Reviews

There are several things about Stargate SG-1 that make it one of sci fi's true jewels. The first is that it grew out of a feature film that I, personally, didn't feel was all that good. In fact, I feel the feature film was less sci fi and more action/adventure. I guess that's what it should have been for that medium when I come to think of it. However, it had a concept, the concept of the Stargate, which made it perfect for adaptation to television. That leads me to my next point. Usually TV shows extracted from feature films come out to be far more inferior than their feature parents. On television, the kings of sci fi include "Star Trek," "The X-Files," and a few other select series that have become a part of the societal landscape. It also becomes the measuring stick by which all other series are rated.

When I first heard of "Stargate SG-1," I felt it would be an inferior piece of work and was glad it was kept in the world of cable. I had never heard of much of the cast, and we know my feelings for the feature film. However, I had a chance to try it out when it came on in syndication and I have been hooked ever since! The cast is top rate, headed by Richard Dean Anderson. Anderson has put his own mark on the character of Colonel Jack O'Neill and it really works. The rest of the cast (Christopher Judge, Amanda Tapping, and Michael Shanks) play their characters superbly. The supporting stars of Don Davis and Teryl Rothery round out a cast that is a pleasure to watch week to week. The stories are nicely written and are a mix with some episodes being devoted to science fiction, some to fantasy, and just old fashioned action. No one is left out here.

In the era where sci fi fans question the viability of Star Trek and The X-Files, I say "Have no fear," if those institutions fall, come over to Stargate. It certainly passes the test that would rank it among the best!

Jackie Brown is one of those movies which is so strange it is captivating. That's how I felt watching this film. In one sense, I am watching a "Blaxploitation" flick from the 1970's and I am watching a film from the 1990's. I was wondering what corner Richard Roundtree was hiding behind.

However, this movie is uniquely Quentin T. and exhibits his versatile film making style.

Pam Grier, Samuel L. Jackson, Robert Forster, Michael Keaton and De Niro are all stellar as the extreme characters they play in this movie which focuses on lost drug money. The adventures and paths taken by these characters converge to make a strange brew which is "Jackie Brown."

A friend of mine dragged me to this movie. I had never heard of it and I was not famous for attending little known, foreign films. However, I have to say that I LOVED this film!

The film was a very intense, yet easy film to watch. Our two main characters, the accountant and the veteran dance instructor, have a chemistry very rarely seen. The viewer is dragged right into the story and you feel as if you were the one who was fighting for the love of a woman you know you can never have. But you also felt the compelling will to get out there to dance and compete.In the end, you would not get the woman, but you would have learned something about yourself and the person you are, not the one other people peg you to be.

I hope to see more films of this type on screen. I think audiences are tired of the usual shoot 'em up films or the ones with senseless sex. From the audience I saw in the theater I was in, I know there is a market for films like these. I hope they get their due!

This one's a bit personal since I studied screenwriting under Michael Miner, one of Robocop's two creators.

I remember seeing this film long before ever knowing one of its writers and I was impressed by the way the writers cloaked a message under a great deal of sci-fi technology and action. Sure, it was one vision of the future, but with the way technology was and is going coupled with the way corporate America wishes to control it, who's to say something like this futuristic world, gripped with crime could not happen?

However, through it all, good still seems to survive and sometimes conquer insurmountable odds. Also, Robocop, the device created by the corporate greed machine, became an instrument for what was good and right. It even turned on the corporate types who would seek to use it for less than rightful purposes.

I must admit that I recognize THIS film as the only Robocop saga worth mentioning. All of the others strayed from the creators' original vision.

Joe Wambaugh penned this script and told the story of one of the most shocking cases in Los Angeles Police history. Wambaugh was the only man qualified to tell this story since he came out of the ranks of the Los Angeles Police Department.

The story was not just a typical cop story where the cops always win. Rather, it was a story of the tragedy of a lost life, the broken life of another, and the tragic lives of two pathetic, small time killers who would spend the majority of their lives in and out of prison. It was this case that changed Los Angeles police policy from that time on.

