Troopers. Before arriving in America, however, Verhoeven had a flourishing career in the Netherl...

Whenever a motion picture tackles a literary classic of any genre, fans of the written work hold their collective breaths, hoping for the best, but dreading the worst. On rare occasions, something like The Godfather emerges -- a movie that not onl...

It is my fondest dream that some day filmmakers will realize that great visual effects do not by themselves equate to a worthwhile motion picture experience. However, until that state of cinematic utopia arrives, audiences will be forced to endure...