Joseph Baneth Allen's Blog, page 78
September 25, 2022
Fortune Favors Lady Nikuko
Just finished watching "Fortune Favors Lady Nikuko" released Shout Studios.
"Fortune Favors Lady Nikuko" is not going to be every fan of anime's cup of tea. It's a quiet family drama that centers around the daily life of middle school student Kikuko who while going through the usual trails and tribulations of small town life and school, has to endure life with the antics of her mother Nikuko, a single woman who has finally managed to settle down in a small sea side town after a life on the run from one failed relationship to another. Nikuko never looses her enthusiasm for life and she is concealing a secret from Kikuko that could forever change their relationship. The love the binds a family is what pulls this movie together, which has gorgeous animation.
Strongly Recommended!
Four Stars!
https://www.amazon.com/Fortune-Favors...
"Fortune Favors Lady Nikuko" is not going to be every fan of anime's cup of tea. It's a quiet family drama that centers around the daily life of middle school student Kikuko who while going through the usual trails and tribulations of small town life and school, has to endure life with the antics of her mother Nikuko, a single woman who has finally managed to settle down in a small sea side town after a life on the run from one failed relationship to another. Nikuko never looses her enthusiasm for life and she is concealing a secret from Kikuko that could forever change their relationship. The love the binds a family is what pulls this movie together, which has gorgeous animation.
Strongly Recommended!
Four Stars!
https://www.amazon.com/Fortune-Favors...
September 19, 2022
Lightyear
Just finished watching "Lightyear" released by Disney Pixar.
Now I will admit that when I first saw the trailer for "Lightyear" and discussed it with Jeff H. and Zack a little over a year ago, all three of had high hopes for this movie. Although this was not a movie that John Lassitier, the former head of Pixar's studio's would have green-lighted, it looked promising.
The first indication that "Lightyear" was going to be a dud was the replacement of Tim Allen who gave voice and life to Buzz Lightyear in the original Toy Story movies. Plus, Buzz Lightyear was just a children's toy, there wasn't a hint or any indication that he was based on a character from a movie that Andy saw. So to have the blurb at the beginning of "Lightyear" saying that this was the movie Andy saw that caused him to want a Buzz Lightyear action figure was a stupid attempt at an unwanted recon.
As for the much ballyhooed "lesbian kiss" scene - blink and you miss it. Curiously there has been no "outcry" over the two gay men in the movie who are in a couple's embrace. Blink and you miss that one too.
Lightyear just isn't an inspiring character in this movie. He becomes so fixated on correctly a mistake he made that he doesn't seem to realize that people did just fine without him. And when he finally realized the error of his ways, it's too late and there's no consequences. There is also a Frozen 2 reference in this movie near the end.
Oh yes, since Jeff H. and Zack are set to inherit a majority of my DVD collection when I head off into the next life - provided they fight over it, I hereby give them permission to sell this stinker of a movie on eBay.
Not recommended.
Zero Stars.
https://www.amazon.com/Lightyear-Feat...
Now I will admit that when I first saw the trailer for "Lightyear" and discussed it with Jeff H. and Zack a little over a year ago, all three of had high hopes for this movie. Although this was not a movie that John Lassitier, the former head of Pixar's studio's would have green-lighted, it looked promising.
The first indication that "Lightyear" was going to be a dud was the replacement of Tim Allen who gave voice and life to Buzz Lightyear in the original Toy Story movies. Plus, Buzz Lightyear was just a children's toy, there wasn't a hint or any indication that he was based on a character from a movie that Andy saw. So to have the blurb at the beginning of "Lightyear" saying that this was the movie Andy saw that caused him to want a Buzz Lightyear action figure was a stupid attempt at an unwanted recon.
As for the much ballyhooed "lesbian kiss" scene - blink and you miss it. Curiously there has been no "outcry" over the two gay men in the movie who are in a couple's embrace. Blink and you miss that one too.
Lightyear just isn't an inspiring character in this movie. He becomes so fixated on correctly a mistake he made that he doesn't seem to realize that people did just fine without him. And when he finally realized the error of his ways, it's too late and there's no consequences. There is also a Frozen 2 reference in this movie near the end.
