From rec.arts.sf.reviews Tue Nov 1 15:29:52 1994 Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.reviews,rec.arts.sf.reviews Path: news.ifm.liu.se!liuida!sunic!uunet!europa.eng.gtefsd.com!uhog.mit.edu!news.kei.com!yeshua.marcam.com!charnel.ecst.csuchico.edu!olivea!news.bu.edu!gw1.att.com!nntpa!not-for-mail From: blake7@cc.bellcore.com (berardinelli,james) Subject: REVIEW: STARGATE Message-ID: Followup-To: rec.arts.sf.movies Summary: r.a.m.r. #03023 Originator: ecl@mtgp003 Keywords: author=Berardinelli Sender: ecl@mtgpfs2.att.com (Evelyn C. Leeper) Nntp-Posting-Host: mtgp003.mt.att.com Reply-To: blake7@cc.bellcore.com (berardinelli,james) Organization: Bellcore, Livingston, NJ Date: Mon, 31 Oct 1994 21:47:58 GMT Approved: ecl@mtgpfs2.att.com Lines: 88 Xref: news.ifm.liu.se rec.arts.movies.reviews:2330 rec.arts.sf.reviews:650 [Followups directed to rec.arts.sf.movies. -Moderator] STARGATE A film review by James Berardinelli Copyright 1994 James Berardinelli Rating (0 to 10): 5.7 Date Released: 10/28/94 Running Length: 2:02 Rated: PG-13 (Violence, language) Starring: Kurt Russell, James Spader, Jaye Davidson, Viveca Lindfors, Alexis Cruz, Mili Avatal Director: Roland Emmerich Producers: Joel B. Michaels, Oliver Eberle, and Dean Devlin Screenplay: Deal Devlin and Roland Emmerich Cinematography: Karl Walter Lindenlaub Music: David Arnold Released by MGM There's a fine line between giving homage to something and stealing from it--and the division is usually defined by how creative and enjoyable the final product is. Using that distinction, STARGATE is on uncertain ground. This new big-budget science fiction/fantasy offering can claim barely an original moment, taking from such diverse sources as STAR WARS, STAR TREK, CLOSE ENCOUNTERS, DUNE, RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK, DOCTOR WHO, and even DANCES WITH WOLVES and KING KONG. The story combines traditional popular science fiction themes with a heavy dose of Egyptological mumbo-jumbo. Occasional, mostly-halfhearted attempts at character development are ignored whenever they don't impact directly on the plot. As has frequently become the case with movies of this genre, the visual effects and breathtaking cinematography far outstrip everything else offered by STARGATE. James Spader plays nerdish Egyptologist Daniel Jackson, whose linguistic expertise is called upon for decoding inscriptions on tiles discovered in an Egyptian archeological site. These turn out to be the key that turns the lock in something called the "stargate", an intergalactic portal (that looks like a giant donut) to some Earth-like world on the "far side of the known universe." Kurt Russell is Colonel Jack O'Neil, the borderline-suicidal military commander of a mission to the other side of the stargate. Accompanied by his crack troops and Jackson, O'Neil enters the gate and emerges in what looks suspiciously like Egypt. It's not, however, as the three moons in the sky soon prove. This is the land of the Egyptian Sun God Ra (Jaye Davidson) and his people. Ra, it seems, created human society on Earth and on this world as well as the stargates, and was displeased when the ancient Egyptians closed their side of the space/time corridor, confining him to one planet. Now that the way is again open, Ra has decided to prepare a little surprise for those waiting at the far end. What begins as an enjoyable romp degenerates into a tired retread of the age-old good-versus evil battle pitting a group of overachieving mortals against a ruthless god-like being. It's Luke against the Emperor from RETURN OF THE JEDI without the malevolent, charismatic presence of Darth Vader. Ultimately, the final battle, aside from being inexplicably rushed, is dull and lacking in genuine suspense. The first half of the film, which includes the setup, Jackson's intense struggle to break the stargate's code, the expedition to Ra's world, and humankind's first contact with an alien culture, is handled reasonably well. Things only start to fall apart with Ra's appearance. Then it's all shoot-outs and fight scenes, with action taking precedence over intelligence. The cast members do their best with sketchy roles. Kurt Russell makes an effective no-nonsense military man who doesn't overplay his grief at a recent personal tragedy. Not for the first time, James Spader is believable as a dweeb forced into a heroic act or two. And Jaye Davidson, despite never speaking a word of English, has a commanding presence as the androgynous Ra. STARGATE is peppered with numerous minor faults, some of which--although not all--are easily forgiven. It's the bigger plot problems and lackluster climax which are more difficult to excuse. Director Roland Emmerich, who previously made UNIVERSAL SOLDIER, appears infatuated with his film's look without caring if anything moderately substantial lies beneath the glitz. STARGATE is all flashes and bangs--a cinematic fireworks show without the grand finale. - James Berardinelli (blake7@cc.bellcore.com) From rec.arts.sf.reviews Tue Nov 1 15:30:13 1994 Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.reviews,rec.arts.sf.reviews Path: news.ifm.liu.se!liuida!sunic!uunet!europa.eng.gtefsd.com!uhog.mit.edu!news.kei.com!yeshua.marcam.com!charnel.ecst.csuchico.edu!olivea!news.bu.edu!gw1.att.com!nntpa!not-for-mail