Latest / Houselights: A Film Director Podcast / Stargate (1994) - Roland Emmerich | Houselights #187

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Stargate (1994) - Roland Emmerich | Houselights #187 · Houselights: A Film Director Podcast

0:03
Welcome to the NED Party. Welcome back to House Lights, our director discussion
0:23
show here on the nerd Party Network. We are speeding through the house of
0:27
Emeriic as we cover all of his directed works of the nineteen nineties. After
0:32
our trip to Gaza, we've uncovered his nineteen ninety four film Stargate. I'm
0:38
Colonel Darren Moser. That's with two rs, and I'm joined again by my
0:42
friend a new bus guard, John six Pack Mills and Abbados Beast Tamer Tristan
0:48
Riddell. We've discovered the seventh symbol, so it's time to dial up the
0:53
Stargate. Excellent, excellent, excellent. First off, are you happy with
0:57
your assignments? Yes? I am, well there, well done. This
1:00
is hard to take this, not personally, after the couple of times that
1:06
you've hosted, like he gets six pack, Yeah, and I'm the beast
1:10
Tamer who clearly is horrible at his job since the beast ran away that the
1:15
plot. Furthering the plot, the six pack is not a reference to my
1:19
abs. It's about what I drink on average during one of these podcasts.
1:25
So I do I do have to admit that, like I mean, I
1:27
always knew that these guys had amazing stomachs. But watching it this time,
1:32
I'm like, good lord, these people were fit. Like, hey,
1:37
well, you can't look at their face. What do you look at right
1:40
there? That's right. Even if those helmets were a little top heavy.
1:47
Yeah, you know, I'm sure they did. I'm sure they never ran
1:49
into a piece of set dressing or or tumbled down. So there's lots of
1:53
ramps, very few stairs in the very Yeah, it's it's nice to know
1:57
that aliens invading Earth through the pyramids where eighty a compliant and they avoided steps
2:04
where possible. Well, stargate man, this is a nineteen ninety four film.
2:09
Really interesting watching this after watching a Universal Soldier as it is almost night
2:17
and day. As far as plot, character development, music, it's gonna
2:23
be a really fun discussion. I say we start with music. We often
2:28
don't, but boy howdy, David Arnold is like, this is one of
2:36
the best soundtracks of the nineties, Like, really, it is so fun
2:42
it I mean, they mentioned it when they were in production that after placing
2:46
it in the movie that it really elevated the entire thing up a notch.
2:53
And I have to agree, Like, action wise, you get a lot
2:55
of great stuff, but when you throw those, you know, the trumpets
3:00
and the and the marches and all of that behind it, you just you
3:05
want to stand up and cheer. It is such a fun score. What
3:07
are your thoughts on that, Tristan? I I completely agree with you.
3:12
This one was. I mean, in the previous works that we've had with
3:15
Emerick, it just there's nothing memorable about it, completely unmemorable. But with
3:22
this one, it was immediately memorable and it almost it almost felt the way
3:25
that they opened it, it almost felt like one of those old biblical epics
3:31
where you really focused on what you were listening to. Like you felt like
3:36
it was like either one of those old musicals where you hear the medleys or
3:40
like like like I said, like with ben her ten Commandments where you have
3:44
that you know that the opening with with just the words and just the music,
3:47
and uh, it was. I love the reveal too, because it
3:52
kind of made me think of of eighty nine Batman with uh yeah, you
3:58
know, with the bad symbol where the camera's going through the curves and you
4:00
have no idea what you're looking at and then all of a sudden it it
4:03
tracks back and you're like, oh my god, it was the bad symbol
4:06
of the whole time. And and this one, you know we see the
4:11
you know we see the masking raw. Yeah yeah, and so but yeah,
4:15
I just I love the trumpets are of course amazing, Like it's it's
4:17
a theme that you can grab onto with both hands where you know exactly like
4:23
they use it all the time and you don't get annoyed with it. It's
4:26
kind of like the James Bond theme where like you know, like you hear
4:28
it and it's used a couple of times, but you really love it.
4:30
But I also really love Ro's theme. Yeah. I think that's what gets
4:33
stuck in my head, like string. Yeah. Yeah, it's just like
4:38
it goes down and down and gets more and more menacing as it goes like
4:42
hmm, oh that's true. They could do it slower and it's a little
4:46
menacing and yeah, it's love it so so good. And David Arnold was
4:54
I think he was working in a used record shop when they came to him
4:59
and said, hey, you wanted to stargate because I can't remember how they
5:02
found him, but like I think like he did a few short films before
5:06
that, and they were really worried, Like Devlin and Emeric were both really
5:13
worried. They're like, I don't know if this guy can do it,
5:14
but let's give him a shot. And then like the first thing that they
5:16
heard from him was like, damn, yes, he's had like a crazy
5:19
career. He kept working with Emeric for a few more movies, and then
5:21
he went on to do like five Bond films and some crazy scores. Yeah,
5:27
I think he's second only to John Barry in terms of number of Bond
5:30
scores. I could be wrong about that, but I'm pretty sure. I
5:32
think John Barry's going to be like the number one all time ranking champ,
5:36
you know, in perpetuity. But I think Arnold's second spot for that either
5:41
way, you know. All that to say kicks off a heck of a
5:44
career. Do I think it's an incredible score? I do not. I
5:47
think it's a very good score, and I think that it I think that
5:53
the movie would be lesser without it. So but do I ask John That's
5:58
all we asked, you know. I mean, you know, okay,
6:00
I'll be the stick in the mud, but this is a score where it's
6:04
like it does exactly what it needs to do, which is it imbues some
6:11
sense of epic scale that like it layers on a voice to it that sometimes
6:16
the film doesn't earn on its own, where I think you could easily make
6:19
the argument that if you took the music out and it was something a little
6:24
lesser or not as well matched, then this movie does not get a positive
6:29
reception like it. You know, obviously they learned their lesson from the two
6:33
movies we watched before, where it was like, you know, music it's
6:38
important in film, and so I think it definitely hits there in terms of
6:42
the opening trists. And I like you you referenced the eighty nine Batman because
6:46
it is a very similar sort of thing. And that'll get to some of
6:49
the things that on this rewatch. I sort of like observed about Emeric's style
6:56
and I suddenly sort of like unlocked something in my brain out Devlin and Emeric
7:00
in the nineties and sort of what they what they predicted, not you know,
7:05
not predicted, but what they were pointing toward for the future of film.
7:11
I mean, one last thing with the music is I just had the
7:15
memory of this score, specifically like the main track as well as Robin Hood
7:21
Prince of Thieves were like the go to trailer scores for like the little teasers
7:29
that you would get where they were just kind of like introducing you to the
7:31
movie. And they didn't use you know, because they didn't have anything for
7:35
the movie yet. Like those two were used over and over and over,
7:41
like if you wanted that kind of a vibe in your trailer. Yeah,
7:45
they did use them a lot, that's true. That's true with the voiceover
7:48
guy in a West. Yeah, oh man, trailers were something special back
7:54
then, weren't they When they when they found a track that worked. When
7:57
you had to wait ten twenty thirty minute to download that trailer of AOL,
8:03
then you were a captive audience for sure. Yes, yeah, very much.
