3 1/2 stars-An underrated movie that spawned many imitators.
Added 11/18/2009
Stargate released in 1994,was a film that was underappreciated by most critics at the time garnering mixed to poor reviews.But the general public liked what they saw and gave out,much to the delight of its' producers,at the box office.The movie went on to influence other subsequent films(such as the opening of the Fifth Element) and spawned video games(direct and indirecty),along with the ever popular TV series franchise.
The film opens with the discovery of a circular device and the fossilized skeleton of a being of some sort,buried in the Egyptian desert in 1928.Fast forward to modern day and a Dr.Jackson(James Spader) who is giving an ill-received lecture on who exactly built the great pyramid in Egypt.Afterwards an elderly woman arrives and invites him to join her at a research facility run by the military in Colorado.
There they have in their hands the device found in the sand and want Jackson to decipher the writing.He does and inadvertantly gives the military brass the code to start up a working replica of the device.The project is headed by Col.O'Neil(Kurt Russell) and he leads a military team along with Dr Jackson through,what is now referred to as,the Stargate.The "other side" is light years from earth and is a planet much like the Egyptian desert,complete with their emergence point in a similarly structered building,dwarfed from behind by a huge pyramid.
In due time they find a colony of human slaves who are mining the material that composes the Stargate.Dr Jackson slowly but surely learns the language and eventually finds the key that will enable the team to return to Earth.But in the meantime the beings who oversee all this,return and wreak havoc with Col.O'Neil and company.It is learned that the aliens have taken humans as hosts and actually are the ones responsible for creating civilization on Earth thousands of years before.But the alien leader informs them they should never have opened the Stargate and plans to send back a bomb to destroy the Earth.In a race against time,an uprising by the slaves and a ticking bomb that can't be turned off,O'Neil and Jackson narrowly manage to turn the tables on the aliens as they try to escape and thus destroy them.Dr Jackson stays behind while the remaining team members return to earth.The movie ends as O'Neil says to Jackson that he will "see him around".
This left the movie up for an obvious sequel but,much to my disappointment,none has ever been forthcoming despite numerous rumours to the contrary.The latest rumour is that once the TV series has finally finished then we will see a sequel;but that remains to be seen.
Russells' career at the time had been a mixed one up Stargate having had more hits in the 80s(The Thing,Escape from New York,Used Cars,Big Trouble in Little China)with little of substance/success after,other than a notable supporting role in the hit Backdraft in/91.Spader on the other hand had been a pretty hot property at this time(his most popular time in fact) having had a more consistent string of recent successes(Mannequin,Pretty in Pink,Wall Street,Sex,Lies and Videotapes)than the more established Russell.That is why both share top lead.However while Spader had the lions share of screen time,Russell manages to dominate every scene he is in which says much about his acting chops.
The story generally flows well but the action gets bogged down on sideplots concerning the slaves working for the aliens.All concerned do a wonderful job but it is the (then)unique concept and angle this film gives us that really manages to fascinate and ultimately sell it.It must have made an impression,for while we have yet to see any sequels at the theatres,there has been a wildly successful little screen franchise going on for years.
This so called "Directors Cut" is clocked in,on the sleeve at least,as 119 minutes.Well the ACTUAL screen time is just over 123 minutes,with the credits extending it to around 130 minutes!Underselling their product.
The sleeve also tells us that this film has been remastered.Well I think someone needs to do some more work on this.The picture can get slightly washed out and grainy at times;not what a "remastered" print should look like.The sound however is very good,available in Dolby 2,5.1 and 6.1 DTS.The "ultimate" features are just an audio commentary by the director and producer and a small 10 minute film on the concept of alien vistors in ancient times and its'conceptual "father" Erich Von Daniken.Not much for an"ultimate edition",so it loses marks there also.The film is in its' original widescreen format.The copy I received of this film is a bit different than the one shown here for sale.The DVD I got is in a case with the same artwork as depicted(brown colour with the ring over the pyramid).However THAT case,in turn,has a nice looking sleeve over IT;a colourful holographic version of the case cover.I hope yours comes this way also.
In the end this film still holds up quite nicely after 15 years,both in the acting and concept departments.And while the film does needs a proper tweaking on the remastering,overall I think you will still enjoy what you see.
1 out of 1 people found this helpful.