From: leeper@mtgbcs.att.com (Mark R. Leeper) Subject: REVIEW: STARGATE Message-ID: Followup-To: rec.arts.sf.movies Summary: r.a.m.r. #03024 Originator: ecl@mtgp003 Keywords: author=Leeper Sender: ecl@mtgpfs2.att.com (Evelyn C. Leeper) Nntp-Posting-Host: mtgp003.mt.att.com Reply-To: leeper@mtgbcs.att.com Organization: AT&T, Middletown NJ Date: Mon, 31 Oct 1994 21:48:48 GMT Approved: ecl@mtgpfs2.att.com Lines: 105 Xref: news.ifm.liu.se rec.arts.movies.reviews:2331 rec.arts.sf.reviews:651 [Followups directed to rec.arts.sf.movies. -Moderator] STARGATE A film review by Mark R. Leeper Copyright 1994 Mark R. Leeper Capsule review: A haggard adventure tale given a modern sci-fi explanation, building up to entirely too much special effects. What could have been a great adventure film turns into a much less exciting action story. The film has a nice look and a few interesting ideas, but the script could have used more work. Rating: +1 (-4 to +4) Back in the last century and the early parts of this one there were still many unexplored regions on earth. A kind of fantasy flourished then that has since nearly died out. This was the "lost race" story, in which in some unexplored place, some last outpost of the ancient civilization still thrives unaware that they are an anachronism. It may be Egyptian or Roman, or perhaps it still has the civilization of the ancient Incas or Atlantis, and is being discovered by modern explorers. The greatest practitioner of these stories was H. Rider Haggard, author of SHE. But other names that come to mind are Edgar Rice Burroughs, A. Merritt, and Ian Cameron, who wrote THE LOST ONES (a.k.a THE ISLAND AT THE TOP OF THE WORLD) as late as 1961. But in the 1990s the real estate that could host such a lost civilization is now almost non-existent and so is the genre. Roland Emerich, who last directed the terrible UNIVERSAL SOLDIER, has resurrected the lost race story with a bit of sci-fi (as opposed to science fiction) hand- waving. Instead of a potsherd pointing the way to a civilization somewhere beyond the Mountains of the Moon in Africa, it is a twenty- foot ring that provides a gateway across the known universe. The ring was a passageway for aliens at the time Ancient Egypt was building pyramids. When they were done with it the Egyptians just sort of packed it away much like the U.S. Government did with the Ark of the Covenant. As our story opens, it is 1928 and the Stargate is found by one bunch of understandably very confused archaeologists. Sixty-six years later government archaeologists are still trying to figure out what to do with this mysterious object (so they can move on to the Ark of the Covenant, I suppose). Invited to join the team is Dr. Daniel Jackson (played by James Spader), a renegade Egyptologist who wants to prove that Egyptians could not have built the Great Pyramid. He is laughed at as Great Men of Truth have always been laughed at, going back to the Frederic March DR. JEKYLL AND MR. HYDE. His chance to prove his theories comes from Catherine (Viveca Lindfors--and it is great to see her still acting), a government scientist working on decoding the 1928 artifact. Meanwhile, the project has been given over to the military and is now headed by Col. Jack O'Neal (Kurt Russell). Jackson decodes the last pieces of the puzzle and that is all that is needed to activate a passageway. On the other side is a lot of desert and a lost civilization of Egyptians, slaves to the living god Ra (played by Jaye Davidson of THE CRYING GAME). STARGATE is yet another beautiful but rather empty film. Production designer Holger Gross and art director Peter Murton have gone a long way to recreate the grandeur of Ancient Egypt. The brassy score by David Arnold is exciting. But the adventure itself is on a juvenile level and certainly not of the caliber of an H. Rider Haggard adventure. Some of what we see seems very poorly thought out. A shaggy desert animal (actually a Clydesdale horse in a fake fur coat) seems altogether unsuited for the desert climate. There is a ludicrous product placement with a chocolate-covered candy bar. Who would want to eat a candy bar that can take riding around in somebody's pocket for hours in a hot desert and still shows no sign of melting? And one wonders if some desert slave who has never seen chocolate--or candy at all--would be so anxious to put in his mouth something that looks so much like a bar of excrement. The recreation of a desert civilization in some ways is very detailed and almost overcomes the atmosphere- breaking sci-fi opening while giving some of the feel of an H. Rider Haggard story. Unfortunately, things build to a special effects extravaganza of a battle and it is just what this film did not need. The innocent feel of the old-fashioned adventures is lost when spears turn out to be missile launchers. Some of the ideas of this film are really specious. The idea that the Egyptians had to be introduced to the concept of the pyramid at the time of the Great Pyramid does not account for the fact that there were older pyramids in Egypt. The pyramid was invented by Im-ho-tep somewhere around 2650 B.C. in the