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Stargate (1994)

 
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orzel-w
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PostPosted: Wed Dec 16, 2015 4:03 pm    Post subject: Stargate (1994) Reply with quote

We don't seem to have a thread for this movie, so allow me to kick it off with a photo of me with Anubis (Carlos Lauchu, who portrayed him in the movie) at Comdex, Las Vegas, in 1994. We're checking out what there is to see in Vegas.


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Bud Brewster
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PostPosted: Wed Dec 16, 2015 6:23 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

___________________________________

Call me Johnny-on-the-spot, I have added this title to the Alphabetical Index thanks to Wayne, and I'm looking forward to what our members will have to say about it.

I haven't watched it in a while, and this has inspired me to download it, watch it right now, and craft a witty and informative review that's guaranteed to entertain one and all.

So . . . roll the film, please! Cool






The team of Roland Emmerich and Dean Devlin have done some fine things together, but they're not real consistent. This movie falls right in between the best ones and the not-so-hot ones. When I first saw it, I think I was expecting too much — always the kiss of death, with guaranteed bad results.

But I have managed to re-watch movies I wasn't impressed with the first time and turn my opinion around. That's a good thing, because not liking a movie ain't a lick of fun.

As I remember, the first half sort of teased us with hints of great things to come . . . but the things that finally came weren't quite great enough.

Okay, that's what didn't happen. So, what did?

Well, when I watched a download of it tonight, I liked the interesting opening with strange happenings in ancient Africa (8,000 B.C.). Then we see archaeologist in 1930s Egypt, discovering a strange round thingamajig, which they raise up because if obviously looked so much cooler that way.

(Sorry, I just had a funny mental image of it falling over while the panicked workers ran screaming in terror.)






James Spader is just fine as the dedicated and unappreciated scientist who knows real important things that other scientists think are just funny as hell.

Kurt Russell is an Air Force colonel who looks so tough I suspect director Emmerich saluted him and said "Action, sir!" before each scene.






The rest of the cast is comprised of fine actors with familiar faces, but the only one I can name off the top of my head is Richard Kind, who played a funny political flunky in "Spin City" and now plays a corrupt politician in "Gotham". Not many actors could succeed in making us forget the former and love-to-hate the latter as well as he has.





I was a little put off by the way the mission through the stargate was handled. Rambo Russel and his well-armed assault team use the stargate to boldly go were no G.I.'s have gone before — fully equipped to shoot whatever they find and blow up the stargate with a bomb they brought with them.

This is not what a sci-fi lovin' space cadet like me wants to see. It's a little like test driving a Mercedes and running it off a cliff. On purpose.

Things get pretty slow for a while on the sandy alien world they arrive at, right up until James Spader feeds a candy bar to an alien camel-moose-thing, then spooks it and gets his foot caught in a dangling rope tied to the beast. He goes sand surfing across the dunes, while the music uses this slim excuse to run through the rousing theme.

But James being dragged by the shaggy critter actually works out better than one might expect, because the Stargate Troopers find a band of alien Arabs who bow down to them the minute they arrive.

Okay, now that is friendly. Very Happy

But we're still waiting for something more like Star Wars and less like Lawrence of Arabia. Eventually something like that does happen, but a lot of patience is required.






On a positive note (just to stop being so negative), the plot certainly doesn't race along at a breakneck speed and get us all confused. Any members of the audience who dashed off to the snack bar during this part were quickly filled in about what they missed when they came back with $20.00 in snacks that should have costs $4.00.

The story finally gets more interest after the one hour mark, but not a whole lot more. And there's reams of dialog spoken in an ancient Earth language by the primitive people and the alien folk, but we never see a line of subtitles for all this. We just sit there wondering what all the jabbering is about while the actors emote like crazy.

It's frustrating.






The action-packed finale involves a lot of shooting and explosions when the brave men of Earth lead the sandy tribes of this Tatoonine wannabe in a revolt against the immortal boy/alien who wants do something really bad, although I can't quite remember what it was.