8:09
So yeah. So again, a great score that I think we all
8:13
agree elevates the picture. Whether it's the best score ever to grace the screen,
8:20
you know, who are we to judge? But I mean also it
8:24
was such a well done score that it was used heavily in the later show,
8:28
which we'll get to a little later. But for the Stargate SG one
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franchise, a lot of the main themes everything, This is the root of
8:39
all the score that came from it, which is a bit of transition when
8:43
you're going to television music where you're composing a lot of music for you know,
8:50
a specific show, but often again reusing these main themes, ros theme,
8:54
you know, the bombasticness of it. But yeah, so we start
9:00
off it's not quite up sad, but this movie definitely starts on a bit
9:07
of a downer note as we have Jack O'Neill with one l he's his kid
9:15
has shot himself relatively soon, and it just is a really interesting way to
9:22
start this event. I mean, this is an adventure movie for sure,
9:24
we're going far beyond our planet, but bringing it back to emeric for a
9:31
second. I think one of the best things that he's improved on in this
9:35
movie is characters. The two main characters, Jackson and O'Neill. And this
9:41
is again starting O'Neill and starting how where's this character gonna go? How is
9:46
he gonna grow? How's it going to change? John? What did you
9:48
think of just not just the introduction, but he goes from long hair to
9:54
short hair? Who is this guy? Should we care? Is he just
9:58
another you know? Is he the ununiversal soldier? I it is impossible for
10:05
me to dislike Kurt Russell in any role. It's it's actually like physiologically impossible.
10:11
It would be like watching me in you know, uh that movie It's
10:18
a Running Man with Arnold Schwarzenegger, where like they have the collars that blow
10:22
their heads off if they if they do something bad. I'm like, if
10:26
I try to dislike a Kurt Russell performance, I my head will explode.
10:30
Timpos Man, where you're trying to write out Kurt Russell is can't you can't
10:37
buy it. So it's hard for me to be completely honest. But with
10:43
that character in specific, I think that they overcompensate a little with the character's
10:50
motivation slash psychological state, where I don't know how necessary that bit of backstory
10:58
really is. Like I think that it works fine if he shows up as
11:03
a hard ass and then like you find out he has a heart of gold
11:07
anyway sort of thing, Like the scene of them going and getting him from
11:11
his house. Is it just it's over much to me. It's a bit
11:16
far rebuttal please. I think that they needed something more than duty and honor
11:26
and pledging oneself to one's country in order to be willing to go to another
11:31
galaxy. And sacrifice yourself in order to destroy the Gate. I feel like
11:35
there needed to be some sort of personal trauma or some sort of character issue
11:41
that gave him a little bit more push to leave things behind. I'll just
11:46
have to agree to disagree, because I think that I think that it works
11:50
perfectly fine. And we're very familiar with the trope of the military guy who's
11:54
so dedicated to the mission he doesn't care what happens to him, and then
12:00
in the course of the movie finding out that he does care whether he lives
12:03
or dies. And I think that there is basically his arc works without that
12:09
scene where we meet him when he's in his late son's bedroom. I really
12:15
I think it works without it just as well. But you know, we'll
12:18
just be on opposite sides of that one. I don't know why it rankled
12:22
me. I like, what's odd is with this rewatch? And I saw
12:26
Stargate more than once in the nineties. I'd completely forgotten that bit about his
12:31
character. So I would argue that if it were really truly memorably necessary,
12:37
I wouldn't have forgotten that that was a piece of his character, if that
12:41
makes sense. I mean, it does drive a lot of aspects, not
12:46
only the self sacrifice motif, but let's you know, pitch over to the
12:52
side character of Skara played by Alexis Cruz. So this the pseudo sun you
12:58
know. Again, there's moments where where Scar picks up a gun and he,
13:01
you know, O'Neill freaks out. So you do have this weaving story
13:07
that's I think fairly well told, a bit a bit heavy handed in the
13:11
beginning, like you said, John, like it's they're making it very clear,
13:15
you know, how he feels about guns and his trauma. It's you
13:18
know, right out there on display. But seeing him eventually soften, eventually
13:26
pull to be to being with Scar and Scarra was played so well the actor
13:31
actually returned in the show playing the same character. It was one of the
13:35
few actors that transitioned into SG one. But what did you think about that
13:41
part of O'Neill's journey Tristan with the kind of like the second son, and
13:48
you know that's kind of his inlet to bonding with the people of Abidots and
13:52
kind of becoming the not savior. But he needs you know, we've we've
13:58
seen that trope before of like well we need to save these people now,
14:01
you know, and he takes a little convincing to get there. Yeah,
14:05
I mean it was, it was. It was a little weird to me
14:07
because you know, like he has this issue towards children and guns and child
14:13
soldiers, but yet there was nothing at the beginning of the film that really
14:16
showcased that he had an issue with children and guns, and so I just
14:20
wish that if we had that at the beginning. I feel like it really
14:24
would have sold that character arc just a little bit more. But hey,
14:28
he was the character with long hair. That's what we're forgetting. Oh,
14:31
the same guy. They buzzed it like a scene later and that was O'Neill
14:35
with one l Oh, that's what John's complaining about. Okay, Yeah,
14:39
he's wrong about that one. So so yeah, no, I think that's
14:41
I think it's you know, I honestly, I'm sorry, I just woke
14:48
up. What what what what was that detour about? I'm sorry, go
14:50
on, No, I do I do. I think I think it's a
14:52
it's a nice it's so heavy handed. It's so heavy handed, but it
14:56
is like to have that moment later, I I feel like the to him.
15:01
Okay, so what I will give credit to John is like there was
15:07
two scenes where where O'Neill is like, get those guns away from the kids.
15:13
We needed only one of them. That's him, Like like we we
15:16
had that scene with Scara where he was smoking, you know, that was
15:20
funny, and then he reaches for the gun and then O'Neill like loses it
15:24
and we know exactly why he's losing it. And later on when they escape,
15:31
you know from Raw and all those people, they're back around the campfire
15:35
and uh Kowaski, which if you're having a military movie, it is cinema
15:39
law to have a dude named Kawaski. True and uh. And so it
15:46
was that scene around the fire when he said he's like, get these guns
15:48
away from these kids, totally unnecessary, Like you could show them have the
15:52
hesitancy, you know, have them have a conversation with The first scene was
15:56
better than the second. The first the second scene did not need to be
16:00
there. It didn't need to be there. I enjoyed the character arc,
16:03
but it was times there was very heavy handed, heavy handed, and that
16:07
scene could have been trimmed down or compacted in a much more subtler way,
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I think without O'Neill freaking out again, I mean, look, it's obvious
16:18
to me that really what it is is we actually agree it's heavy handed.
16:22
And I think that probably what I react most strongly to is simply the fact
16:29
that there is a lot of stuff in here where the structure of things is.