Oh yes, since Jeff H. and Zack are set to inherit a majority of my DVD collection when I head off into the next life - provided they fight over it, I hereby give them permission to sell this stinker of a movie on eBay.
Not recommended.
Zero Stars.
https://www.amazon.com/Lightyear-Feat...
September 17, 2022
Moby Dick and the Mighty Mightor
Just finished watching "Moby Dick and the Mighty Mightor" released by Hanna-Barbera.
Once upon an earlier time, animators Hanna-Barbera ruled the airwaves when it came to Saturday Morning Animation. All three networks during the 1960s-1980s depended on the Hanna-Barbera animation studios to supply each of the networks with shows for their Saturday morning lineups and this gave the animation studio an unheard of, but virtual monopoly. It's hard to believe, but before the 1990s, Disney didn't rule animation on television.
Now while Hanna-Barbera had half-hour shows like Johnny Quest and Scooby-Do Where Are You?, it also had a mix of animated shows that featured two unique characters having their own separate adventures in 10-minute segments.
The Great White Whale Moby Dick, was the protector of Tom and Tub, cousins or brothers - the relationship is never defined, who got lost a sea during a storm but were rescued by Moby Dick who must have provided them with some special abilities to swim at depths that would normally kill real people. Of course this is a cartoon. And The Mighty Mightor is a prehistoric superhero from Earth's past - as established in the comic series Future Quest - though in the original cartoon series there are hints that Mightor takes place on another planet or alternative timeline.
What kind of shocked me about this show is the kill ratio that both Moby Dick and the Mighty Mightor rack up. Cartoon physics and explosions aside, Tom and Tub are rather casual about the lives they helped Moby Dick to take - human and alien. So is Mightor. All in the line of duty, I guess.
Great Classic Cartoon Fun!
Highly Recommended!
Ten Stars!
https://www.amazon.com/Moby-Dick-Migh...
Once upon an earlier time, animators Hanna-Barbera ruled the airwaves when it came to Saturday Morning Animation. All three networks during the 1960s-1980s depended on the Hanna-Barbera animation studios to supply each of the networks with shows for their Saturday morning lineups and this gave the animation studio an unheard of, but virtual monopoly. It's hard to believe, but before the 1990s, Disney didn't rule animation on television.
Now while Hanna-Barbera had half-hour shows like Johnny Quest and Scooby-Do Where Are You?, it also had a mix of animated shows that featured two unique characters having their own separate adventures in 10-minute segments.
The Great White Whale Moby Dick, was the protector of Tom and Tub, cousins or brothers - the relationship is never defined, who got lost a sea during a storm but were rescued by Moby Dick who must have provided them with some special abilities to swim at depths that would normally kill real people. Of course this is a cartoon. And The Mighty Mightor is a prehistoric superhero from Earth's past - as established in the comic series Future Quest - though in the original cartoon series there are hints that Mightor takes place on another planet or alternative timeline.
What kind of shocked me about this show is the kill ratio that both Moby Dick and the Mighty Mightor rack up. Cartoon physics and explosions aside, Tom and Tub are rather casual about the lives they helped Moby Dick to take - human and alien. So is Mightor. All in the line of duty, I guess.
Great Classic Cartoon Fun!
Highly Recommended!
Ten Stars!
https://www.amazon.com/Moby-Dick-Migh...
As Long As I'm Famous
Just finished watching "As Long As I'm Famous," released by Ariztical.
Creating fictional relationships and romances for actors of Hollywood's Golden Studio Age is something of a trend nowadays. After all, heaven forbid the truth be told - just ask Netflix about it's upcoming biography of Marilyn Monroe which is supposed to feature a rather graphic scene where she is raped by President Kennedy, an event that never happened in real life. Or the series set in an alternative universe where Rock Hudson openly was gay, and his lover, a Black man and screenwriter, actually won the Oscar for best original screenplay.
"As Long As I'm Famous" imagines a gay relationship between real life writer and director Sydney Lumet and actor Montgomery Clift while oddly breaking the fourth wall at equally odd moments with a "twist" ending that it's a movie being filmed. There's also the standard, it's 1948 and men can't sleep with each other without destroying themselves and how that's wrong lecturing.