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STARGATE, where sci-fi and mythology collide!
Added 11/16/2009
I have always been a big fan of the film. They also did a lot of good things with the TV series as well, but they still couldn't measure up to the film. One of the reasons why the film is better than SG-1 is the actors. Kurt Russell and James Spader were always one of my favorite actors out there. Richard Dean Anderson and Michal Shanks are good too, but they couldn't measure up to Russell and Spader. Also there are a lot of continuity errors in SG-1 and Atlantis considering they were supposed to be continuations of the film.
The Plot:
A dig at Giza uncovers a large metallic thousand-year-old ring... the Stargate! Professor Danial Jackson (James Spader) is called into to decode the symbols on it. He does so, and opens a doorway to a lost planet on the other side of the universe. Colonel Jack O'Niel (Kurt Russell) leads a team through the Stargate to the distant planet where they encounter a replica of the Great Pyramid, an enslaved humanoid race, and a powerful evil alien posing as the Egyptian Sun God, Ra. Now its a race against time not only to save the human civilization on the planet, but to save Earth as well!
An epic action-packed film with a great story, great special effects, and great acting and directing. This is a great buy. And if you've only seen the TV series, then see where the story began with this film. Highly recommended!
P.S.
Buy the Special Edition which includes both the original theatrical version as well as the extended cut.
0 out of 0 people found this helpful.
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DO NOT BUY THIS
Added 10/22/2009
Video transfer is very poor, standard DVD is as good as or better then Blu-ray.
1 out of 2 people found this helpful.
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NOT FULL SCREEN
Added 10/9/2009
the movie overall is ok but it dose not contain a full screen verson of the movie. i dont know why they alwaws bucher a move when they take it from VHS to DVD but the aspect ratio on this disk is tareble.
1 out of 3 people found this helpful.
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Price Good, Transfer Bad
Added 10/4/2009
The "Extended Cut" blu-ray turned out to actually be of less visual quality than the "Ultimate" version on DVD. It also has a very annoying security feature that tells me that I am infringing on the copyright when I try to play it though the Panasonic BD-55 to display on Vizio plasma TV without any other device between the player and the set. I examined the BD via my PC and there was no copyright issue at all, which is absurd when you have a BD burner in the system.
Yes, it is a movie that requires a certain lack of "reality" but it is still worth a good look. The sad thing is that the BD featured has 480p video quality and more "grain" at higher resolutions than an upconverted DVD.
Still, if you have a BD player and no copy of this movie in your library, a $10 price tag and a fun ride will be waiting. Just the idea of a movie based on a 10,000 year-old renegade alien who established the Egyptian civilization is fun enough but with Spader and Russell in the lead, it's still a joy.
3 out of 3 people found this helpful.
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3 1/2 stars-An underrated movie that spawned many imitators.
Added 11/18/2009
Stargate released in 1994,was a film that was underappreciated by most critics at the time garnering mixed to poor reviews.But the general public liked what they saw and gave out,much to the delight of its' producers,at the box office.The movie went on to influence other subsequent films(such as the opening of the Fifth Element) and spawned video games(direct and indirecty),along with the ever popular TV series franchise.
The film opens with the discovery of a circular device and the fossilized skeleton of a being of some sort,buried in the Egyptian desert in 1928.Fast forward to modern day and a Dr.Jackson(James Spader) who is giving an ill-received lecture on who exactly built the great pyramid in Egypt.Afterwards an elderly woman arrives and invites him to join her at a research facility run by the military in Colorado.
There they have in their hands the device found in the sand and want Jackson to decipher the writing.He does and inadvertantly gives the military brass the code to start up a working replica of the device.The project is headed by Col.O'Neil(Kurt Russell) and he leads a military team along with Dr Jackson through,what is now referred to as,the Stargate.The "other side" is light years from earth and is a planet much like the Egyptian desert,complete with their emergence point in a similarly structered building,dwarfed from behind by a huge pyramid.
