Troops (1997) Poster

(1997)

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9/10
It is just really funny even after almost twenty years
tankace1 September 2016
Warning: Spoilers
This one of the oldest fan films in history for it was made in 1997 and despite that we have seen many fan over the years and nowadays even fan made series this is one of the projects that started this homage to some of the most influential films, television series, books and comics.

To the story, it follows a group of storm troopers who are looking for R2-D2 and C3-PO after our brave droids have escaped to Tatoine and the makers made it like a cop search and has the troopers even talk to the camera like they are filmed by a reporter. OK when that started I was laughing my ass off and also encounter a uncle and aunt of someone known from this desert planet then I almost fell from my chair.

What I also liked much about this little project was the costume of the Troopers, the sand people and to the vehicle the troopers are using. Are very much like the movie and a blast from their blasters look so fake that you can but admire their try to make it as close to the real deal as possible for they do it really well.

When I saw it again (It is available on Youtube by the way) I was thinking who much excited those guys and girls much had to be for Lucas had promised them since 1989 a continuation of this epic saga and with the new flick been in the working since 1994 EVERYONE was in wanting. What of a let down the much have had when they went to the theaters in that Mat of 1999!

Over all go watch it is really funny and you won't regretted after wards unlike with the prequels...eh what pieces of junk!
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9/10
I can't believe the humour.
schmeerpapier14 May 2004
I can't believe how funny this film is. Though only 10 minutes long it compresses the amount of laughs usually found in your average, common or garden "Malcom in the Middle episode." The funniest thing is, that it represents the usual jaded view of the army, and considering it's the Empire then the actions in this film are probably highly commended by the Imperial Military.

Even funnier than when Obi-Wan plays detective "Only Imperial Stormtroopers are so precise." And furthermore, not an "I have a bad feeling about this." in sight.

9.5/10 If you haven't seen it then see it.
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9/10
The master example for good spin-off.
Gandalf-229 December 1998
I heard about Troops a while ago from a friend of mine, who surfs Star Wars related sites very often and very intense. He did not see it, though, as it is just too hard to download. Today, I kind of accidentally stumbled across it, downloaded it (We have some excellent lines here at work...) and watched it. I nearly wet my pants. Troops even looks like taken from Star Wars! Incredible! And it really feels like a report from some reality show from the future. I will recommend Troops now to everyone I know, as it is in my eyes exactly the kind of film that can and should be done with little money and a good idea! My congratulations to everyone on the team: You guys just made history!
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10/10
Brilliant! Better than Phantom Menace!
winstonsmith_8421 April 2002
Wow, I was so impressed after seeing this I had to comment on it. Not only is it a funny idea (Stormtrooper COPS show) but the film is rather well done. There are well produced scenes, with flying speed-crafts and AT-STs. I was impressed with the aesthetic aspect... it's just like watching the world of the real Star Wars. In fact, to me, it was WAY more entertaining than Phantom Menace. I hope they do another Troops episode... And I hope more of these little underground (but very well done) Star Wars movies keep comin! If you can't find this movie in your local theatre or video store (OK, you won't) search for it with KAZAA and you'll find it no problem. Enjoy.
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Its Tough Being A Trooper On Tatooine.
General Urko14 February 2002
Its not easy patrolling hostile Tatooine territory & laying done the law but someones got to do it! This fly on the wall documentary follows a group of Stormtroopers on patrol & their encounters with scum & villainy. Welcome to Troops!

This is probably the most well known of all the many Star Wars 'fan-films' & deservedly so as it is a highly entertaining spoof of Cops & the innumerable reality police shows clogging up our telly schedules. These guys are just ordinary Joes doing their job, & what a job! Jawas dealing in stolen droids, domestic disputes between moisture farmers & their wives are all in a days work for these hard working representatives of the Empire.

Unlike some fan-films this has a real high-budget feel to it helped by the authentic costumes, decent acting, locations & familiar fly-on-the-wall filming technique. Of course, this is a must for Star Wars fans with revelations about certain events in A New Hope. However, those not familiar with the films may still find this an enjoyable mickey-take of real life cop shows.