Third Dynasty. He stacked mastabas of diminishing size for the King Zoser. That step pyramid still stands at Saqqara. Im-ho-tep was one of history's great geniuses, incidentally, a physician and a statesman as well as an architect. The Great Pyramid of Khufu was built at Giza in the Fourth Dynasty, probably more than a hundred years later and many hundreds of years after the mastabas were invented. While pinning down dates is in large part a matter of guesswork, there were pyramids at least a hundred years before Khufu's Great Pyramid and perhaps considerably more. And as for this idea that it takes six points to pinpoint a location in space, that's another load of duck tires. How many points does it take to determine a location in space? You need only one. Now if you are talking instead about coordinates, it takes three. But then you need three real numbers. Sectors on a wheel won't give you enough. The geometry made no sense. Somewhere deep inside this techno-SHE is a good adventure film. The problem is that they are not sure if they really want to be a high-tech science fiction film or a more traditional lost civilization film. I would vote for the latter. I rate it a +1 on the -4 to +4 scale. Mark R. Leeper mark.leeper@att.com From rec.arts.sf.reviews Thu Nov 3 13:28:11 1994 Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.reviews,rec.arts.sf.reviews Path: news.ifm.liu.se!liuida!sunic!uunet!world!news.bu.edu!gw1.att.com!nntpa!not-for-mail From: AS.IDC@forsythe.stanford.edu (Scott Renshaw) Subject: REVIEW: STARGATE Message-ID: Followup-To: rec.arts.sf.movies Summary: r.a.m.r. #03040 Originator: ecl@mtgp003 Keywords: author=Renshaw Sender: ecl@mtgpfs2.att.com (Evelyn C. Leeper) Nntp-Posting-Host: mtgp003.mt.att.com Reply-To: AS.IDC@forsythe.stanford.edu (Scott Renshaw) Organization: Stanford University Date: Wed, 2 Nov 1994 13:49:39 GMT Approved: ecl@mtgpfs2.att.com Lines: 80 Xref: news.ifm.liu.se rec.arts.movies.reviews:2347 rec.arts.sf.reviews:652 [Followups directed to rec.arts.sf.movies. -Moderator] STARGATE A film review by Scott Renshaw Copyright 1994 Scott Renshaw Starring: Kurt Russell, James Spader, Jaye Davidson. Screenplay: Dean Devlin and Roland Emmerich. Director: Roland Emmerich. STARGATE is a movie from out of a time warp, and I'm not just talking about the plot. The late 70s and early 80s were the heyday of grand scale science fiction/fantasy epics, both on the big screen and the small screen, produced to cash in on the success of the STAR WARS trilogy. STARGATE feels a lot like many of those films: overblown, underwritten, yet still moderately entertaining. Perhaps it was the sense of nostalgia it inspired in me, but STARGATE offered just enough to keep me interested, despite all of its bombast and unfulfilled promise. STARGATE opens in Egypt in 1928, where an archaeological team discovers a massive artifact. Flash forward to the present, where the military is studying the object, and brings in radical young Egyptologist Dr. Daniel Jackson (James Spader) to help decipher its hieroglyphs. He is successful, and discovers that the artifact is a gateway to a distant star system. An advance team of soldiers is sent to find out what's on the other side of the stargate, let by Col. Jack O'Neil (Kurt Russell) and including Dr. Jackson. There they discover a thriving civilization of what appear to be humans, living much as they would have lived in the Egypt of the pharaohs. They also discover that the world is ruled by a being called Ra (Jaye Davidson), who appears to be anything but benevolent. For the first half hour, STARGATE seems to be pretty comfortably on the right track, with a solid premise. Spader in particular is quite appealing, playing the perfect slightly dazed academic; the early scenes in which he shows up the military scientists are low-key and quite a lot of fun. In fact, for all its $50 million scale, Spader may be the best thing STARGATE has going for it. Unfortunately, he makes Kurt Russell look like a large piece of plywood by comparison. Playing a man shattered by the death of his young son, Russell is supposed to be taciturn and all business; instead, he's just a huge dullard without a scrap of personality, and it's impossible to care anything about him. As such he fits right in with the rest of the advance team, an interchangeable collection of macho grunts. Once we get to the other side of the stargate, things are still wildly uneven, and we're not even talking about those plausibility questions that plague most science fiction fare. The real issue is that as good as STARGATE looks, it's awfully slow-moving. The sets and costume design are impressive, and even the desert sandscapes have a certain beauty to them. But STARGATE falls victim to its attempts at creating a fully-realized alternative civilization. It's a nice touch that they don't speak the "miracle English" common to alien civilizations, but it makes the soldiers' interactions with them extremely tedious. The fascination of some of the younger ones with the human aliens is believable, but a scene involving one of them reacting to Kurt Russell's lighter as magic is as old as the hills. It's as though director and co-scripter Roland Emmerich paid so