16:36
There's no art to how it's put together in terms of progression. It's
16:41
just sort of the feeling of beat beat, beat, as opposed to just
16:45
a smooth flow of everything. And I think that it's possible that that scene
16:52
with O'Neill plays better if they find a different way to sort of like have
16:56
it in or even give it more time to breathe, because the scene where
17:00
they're talking to his wife right beforehand is very awkward, and you know,
17:06
so maybe it is just that clunkiness that I respond to with it. But
17:10
either way, it's one of those things where I can just say it never
17:15
lands for me. And maybe it's because it's so heavy handed, is like
17:18
it just there's a lot of stuff such as when when Scara has the friend
17:25
who's you know, he's he's the kid that has a little trouble with everything,
17:29
right, He's not you know, he he you know, he needs
17:32
a little extra help from his friends, he's not as he's the Titalong friend.
17:36
Yeah, and it's like as soon as he's introduced, Like what feels
17:38
a lot about this movie is like, Oh, okay, he's he's gonna
17:42
have to get past his kid and oh that kid's going to be in trouble,
17:47
and that's where I'm supposed to get my emotion. Like, there's so
17:49
much about this that feels like it's pulled from other source material and just sort
17:55
of like crammed together as opposed to flowing in such a way that it's like
18:00
this is a character story that has to be told. Maybe maybe that's what
18:03
I'm reacting to more than anything. Well, if O'Neil is the jock,
18:10
then by far Daniel Jackson is the geek. And I mean from the beginning
18:15
of him talking about, you know, aliens building the pyramids. We've all
18:21
seen the History Channel late at night. We know, we know. But
18:25
James Spader, I think he's been known to say for this movie that it
18:30
was a paycheck, you know, he wanted to get paid. But I
18:33
thought he did a great job establishing this character which would eventually be you know,
18:40
built upon by Michael Shanks. So with with Jackson, though you have.
18:48
Personally, I feel that they thread the line of he's not a Wonder
18:52
kid, He's not like, yes, he does make discovery, but it's
18:57
not likely this man could do it. And you know, it goes to
19:03
the edge a little bit. But we're gonna look past the plot hole of
19:08
if you know six numbers in a seven number dialing sequence, you just then
19:14
dial all the other numbers to get the seventh one. We're gonna ignore that
19:18
because it's probably the most glaring plot hole of the entire movie. But hey,
19:22
I have to give it for that sequence of him discovering the seventh symbol.
19:29
They show him the stargate, they dial it up. Everything's vibrating and
19:33
shaking like they're making it a big deal, and I get caught up in
19:37
it. This movie nails Wonder because and it's this guy who two weeks ago
19:45
was writing on blackboards about aliens and is now opening a door to another world
19:51
and you you are along for the ride. So so Tristan with Daniel Jackson's
19:57
character, too many sneezes? Was it a little too dances with wolves or
20:03
like going native? You know, use of subtitles or some subside titles like
20:08
all that incup bits, Daniel, Like, how did that character impact you?
20:15
I think, uh, I think Spider did a fantastic job portraying Jackson.
20:18
I really do. I think there were they had just enough sneezes,
20:22
they had, you know, just enough ridiculous moments with him. Like there
20:29
was like in the in the when he's presenting to to the to Leon rippy
20:33
himself. Uh, and he's already yeah, he's kind of laughing at himself.
20:38
He's like he's just like he's like you got two little guys dancing and
20:44
a little heads coming up and a little little line like that. You know,
20:48
it's just like like you can tell it's nerves, like he's he's it's
20:52
a nervous lad. I didn't bring enough copies for everyone, so you have
20:55
to share. You have to share. Like these generals don't care. They
20:59
just just give us the fan. But he's like in the middle of his
21:02
lecture circuit and it's so funny. And I think that's the thing is that
21:06
like it's not him, James Spader is not playing it as someone who is
21:11
trying to be funny. And I think that was one like it's one thing
21:15
that Brian Cranston, I think once said is that like like whenever you played
21:21
a comedic character, he never played that character like he was trying to be
21:26
funny. Otherwise that people won't laugh because if that if that character knows that
21:32
he's trying to get a joke, the joke won't land. And I feel
21:36
like Spader knew that with Jackson, And I think Jackson does a really great
21:41
job of walking the line of nerd and imbecile, because that's a common thing
21:48
in movies, especially in the nineties, where if anybody was nerdy, they
21:52
were completely socially inept, they would have like they'd have ticks or they'd have
21:59
you know, you guys have seen it. And I feel like originally they
22:03
wanted Rick Moranis for Jackson's role, which which I love Rick Moranis, but
22:10
that would have been a horrible, horrible choice because I feel like they would
22:14
have asked him to do like his Ghostbuster's character, yes, and and it
22:18
just like in you know, on Abidots, and that would not have worked.
22:22
No, it would not have worked whatsoever. And I feel like that's
22:26
kind of the trope that we that most nerds would get in the eighties and
22:30
nineties, and I think Spader showed an intellectual who's not the jock but is
22:34
not an imbecile. And to me, no, I didn't feel like Chances
22:40
with Wolves, Punkhannas or Avatar or anything like that. No, don't.
22:45
I don't feel like we went into that like I felt like Spader was.
22:48
I feel like Jackson was truly trying to learn so that they could go home.
22:52
It wasn't so much like, oh, you know, like like I'm
22:56
gonna I'm gonna protect these people, you know, with with all my mights
23:00
because they've shown me their rich culture culture. It was like, no,
23:02
like Ro's clearly the bad guy and he's trying to kill us, so let's
23:04
let's take care of this, you know, like like you know the So
23:08
that's kind of how I took it. And yeah, I love Spader since
23:11
his movies in the eighties and nineties and his portrayal as Alan Shore on Boston
23:17
Legal and the Practice. Uh yeah, this is just another avenue for for
23:22
for me to love his performance. You gotta go through all those roles.
23:25
You're not gonna mention Robert California. Come on, come on now, Robert
23:29
California was cool. In his first scene, and then it's kind of petered
23:33
out. I don't know. I liked Robert California. Yeah, it couldn't
23:37
have lasted longer than it did, but I did think it was cute.
23:41
But Spader, I agree with you. Spader gives some actual like heart to
23:48
the movie because of the fact that Spader is playing what really a you know,
23:53
a quote unquote nerd is, which is just somebody who's a bit obsessive
23:56
about something that they know about, that they really love and they really care
24:00
about. And so no, we don't have the going native thing because he's
24:04
just thrilled that his knowledge is applicable. Finally, I'm just so happy to
24:08
be here. Guys. It's well, it is though, like it's one
24:12
of those things where like that nothing fills somebody with more joy than you know,
24:18
Oh I know that. Yeah, okay, I yes, I can
24:21
do that. Yes, I know what you're talking about here. And I
24:23
think he he conveys that. What I love about him is at the time
24:29
this movie came out, the whole idea of the Aliens building the pyramids was
24:33
such a sort of like an accepted con like out there theory sort of thing,
24:42
and that theory has grown over time, so it feels so much more.