Kudos for the actors who brought a pretentious script to life.
Recommended if you've got nothing else to watch.
Two Stars.
https://www.amazon.com/As-Long-Im-Fam...
Creating fictional relationships and romances for actors of Hollywood's Golden Studio Age is something of a trend nowadays. After all, heaven forbid the truth be told - just ask Netflix about it's upcoming biography of Marilyn Monroe which is supposed to feature a rather graphic scene where she is raped by President Kennedy, an event that never happened in real life. Or the series set in an alternative universe where Rock Hudson openly was gay, and his lover, a Black man and screenwriter, actually won the Oscar for best original screenplay.
"As Long As I'm Famous" imagines a gay relationship between real life writer and director Sydney Lumet and actor Montgomery Clift while oddly breaking the fourth wall at equally odd moments with a "twist" ending that it's a movie being filmed. There's also the standard, it's 1948 and men can't sleep with each other without destroying themselves and how that's wrong lecturing.
Kudos for the actors who brought a pretentious script to life.
Recommended if you've got nothing else to watch.
Two Stars.
https://www.amazon.com/As-Long-Im-Fam...
The Incredible Shrinking Man
Just finished watching "The Incredible Shrinking Man" released by Universal Pictures.
Now I'm going to make a confession that I suspect will probably shock my old college friend Carter Perry, and my fellow sci-fi film buffs and friends Zack Newsome and Steve Orchard. I had never seen "The Incredible Shrinking Man" before I picked it up on sale at the Barnes & Noble near where I live. Richard Matheson wrote the screenplay based on his original novel, and I do recall reading a condensed short story version in a Weekly Reader.
Director Jack Arnold actually stood up to Universal Pictures and did not create an alternative ending where a cure was found at the last minute to reverse the shrinking that Scott Carey, as portrayed by actor Grant Williams, in what should have been a break out role for him. Though "The Incredible Shrinking Man" would win a Hugo Award for Best Science Fiction movie, Williams career flat-lined into minor roles in television before it fizzled out. The film's score is a haunting one, suggesting both hope lost and possibly renewed.
The story of "The Incredible Shrinking Man" is rather simple and intense: While on vacation, Scott Carey in enveloped in a mist, while outside of a boat on a lake. His wife, who ducked inside to grab him a beer is not doused with the glitter substance of the cloud. Months pass and he soon finds himself losing weight and losing height. At first he's thought to be mentally unstable, until the haunting truth is revealed by doctors who struggle to find a cure before he disappears.
Matheson did write a sequel titled "The Fantastic Shrinking Girl," but it was never made into a movie, though decades later, Lily Tomlin would star in "The Incredible Shrinking Woman," that had a happier ending.
What makes "The Incredible Shrinking Man" an engrossing movie is that it rather deftly switches from an intense psychological dram, to an epic survival story about half way through. There is also the unusual undertone of sexuality that is hinted in the movie. If I'm remembering the book correctly, Scott Carey was extremely sexually frustrated.
A great classic, and often overlooked science fiction movie from 1957.
Highly Recommended!
Ten Stars!
https://www.amazon.com/Incredible-Shr...
Now I'm going to make a confession that I suspect will probably shock my old college friend Carter Perry, and my fellow sci-fi film buffs and friends Zack Newsome and Steve Orchard. I had never seen "The Incredible Shrinking Man" before I picked it up on sale at the Barnes & Noble near where I live. Richard Matheson wrote the screenplay based on his original novel, and I do recall reading a condensed short story version in a Weekly Reader.
Director Jack Arnold actually stood up to Universal Pictures and did not create an alternative ending where a cure was found at the last minute to reverse the shrinking that Scott Carey, as portrayed by actor Grant Williams, in what should have been a break out role for him. Though "The Incredible Shrinking Man" would win a Hugo Award for Best Science Fiction movie, Williams career flat-lined into minor roles in television before it fizzled out. The film's score is a haunting one, suggesting both hope lost and possibly renewed.
