Troops (1997) Review

 

Troops (1997)

Troops is a fan-film set during the events of A New Hope, following a sect of storm troopers in this parody of the hit show COPS.

I was reading about the old Tag and Bink comics today and was reminded that the writer of those also did what is now considered one of the best Star Wars fan films ever, so naturally we carved out 10 minutes to watch it. Troops is a Star Wars parody of COPS, using the music and documentary style format to follow a group of hilarious, small-town storm troopers as they are dispatched to take care of various incidents throughout the sprawling deserts of Tatooine. One said incidents even happens to be a domestic dispute between Luke’s Uncle Owen and Aunt Beru over Luke running away, which ends in the Lars family dead and charred after Beru brings out a thermal detonator, obviously explaining away their deaths in the movie.

I also have to commend the visual affects team who comically and very impressively produced effects which look and feel straight out of 1977 (and look significantly better than the messy and primal effects of the prequels a mere 2 years later). Land speeders, sand crawlers, and AT-ST's, as well as the homemade costumes all look so well done, especially for a group of amateurs. It’s no wonder some of these guys went on to do VFX for Babylon 5.

Written and directed by Kevin Rubio, Troops is a fun little mockumentary escape into the world of Star Wars, feeling authentic and providing some hilarity in showing these hard working storm troopers settling domestic disputes and going after jawas for stealing droids (Tom Servo from MST3000). Rubio sets the groundwork for his writing on T&B, and it’s fun seeing Troops still getting love in modern SW as seen in the scout trooper scene from S1 of the Mandalorian.

8.8/10