much attention to cultural detail that he missed the big picture--providing a truly engaging story. The climax of STARGATE is a major improvement, full of energy and creativity. It's a shame that Jaye Davidson's Ra is such a boring villain, gliding along through the ship making imperious pronouncements in a voice bearing a frightening similarity to that of Jabba the Hut. There is really very little in Ra's role except ordering guards around, so the threat isn't nearly as threatening as it might be. The bottom line, though, is that even as I was thinking about how ridiculous some of the resolutions were (including final decisions made by both Russell's and Spader's characters), I realized that I had enjoyed myself. And for a matinee price, I generally don't ask for much more. On the Renshaw scale of 0 to 10 $50 million pyramids: 6. -- Scott Renshaw Stanford University Office of the General Counsel From rec.arts.sf.reviews Thu Nov 3 13:28:11 1994 Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.reviews,rec.arts.sf.reviews Path: news.ifm.liu.se!liuida!sunic!uunet!world!news.bu.edu!gw1.att.com!nntpa!not-for-mail From: good@pixar.com (Craig Good) Subject: REVIEW: STARGATE Message-ID: Followup-To: rec.arts.sf.movies Summary: r.a.m.r. #03041 Originator: ecl@mtgp003 Keywords: author=Good Sender: ecl@mtgpfs2.att.com (Evelyn C. Leeper) Nntp-Posting-Host: mtgp003.mt.att.com ~Reply-To: good@pixar.com (Craig Good) Organization: Pixar Date: Wed, 2 Nov 1994 13:50:17 GMT Approved: ecl@mtgpfs2.att.com Lines: 58 Xref: news.ifm.liu.se rec.arts.movies.reviews:2348 rec.arts.sf.reviews:653 [Followups directed to rec.arts.sf.movies. -Moderator] STARGATE A film review by Craig Good Copyright 1994 Craig Good Let's hear it for the Sun god! He's a real fun god! Ra! Ra! Ra! Like many others, I ate up the trailers for "Stargate" in anticipation if its release. As soon as it opened, I saw it at one of the biggest theatres in town. The good news is that the movie delivered everything it promised to me in the trailers. It's big, art directed to the hilt, has some stunning effects, and crowd scenes like we haven't seen since, well, DUNE. The bad news is--that's all it delivered. The story is pretty basic and mindless. That makes it just a little better than most "Star Trek" movies and TV episodes. But that's damning with faint praise. Remember, though, that the trailer never promised a Merchant/Ivory film. On some levels the movie works quite well. It does a pretty good job at the hand-waving technobabble that is seemingly so necessary in science fiction, and resists the temptation to over-explain the technology. That, coupled with the stunning look, would be enough to convey the impression of a relatively intelligent film were it not for a few glaring stupidities. The first thing is the "military" mission--led by Kurt Russell--which is accompanied by rogue Egyptologist James Spader on the journey through the stargate. This has to be the most *un*-military bunch of guys I've seen since "F-Troop." Except for packing along some nice guns and remembering to say "over" at the end of most of their radio transmissions, this little pack acts nothing like any group who ever donned a uniform for real, much less the crack Special Forces one would expect to find on this mission. And, very minor spoiler here, you know things aren't going well in the script department when, because of the medallion he's wearing, Spader is mistaken for a diety by the natives. My, I certainly didn't see *that* one coming. Also along for the slow, ponderous ride is Jaye Davidson who wears some simply fabulous outfits in his role as Ra, the sun god. Ironically, he looks more feminine in his kingly garb than he ever did in drag in THE CRYING GAME. He doesn't get to do much more than pose, though, and his voice is replaced with a heavily processed growl that is at times hard to understand. There's an audience for STARGATE: people who, like me, catch it on a matinee and with low expectations, or kids who are still enjoying the "gee whiz" stage of life. That audience is likely too small for it to recoup the rumored $55 million budget, and I'm only sorry that they didn't pare it down to $54 million to have some more money to spend on the script. --Craig From rec.arts.sf.reviews Thu Nov 3 13:28:11 1994 Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.reviews,rec.arts.sf.reviews Path: news.ifm.liu.se!liuida!sunic!uunet!world!news.bu.edu!gw1.att.com!nntpa!not-for-mail From: ram@mbisgi.umd.edu (Ram Samudrala) Subject: REVIEW: STARGATE Message-ID: Followup-To: rec.arts.sf.movies Summary: r.a.m.r. #03042 Originator: ecl@mtgp003 Keywords: author=Samudrala Sender: ecl@mtgpfs2.att.com (Evelyn C. Leeper) Nntp-Posting-Host: mtgp003.mt.att.com ~Reply-To: ram@mbisgi.umd.edu (Ram Samudrala) Organization: The Centre for Advanced Research in Biotechnology Date: Wed, 2 Nov 1994 13:52:11 GMT Approved: ecl@mtgpfs2.att.com Lines: 30 Xref: news.ifm.liu.se rec.arts.movies.reviews:2349 rec.arts.sf.reviews:654 [Followups directed to rec.arts.sf.movies. -Moderator] STARGATE A film review by Ram Samudrala Copyright 1994 Ram Samudrala STARGATE is the name of this interplanetary wormhole, so to speak, created by a despot, who the Egyptians