24:47
It feels like it's such a simpler time that this movie comes out of
24:49
where it's like the pyramids were landing beds for ancient aliens, and it's like,
24:55
ah, that feels right. The thing though, that I come at
24:59
it from, you know, perspective of who I am today, is I
25:03
find it puzzling that Raw goes to a desert on another planet, because it's
25:10
like, wouldn't you go somewhere where there's I don't know, resources and food
25:15
right, Like, well, you know, the mineral is the resource.
25:18
He's there, I I guess, But it's one of those things where it's
25:22
like, wouldn't it have been nice to have it be a different location instead
25:26
of having it be so obviously it's like, all right, well we're just
25:30
pyramids can only be in the desert. It's like, ah, well there
25:33
were pyramids and tropical locales too, you know Zigaraz, but they were there
25:37
or I mean, he he needed people who could acclimate to that climate and
25:41
knew how to survive in that climate, and so you know, he took
25:45
people from the desert and located them to a desert because they know that he
25:48
knew that they would survive. Okay, sure, I think no, no,
25:52
no, no, don't dismiss that. That's a really good explanation.
25:56
Not only did I dismiss it, like it's in the room behind me,
26:00
I don't even know where I live, it's buried under something back there.
26:03
That's that's how hard. I just dismissed that because it's more visually interesting.
26:07
It's more I think it's a more interesting movie if it's like, oh look,
26:11
and also here, like it's the same sort of thing, this idea
26:15
of like this this powerful space faring culture going around and sort of like imprinting
26:21
itself on all of these different planets. I just I think it would have
26:23
been more interesting to have it be in a different sort of area, because
26:27
the thing is, okay, you're talking about all he takes these people and
26:30
moves them around. It's like, well, okay, I know Raw went
26:33
into a human being in order to live forever, So like, are his
26:37
henchmen also aliens who implanted their consciousness into humans that then live forever as well?
26:45
Or were these just guards that were just picked out of you know,
26:48
etcetera, etcetera, etcetera. It's not really clear, and it's it's the
26:52
don't blowing eyes. Oh that's true. That's true. They also emote a
26:56
little bit more than raw does. But hey, you know that's just me.
27:00
Well I think, yeah, I see what you're saying, John about
27:03
the location. I think for what they did go with in the desert,
27:07
it pays off because you have that obviously, it's there to have that moment
27:11
where you've gone through the stargate, you don't know where you are, you
27:15
walk out and he turns around and there's a pyramid and that is in one
27:19
shot, validating his entire theory. And you got the triple moon and it's
27:26
like, oh my gosh, like, well, I'm on another planet and
27:29
it was I mean, he says it. He's like, I was right,
27:30
you know, I knew it. Yeah, I freaking love alien sky
27:40
I do. I absolutely love alien skies. Like when we have we see
27:44
like a purple planet real close, so we see multiple moons or two suns,
27:48
everything shot with a giant red filter. Like I am a sucker for
27:52
that. When I'm like, oh my god, it's different than ours.
27:55
Guy, Like that's that's totally me. When I'm watching a movie, there's
27:57
three moons that are exactly the same as our Earth moon, but there's three
28:00
of them, are you That's what I wanted, That's what I wanted to
28:03
talk about. I was like, really, this is a this is a
28:06
You had fifty million dollars to make this movie. You earned two hundred million
28:11
dollars, and you're telling me you couldn't have spent five minutes just looking making
28:17
a different looking moon the Titanic sky, right then, I don't want to
28:21
hear no, yeah, no, you're totally right. And it's like it's
28:25
very obviously Earth's moon three times at slightly different sizes over the pyramid. But
28:30
hey, uh Ra's not a miracle worker. He just does what he can.
28:33
But uh yeah, so we were moving through the story again. This
28:41
movie will lay the groundwork for a lot of my favorite elements in the SG
28:47
one show, where you're looking into mythology, like it's kind of running along
28:52
with the theory of everything we thought was myth is actually aliens, which is
28:56
a little bit of a pill to swallow. But but you were mentioning,
29:02
you know, the budget, Tristan and the special effects and your hate of
29:04
moons. But let's talk about the Horus and Anubis guards and that awesome very
29:12
early nineties morph effect of the helmet rolling back, which is I mean it's
29:19
iron Man wishes it was that cool. You know, it's an important step
29:26
between it is Batmobiles shields in nineteen eighty nine and ninety two much and iron
29:33
Man, like this is a bridge. This is a step that we're coming
29:37
across here where we can see where the technology is pointing. And I think
29:41
it's really neat. It is really neat. I remember thinking it was really
29:45
neat when I first saw it, and I think that the like the visual
29:49
those types of visual flare are sort of what keeps the movie interesting at parts
29:56
where it lags because it's like, oh that's neat. Oh cool, I
29:59
like that, and you can sort of then go through and say, oh,
30:03
okay, we were just misinterpreting what they were saying when we saw these
30:07
paintings. It wasn't that they were talking about these gods that came down there
30:12
talking about these were the guards that like, you know, blew up things
30:17
when when Raw got mad and stuff like goes okay, I get it,
30:19
I gotcha. It's theatric theatrical and showmanship from a dictator to instill fear in
30:29
the masses. And and I mean the animatronic heads are awesome, like the
30:33
bird looks around, the flexing of the crest. Uh and yeah, yeah,
30:40
it's not just like a helmet. They just plopped on their head like
30:42
it. It actually does movie money, not show money, because it gets
30:48
a little simpler in the show. But I imagine so. But I when
30:53
I was a kid, I absolutely loved that, like the idea that it
30:59
just kind of went over way into some smaller piece of technology, Like I
31:03
every bit of that and distinguishable from magic as it were. Yeah, I
31:08
remember I had the toys when I was a kid, like when this movie
31:11
came out, Like I had the ship, the the the glider, the
31:17
glider, yeah, the fighter. Yeah, that that that flew around,
31:18
I had that. I loved it. The attack croissant, you're not you're
31:23
not wrong. Uh yeah. But that that morph technique was so cool because
31:29
they would basically shoot the actor twice. They would shoot him doing the motion
31:33
because it was also moving. It wasn't like they were static. They were
31:37
turning, which it's like, hey, let's double down guys and make it
31:40
really hard. But they would shoot them without the helmet and then they would
31:42
shoot them with the helmet and then they would literally computer animate morph like oh
31:48
well this part should kind of go here, and it's just this crude kind
31:52
of like projection mapping that's reverse animated away. Uh, but it sold it.