Complaints? It isn't long enough! After ten all to quick minutes your going to be hungry for more real-life adventures of those misunderstood & underappreciated galactic law-enforcers the Troops!
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10/10
Great Spoof!
Frank-N-Stein9 December 1999
This short spoof is so well done, just check out the special effects and the costumes. The plot is also excellent. For those who haven't seen it: It tells you what "really" happened to Uncle Owen and Luke's Aunt and what happened to the Jawas when the Imperial Troops showed up, looking for the stolen droids... This is a must see. Don't pay too much for the tape, though!
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10/10
Couldn't believe how good it was!
Jediluke31 August 1999
When I first saw it I couldn't believe this was done by an "amateur crew". You can actually believe it could be some lost footage of the original Star Wars film. Lucas should give these guys a job doing the new sequels. Excellent, hilarious and great fun for everybody. Can't wait for the sequel.
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10/10
Best piece of Star Wars Fan Fiction I've seen
vlad316330 May 2005
A great piece of fan work, definitely on par with the kind of work I would expect from Kevin Smith set in the Star Wars universe. Yeah I know Kevin Smith uses a lot of toilet humor and stoner jokes, but I also know that if he ever made a Star Wars film, he would approach it with the utmost respect.

That being said the acting was great for fan work, the sound was near perfect, the costumes were good as well, especially the Jawas, even though they couldn't be done exactly as in the movies. I liked how it portrayed the everyday mundane lives of Stormtroopers, who were promised adventure and were given a backwater planet. Definitely a 10/10

PS - The line Owen Lars mutters as he starts to turn is "Ben you owe me big time".
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10/10
Troops- The Best (and only) Cops Parody
philip-47330 March 2008
I have seen this Star Wars/Cops spoof before I was a member of this website and I liked it. I just finished watching it for the second time in my life and I still like it. A brilliant parody if I do say so myself, So without further ado. Here is my review of Troops

Plot: It's pretty much what you'd expect on Cops, only with a Star Wars twist. The spoof focuses on a group of Stormtroopers (Hence the title)deal with a crew of Jawas and Luke Skywalker's aunt and uncle. There are quite a few funny moments in it despite being only ten minutes long. My overall score- 9.5/10 (I didn't like the fact that the creators had to cram in a lot of jokes in ten minutes instead of expanding it).

Cast: Because the creator of this short (Kevin Rubio) was working at the Fox Kids network when he was finishing it. He was able to use well known voice actors like Cam Clarke for the short. Other cast highlights includes Bill Farmer as the opening announcer, Paul Pistore as a Jawa (Voice only) and one of the ending radio dispatchers and Eric Hilleary (fans of Bionicle might recognize him from the movies as a environmental and character designer in the third and first and a Production Designer for the second) as Capt. Jyanix Bach (with Clarke as the voice actor) and as a brief (but silent) role as Boba Fett during the opening theme. Overall, the voice and normal acting cast is simply amazing- 10/10

SFX: The effects (although slightly outdated seeing that the short was made over ten years ago) are great for a fan film. The costumes look authentic and the CG stand well after the years (or I'm pretty sure it's CG). Overall score for the effects- 9/10 (They're only slightly outdated)

Overall: The plot is good, the cast is great and the effects still hold up. My score for this is a perfect 10

Another review by Phil MacRae: Whatcha gonna do when I come for you?
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10/10
Well worth anyone's download.
Yocke20 April 1999
This movie is just great. Made by a couple of amateurs (you wont notice, I promise) the movie deals with scenes that are not in the original trilogy (or the special editions for that matter) and adds a slight sense of humour.

And now there's talk about a sequel! I can't wait! Simply hilarious.
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4/10
Good execution, poor story
Horst_In_Translation29 September 2013
Warning: Spoilers
"Troops" is certainly one of the more-known Star Wars fan-films, probably because it's extremely good visually and they definitely made the most out of the money they had at their disposal. The cast is a mix of the unknown and a few who actually have a fairly decent body of work as voice actors. Unfortunately the writing comes rather short. It starts with the pretty catchy song "The Inner Circle" by Bad Boys and then obviously turns into an extraterrestrial parody of us, the audience, accompanying a group of "police officers" on their daily tours meeting people with very earthly problems, even if it's on a different planet. It's mildly funny at first, but when one realizes that it's pretty much the same stick for ten minutes, the entertainment value goes down pretty quickly.

Decent watch for Star Wars fans, not much value for everybody else.
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Hilarious parody
Op_Prime20 May 2000
Troops is an awesome parody of Cops and Star Wars. I downloaded it off the Internet and, though it took very long to download, it was worth it. Troops fills in the holes of Episode IV, by explaining what really happened to the Jawas, Uncle Owen and Luke's Aunt. It's also hilarious to see the stolen droid is none other than MST3K's Tom Servo. This is a must see.
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9/10
In a way, brilliant.
Cinema Buff19 July 2001
Many friends of mine belong to that special club: The club that can recite from memory all things "Star Wars". I do not quite have the knowledge of the Blessed Trilogy to join that club, but I still get most inside jokes that jab at that groundbreaking trio of sci-fi fantasies. Still, based on the recommendation of one of the members of that aforementioned club, I downloaded this ten-minute film off of the Internet, and I am so glad that I did.