apparently referred to as their sun god, Ra. Daniel Jackson (James Spader) is an archaeologist whose speciality is in things Egyptian. His expertise is used by the military to uncover the secret behind an artifact uncovered in Giza. Guess what the artifact turns out to be? True to form, our hero (the archaeologist) manages to open the gateway to another part of the galaxy and manages himself into an exploration team headed by a colonel with a death wish (played by Kurt Russell). On arriving at the other end, they discover a civilisation (living as slaves under Ra) who do not communicate using the written word. The reasons for this become self-evident as Ra realises his monarchy is threatened and employs various measures to stop Russell and his team. It's a great movie to watch on the big screen--the effects are really cool and sometimes believable. The plot itself is sometimes naive, but there are a few good things one can get out of this movie, one of them being the fact that subjectives will always subvert. Ram Samudrala ram@elan1.carb.nist.gov From rec.arts.sf.reviews Thu Nov 3 13:28:11 1994 Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.reviews,rec.arts.sf.reviews Path: news.ifm.liu.se!liuida!sunic!uunet!world!news.bu.edu!gw1.att.com!nntpa!not-for-mail From: ben.hoffman@bcsbbs.com (Ben Hoffman) Subject: REVIEW: STARGATE Message-ID: Followup-To: rec.arts.sf.movies Summary: r.a.m.r. #03043 Originator: ecl@mtgp003 Keywords: author=B.Hoffman Sender: ecl@mtgpfs2.att.com (Evelyn C. Leeper) Nntp-Posting-Host: mtgp003.mt.att.com ~Reply-To: ben.hoffman@bcsbbs.com (Ben Hoffman) Organization: The BCS BBS - Los Angeles, CA - 213-962-2902 Date: Wed, 2 Nov 1994 13:56:22 GMT Approved: ecl@mtgpfs2.att.com Lines: 43 Xref: news.ifm.liu.se rec.arts.movies.reviews:2350 rec.arts.sf.reviews:655 [Followups directed to rec.arts.sf.movies. -Moderator] STARGATE A film review by Ben Hoffman Copyright 1994 Ben Hoffman The idea that ancient civilizations were visited by Beings from another planet has long been a source of mystery and wonderment for us on Earth. Could they have made the pyramids? Could they be responsible for the tremendously heavy statues on Easter Island? Director Roland Emmerich and co-writer Dean Devlin, have made an entertaining film that approaches the subject of inter-planetary visitors not from the standpoint of "could they have " but rather "what if they really did come here?" "StarGate" refers to the entrance-way from one world or galaxy into another. When an ancient artifact is discovered near the Great Pyramids of Giza in Egypt that could lead to our learning the origin of our civilization, both the military and civilian authorities show great interest. Representing the military is Colonel Jack O'Neil (Kurt Russell), the hard-nosed investigator of the artifact. Representing a different viewpoint (openness rather than secrecy) is Daniel Jackson (James Spader), a brilliant Egyptologist. Along with a small group of men they embark on the journey to the "other side" of the Universe. It seems that going through the StarGate scrambles the molecules of their being and are re-assembled when they reach their destination. What they find when they arrive and what they learn of the people and their origin is a fascinating story. Their fight for life against the ruler, Ra (Jaye Davidson), and even a love interest in the "other" world, the beautiful Sha'uri (Mili Avital) makes for exciting science fiction; if that is a genre that turns you on, go for it. 2.5 bytes 4 Bytes = Absolutely must see. 3 Bytes = Too good to be missed. 2 Bytes = So so. 1 Byte = Save your money. Ben Hoffman From /home/matoh/tmp/sf-rev Fri Aug 22 16:22:47 1997 From rec.arts.sf.reviews Tue Jul 15 23:07:00 1997 Path: news.ifm.liu.se!news.lejonet.se!newsfeed1.telia.com!masternews.telia.net!newssrv.ita.tip.net!ubnnews.unisource.ch!news-zh.switch.ch!news-ge.switch.ch!news-fra1.dfn.de!news.apfel.de!eerie.fr!news.maxwell.syr.edu!news-peer.sprintlink.net!news.sprintlink.net!Sprint!vixen.cso.uiuc.edu!uchinews!cbgw2.lucent.com!nntphub.cb.lucent.com!not-for-mail From: chandlerb@geocities.com (Ted Prigge) Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.reviews,rec.arts.sf.reviews Subject: RETROSPECTIVE: STARGATE (1994) Followup-To: rec.arts.movies.past-films,rec.arts.sf.movies Date: 23 Jun 1997 15:27:28 GMT Organization: - Lines: 54 Sender: evelynleeper@geocities.com (Evelyn C. Leeper) Approved: evelynleeper@geocities.com Message-ID: <5om4l0$1af@nntpb.cb.lucent.com> ~Reply-To: chandlerb@geocities.com (Ted Prigge) NNTP-Posting-Host: mtvoyager.mt.lucent.com Summary: r.a.m.r. #07912 Keywords: author=Prigge Originator: ecl@mtvoyager Xref: news.ifm.liu.se rec.arts.movies.reviews:7293 rec.arts.sf.reviews:1356 STARGATE A film review by Ted Prigge Copyright 1997 Ted Prigge Director: Roland Emmerich Writer: Dean Devlin and Roland Emmerich Starring: James Spader, Kurt Russel, Jaye Davidon, French Stewart To put it bluntly, Ed Wood would have been proud of this. A totally ridiculous plot is encompassed with bad humor, hokey drama, zero logic and a crap screenplay. Also, a beautifully anti-climactic ending. Not to say it didn't look intriguing when I saw the previews. So much for truth in