The story of "The Incredible Shrinking Man" is rather simple and intense: While on vacation, Scott Carey in enveloped in a mist, while outside of a boat on a lake. His wife, who ducked inside to grab him a beer is not doused with the glitter substance of the cloud. Months pass and he soon finds himself losing weight and losing height. At first he's thought to be mentally unstable, until the haunting truth is revealed by doctors who struggle to find a cure before he disappears.
Matheson did write a sequel titled "The Fantastic Shrinking Girl," but it was never made into a movie, though decades later, Lily Tomlin would star in "The Incredible Shrinking Woman," that had a happier ending.
What makes "The Incredible Shrinking Man" an engrossing movie is that it rather deftly switches from an intense psychological dram, to an epic survival story about half way through. There is also the unusual undertone of sexuality that is hinted in the movie. If I'm remembering the book correctly, Scott Carey was extremely sexually frustrated.
A great classic, and often overlooked science fiction movie from 1957.
Highly Recommended!
Ten Stars!
https://www.amazon.com/Incredible-Shr...
September 10, 2022
The Spider #84 - Master of the Night-Demons
Just finished listening to "The Spider #84 - Master of the Night-Demons" by Grant Stockbridge, released by Radio Archives.
Richard Wentworth is one of the darker heroes from the Great Golden Age of Pulps. Wentworth is an undiagnosed manic-depressive with violent mood swings, who is quite probably a deeply paranoid schizophrenic. He definitely is a serial killer who marks his victims - those he has killed for the good of humanity - with the Seal of the Spider - a red spider mark on their foreheads. Wentworth also used the seal to announce his presence or reveal his identity. He, a.k.a. The Spider, is perhaps modern literature's first anti-hero.
Now in the interest of full disclosure, I have written liner notes for some Radio Archives Collections and though we have never meet in person, I am friends here with Nick Santa Maria here on Facebook.
Nick Santa Maria has done another masterful charge of bringing Richard Wentworth to life.
So when a new master super-villain who goes under the moniker of Asmodeus announces that unless the New York City Police Department and the citizens of New York surrender, that they will die, Wentworth swings into action as he death-dealing alter-ego.
While I suspect that fan fiction exists of a meet up between The Spider and Doc Savage, it would be interesting to see how Will Murray would handle a meeting between these two.
Another rousing adventure of The Spider!
Highly Recommended!
Ten Stars!
https://www.radioarchives.com/The_Spi...
Richard Wentworth is one of the darker heroes from the Great Golden Age of Pulps. Wentworth is an undiagnosed manic-depressive with violent mood swings, who is quite probably a deeply paranoid schizophrenic. He definitely is a serial killer who marks his victims - those he has killed for the good of humanity - with the Seal of the Spider - a red spider mark on their foreheads. Wentworth also used the seal to announce his presence or reveal his identity. He, a.k.a. The Spider, is perhaps modern literature's first anti-hero.
Now in the interest of full disclosure, I have written liner notes for some Radio Archives Collections and though we have never meet in person, I am friends here with Nick Santa Maria here on Facebook.
Nick Santa Maria has done another masterful charge of bringing Richard Wentworth to life.
So when a new master super-villain who goes under the moniker of Asmodeus announces that unless the New York City Police Department and the citizens of New York surrender, that they will die, Wentworth swings into action as he death-dealing alter-ego.
While I suspect that fan fiction exists of a meet up between The Spider and Doc Savage, it would be interesting to see how Will Murray would handle a meeting between these two.
Another rousing adventure of The Spider!
Highly Recommended!
Ten Stars!
https://www.radioarchives.com/The_Spi...
"Peril at the Exposition: A Mystery (Captain Jim and Lady Diana Mysteries, 2) by Nev March, published by Minotaur Books.
Just finished reading "Peril at the Exposition: A Mystery (Captain Jim and Lady Diana Mysteries, 2) by Nev March, published by Minotaur Books.
March deftly picks up the threads she developed in her debut novel "Murder in Old Bombay" which introduced Captain Jim Agnihotri and Diana, who would eventually break the strict social morays of Indian culture of the time to declare her love of Jim and marry him.
"Peril at the Exposition" deftly picks up the threads where the Captain Jim and Lady Diana are now living in Boston where Jim works as a detective at the Dupree Agency and has to go away for a case in Chicago, where the city is getting ready for the great exposition of 1893.