32:00
You know. We were all like, I've never seen anything like that
32:04
before, and it, like you said, John, it kind of you
32:07
know, picked it up a notch for a second, like okay, okay,
32:08
that's that's really interesting. I mean, as long as we're talking about
32:13
it, I thought that, uh, Jimon Hansu, who in the movie
32:16
is just credited as Gemon, he didn't have his last the credits, like
32:22
I either forgot or never realized it was him, And like when they revealed
32:27
him, I was like, oh wow, my gosh, this is early
32:30
on, but like like this is pre Amistad. Oh yeah, this is
32:36
was a three years before Amistad. Yeah. Yeah. Emeric likes to take
32:40
credit even though Jimon has been in a few things before this. Emeric likes
32:45
to take credit of discovered just well, you know, I mean it was
32:51
Stargate, you know, I mean, this is the thing right as we're
32:55
talking about the effects and everything, and like you know, and then Jimon
32:59
Hansu is in there. I'm curious because we've talked about the main characters and
33:04
everything, Like, I think we all agreed that one of the strengths in
33:07
Universal Soldier was obviously Emeric is a director able to convey to the supporting cast
33:15
who they're supposed to be and how they're supposed to behave. And I will
33:19
go out on a limb here that Spader is is doing a good job.
33:22
He's but it's it feels a little effortless for him. And I'm not saying
33:27
that in a negative way. I'm saying like, this is this is not
33:30
James Spader showing up in campaigning for an oscar. This is James Spader showing
33:34
up and having a good time. That's a good thing, okay. And
33:37
Kurt Russell is showing up and just again, Kurt Russell just walks on screen.
33:43
It's like, okay, hey, what's up, bro. But I
33:45
think that this is another supporting cast where like Emeric really kind of shines in
33:51
getting good performances from his supporting cast. I mean, even I would argue
33:55
that this is one of French Stewart's best on screen performances you're not wrong,
34:00
You're not wrong. I mean the bar is not high on that, not
34:06
terribly high, but it's still notable. But you know, there are actually
34:09
a couple of things. And I will even you know, I'll even say
34:14
the actress his name is Milli Avatol, like, yeah, she does a
34:19
good job, like she's really she's. And the thing is, that's not
34:23
it's easy for that to be a thankless, phoned in role. But obviously
34:29
the director was able. Emeric is able to convey to her, here's who
34:32
I need you to be on screen, and she delivers. And I think
34:36
Emeric deserves whatever anybody thinks of any of his movies on the whole, I
34:42
think this is going to be a consistent theme and all the stuff we look
34:44
at, he gets really good supporting performances from his actors. I think this
34:50
is another one in that in that line proves it. No, I think
34:52
you're absolutely right, John. I mean we were chatting beforehand about, you
34:57
know, Richard kind this tiny, you know, thankless role of like the
35:01
guy to first translate it, who gets schooled by Jackson, and it's hilarious.
35:07
It's like just enough that like, okay, this world feels real that
35:10
there to be a guy and he's already done it and he did it wrong.
35:15
But you have, you know, like Catherine, you know, who
35:17
has to portray again that sense of wonder of my father found this and and
35:23
I'm kind of in charge, but then the military is kind of taking over
35:27
very cliche kind of role, but she handles it well. I want to
35:32
talk about, though, is Eric Avari, who is the leader, the
35:37
tribal leader, probably the largest, like the mainest character of the sub characters.
35:44
I would always say, at least for abidots. And I mean he
35:47
talks in you know, native language the entire time. He does a lot
35:52
of communication with just his face and mannerisms. Yeah, body always remember that.
36:00
But uh, there's there's been a few times I've had a chocolate bar
36:05
that's been really good, like Bunny Way. That's what you got to say.
36:09
It's what you have to say. Uh. But no, Eric Ivari,
36:15
he he's he's one of those talents that elevates everything he's in, like
36:21
great character actor. Yeah, whenever he's in something, he makes it better
36:24
than if he wasn't in it. He's you know, like he's been in
36:30
so many things, Like I mean, he's lately, he's he plays Nicodemus
36:32
in The Chosen, I love him in The Mummy with uh with Fraser and
36:37
and and Weiss and or vice excuse me? And yeah, he's all over
36:43
the place and just really elevates everything. I think he's great. Uh well,
36:47
yeah, I mean he's so expressive, like Darren saying is like he
36:51
he is an actor who was always meant to be on camera because his expressions
36:58
play so well on set, and he like he knows basically he knows how
37:05
to play an expression without a coming across as mugging for the camera. But
37:08
even though he does these very big reactions, it doesn't feel like that sort
37:13
of old school vaudevillian break the fourth wall, like can you believe? I
37:16
had a candy bar? But it's that vibe without being out of the moment.
37:22
It feels authentic to the character he's playing. And that's so important because
37:28
again it's a it's a native character that does not speak English. He has
37:31
to convey and he conveys, you know, hey, everybody, we should
37:37
be afraid, and hey everybody, we should attack, and you know,
37:42
why did we do what we did? And like he conveys all of that
37:46
so let's let's shift a little bit to the use of subtitles and not use
37:52
of subtitles, because I think that is also a strength of this movie,
37:55
where there's a lot of times where you don't get any subtitles. You could
38:00
get it from the very first moment, but you don't, and as Daniel
38:04
is learning the language, eventually you get you get it in key moments when
38:08
you need it. But I like the fact that at the beginning of the
38:12
movie, or the beginning of being on Abbidots, you're just just as just
38:16
as they are. As far as who are these people, what are they?
38:20
What's going on? There's no universal translator. Not everybody speaks English.
38:24
Again, we'll change that for the show, but I mean it's a show.
38:29
But so not only that. With the Abodozians, I don't know if
38:32
they have a name, but for those of you at home who have no
38:36
idea what Abodots is from just watching the movie, it's the name of the
38:39
planet. Name of the planet. Should have said that, yes, I
38:45
just assumed, But I will say that the what ended up being the best
38:50
use of subtitles is for raw because apparently when yeah, let's talk about that,
38:57
Yeah, when he did raw. He did not feel he did a
39:00
very good performance, and he did not know actually that they were going to
39:04
dub and pitch shift and redo and subtitle his performance. And after he saw
39:10
the film, he went to UH To America and said, like, you
39:15
saved it. You saved my role, like because what I gave was was
39:20
not what was delivered in in that change. But yeah, what did what
39:24
did you think Tristan of the use of I mean, it's a it's a
39:28
clever tech technique we've seen before of exposition through subtitle. When you realize,
39:34
oh, we need to explain what his motivation is. It's not there and
39:38
we never said it, so here it is in the subtitles. How did
39:43
that come together? Yeah? I think it was h I would have.
39:45
I feel like watching it this time, I feel like they modulated his voice
39:52
a bit too much. Okay. I was like, I was like,
39:57
let's tone it down because it's it's distracting. We're like an alien. But
40:04
like when when Sara or Shari or Kassouf, you know, when they speak
40:08
the language, you can understand what certain words are, what certain syllables are.
40:15
But they affected Ro's voice so much. It was just it was very
40:21
nutty, It really was, and so it was it was really hard,
40:25
like he definitely gave him a presence. It was clearly a presence. And
40:30
I really like Jay Davidson's performance. And I'll talk more about that, but
40:35
I it was the one of the reasons, like you said, one of
40:37
the reasons was is like during a during a test screening, people hated the
40:44
movie because they were absolutely confused. They had no idea what was going on.