advertising. Roland Emmerich, who's later "Independence Day" would look like "The 400 Blows" compared to this, co-writed and directed this inane sci-fi film which uses the cliche of there being some connection between Eqypt and aliens. In a useless opening sequence, men find a stone in 1914 with hieroglyphics on it. It wouldn't be till present day ('94) till they would actually figure it out. They're decipherer? A slightly-neurotic scientist (nice twist), Dr. Dan Jackson (James Spader, doing his best outside of erotic thrillers and some indy fare) who's life sucks so much that people walk out of his lectures after the third word. Why do they use him to decipher what no one else could? So there is a hokey ending! Duh! He figures it out in about a minute. Yea. And then they get a suicidal colonel or something, "Jack" O'Neill (Kurt Russel, with his Wyat Earp locks in the beginning then a flat-top that would make Howie Long snap into a fetal position). Why a suicidal colonel? For the ending! You'll get the hang of this. They open the stargate, a bunch of them go through it with a bomb to blow it up if they find anything bad. After an overdone special effects thing, they're...inside a goddam pyramid. So they went to Egypt, right? Wrong. They're on another planet that was filmed in Egypt. They discover a cilvilization ruled by Ra, the sun god (the androginous Jaye Davidson, with a voice modifier to make him sound like Barry White with asthma), and there are fights, explosions and a kiss between two people. Yea. Also melodrama, stupidity, hokey scenes and a bizarre language. An anti-climactic ending ends with stupid lines ("Say hello to King Tut, asswhole!" - the quintessential line, lemme tell ya) and some convenient pesudo-pseudo-pseudo-character development. By the end, you just wanna go home and watch, I don't know, the "Outer Limits" or something. The script's terrible. The special effects are okay, but nothing great. The story's so weak that it's almost opaque. The whole experience just isn't worth it unless you're so bored that you'd consider watching a "Full House" marathon...or this. I'd pick this, obviously, but still, it's just not fun at all. And I can't wait for it to premier on MST3K. MY RATING (out of 5): *1/2 From /home/matoh/tmp/sf-rev Fri Aug 22 16:22:52 1997 From rec.arts.sf.reviews Tue Jul 15 23:07:01 1997 Path: news.ifm.liu.se!news.lth.se!eru.mt.luth.se!news-stkh.gsl.net!news.gsl.net!sn.no!uninett.no!news-feed.inet.tele.dk!cpk-news-hub1.bbnplanet.com!cam-news-hub1.bbnplanet.com!news.bbnplanet.com!news-feed1.tiac.net!uunet!in1.uu.net!140.142.64.3!news.u.washington.edu!grahams From: ChadPolenz@aol.com (Chad Polenz) Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.reviews,rec.arts.sf.reviews Subject: Retrospective: Stargate (1995) Followup-To: rec.arts.sf.movies Date: 7 Jul 1997 04:33:13 GMT Organization: University of Washington Lines: 55 Approved: graham@ee.washington.edu Message-ID: <5ppri9$8q8@nntp5.u.washington.edu> NNTP-Posting-Host: homer38.u.washington.edu Content-Type: text NNTP-Posting-User: grahams Summary: r.a.m.r. #08135 Keywords: author=polenz X-Questions-to: movie-rev-mod@www.ee.washington.edu X-Submissions-to: movie-reviews@www.ee.washington.edu Originator: grahams@homer38.u.washington.edu Xref: news.ifm.liu.se rec.arts.movies.reviews:7528 rec.arts.sf.reviews:1403 Stargate Chad'z rating: ** (out of 4 = fair) 1995, PG-13, 119 minutes [1 hour, 59 minutes] [science fiction] starring: James Spader (Dr. Daniel Jackson), Kurt Russell (Colonel O'Neil), Jaye Davidson (Ra), produced by Joel B. Michaels, Oliver Eberle, Dean Devlin, written by Dean Devlin, Roland Emmerich, directed by Roland Emmerich. It's hard to find a good sci-fi movie these days. Even with all the technology capable for special effects, you hardly ever see wholly original concepts. "Stargate" is somewhat original in its most basic form, but the actual script itself is formulated, cliche, and boring. It's just another case of unused potential. The story revolves around Dr. Daniel Jackson (Spader), a geeky archaeologist whose expertise is needed by the military because it will help lead them to inter-dimensional travel (ooookay!). The problem is nothing is explained clearly, especially why the military chose Jackson, and why they think they can (or would want to) travel to another dimension. Kurt Russell co-stars as Colonel O'Neil who, along with Jackson, leads a typical military bratpack through an ancient Egyptian artifact known as the "Stargate." But once they make it through they realize they can't get back! The group splits up, some go exploring and some stay behind. Soon they meet a group of primates who and are being oppressed by some higher power in a pyramid. Does this sound wacky enough for you? Stuff like this works fine in a Marvel comic, but not in a movie. The film does have an interesting theory about Egyptian mythology. It goes so far to justify it by making it "real" in this other dimension. Apparently Ra (Davidson), the sun god, came to Earth but was outcasted and now rules this dimension. O'Neil says something to the effect that Ra still poses a threat to Earth and that is why they are there - to kill him. Most of the film is a bad rip-off of the "Indiana