The sets, costumes, and props are actually pretty good. The alien soldiers' armor is clearly based on those black stone bird-head statues that were all the rage in Egypt long ago.









But alas, my attempt to change my middle-of-the-road opinion of this movie just ended up confirming it. It just doesn't have enough plot to fill a two hour movie, and even if they cut it down it wouldn't provide any really good moments.

That's the way it goes sometimes with Emmerich and Devlin.

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Krel
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PostPosted: Thu Dec 17, 2015 8:25 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

In the novel, the military were Marine Force Recon, not Air Force. Making them Marine Force Recon actually makes more sense.

The actor that played the boy/alien gave them headaches. They designed the costumes, and had him fitted, but when he showed up for filming, he had gotten nipple rings (something I never imagined I would EVER write) which he refused to have removed. The only answer they could come up with, was to put the chest plate on him.

The spaceship set was also a lot larger than you saw, they never filmed part of it.

Emmerich and Devlin were also upset when MGM did the tv series, they wanted to do a series of Stargate movies.

David.
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Robert (Butch) Day
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PostPosted: Thu Dec 17, 2015 8:33 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

So far it has the only portrayal of the Larry Niven concept of a autodoc:



On September 5, 2013, during an interview with Digital Spy, Emmerich said that he and M-G-M are planning a new Stargate as a reboot with a trilogy.

On May 29, 2014, it was announced that M-G-M and Warner Bros. are partnering together for a reboot of Stargate as a trilogy with Emmerich directing, Devlin producing and Nicolas Wright & James A. Woods writing.

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Custer
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PostPosted: Thu Dec 17, 2015 12:52 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I've recently been tempted to buy the blu-ray of the Directors Cut Special Edition... well, it was only £2.99 (less than $5.00) including postage! So, you've given me an additional incentive to actually watch it again. 126 minutes, I see... not counting the "Making Of" documentary and various other special features. Cool

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orzel-w
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PostPosted: Thu Dec 17, 2015 2:44 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Bud Brewster wrote:
The rest of the cast is comprised of fine actors with familiar faces, but the only one I can name off the top of my head is Richard Kind...

Another actor with credits as long as your arm (the long one) is Viveca Lindfors. Her first movie listed in IMDb was in 1940.



This was her in King of Kings in 1961:





Bud Brewster wrote:
The sets, costumes, and props are actually pretty good. The alien soldiers' armor is clearly based on those black stone bird-head statues that were all the rage in Egypt long ago.

There's Carlos:



Robert (Butch) Day wrote:
So far it has the only portrayal of the Larry Niven concept of an autodoc...

Could you possibly have meant "Up to that time it had" instead of "So far it has"? Since then we've seen them in Elysium and Prometheus, to name a couple.
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Bud Brewster
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PostPosted: Wed May 31, 2017 8:57 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

____________________________________

I discovered we had a 2nd thread for this movie (started by me by mistake), so I had to move Krel's comment to this one. Embarassed
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Krel wrote:
I was at a convention, where they had one of the artist that worked on the film talk about it. He was a German SF artist that was hired to do concept drawings.

He said that the spaceship interior set was actually double the size of what you saw. They built a whole other section to the set, that they never even filmed on! They were told that the set would be expensive to build, so if they weren't going to film on it, don't build it. But they wanted it built, then they didn't use it. The artist doesn't even think that they turned the camera in it's direction.

He also said that the actor that played the Alien gave them trouble. They had designed and fitted all these costumes to him, he comes in on the day of filming, and had pierced his nipples! All the costumes were designed and made with an exposed chest. The costume designer had to do some quick work to alter the costumes to have a chest piece.

David..

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Maurice
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PostPosted: Mon Jun 19, 2017 5:45 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Krel wrote:
The actor that played the boy/alien gave them headaches. They designed the costumes, and had him fitted, but when he showed up for filming, he had gotten nipple rings (something I never imagined I would EVER write) which he refused to have removed. The only answer they could come up with, was to put the chest plate on him.