In due time they find a colony of human slaves who are mining the material that composes the Stargate.Dr Jackson slowly but surely learns the language and eventually finds the key that will enable the team to return to Earth.But in the meantime the beings who oversee all this,return and wreak havoc with Col.O'Neil and company.It is learned that the aliens have taken humans as hosts and actually are the ones responsible for creating civilization on Earth thousands of years before.But the alien leader informs them they should never have opened the Stargate and plans to send back a bomb to destroy the Earth.In a race against time,an uprising by the slaves and a ticking bomb that can't be turned off,O'Neil and Jackson narrowly manage to turn the tables on the aliens as they try to escape and thus destroy them.Dr Jackson stays behind while the remaining team members return to earth.The movie ends as O'Neil says to Jackson that he will "see him around".
This left the movie up for an obvious sequel but,much to my disappointment,none has ever been forthcoming despite numerous rumours to the contrary.The latest rumour is that once the TV series has finally finished then we will see a sequel;but that remains to be seen.
Russells' career at the time had been a mixed one up Stargate having had more hits in the 80s(The Thing,Escape from New York,Used Cars,Big Trouble in Little China)with little of substance/success after,other than a notable supporting role in the hit Backdraft in/91.Spader on the other hand had been a pretty hot property at this time(his most popular time in fact) having had a more consistent string of recent successes(Mannequin,Pretty in Pink,Wall Street,Sex,Lies and Videotapes)than the more established Russell.That is why both share top lead.However while Spader had the lions share of screen time,Russell manages to dominate every scene he is in which says much about his acting chops.
The story generally flows well but the action gets bogged down on sideplots concerning the slaves working for the aliens.All concerned do a wonderful job but it is the (then)unique concept and angle this film gives us that really manages to fascinate and ultimately sell it.It must have made an impression,for while we have yet to see any sequels at the theatres,there has been a wildly successful little screen franchise going on for years.
This so called "Directors Cut" is clocked in,on the sleeve at least,as 119 minutes.Well the ACTUAL screen time is just over 123 minutes,with the credits extending it to around 130 minutes!Underselling their product.
The sleeve also tells us that this film has been remastered.Well I think someone needs to do some more work on this.The picture can get slightly washed out and grainy at times;not what a "remastered" print should look like.The sound however is very good,available in Dolby 2,5.1 and 6.1 DTS.The "ultimate" features are just an audio commentary by the director and producer and a small 10 minute film on the concept of alien vistors in ancient times and its'conceptual "father" Erich Von Daniken.Not much for an"ultimate edition",so it loses marks there also.The film is in its' original widescreen format.The copy I received of this film is a bit different than the one shown here for sale.The DVD I got is in a case with the same artwork as depicted(brown colour with the ring over the pyramid).However THAT case,in turn,has a nice looking sleeve over IT;a colourful holographic version of the case cover.I hope yours comes this way also.
In the end this film still holds up quite nicely after 15 years,both in the acting and concept departments.And while the film does needs a proper tweaking on the remastering,overall I think you will still enjoy what you see.
1 out of 1 people found this helpful.
|
STARGATE, where sci-fi and mythology collide!
Added 11/16/2009
I have always been a big fan of the film. They also did a lot of good things with the TV series as well, but they still couldn't measure up to the film. One of the reasons why the film is better than SG-1 is the actors. Kurt Russell and James Spader were always one of my favorite actors out there. Richard Dean Anderson and Michal Shanks are good too, but they couldn't measure up to Russell and Spader. Also there are a lot of continuity errors in SG-1 and Atlantis considering they were supposed to be continuations of the film.
The Plot:
A dig at Giza uncovers a large metallic thousand-year-old ring... the Stargate! Professor Danial Jackson (James Spader) is called into to decode the symbols on it. He does so, and opens a doorway to a lost planet on the other side of the universe. Colonel Jack O'Niel (Kurt Russell) leads a team through the Stargate to the distant planet where they encounter a replica of the Great Pyramid, an enslaved humanoid race, and a powerful evil alien posing as the Egyptian Sun God, Ra. Now its a race against time not only to save the human civilization on the planet, but to save Earth as well!
An epic action-packed film with a great story, great special effects, and great acting and directing. This is a great buy. And if you've only seen the TV series, then see where the story began with this film. Highly recommended!
P.S.
Buy the Special Edition which includes both the original theatrical version as well as the extended cut.
0 out of 0 people found this helpful.
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DO NOT BUY THIS
Added 10/22/2009
Video transfer is very poor, standard DVD is as good as or better then Blu-ray.
1 out of 2 people found this helpful.
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