Jones" films and just about every sci-fi movie and comic book ever. We get a lot of rhetoric that seems to justify all the unnecessary violence and bizarre storyline and mythology, but just considering the basic elements, it's too stupid to take seriously. The attempts at humanism and characterization? Forget about it. The entire third act seems a hell of a lot like "Return Of The Jedi," with the little people revolting against the evil oppressive government, the crude leader single-handedly defeating enemies twice his size, and of course the "super suspenseful" countdown ending. Emmerich and Devlin probably grew up on sci-fi and adventure and wanted to make those kinds of films. The problem is "Stargate" is just that - more of the same. All they need to do is just not try so hard. Please visit Chad'z Movie Page - http://members.aol.com/ChadPolenz E-mail: ChadPolenz@aol.com (C)1997 Chad Polenz From rec.arts.sf.reviews Thu Oct 30 14:05:17 1997 From: Kevin Patterson Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.reviews,rec.arts.sf.reviews Subject: Retrospective: Stargate (1994) Followup-To: rec.arts.sf.movies Date: 15 Oct 1997 15:55:35 GMT Organization: Princeton University Lines: 46 Approved: graham@ee.washington.edu Message-ID: <622p1n$7d6$1@nntp5.u.washington.edu> Reply-To: kevinp@princeton.edu NNTP-Posting-Host: homer13.u.washington.edu X-Trace: nntp5.u.washington.edu 876930935 7590 (None) 140.142.64.2 X-Complaints-To: help@cac.washington.edu NNTP-Posting-User: grahams Summary: r.a.m.r. #09358 Keywords: author=patterson X-Questions-to: movie-rev-mod@www.ee.washington.edu X-Submissions-to: movie-reviews@www.ee.washington.edu Originator: grahams@homer13.u.washington.edu Path: news.ifm.liu.se!news.lejonet.se!newsfeed5.telia.com!masternews.telia.net!xinit!adm.icenet.no!news.edu.sollentuna.se!news.oru.edu!nntp.mid-ga.com!news1.mid-ga.com!news.pagesat.net!news.he.net!Supernews60!supernews.com!newsfeed.direct.ca!howland.erols.net!news-peer.sprintlink.net!news.sprintlink.net!Sprint!worldnet.att.net!news.u.washington.edu!grahams Xref: news.ifm.liu.se rec.arts.movies.reviews:8769 rec.arts.sf.reviews:1566 Film review by Kevin Patterson Stargate * * 1/2 PG-13, 1994 Directed by Roland Emmerich. Written by Emmerich and Dean Devlin. Starring Kurt Russell, James Spader. Let's start with the good news: I was fascinated for the first half of "Stargate." The story, involving a mysterious portal discovered among the ruins of ancient Egypt that turns out to lead to another planet halfway across the galaxy, unfolds against a backdrop of outstanding visual design that led me to believe that we were headed for a mystical sci-fi trip a la "2001: A Space Odyssey" or "Contact." The eccentric but brilliant Dr. Daniel Jackson (James Spader), seemed to possess just the right mix of childlike enthusiasm and raw intelligence to lead the way. When Jackson and a military unit led by Col. Jack O'Neil (Kurt Russell) cross through the stargate and arrive on the alien world, they discover exact replicas of the Egyptian pyramids as well as a race of humanoids who, according to Jackson, seem to be practicing ancient Egyptian culture. Unfortunately, after building up this atmosphere of mystery and awe for the first half of the film, the screenwriters then give us a solution to the mystery that is only mildly clever at best and lacking in any greater insight beyond its immediate effect on the plot. What's even worse is that its immediate effect on the plot is to turn the movie into Indiana Jones On Another Planet; director Roland Emmerich pretty much abandons the tone of mystery and intrigue, opting instead for a run-of-the-mill "fight the bad alien" scenario. The last half hour of the movie, while entertaining at a basic level, is really nothing more than standard action sequences and explosions. "Stargate" also makes use of quite a few cliches towards the end which, although of relatively minor significance plot-wise, are still noticeable enough to be annoying. "Stargate" does not quite deserve to be panned (as it has been by many critics): at its best, it is an enthralling science-fiction mystery, and at its worst it is still an average action movie. Some movies set their sights too high and come off looking ridiculous. "Stargate" has the opposite problem: with this premise, it should have set its sights higher. As it is, I find myself assigning a two and a half stars to a movie that probably could have had three and a half. - - - - - - Visit my Film Reviews page at: http://members.aol.com/KTPattersn/reviews.html From rec.arts.sf.reviews Fri Oct 22 23:00:01 1999 Path: news.ifm.liu.se!news.lth.se!feed2.news.luth.se!luth.se!sunqbc.risq.qc.ca!logbridge.uoregon.edu!news.u.washington.edu!grahams From: Pedro Sena Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.reviews,rec.arts.sf.reviews Subject: Retrospective: Stargate (1994) Followup-To: rec.arts.sf.movies Date: 22 Oct 1999 06:22:16 GMT Organization: University of Washington Lines: 105 Approved: graham@ee.washington.edu Message-ID: <7uovqo$p0i$1@nntp3.u.washington.edu> NNTP-Posting-Host: homer36.u.washington.edu X-Trace: nntp3.u.washington.edu 940573336 25618 (None) 140.142.17.40 X-Complaints-To: help@cac.washington.edu NNTP-Posting-User: grahams Summary: r.a.m.r. #21283 Keywords: author=sena X-Questions-to: movie-rev-mod@www.ee.washington.edu X-Submissions-to: movie-reviews@www.ee.washington.edu Originator: grahams@homer36.u.washington.edu Xref: news.ifm.liu.se rec.arts.movies.reviews:20510 rec.arts.sf.reviews:2487 FILM TITLE: STARGATE DIRECTOR: ROLAND EMMERICH COUNTRY: USA 1994 CINEMATOGRAPHY: KARL WALTER LINDENLAUB MUSIC: DAVID ARNOLD CAST Kurt Russell, James Spader, Jaye Davidson, Viveca Lindfors SUPER FEATURES: Nice premise for a story. Visual treat. !