Pffft. Nipple rings are nothing. Melanie Griffith had breast enlargement surgery in the midst of shooting The Bonfire of the Vanities giving the production all kinds of continuity headaches.
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Gord Green
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PostPosted: Fri Jan 11, 2019 5:57 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote



Stargate Origins (abbreviated as SGO) is an American science fiction adventure web series and part of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer's Stargate franchise.



The program is based on the 1994 science fiction film Stargate by Dean Devlin and Roland Emmerich and its spin-off Stargate SG-1.

It was announced on July 20, 2017 at the 2017 San Diego Comic Con as part of Stargate SG-1's 20th anniversary celebration.

The series consists of 10 episodes, each 10 minutes in length, essentially a 10-episode feature length movie, and expands upon the existing mythology of the Stargate franchise. Stargate Origins premiered with 3 episodes on February 14, 2018 on MGM's Stargate Command subscription service.

The story is set years before the events in the original movie STARGATE and tell the story of Catherine Langford (who was portrayed by Viveca Langfors in the 1994 film).

The story is straight out of the Indiana Jones tradition and, in truth, is a much better story than IJCrystalSkulls !





A 104 minutes long ‘Feature Cut‘ titled Stargate Origins: Catherine was released on June 19, 2018 on digital retail outlets around the world in SD, HD, and 4K formats.

‘Feature Cut‘ additions include a fresh sound mix, enhanced visual effects, a new title sequence, and subtitles in 12 different languages.

Basic Plot

In 1939, Professor Paul Langford and his daughter Catherine are still grappling with the mysteries of the ancient relic they discovered in the Egyptian desert more than ten years ago.

With war looming in Europe and funding running out, these brilliant minds are approaching their lowest ebb. Little do they know, answers are about to present themselves in a dangerous form, when the Nazi Occultist Dr. Wilhelm Brücke approaches their facility with a sinister motive.

Enlisting the help of two young soldiers, Catherine must use all of her wits as she and her new allies embark on an adventure into the unknown to rescue her father, and save the Earth from an unimaginable darkness.

Catherine and her father examine the gate at a warehouse near Giza.







Nazis take them hostage, and reveal they know how to use the gate and force Professor Langford to go through the gate with them.



Catherine overpowers the guard and seeks the help of her friends Captain James Beal and Wasif, convincing them to go through the gate with her to rescue her father.



Through the gate the adventurers find a series problems to solve and Nazis and aliens to defeat.









The full movie version can be found here from YouTube:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HCLgv2gRhXs&t=1810s

While far from the best example of the Stargate franchise this is not a total waste of time. The movie version is actually decent.

Some details from IMDb and Wikipedia.

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Krel
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PostPosted: Sat Jan 12, 2019 12:12 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Maurice wrote:
Pffft. Nipple rings are nothing. Melanie Griffith had breast enlargement surgery in the midst of shooting The Bonfire of the Vanities giving the production all kinds of continuity headaches.

They had to re-film parts of the movie because of what she did, it cost them A LOT of time and money.

Regarding the AutoDoc, didn't the Nostromo have one in "Alien"?

David.
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Bud Brewster
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PostPosted: Sat Jan 12, 2019 12:35 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Krel wrote:
Maurice wrote:
Pffft. Nipple rings are nothing. Melanie Griffith had breast enlargement surgery in the midst of shooting The Bonfire of the Vanities giving the production all kinds of continuity headaches.

They had to re-film parts of the movie because of what she did, it cost them A LOT of time and money.

Well, okay, but what about poor Melanie? She had to buy new blouses, sweaters and bathing suits! Shocked

Krel wrote:
Regarding the AutoDoc, didn't the Nostromo have one in "Alien"?

I could be wrong but didn't they just talk about freezing John Hurt until they got back to Earth? An autodoc is a fully automated treatment chamber that can do anything a 22nd Century hospital could.