40:47
They had no idea what Ro's motivations were, nothing like that, and
40:52
so they had to throw in more exposition. And one of the ways they
40:55
did that was through modulating Jay David's voice and then putting in stuff that he
41:01
didn't actually say. And it's it saved the picture. It saved the movie.
41:05
And so for that, I applaud them for doing it. Uh So,
41:08
yeah, I liked I liked it when we when we got subtitles and
41:12
when we didn't get subtitles, because it's it's it's it was of a perfect
41:15
separation of what we needed to know, what we needed to guess, and
41:21
what we absolutely just needed to be blind to. And I love Jay Davidson
41:29
is raw. I love everything that he does. I think he's phenomenal in
41:34
this. When I was a kid, I I when I when I was
41:38
because he's done two movies he did. I tried to remember what else he
41:43
did. He did Crime Game, which got him, uh a supporting actor
41:47
nomination in the Oscars, which is insane. That was his first movie and
41:52
he got an actor and he got an Oscar nomination, and and then uh
41:57
they American and Devlin came to and said that they wanted him for this one
42:00
because he's fresh off, fresh off of that Oscar nom and he's like,
42:04
okay, I want a million dollars and they're like, yeah, sure,
42:06
and he's like, oh wait, really okay. And I didn't want to
42:10
do it, so I put out a big number and you said yes,
42:14
and now I gotta do it. Yeah, and and and and he quit
42:19
acting pretty much after after this movie because he said that he hated the attention.
42:23
But when I was a kid and I watched this, I was so
42:27
fascinated by his performance. I swore that Jay Davidson was a woman. I
42:32
absolutely thought. I fought my parents tooth and nail. I was like,
42:37
no, Raw is far too pretty. Raw is a woman. And they're
42:42
like Tristan. No, his name is Jay Davidson. He's in my liner,
42:47
but like he's we see him at the beginning of the movie. He
42:52
is shirtless. He is clearly a man. I'm like, no, he's
43:00
too pretty. No, I had very confusing feelings at eight years old.
43:06
But yeah, So I love Raw, and I love the presence and the
43:08
glowing eyes and the I love when he snatches off the necklace from Jackson's even
43:14
though it's not the eye of Raw, it's the eye of Horace because it's
43:16
pointing the wrong way. But yes, I love all that. The thing
43:22
is, I feel like I'm gonna get kicked off of house lights pretty soon,
43:25
because especially this time. I mean even when I first watched it,
43:30
Raw was always the weakest part of the film for me ough and he remains
43:35
the weakest part of the film for me. I get absolutely no sense of
43:38
menace from Raw. I have absolutely no fear of Raw. I think that
43:45
the movie with the overmodulation, even if it's not intentional, the overall sense
43:52
is that they're trying to Darth Vader up his voice, and it doesn't.
43:58
It's it's one but but it's one of those things where I'd never got any
44:01
sense of power or menace from Raw that made me fear him, and I
44:07
didn't. I just think that it's one of those things where it's like some
44:13
other things in the film, where the concept is right. This is the
44:16
right concept, it's just the execution falls flat. From my perspective. I
44:22
heard you say that you'd be so dead John, and he'd just take the
44:25
little glowy hand thing and like scramble your right there. As long as you
44:30
as long as you sat there and didn't move, you'd be in trouble.
44:36
That would be That would be a very difficult forty five seconds. I have
44:38
trouble sitting still, so that would be very, very tough. But I
44:44
this really is one of those things, as much as I hate to say,
44:46
it's like this, this very much, especially with its success, I
44:52
think is one of those things where it winds up in a way pointing Hollywood
44:57
in a direction that just snow balls as time moves forward, of the idea
45:04
of instead of creating something that is completely fresh and new, grab some stuff
45:13
off the shelf that you've seen before and put it together like a jigsaw puzzle.
45:16
And as long as the concept is there and there's you know that,
45:20
and the effects aren't like Star Trek five, you know what, You're gonna
45:23
make some money on this, and the birth of a formula as basically,
45:29
I mean, Hollywood's always followed formulas. Sequels have always been there, regurgitation
45:34
has always been there, remakes have always been there, And at the minimum,
45:37
American Devlin deserve credit for just going whole hog and embracing what was at
45:44
the time considered just an absolutely crazy, insane idea that the Aliens built the
45:47
pyramids. That's just stuck with it and been around forever. I think it
45:53
was. It was probably like Chariots of the Gods, like Eric Voan Danakin's
45:58
book is probably the one thing really pularized it, but that was like late
46:00
seventies, early eighties or something like that. But like, it just embraces
46:05
it, like most movies would dance around it and be like, oh,
46:07
it's kind of a crazy idea, and they're like, Nope, this is
46:09
the concept. And I'm like, they deserve credit for that, right,
46:13
they pinned it to that, But I think at the expense of a couple
46:16
of other things, and I think that they did not cast their villain well,
46:22
I just never got a sense of not just menace. But I never
46:25
got a sense of did you hear the strings John when he walked out of
46:30
the room day? But that's why. But that's why I give credit to
46:32
Arnold of saying like, yeah, he completed his mission, because if you
46:37
took his score out, oh, I agree, whoa a complete dud.
46:42
And it's like I would like to think that it can work without you just
46:47
as well without it, but like I just it's just something where there's just
46:52
something where the magic is missing and a great villain is necessary for this to
46:59
really really work as well as it should, and I just don't have that
47:01
great villain here. I want to chime in, please by all means and
47:09
say I feel like John, I can say this is respectfully as possible.
47:16
Please by all means, no personal attacks dress if you got your head out
47:22
of your app No, I'm just kidding. Uh oh no see I was
47:25
finally interested in what you had to say, but you got That's why I
47:29
go ahead, go ahead, go ahead, No, okay, okay,
47:31
Like I'm getting this, and tell me if I'm wrong. I'm getting this
47:34
underlying sense from you, like with with referencing, you know, Darth Vader
47:39
and great villains and showing menace and things like that. Is I feel like,
47:45
especially in Western cinema, that a lot of the times when we have
47:51
huge menacing great villains, they have to be physically imposing, nop and not.
47:57
They have to be the ones that like can snap the dude neck with
48:00
his telekinesis or his muscles and everything like that. Am I getting that sense
48:07
from you? No, not at all. You're actually dead wrong. I
48:10
think that an actor of any build could have portrayed the raw that I'm envisioning
48:15
in my head. I honestly think that some of the body language and movement
48:21
of Jay Davidson just doesn't sell it as somebody who feels confident that they have
48:25
power, that they have that within themselves to throw somebody around with their mind
48:31
and stuff like that. It feels more like an actor who is moving his
48:35
arms because my arm has to go this way because the effect is going to
48:37
go that way, and I put my hand over here. Because of this,
48:40
I get more of a sense of indication rather than acting, and so
48:45
that it doesn't have anything to do with his body type or anything like that.
