The great Paul Verhoeven marathon
I just did a Paul Verhoeven marathon. I own all of his movies on Blu-ray or DVD, and he is my all-time favorite movie director. No one makes movies quite like Verhoeven. The perfect mix of ultra violence, sex, humor, one-liners and explosions. Sometimes his movies are completely over the top, but that is all part of the Dutch "madman" package. Either you love it or you hate it. I LIKE IT!!
I have tried to rank his movies. I have also written a few words about each movie, something that was top of my mind right after I had finished watching each movie.
Ordered by rank (according to KP):
- 1987 : "RoboCop" - 6/6
- 1995 : "Showgirls" - 6/6
- 1997 : "Starship Troopers" - 6/6
- 2006 : "Black Book" - 5/6
- 2021 : "Benedetta" - 5/6
- 1980 : "Spetters" - 5/6
- 1973 : "Turkish Delight" - 5/6
- 1990 : "Total Recall" - 4/6
- 2000 : "Hollow Man" - 4/6
- 2016 : "Elle" - 4/6
- 1992 : "Basic Instinct" - 3/6
- 1977 : "Soldier of Orange" - 3/6
- 1975 : "Keetje Tippel" - 3/6
- 1985 : "Flesh and Blood" - 3/6
- 1983 : "The Fourth Man" - 2/6
- 1971 : "Business Is Business" - 1/6
Ordered by year of release:
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1971 : "Business Is Business (aka Wat zien ik)"
Verhoeven's first. Not a great movie. Old school Dutch comedy about 2 prostitutes. Not for me.
Rating: 1/6
Top cast: Ronnie Bierman, Sylvia de Leur
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1973 : "Turkish Delight (aka Turks fruit)"
Verhoeven's first really great movie. Rutger Hauer and Monique van de Ven are on fire and they are nude most of the time.
Equally sexy, funny, emotional and sad. A movie you will remember. Good replay value.
Rating: 5/6
Top cast: Monique van de Ven, Rutger Hauer
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1975 : "Keetje Tippel (aka Katie Tippel)"
Dutch period drama. Monique van de Ven is pretty good but the movie suffers from some old school comedy. Not Great, not terrible.
Rating: 3/6
Top cast: Monique van de Ven, Rutger Hauer
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1977 : "Soldier of Orange (aka Soldaat van Oranje)"
Dutch WW2 movie. Rutger Hauer is pretty good. Entertaining enough, but lacks realism in places and the comedy elements annoys me.
Rating: 3/6
Top cast: Rutger Hauer, Jeroen Krabbé, Susan Penhaligon, Marianne Boyer
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1980 : "Spetters"
Dutch coming of age movie. Great acting, great chemistry, great script, great motocross camera work, nice pace.
A near perfect Verhoeven movie. Good replay value.
Rating: 5/6
Top cast: Hans van Tongeren, Renée Soutendijk, Toon Agterberg, Maarten Spanjer,
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1983 : "The Fourth Man (aka De vierde man)"
Verhoeven on mushrooms. Gay Jebus goes to arty-farty world.
Proof that even the mighty Verhoeven can make a bad movie, if he tries hard enough. It does have some interesting visuals though and the actors do okay.
Rating: 2/6
Top cast: Jeroen Krabbé, Renée Soutendijk, Thom Hoffman
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1985 : "Flesh and Blood"
A nude Jennifer Jason Leigh is a plus, but it's not a very good movie. The sword scenes are crappy and the pace is uneven.
Several actors overact and it is hard to take any of it seriously. Lightweight entertainment in the middle ages.
Rating: 3/6
Top cast: Rutger Hauer, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Tom Burlinson, Jack Thompson
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1987 : "RoboCop"
The greatest action movie that has ever been made. Verhoeven's first masterpiece.
The perfect mix of ultra violence, great acting, one-liners, action, explosions, sci-fi and satire. I LIKE IT!! Awesome replay value.
Rating: 6/6
Top cast: Peter Weller, Nancy Allen, Ronny Cox, Kurtwood Smith
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1990 : "Total Recall"
Fairly solid old-school action movie. The set designs are a bit limited and the "acting" by Schwarzenegger is god-awful.
Ultra violence, one-liners and a good supporting cast make up for some of it.
Rating: 4/6
Top cast: Arnold Schwarzenegger, Sharon Stone, Michael Ironside, Rachel Ticotin, Ronny Cox
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1992 : "Basic Instinct "
Lots of sex scenes, but apart from the "nice beaver" scene, it is mostly a drawn-out thriller that tries hard to be more complicated than it needs to be.
I have watched it too many times and I still don't like it much. A successful movie is not necessarily a great movie.
Rating: 3/6
Top cast: Michael Douglas, Sharon Stone, George Dzundza, Jeanne Tripplehorn
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1995 : "Showgirls"
One of my all-time favorite movies. No one but Verhoeven could have created this movie. It doesn't suck. There are no other movies like it. Viva Las Vegas.
It is totally over the top in so many ways and still a fucking masterpiece. Awesome replay value.
Rating: 6/6
Top cast: Elizabeth Berkley, Gina Gershon, Glenn Plummer, Kyle MacLachlan, Gina Ravera
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1997 : "Starship Troopers"
One of the best sci-fi action movies that has ever been made. Satire, ultra violence, special effects and one-liners.
Mobile Infantry does the dying, fleet just does the flying. [Would you like to know more?] A Verhoeven space bugs masterpiece. Welcome to the Roughnecks.
Rating: 6/6
Top cast: Casper Van Dien, Dina Meyer, Denise Richards
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2000 : "Hollow Man"
This action-horror movie is fun most of the way. It has interesting F/X for an older movie.
The story is good, but when the shit hits the fan and Sebastian snaps, then it derails too much.
Too many idiotic decisions made by the science team and why do Sebastian turn into some kind of near-immortal super human? That said, still good entertainment.
Rating: 4/6
Top cast: Kevin Bacon, Elisabeth Shue, Josh Brolin, Kim Dickens
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2006 : "Black Book (aka Zwartboek)"
Fantastic Dutch WW2 drama. Really great acting and a fine story. Languages spoken include: Dutch, German, English, Hebrew. No stupid dubbing here.
Really makes you think how klootzaks and good people come in every nationality and shape. A movie you won't forget.
Rating: 5/6
Top cast: Carice van Houten, Sebastian Koch, Thom Hoffman, Halina Reijn, Waldemar Kobus
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2016 : "Elle"
Isabelle Huppert does a very great job playing the über bitch, and she owns this movie. It is a very French movie and it has a lot of dark humor in all it's fucked up Frenchness and far-out complicated relationships.
Everybody is fucking or even raping everybody else's wives or husbands behind their backs or more or less in front of them. Even though this is not the type of Verhoeven movie I prefer, it is still a very entertaining movie.
Rating: 4/6
Top cast: Isabelle Huppert, Laurent Lafitte, Anne Consigny
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2021 : "Benedetta"
It is a story of a lesbian relationship between the 2 Italian nuns Benedetta and Bartolomea, and how insane religion was and still is and what it does to people and society.
The movie contains sex, trials, religion, power, politics, love, betrayal, the plague, torture, violence, you name it. It has a great pace and the story is easy to follow and enjoy. One of the best movies by Verhoeven in years.
Rating: 5/6
Top cast: Virginie Efira, Daphné Patakia, Charlotte Rampling, Louise Chevillotte, Lambert Wilson
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Director: Paul Verhoeven
Content Type: Movie Review
Language: 
Updated: 2026-01-18 13:22
Created: 2026-01-13 14:29