The premise is rather simple...Take "Star Wars" and filter through the documentary style used by the TV series "Cops". The story centers around stormtroopers ("Troops"...Get it?) who live on the planet of Tatooine, which any amateur "Star Wars" fan can tell you is the homeplanet of the trilogy's hero Luke Skywalker.

The small brilliance of this film, though, is that it takes its premise, and really runs with it. It does not just let the idea be the joke. Instead, it runs an interesting parallel storyline with the first film in the trilogy, suggesting that the so-called sabotage by the Empire was indeed just a big misunderstanding. And when you add some hilarious performances and some surprisingly good special effects, it's a wonderful blend that makes "Troops" near the top of the list of "Star Wars" send ups (and there have been quite a few, believe me).
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9/10
Too good to miss...
rasras19 August 1999
Troops is a great combination of parody and homage to the epic Star Wars trilogy. It is made with great love for the original movies. The most amazing thing is, that everything you see in Troops fits perfectly with the plot-line for Episode IV: a New Hope. Troops is a must for all Star Wars fans. It's too good to miss.
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10/10
Sheer delight!
EBKenobi11 November 1998
The Star Wars trilogy, the greatest movies of all time. Just including Star Wars in a movie takes it to the top! This movie is at the top!
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10/10
this is so well done it should be in the movies
shadowruk9 September 1999
for an independent parody....to be so well done shows the professionalism of the individuals involved. it's funny...the editing is well done....the acting superb....the mixing incredible....and the video is terrific.
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10/10
the best idea ever.
manzarek-228 July 2000
It´s very funny, I would like to see some more, like "the galaxy´s most dangerous creatures", "empires dumbest criminals" etc. And the way it links to the real movie is excellent. How stupid Luke must feel when he realize the he has wrongfully accused the empire for his uncle and aunt´s death.
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10/10
Hilarious Movie
ggaspari18 April 1999
Troops is downright fun... It's probably the best parody film I have ever watched - great story, excellent special FX (unbelievably good for a low-budget, no-profit film) and fine humour puts this one in my favorites list. A must-see :)
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10/10
Nothing comes up short here except maybe the length :-)
DarkKenJ28 March 1999
Cross COPS, Star Wars, and a bit of King of the Hill and Fox should pick this up for release...

I'm not sure there could have been a more humorous take on the Star Wars films from any of the "recognized" directors...

The only bad thing about this movie is that it's not at least as long as a couple episodes of COPS...
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9/10
I Cannot Believe How Good This Fan Film Is!!!
yavkaconsult24 December 2023
This may be if not the best, then certainly one of the best Star Wars fan films.

I guess it doesn't have a big budget. I also read a little while ago that George Lucas was so impressed with the film that he hired some of the Troops (1997) team to help him on the Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008 - 2020) series. And rightly so. I couldn't believe it when I watched it.

The Star Wars references are super well and logically done, completely in keeping with the plot. The comedy is TOP! I can't believe how they even super comically, yet adequately, managed to tie in some of the events of EPISODE IV with this parody.

Phenomenal movie that I only recommend if you're familiar with Star Wars, otherwise you won't understand exactly what happens and the mega cool twist at the end :)

Final score: 9/10.
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9/10
A very clever short.
Ru14 February 1999
This is a very clever short film showing the basic events on Tatooine in A New Hope from the perspective of the stormtroopers. It manages to clarify a few things from the actual film, and if it doesn't quite make you symapthise with the troopers, it at least makes you think about life in the Empire for the ordinary majority of its citizens. I've only seen this on an internet site - it deserves some sort of proper release and proper credit for a smart bit of work.
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9/10
Tons of laughs
sunkorg27 May 1999
One of the funniest film parodies I've seen. I'd love it if this short could precede all Star Wars films shown on the big screen. Tons of laughs.
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10/10
Excellent parody of an awesome movie.
hassy_dk6 July 1999
I simply love this parody for its excellent humor and cool special effects, basically everything. Everything! What is there to say but:"Uh oh. There goes the other one!"
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10/10
Fun, pure fun!
zeitraum8 June 1999
I really do hope to get this great piece of film on DVD some time... ;-) I'm eagerly awaiting the second movie of that guys. I nearly laughed myself to dead as I saw the droid that was stolen by the Jawas - I just saw MST3000 some days ago. Absolutely amazing!
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