48:50
Has everything to do though, with how he moves but yes, we
48:54
talked about the moneiness with the sound and the overmodulation, and the sense to
48:59
my ear is that they were like, yeah, yeah, we're gonna make
49:01
it sound like Darth Vader, and that's what's gonna be scary. And it's
49:05
like, you know, Vader has an imposing sound, but with it it's
49:08
not just that they had a bodybuilder in that soup, but they had a
49:12
bodybuilder who they either told or knew instinctively how to move in such a way
49:17
as somebody that was confident that they had this mystical power that nobody else could
49:22
unlock, this sureness of presence. And that's just that's one of the key
49:28
things missing from Davidson's performance. And I think also facially, I don't get
49:34
like the glowing eyes seem to be trying to do a lot of heavy lifting
49:37
for a lack of expression in certain scenes is what I'm saying. I've felt
49:44
with Raw the way the character kind of comes across is yeah, he's a
49:52
villain, but he's really defeated by his hubrists, like he almost cannot believe
49:58
that anyone would ever try to fight back, Like my technology and my forces
50:04
are so much you know, superior to this slave group. That. Yeah,
50:09
so he so his kind of malice is, Hey, everything is status
50:15
quo. I'm the top dog. I'm here on top of my pyramid.
50:19
I can do what I want, you know. So he never he never
50:23
has a moment where he really has to flex. And I see what you're
50:29
saying, John, And yeah, that would have brought more menace to him.
50:32
They just never took the character that direction. No, I mean,
50:36
then, you know, I then blame on all sides, I guess,
50:40
But it's you know, I think that that is one of the magical things
50:44
that's missing from the film. So and that's just where I land with its
50:50
film of magic. Yeah, all right, well, as we say it,
50:54
here, we're we're circling the third chevron. No wait, that's and
51:00
again we're looking past the one point nine billion possible combinations of a dialing sequence.
51:06
But no, let's do our favorite guest star star of the movies,
51:13
Lance Reddick. Where are we placing him? Not a ton of roles,
51:17
it's actually relatively small cast. But like we've said, a lot of great
51:22
supporting characters. Are they worthy of being usurped by Lance Tristan? Let's start
51:29
with you where did you place Lance? I wanted to put him on the
51:34
planet with everybody else that we could get more screen time with him, but
51:38
I was kind of struggling on who he would be in that, so I
51:45
kind of went with my first choice, which was we'd only get one scene.
51:51
But I feel like it'd be a great scene. And even though I
51:52
like Leon Rippy, I feel like he would make a great General West,
51:57
Like he'd be a great no nonsense general, throws down the law, throws
52:01
down the history, throws down the rules, totally impatient and like doesn't want
52:07
to be there. I feel like I feel like Reddick would probably give a
52:13
little bit more sarcasm and humor into the scene than Rippy did his West.
52:19
And so that's my answer. I'm just picturing Daniel like passing out the rolled
52:22
up part paper and Wes is just sitting there like Lance is just like what
52:28
are you? What are you doing? Son? Just come on, because
52:30
keep keep going, keep going? All rightly? All right? So we
52:32
have a General West John, are you placing him on Abbido's the planet or
52:38
are you placing him before we go through the stargate. Well, one of
52:44
my instincts was actually impossible I could not place him as Colonel O'Neill because that
52:50
would require replacing Kurt Russell, and that it's actually that's forbidden within the the
52:54
John Mill's Code of Conduct. You know, like if Lance Reddick was Jack
53:00
O'Neill, that son would still be alive because because throughout this entire practice good
53:09
gun safety. He would have practiced good, good gun safety. Because throughout
53:14
this movie, every single trained military officer who handled a gun handled it like
53:21
a rank amateur. I have never seen such worse trigger discipline or from the
53:29
truth from an entire movie, and especially Kurt Russell's character. And Kurt Russell
53:34
has done so many military roles. He pointed that gun at everybody and everything
53:38
while his finger was on the trigger. Very true. Also, whoever put
53:44
the you know, the sound mixed together, they sure loved the sound of
53:49
chambering around because every time somebody ran it a corner, it was like,
53:52
chick, chick. I was like, you already, you already, you
53:57
don't want to do that again. Don't do that Because I chambered every round
54:00
because I went around It's like they're just ejecting shells as they go, and
54:04
I'm like, God, you didn't even fire the gun. Yet what it
54:06
was like he's doing the gun was even off screen. I noticed that they
54:09
did that like it was off screen. His hands weren't even moving, and
54:12
you heard it. Yeah, it drove me nuts. Me so glad that
54:15
you noticed it too. It was such a huge destruction to me too,
54:20
absolutely drove me up the wall. But since I cannot, per my own
54:24
personal guidelines replace Colonel O'Neill, I'm swinging for the fences and I'm making Lance
54:30
Radick Raw because I think that I'd at least get a performance out of that,
54:35
and that is that is who I would go with. Wow. Well,
54:39
I mean I would ask you to expand, but you already talked about
54:43
Raw for ten minutes, and I think we know exactly where you're you're coming
54:45
from, So all right, there you go, all right, I I
54:51
mean we this isn't a replacement to make it better. This is a replacement
54:55
because I think it would be a good role for Lance. So I put
55:02
him as Kessef, as the as the leader of the tribe, which does
55:07
make things a little tricky because he's also meant to be the father of Shari
55:12
and Sokka. But I think you could you know, you could meld that
55:16
where their children of the tribe or something like that, or blindcast. It
55:21
doesn't matter, Yeah, it doesn't matter matter. But I just think,
55:27
you know, I keep thinking of seeing him in the role as the professor
55:31
in Young Sheldon, which I know is not probably the number one role you
55:34
think of when you think of Lance Reddick, but he gives He has some
55:38
scenes where he's giddy and some scenes where he's you know, emoting a lot
55:44
in that way, and it just made me think, like, here's this
55:46
tall man who is just he is charged with protecting this tribe, and I
55:52
think Lance would just excel at that. All right, so we got three
55:58
for three with Lance. As we go into our final thoughts and ratings,
56:02
I'll start I even I think I tipped my hand a little bit that I
56:07
absolutely love this movie. I love the SG one franchise. It's one of
56:14
those elevator pitches that is meant to be on television. Dial up a new
56:19
planet every week and take the adventure where you want to go, and they
56:24
expand on the plot. They you know, keep some characters, change some
56:30
characters. This I'm not trying to review the show, but where the movie
56:36
I think succeeds, and I've said it from the beginning, is it's a
56:40
wondrous ride. It's in the music, it's in the characters, it's in
56:45
the story. You know you're going to a far off planet. And I
56:51
remember, Yeah, I don't remember the exact year I saw this. I
56:53
think I might have been a shade too young in ninety four to see it
56:58
in theaters, but I remember loving this movie from the get go, loving
57:02
the score, loving the characters and all of that. So I'm giving it
57:08
a four plus one for launching a billion dollar franchise, for being such a
57:15
good seed that it created a whole universe, it created cosplayers, it created
57:22
movies, and not that that has to be Well, hey, it's my
57:25
rating. I can do it however I want. So I'm going to give
57:29
it five from the get go. And it's been a really fun discussion though
57:34
going going into this, I've really enjoyed that. So John, take us
57:39
down a notch with your no, with your rating and final thoughts that you
57:45
might have on Stargate. My final thoughts are that it pretty much is launched
57:51
where it was many moons ago, at least three moons ago, where it's
57:58
harmless, good fun. It really defined at the time a popcorn movie.