When Jim disappears, Diana decides to take action in her own hands and decides to force his employers to allow her to travel to Chicago in order to find him and discover his fate. Diana soon finds herself in a web of intrigue where everyone is not who they say they are, not even her beloved Jim, and one misstep may cause not only her death, but the death of thousands as anarchists seek to make a statement
March has written a successful sequel worthy of her debut novel, and I'm looking forward to her next novel in her Captain Jim and Lady Diana series.
Highly Recommended!
Ten Stars!
https://www.amazon.com/Peril-at-Expos...
March deftly picks up the threads she developed in her debut novel "Murder in Old Bombay" which introduced Captain Jim Agnihotri and Diana, who would eventually break the strict social morays of Indian culture of the time to declare her love of Jim and marry him.
"Peril at the Exposition" deftly picks up the threads where the Captain Jim and Lady Diana are now living in Boston where Jim works as a detective at the Dupree Agency and has to go away for a case in Chicago, where the city is getting ready for the great exposition of 1893.
When Jim disappears, Diana decides to take action in her own hands and decides to force his employers to allow her to travel to Chicago in order to find him and discover his fate. Diana soon finds herself in a web of intrigue where everyone is not who they say they are, not even her beloved Jim, and one misstep may cause not only her death, but the death of thousands as anarchists seek to make a statement
March has written a successful sequel worthy of her debut novel, and I'm looking forward to her next novel in her Captain Jim and Lady Diana series.
Highly Recommended!
Ten Stars!
https://www.amazon.com/Peril-at-Expos...
"Render Unto Caesar - The Struggle Over Christ and Culture In The New Testament" by John Dominic Crossan, published by Harper One.
Just finished reading "Render Unto Caesar - The Struggle Over Christ and Culture In The New Testament" by John Dominic Crossan, published by Harper One.
"Render Unto Caesar" was actually one of three books I purchased at the Barnes and Noble in Charleston, South Carolina when I rushed up there back in June when Selma Franz, my adorable baby sister, was in the hospital.
How Jesus and his followers interacted and participated in their society during their lifetimes and how Christians have carried on the example set by those who they worshiped right on up to modern times in the 20th and 21st centuries has always intrigued me. Jesus and his apostles admonished their followers to seek converts by their actions, not their words. They also followed the Jewish tradition of not seeking converts. Which has always been an amusing contradiction to me because of the anti-Semitism and Jew-hatred my family and I experienced during the 1960s - on up to present day. Though my parents, especially my Father - experienced it far longer. It was especially harder for Dad because he converted to Judaism prior to marrying Mom and that initially didn't sit well with his family who was and still is, snake handling primitive Southern Baptists. I can still remember being told by angry mothers that I couldn't play with their children because I killed Jesus. So Christians have always amused me with their expressions of hate in a religion that supposedly professes love. Now to be fair, not all Christians are like this, and it's the bad ones who usually make the news.
Crossan examines a rather old notion that has been around for decades, if not longer - that America is going through a similar period of decline like Rome did centuries ago because of a lack of adherence to societal values, and that lead ultimately to the collapse of Rome. Crossan choose to look at this through Jesus' statement of "render unto Caesar what is Caesar's" and who it was a trap designed to cause Jesus' arrest and subsequent execution - which ultimately happened anyways. Now Crossan is looking at this through the eyes of a Christian. Nothing wrong with that. Jesus rather expertly threaded the needle and dodged for that particular moment in time, the threat to his ministry and life with his answer, which also provided his apostle Paul with a rather unique loophole on how to get around that - for some Jews - pesky issue about keeping Kosher.
Oh, potential trigger warning for devout Christians, Crossan does correctly point out that various parts of the Acts of the Apostles were written after the original apostles died through martyrdom.
It helps to have a basic knowledge of the New Testament - I had read it when I was in junior high school because I wanted to know why Christians hated Jews and it infuriated my Christian friends at the time that it didn't convert me. Mom, especially Dad, exploded when they found out I had read the New Testament. They weren't comfortable with me learning about other religions - which is odd, considering that they encouraged me reading Japanese fairy tales.