The text below is from the FANDOM website.
________________________________

In use by 2126, a full-sized autodoc is a machine like a giant coffin into which a patient climbs for sophisticated, automated medical care.

In 2353, at the time the most complex unit ever built was aboard a safe ramscoop starship. It could create its own biochemicals, plastiskin and artificial organs. It could in theory cure anything and keep someone young and healthy indefinitely; it could also perform manicures, haircuts, and massage.

By 2355 surgery was normally done by autodocs instead of Human doctors, and on the starship Angel's Pencil, a huge autodoc covered the back wall of the infirmary. Aboard the starship Lying Bastard in 2850-51 was a Puppeteer autodoc, shaped as a Puppeteer coffin.
________________________________

I "borrowed" the idea in my own novel, The Wishbone Express, changing the name to "mechmed" (mechanical medic) accent on the first syllable — a treatment chair that diagnoses internal problems and delivers medication intravenously), along with a "comatank" for more extensive treatment.

Here's an excerpt from chapter 7.

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Bill’s knees were shaking like a bridegroom’s, and his sense of balance was way out of kilter, so Randy half carried him down to the mechmed. Randy opened the panel in the corridor wall, exposing the treatment chair and the comatank. Bill slumped into it, and the analyzer pad on the left armrest enclosed his forearm.

Tiny needles found the veins and drew out blood samples, which the mechmed computer went to work on, looking for anything that might be wrong with Bill Jenkins. What it found was a high concentration of a very addictive drug.

On the display screen next to the treatment chair, the mechmed computer started listing the drug’s chemical composition, its effects on humans, and the treatment that would be required to counteract it.

“What does it say?” Bill asked, leaning back with his eyes closed while the treatment chair probed and poked at his body.

“Hmmm . . .” Randy said, peering at the wealth of data on the screen. “Well, it says here that you’re gonna die.”

Bill exploded angrily. “Listen, jackass! I’m in no mood for your silly — ”

“Whoa! Okay! Sorry. Really sorry,” Randy said quickly, embarrassed by his misguided attempt at humor. He continued to scan through the technical jargon on the display, then he summed it up for Bill. What it said was a bit alarming. “Wow,” Randy said softly. “Bill, the mechmed wants to give you a complete transfusion. Replace the whole six liters in your body.”

“Does it say anything about permanent effects from the drug? Will there be any?”

“Nothing permanent, but it will take a lot longer to recover if you don’t get the transfusion.”

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Bogmeister
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PostPosted: Sat May 11, 2019 12:20 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

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Here was the original film that spawned the long-running sf series which began in 1997.

It offers another way to travel through the galaxies different from the conventional way of starships (Star Trek, Star Wars, etc.) — instant transport via a gate, like teleportation.

James Spader is interesting as the sloppy, clumsy expert on deciphering old symbols, and Viveca Lindfors is also as another scientist/mother figure, but all the other characters, including lead Kurt Russell as the stoic military leader, are rather dull.

It's interesting that the TV version of Russell's character, as played by a wise-cracking Richard Dean Anderson, was very different.

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This was also the last big role for Jaye Davidson as the alien god figure; he was suitable for this but more such roles didn't pan out, it seems.

My main gripe, story-wise, is that there's a good build-up to find out what's on the other side of the gate, but what we find there is just not very interesting — unless you're really into any stories taking place in a desert. This was a moderate hit, but director Roland Emmerich and his writing partner really hit pay dirt next with the mega-hit Independence Day.

BoG's Score: 6 out of 10


_____________ Stargate (1994) Official Trailer


__________




BoG
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Bud Brewster
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PostPosted: Sat Jun 26, 2021 3:21 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

________________________________

I watched this movie today in All Sci-Fi's Saturday Live Chat, and enjoyed it so much that I bought a "brand new" Blu-ray version on eBay for $24 (with free shipping), about half the price which Amazon is asking. Very Happy

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