58:04
You know, a phrase that we still love to throw around where your brain's
58:07
not gonna work over hard during this thing. It's not asking a lot,
58:10
it's just saying, you know, for two hours, sit in the air
58:14
conditioning, we'll throw a little razzle dazzle at you. There'll be some spectacle.
58:17
Tristan will just absolutely be in love with everything about it. And that
58:22
counts a lot for me too. So you know the score is good,
58:27
that there are pieces there that just never quite gel for me. I'm not
58:30
going to belabor all of that stuff, and just some of the boy I
58:37
mean, just to take another extra second and say that whoever put the sound
58:42
together with that gun cocking sound, that just absolutely it didn't drive me as
58:46
nuts back then as it did this time, where I was like ready to
58:50
throw something at the screen because I was like, that's not how they work.
58:53
Do some research anyway. I come in at what I would consider to
58:59
be a generous three. But at the very least it indicates a step forward
59:04
for Emeric because we go from a one to a two to a three,
59:08
so we're sort of like building as we go along. So at a boy,
59:14
Emrick, that's what we want directors to do, trend upward. Yeah,
59:16
and you know what I can see this. What's interesting is you I
59:22
can see the trend of this is a director getting more confident in what he's
59:29
putting together as he goes. And is it pointing us toward great success next
59:35
time? I don't know, but this time it points us at a three
59:37
where it's like, I don't regret watching it. I liked it. I
59:42
didn't love it, but I liked it well enough. And you know,
59:45
yeah, this is I have fond memories of it. So yeah, you
59:47
know it's all right. So three stars from me? All right, Tristan
59:52
uh, I think Redell family favorite. It sounds like it. Yes,
59:58
we usually we didn't. We go through our when we first saw any any
1:00:01
other final thoughts on on stargate now that this was a certified Ridell family favorite,
1:00:07
and we would watch the vhs over and over again, and it was
1:00:12
one of our first DVDs ever. And I think it was double sided,
1:00:16
not wide screen and full screen. It was double sided as in part one
1:00:21
and then part two of it film. That is how old The early LaserDisc
1:00:27
version of DVDs. Yeah, yeah, a lot of crush. Wherever there
1:00:31
was black on screen, there was always that pixelated crush everywhere with that.
1:00:37
I missed those days. The clamshell. It was so simple, but no,
1:00:42
I yeah it was. I was. I was too young to see
1:00:44
it in theater, but I think my parents sought in theaters and they're like,
1:00:46
oh, yeah, we're getting that. We're buying that trists and don't
1:00:49
worry, we're going to watch it at home. And we were. We
1:00:51
were so in love with it that we were like, oh my god,
1:00:53
they're they're doing a TV show. We need to watch that as soon as
1:00:57
it comes out on video because we don't have show time. So we'll just
1:01:00
wait for it to come out on cassette. We'll watch it as a family,
1:01:02
bring over Grandma and uh. As we're as we're watching the first episode
1:01:10
and then we get to a scene where a poor, poor woman is stripped
1:01:15
down violently, we get full frontal nudity, and then she gets literally thrown
1:01:23
on a slab and assaulted violently with with an an alien that's eating into her
1:01:31
back. And we're let and we turn it off and we're like, you
1:01:35
know what, maybe this Stargate show isn't really for us, and I never
1:01:40
watched another episode. Oh okay, so now it's Darren's goal to uh start
1:01:47
after episode one of SG one and give some great best of episodes to uh
1:01:53
to rest and but no, I totally see. I would appre I would
1:01:59
appreciate that I've seen I've seen bits and pieces through there, and I know
1:02:02
it's completely different than what happened in the first episode. And I know that
1:02:06
there's so many great hours of television because of of what this movie spawned.
1:02:09
I just thought that was a that was my first You're giving a blank slate,
1:02:15
Tristan, having not seen any episodes. You're gonna get some You're gonna
1:02:19
get some gems. But yeah, this so with this film and the the
1:02:23
the phenomenal performance from Raw, you know, like just the really just we're
1:02:29
talking about it's raw. Then con then Vader, I think, ra ra
1:02:35
ra. Okay, I can't take it seriously any more, Tristan, I'm
1:02:45
sorry, No, this this movie, this movie is a lot of fun.
1:02:47
It's a really I think it's a great movie. And it's it's like
1:02:53
John said, it's a popcorn film and you can shut your brain off and
1:02:58
just have a good time, because there are you know, there are things
1:03:00
that don't quite make sense, Like why in nineteen twenty eight would you bring
1:03:06
up an artifact that's five thousand years old and immediately put its on its side
1:03:09
so that the majority of its weight is at one point. I don't see
1:03:15
the problem. What are you talking about some sort of fragility or you know
1:03:22
it has been sitting in its place, oh in one time, that that
1:03:24
material changes over time. It looks cool Tristan for the shot. But yes,
1:03:30
you're absolutely right. And also one thing that we didn't talk about was
1:03:32
that we watched the director's cut of Stargate. That's right, and I don't
1:03:37
think it added anything to it. In fact, I think the theatrical is
1:03:42
much better than the director's greet. The act goal was better. But I
1:03:47
still think that even with the actri goal, there's a there's an assembly problem.
1:03:53
I wouldn't have started where I started. I would have had that be
1:03:55
a flashback and started with more mystery. But you know that's just me.
1:04:00
I think I think that's definitely up for argument. I'm not gonna I'm not
1:04:02
gonna tell you that you're wrong on that one but I will agree with you.
1:04:08
Tell me I'm wrong. Oh this is good, this is good,
1:04:11
it's good night now, thank you. No, I was I was surprised
1:04:13
that there was a director's cut because it was completely unneeded. Like that was
1:04:16
cut for a reason. All the scenes that were in there were completely unnecessary.
1:04:19
They either took away the mystery or made O'Neill and quals you look like
1:04:24
absolute dumbasses. Uh yeah, no, there's just completely unneeded. So but
1:04:30
even though I even though I think this is a very entertaining film, it's
1:04:32
not a perfect film, and so I'm giving it four stars. All right,
1:04:35
Well, that was a lot of fun going through the stargate. Yeah,
1:04:40
like you said, the popcorn movie. You can watch it and it
1:04:45
just bask in the nineties sound effects for sure. Definitely those guns. All
1:04:49
right. Well, as we are at the halfway point of our trip through
1:04:55
the House of Roland Emerick. Next week we jumped two more years and a
1:05:00
little bit of budget as we go to nineteen ninety six with Independence Day here
1:05:05
on house Lights, join the Revolution, join the nerd Party.