So will America fall? Well, all civilizations have risen, fallen, and risen again. It's a historical fact due to natural and societal causes. Yet modern day faiths have endured for thousands of years. Something naysayers should consider when they pay their taxes and render onto Caesar what is Caesar's.
Crossan has written a rather evocative look at one of Jesus's most grounded statements.
Highly Recommended.
Five Stars.
https://www.amazon.com/Render-Unto-Ca...
"Render Unto Caesar" was actually one of three books I purchased at the Barnes and Noble in Charleston, South Carolina when I rushed up there back in June when Selma Franz, my adorable baby sister, was in the hospital.
How Jesus and his followers interacted and participated in their society during their lifetimes and how Christians have carried on the example set by those who they worshiped right on up to modern times in the 20th and 21st centuries has always intrigued me. Jesus and his apostles admonished their followers to seek converts by their actions, not their words. They also followed the Jewish tradition of not seeking converts. Which has always been an amusing contradiction to me because of the anti-Semitism and Jew-hatred my family and I experienced during the 1960s - on up to present day. Though my parents, especially my Father - experienced it far longer. It was especially harder for Dad because he converted to Judaism prior to marrying Mom and that initially didn't sit well with his family who was and still is, snake handling primitive Southern Baptists. I can still remember being told by angry mothers that I couldn't play with their children because I killed Jesus. So Christians have always amused me with their expressions of hate in a religion that supposedly professes love. Now to be fair, not all Christians are like this, and it's the bad ones who usually make the news.
Crossan examines a rather old notion that has been around for decades, if not longer - that America is going through a similar period of decline like Rome did centuries ago because of a lack of adherence to societal values, and that lead ultimately to the collapse of Rome. Crossan choose to look at this through Jesus' statement of "render unto Caesar what is Caesar's" and who it was a trap designed to cause Jesus' arrest and subsequent execution - which ultimately happened anyways. Now Crossan is looking at this through the eyes of a Christian. Nothing wrong with that. Jesus rather expertly threaded the needle and dodged for that particular moment in time, the threat to his ministry and life with his answer, which also provided his apostle Paul with a rather unique loophole on how to get around that - for some Jews - pesky issue about keeping Kosher.
Oh, potential trigger warning for devout Christians, Crossan does correctly point out that various parts of the Acts of the Apostles were written after the original apostles died through martyrdom.
It helps to have a basic knowledge of the New Testament - I had read it when I was in junior high school because I wanted to know why Christians hated Jews and it infuriated my Christian friends at the time that it didn't convert me. Mom, especially Dad, exploded when they found out I had read the New Testament. They weren't comfortable with me learning about other religions - which is odd, considering that they encouraged me reading Japanese fairy tales.
So will America fall? Well, all civilizations have risen, fallen, and risen again. It's a historical fact due to natural and societal causes. Yet modern day faiths have endured for thousands of years. Something naysayers should consider when they pay their taxes and render onto Caesar what is Caesar's.
Crossan has written a rather evocative look at one of Jesus's most grounded statements.
Highly Recommended.
Five Stars.
https://www.amazon.com/Render-Unto-Ca...
September 3, 2022
Stargate
Just finished re-watching "Stargate" released by Le Studio.
Mom, Dad, Selma Franz, and I first saw "Stargate" at the AMC Theaters in Orange Park where I worked as the Human Resources manager from 1992 thru 1994.
"Stargate" is simply a classical science fiction movie - a mysterious artifact found in the Egyptian desert in the 1920s turns out to be a gateway to another world and the artifact is under the control of the United State Military. So when a down on his luck Dr. Daniel Jackson is offered an opportunity to decipher the odd symbols on the artifact, he finds himself volunteering to be the linguist for a military mission lead by Colonel Jack O'Neil who is struggling with the death of his young son.
"Stargate" could have been written by classic science fiction writers Edmond Hamilton and Murray Leinster, who had the nicknames of world destroyer and world saver. It combines there classic use of themes used by both these writers. And it was written by Devin Devlin and Roland Emmerick, who would go on to write and helm "Independence Day."
