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Casablanca, a review by Rich

Jump continents to Morocco 



Title: Casablanca

Runtime:98
Certificate:U
Year:1942
Genres:Classic, Drama, Romance

Plot:Casablanca: easy to enter, but much harder to leave, especially if your name is on the Nazis' most-wanted list.  Atop that list is Czech Resistance leader Victor Laszlo (Paul Henreid), whose only hope is Rick Blaine (Humphrey Bogart), a cynical American who sticks his neck out for no one...especially Victor's wife Ilsa (Ingrid Bergman), the ex-lover who broke his heart.  So when Ilsa offers herself in exchange for Laszlo's safe transport out of the country, the bitter Rick must decide what's more important - his own happiness or the countless lives that hang in the balance.
My Review:
Of all the gin joints in all the towns in all the world, I walked in to his 
Great film, seen it several times before, no need to expand on it's many merits, if you haven't seen it grab yourself some old movie magic and give it a spin


(From Around the World in 80 DVD's on January 13th, 2008)

Stargate, a review by DJ Doena

First I thought about a re-run of Smallville but I have watched this in the middle of last year and it's been a while since I've watched Stargate SG-1.

In order to watch Stargate SG-1, one has to watch Stargate first.



Kurt Russell ... Col. Jonathan 'Jack' O'Neil
James Spader ... Dr. Daniel Jackson
Alexis Cruz ... Skaara
Viveca Lindfors ... Catherine
Mili Avital ... Sha'uri
John Diehl ... Lieutenant Kawalsky
Leon Rippy ... General W.O. West
Erick Avari ... Kasuf
French Stewart ... Lieutenant Ferretti
Jaye Davidson ... Ra

Synopsis: Dr. Jackson is not very renowned in the scientific community. But he is convinced that the great pyramids weren't build during the fourth dynasty 5,000 years ago. He believes that they are much older. A digging back in 1928 confirms his suspicions: buried in the sands of Egypt under a great cover stone with unknown symbols - not hieroglyphs - the Door to Heaven Stargate was found. The Stargate is an ancient device to open an intergalactic connection to the planet Abydos. Dr. Jackson and Colonel Jack O'Neill (and a group of soldiers) go there. O'Neill's job is to evaluate the danger of the situation they are facing.

My Opinion: Unfortunately I haven't seen this movie in the theatres (I went to Star Trek: Generations instead). The idea that alien cultures have been to Earth and have had an influence isn't new, but it was interestingly presented. I also liked that the Abydosians really spoke abydosian (a variant of ancient egyptian) and not just english. The fights were very well choreographed, too, I didn't have the feeling that the weapons of the humans were a match to the ones of Ra's.

To adopt the story for the series they had to make some adjustments (this contains spoilers in regard to the pilot of the series):

• In the movie, Ra is portrayed as the last of his kind, in the series he is one System Lord amongst many - although the most powerful one
• In the movie, Ra is no Goa'uld, his alien body looks totally different
• In the movie, Abydos is in another galaxy, in the series it's the planet closest to Earth
• In the movie, the Stargate is a point-to-point connection to Abydos, in the series it's one in a great network of Stargates
• Ra's Jaffa (who aren't called Jaffa in the movie) don't have an abdomen pouch in which they carry a Goa'uld larva (the term Goa'uld is also an invention of the series)

Additionally one has to activate one's "suspension of disbelief" even more than in the movie, because:

• On most planets the people speak english, no explanation is given (Universal Translator in Star Trek, Translator Microbes in Farscape)
• Most planets look like canadian forrests
• On some planets are earth-like cultures that developed only after the gate was buried
• We never see normal Goa'ulds, they are either rulers or at least scientists, but the huge number of Gua'uld larvae in the Jaffa have to result in a much larger Goa'uld population

Now we can get started ...



(From "Stargate SG-1" Marathon on February 29th, 2008)

"Stargate SG-1" Marathon, a review by DJ Doena

Synopsis: Thor's ship has been successfully destroyed during the re-entrance into the atmosphere but one of the Replicators did survive. It manages to rescue itself to a russian submarine. There it kills the entire crew and begins to replicate. In Thor's home galaxy things aren't good either, the Asgard have no weapon to defeat the Replicators and they close in on one of the Asgard planets.

My Opinion: It was cool how Thor tried to explain that the Asgard are to intelligent to find a primitive way to destroy the Replicators. I also liked the fact the russians actually spoke russian without being subtitled. It wasn't necessary for the understanding to know what they said - I understood it nonetheless. (The one asks what is making that noise and the other one actually replies that it could be the bugs from the previous episode!)

Synopsis: It's one of the rare moments when someone "calls" Earth and not the other way around. The people of the planet Euronda ask for help since there is a world war on their planet. If Earth gives them all the heavy water they need, they would give all their technology in exchange.

My Opinion: What bothered me about this was the initial behaviour of Jack's. He behaved more like in Shades of GreyStar Trek: Deep Space Nine) character turns against Teal'c. I didn't like it much.

Synopsis: The Tok'ra Freya/Anise (Freya is the host) brings an ancient technology to Earth. But she only does it because it doesn't work on Goa'uld/Tok'ra/Jaffa. After SG-1 (except for Teal'c) has put the armbands on many of their abilities enhance by several degrees: strength, speed, sight. Unfortunately the armbands can't be removed and the human body isn't able to cope with these changes over a longer period of time.

My Opinion: This episode and the behaviour of SG-1 was funny, especially the entire scene in the restaurant. But it also showed again that the team will be there for one another, no matter the price.

Synopsis: A friend of Teal'c's, the high priestess Shan'auc, did manage to communicate with her Goa'uld larva. She convinced it that it should join the Tok'ra. But this must happen soon since the larva is fully grown and cannot remain in Shan'auc much longer.

My Opinion: It was somehow predictable that the Goa'uld would betray Shan'auc but I liked to see Peter Wingfield (Methos in Highlander) again. And I could understand Jack's disappointment that they've fleeced by the Tok'ra again.

(From "Stargate SG-1" Marathon on March 27th, 2008)