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Not being a science fiction fan, I was taken along to go see this film, even though reviews around me had panned this as overweight garbage. Well, it isn't garbage, and it has a nice premise, and thought it suffers from the goddamned military over tones ( will anyone ever get rid of this crap.? ), it is a nice film, that is fun to watch and for a few brief moments exciting to be a part of. Being a person that indulges in the arts of meditation and time travelling, it is easy to see why I like certain parts of this film. The time travelling, hits you so fast that your sucked into it before you know what hits you. Nothing like it is expected, or can you possibly envision, and like the several minutes in the older 2001, A SPACE ODYSSEY, leaves you wanting to try it some more, because of its exciting possibilities. STARGATE is the story of an Egyptian artifact, that seems to have several symbols of the magical kind that connect into something else that most anyone can not figure out. The army has been able to steal the thing and kept it under wraps, and tested the hell out of it, until if finally, comes around to connect with a down and out scientist and explorer, whose name amidst his peers is best known as a comedy of errors and ridicule. The scientist ( James Spader ), amidst his grief and lack of attention to his theories, is invited to check something out by the government, something that they have enjoyed, but have not able to crack, though they already know what it does. Their experiments have already displayed that there is more to this artifact that it appears, but the symbols in it, are not clear enough for them to try something with it. There are suggestions that some people have died in trying to figure out this thing. And they all agree that this thing is most likely, some sort of gateway to another time. The question is where is the key, and which symbols match, in what order, to create the situation. In comes our man, to whom the symbols appear to be a minor part of the real exploration, and a suggestion that there is much more to work with. And as soon as it is discovered how it functions the inevitable military expedition is created, to destroy it if it appears that it is not friendly, or helpful. Kurt Russell is the military leader chosen to lead the expedition, and the group enters the space. Our scientist is the last to go in, and naturally he is curious, but cautious. And as soon as he enters the film takes off on its own moment of shining glory, the part that is just absorbing everyone without them knowing it. And there are more symbols in that minute than the film could possibly ever show, but the trip is worth the price of admission, and at least an amusement ride. As the group arrives in another time and place, they eventually find a place that is in a desert atmosphere, and is ruled by a demonic being, who has designs on doing some more conquering, which includes the earth, and other places to which it can time travel through the magical properties of the gate itself. And our heroes take on the roles of leaders and help break down the evil, and free the land from the oppressing rulers ( oh, wow !! ) and then the real story has to come into play. It seems that the military expedition was to destroy this other place, because it was thought to be a potential problem. And with the ruler now destroyed, the mission is over and it is time to leave. But the scientist, whose efforts on the earth were laughed at has met a girl he likes, and decides to stay. End of story, but one more trip before it ends. James Spader is nice to watch, and so easy going amidst people that are so uptight with their knowledge, that it makes for a nice set of exchanges through out the film. He doesn't panic, and is ever the curious scholar in search of his knowledge, where everyone else is basically worried about their ideas and plans. The scientist has no plan. Jaye Davidson plays the evil ruler that is intent on taking advantage of the Stargate for his own needs and greedy desires. And very good he is, with the help of some magnificent design effects of the electronic kind that shine in the movie. The guards are an electronic version of the real person, and have a power that most people do not. And a mask that is right out of the comic book variety of heroes that we do not often find, in film. Well designed, pretty to watch, and enjoyable, even if this is not a masterpiece, it does have moments that are just too nice to pass up. The best of them is the trip. Now, if we could get rid of the military exclusions ..... will anyone ever write a Heyerdhal in space.??? 3.5 GIBLOONS