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The Hunt for Red October, a review by Antares

The Hunt for Red October





Year: 1990
Film Studio: Paramount Pictures
Genre: Action, Drama, Suspense/Thriller
Length: 135 Min.

Director
John McTiernan (1951)

Writing
Tom Clancy (1947)...Novel "The Hunt For Red October"
Larry Ferguson (1940)...Screenplay
Donald Stewart (1930)...Screenplay

Producer
Larry DeWaay
Mace Neufeld (1928)
Jerry Sherlock

Cinematographer
Jan De Bont (1943)

Music
Basil Poledouris (1945)...Composer

Stars
Sean Connery (1930) as Marko Ramius
Alec Baldwin (1958) as Jack Ryan
Scott Glenn (1941) as Bart Mancuso
Sam Neill (1947) as Captain Borodin
James Earl Jones (1931) as Admiral Greer
Joss Ackland (1928) as Andrei Lysenko
Richard Jordan (1938) as Jeffrey Pelt
Peter Firth (1953) as Ivan Putin

ReviewThe Hunt for Red OctoberThe Hunt for Red October is a taut and well paced suspense drama. Its screenplay pulls no punches and plays it safe, giving the viewer exactly what they are expecting. My contention though, is that in another twenty five years or so, it will appear as anachronistic as The Longest Day or The Battle of the Bulge does to modern day audiences.


Ratings Criterion

(From The Hunt for Red October (1990) on February 27th, 2010)

Mamma Mia!, a review by Danae Cassandra

Mamma Mia!
2008, USA

Sophie is getting married and wants her father to walk her down the isle.  Except he could be one of three different men. Undeterred, she secretly invites all three to her wedding certain she will know which he is.  What happens when they arrive, when her mother sees them, and when her fiancee finds out?  Based on a Broadway musical filled with the songs of ABBA.

I am the anti-Pete.  I love musicals!  Generally they're sweet, frothy fun - and this one is no exception.  Certainly this one is a bit campier and goofier than usual, but it makes it work.  Amanda Seyfried's general lack of acting skill is masked by the ensemble cast.  Christine Baranski plays a character I've seen her play somewhere before.  Some of the singing is not great - but you're going to do no worse with quite a few other musicals I can think of.  The setting is gorgeous and the film moves quickly from one musical number to another.  It seemed much faster than the nearly two hours it's timed at.  I watched this with five other women and we all had a great time.  I think even the one guy who watched it with us enjoyed it - but he might have stayed because his relationship to his girl is boyfriend, and we were abandoned by the fiancee and the husband of two of the others.  

Not great cinema by any stretch of those words, but if you're a chick who likes musicals it was a lot of fun.  

Overall:  2.75/5

(From Danae's reviews on April 19th, 2011)

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

Synopsis: SG-11 mines an ore called Trinium. This ore is especially hard and SGC wants to use it for armor plates and other things. One week SG-11 doesn't call in as planned and SG-1 goes to the planet. There they meet a tribe that descends from native americans and their "spirits" who protect the tribe.

My Opinion: What I like most about Jack are his high moral standards. He has no problem with confronting his superiors when he thinks that something is morally wrong. In this episode he draws parallels to the colonization of the american continent, especially the dealings with the indians.

Synopsis: SG-1 returns to a planet where they wish to examine a wheather control system. But it was stolen and thiefs seem to have come from the SGC (Stargate Command). As it soon turns out, these people didn't come through the gate in Cheyenne Mountain.

My Opinion: This was an indirect continuation of the previous episode. Was the device stolen by someone under the order of SGC? The peek into Area 51 was also very interesting. But in general this episode was an average one.

Synopsis: Sg-10 didn't make it back through the Stargate. When a connection from Earth is opened it can't be closed anymore. One of the two suns of that system has recently collapsed and was transformed into a black hole. Through the open wormhole SGC and Earth are also effected by it.

My Opinion: Whether or not this episode made sense from an astronomical POV doesn't matter to me. It was very exciting, especially with the several lapses of time within the base and beyond. I liked it a lot.

Synopsis: On a remote planet the Stargate seems to be enclosed in a room with no exit. But there is a ring of text written in the same language that was found on Ernest's planet (The Torment of Tantalus). Jack accidentally activates a machine that downloads all the knowledge of the Ancients - one of the four old races - into Jack's brain. And that has unexpected side effects.

My Opinion: I love episodes where the actors are condemned to silence because their character has lost the ability express himself/herself. It's funny to see the desperation on their faces.
The scene at the end where the Asgard and O'Neill shake hands strongly reminded me of E.T. with Jack obviously being Elliot.

(From "Stargate SG-1" Marathon on March 7th, 2008)