The cast was little known at that time. Who would have thought Ted Dansen would go on to TV fame? Who would have thought James Woods would become a big screen actor? The rest of the cast, including John Savage and the late Franklyn Seales would remain a part of the landscape and gain their own fame.

As for Wambaugh, he is one of my favorite writers because of all of the great cop projects he would do: "The Blue Knights," "Police Story" and others.

Some days I really wish for dramas like those especially in these days of mistrust of cops...hey, it's a tough job laying down your life every day of your life. A movie like this might open the eyes of many and change some attitudes.

This is one of those special movies screenwriters like myself hope to write at some point in their careers. However, it takes a special talent to make a movie of this type.

When this movie premiered in 1967, it was not the first to deal with the subject of racism, but it dealt with it with class and grit. Steiger was superb as the small town police chief who had a racist streak running down his back. Poitier played the cool & calm Virgil Tibbs. The chemistry of these two versatile actors made for fire on screen. The supporting cast was second to none.

I have to rank this film among my top 5 all time favorites.

I remember "Twin Peaks" from my days in college. I was in the Film Department and I remember how flustered I got while taking lecture/studio classes at night. The main reason, of course, is that I would miss a "Twin Peaks" episode and from that there might be no return.

It is no doubt that "Twin Peaks" laid the base for which shows like "The X-Files" would be built on and flourish. However, it was that soap opera style that might have been the dagger through the shows heart. It was true that if you missed an episode you would be out of the loop and might not ever get back in. However, there was more to the story: ABC's constant time slot changes, poor ratings, and a number of other factors killed this trail blazing show.

This show was ahead of its time, no doubt. David Lynch has always been on the cutting edge of eclectic storytelling, as evidenced by "Blue Velvet," "Eraserhead," and other films with the Lynch signature on it.

This was and still is one of the best, if you find it on video somewhere, take a look and I know you'll agree.

P.S.-A little bit of what was to come with the "X-Files" appeared in "Twin Peaks" avec La Cage Au David Duchovney!

Rescue 77 was far from having the moxy that made Jack Webb's "Emergency!" and "Adam-12" television classics. However, I have to give credit where it was due, this show came close to taking us back to the days of when Johnny and Roy rolled the streets of Los Angeles in Squad 51.

Rescue 77 did attempt to follow in the spirit of "Emergency," and did it well at times. One episode I remember in particular focuses on a young man and his bride who are trapped under a concrete divider that has fallen from a truck. That was an intense hour of humanizing the job of Firefighter/Paramedic and showing all of its human frailties. By the end of that hour, I was surely moved. In retrospect, in this shows short run, it did a good job of showing stories with substance and grit.

I was one of the first to watch when it premiered on the WB Network in March. I was very suspicious of such a "good looking" cast. But they surprised me for the good.

Again, I am sad this show had such a short run. I was told it did actually very well in the Neilsen Ratings, but I guess it wasn't good enough to win a permanent berth on the schedule. Hmmmm...doesn't that usually happen to TV shows that show promise?

In passing through IMDB, I happened upon this show and it brought back horrid memories of a show that wanted to be a hybrid of Baywatch/Emergency/Melrose Place. This show fell far short of being this decade's "Emergency!" and it didn't even do a good job of being Baywatch.

In the end, the only thing this show left in its wake was a real Los Angeles County Fire Department that will no longer lend its name or its symbols to firefighting shows of any kind, barring Jack Webb returns from the dead to revive "Emergency!"

It's too bad this show is taking up space in Fox-TV's film vaults.

Millennium was, by far, one of television's best dramas. It's odd that a show so superbly executed fell so far short and never enjoyed the success of its sister show, "The X-Files."

The show could not have asked for a better leading cast: Lance Henriksen, Bill Smitrovich, Terry O'Quinn, Meghan Gallagher, and Klea Scott (who came to the show this last season).

Unlike the X-Files, this was not a cast who was "sexy." Rather it was a cast of mostly veterans who, with Chris Carter's vision, put on a drama that forced you to think and examine those little recesses of your mind and your world. We saw the best and we saw the worst. But I can say, Millennium did it with style and class.

"Wait, Worry, Who Cares?"-Opening credits of Millennium