"Stargate" would go on to spawn three television and one Internet series and there is some talk about a new Stargate series that picks up about 20 years after the events of the original series. >
Ironically, for reasons I still don't understand, I didn't buy a copy of the original "Stargate" movie when it was released on DVD. I got my copy recently from eBay. Which is odd, considering I have all three of the series on DVD. Sometimes I must admit that I am an enigma wrapped in a mystery that has driven people to insanity when they try to figure me out. Just ask my baby sister, and Zack, and Jeff, and anyone who knows me.
HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!
TEN STARS!
https://www.amazon.com/Stargate-Kurt-...
Mom, Dad, Selma Franz, and I first saw "Stargate" at the AMC Theaters in Orange Park where I worked as the Human Resources manager from 1992 thru 1994.
"Stargate" is simply a classical science fiction movie - a mysterious artifact found in the Egyptian desert in the 1920s turns out to be a gateway to another world and the artifact is under the control of the United State Military. So when a down on his luck Dr. Daniel Jackson is offered an opportunity to decipher the odd symbols on the artifact, he finds himself volunteering to be the linguist for a military mission lead by Colonel Jack O'Neil who is struggling with the death of his young son.
"Stargate" could have been written by classic science fiction writers Edmond Hamilton and Murray Leinster, who had the nicknames of world destroyer and world saver. It combines there classic use of themes used by both these writers. And it was written by Devin Devlin and Roland Emmerick, who would go on to write and helm "Independence Day."
"Stargate" would go on to spawn three television and one Internet series and there is some talk about a new Stargate series that picks up about 20 years after the events of the original series. >
Ironically, for reasons I still don't understand, I didn't buy a copy of the original "Stargate" movie when it was released on DVD. I got my copy recently from eBay. Which is odd, considering I have all three of the series on DVD. Sometimes I must admit that I am an enigma wrapped in a mystery that has driven people to insanity when they try to figure me out. Just ask my baby sister, and Zack, and Jeff, and anyone who knows me.
HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!
TEN STARS!
https://www.amazon.com/Stargate-Kurt-...
"The Invisible Man - Complete Legacy Collection"
Just finished watching "The Invisible Man - Complete Legacy Collection" released by Universal Pictures.
Claude Rains brilliant portrayal of of a research scientist being slowly driven insane by injecting himself with a serum that causes invisibility in Hollywood's adaptation of H.G Wells' classic "The Invisible Man" launched a series that encompassed six movies over nearly two decades all filmed in glorious black and white.
Surprising the weakest link in this series is actually the last movie in this series: "Abbot and Costello Meet The Invisible Man" which is a weird combination of mystery comedy and boxing movie. It sadly doesn't work. "The Invisible Woman" is a superior comedy that takes slapstick to new heights as a fashion model who volunteers to test a process of invisibility. "The Invisible Man Returns" is a rather curious for it's casual mention of two homosexual lovers who plotted against the protagonist in an attempt to swindle his inheritance. "The Invisible Agent" and The Invisible Man's Revenge" are just rather bland attempts to cash in on the original movie's popularity. Though it's rather interesting that all of the invisible men - not the woman - go commando. I think that was due to a rather odd requirement of the movie censors at the time.
Strongly Recommended.
Four Stars.
https://www.amazon.com/Invisible-Man-...
Claude Rains brilliant portrayal of of a research scientist being slowly driven insane by injecting himself with a serum that causes invisibility in Hollywood's adaptation of H.G Wells' classic "The Invisible Man" launched a series that encompassed six movies over nearly two decades all filmed in glorious black and white.
Surprising the weakest link in this series is actually the last movie in this series: "Abbot and Costello Meet The Invisible Man" which is a weird combination of mystery comedy and boxing movie. It sadly doesn't work. "The Invisible Woman" is a superior comedy that takes slapstick to new heights as a fashion model who volunteers to test a process of invisibility. "The Invisible Man Returns" is a rather curious for it's casual mention of two homosexual lovers who plotted against the protagonist in an attempt to swindle his inheritance. "The Invisible Agent" and The Invisible Man's Revenge" are just rather bland attempts to cash in on the original movie's popularity. Though it's rather interesting that all of the invisible men - not the woman - go commando. I think that was due to a rather odd requirement of the movie censors at the time.
Strongly Recommended.
Four Stars.
https://www.amazon.com/Invisible-Man-...
