Bill, I certainly take your word for it, and I hope I didn't seem to be questioning your veracity. That wasn't my intention.

I don't like Verhoeven's films. I find his attempts at satire ham-handed, and I interpret this as a contempt for his audience, because I don't think he's a stupid man. You say he embraces excess. That's fine. I don't embrace it.

I didn't find STARSHIP TROOPERS funny, I just found it idiotic. I assume that he either didn't care about the classic novel he was adapting, or didn't really understand it. I'd make the same criticism of TOTAL RECALL. He's hardly alone in making a big screen botch of Philip K. Dick's work, however.

I'm sure he's a lovely man, and I think you are too. I just don't happen to like Paul Verhoeven's movies.

Can we leave it at that?