{fh200FFA0Stargate
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Stargate is a big-budget blockbuster which seems to have proved very popular at the box office. It's the first feature film to make serious use of the new "Quantel Domino" machine, which does the same sort of thing as the Quantel Paintbox, but at a high enough resolution for wide screen film.

They spent enough on special effects to make this a serious special effects movie, but somehow the effects don't really grab me. I got the feeling that someone was just playing with their new Domino, and not adding much to the content of the film. The story would be in no way different if the baddies armour could be removed in a more conventional manner rather than morphing into the sides of their heads.

The big problem with this film is the huge holes in the plot. For example:-

The scientists have worked out the first six symbols in the sequence needed to activate the Stargate, but can't work out the seventh. There are about 50 possible symbols to choose from but they sit around for weeks trying to puzzle it out rather than trying each one in turn.

There are certain facts about the history of Earth that the big baddy, Ra, doesn't want  known. On his planet, Ra outlaws writing, so that the secret can't be passed on. There is only one surviving piece of writing on the planet, and it reveals the secret. Not only that, but after 3,000 years without writing, the peasants know how to read it.

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{fh200FFA0Timecop
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{fb1000000Jean-Claude Van Damme stars in this all action sci-fi thriller, directed by Peter Hyams, who previously directed 2010 and Outland.

There's so much action, plot, effects, blood and thrills to pack in to 98 minutes, that there's hardly any time to catch your breath.

Van Damme's job is to police the time stream and thwart the attempts of certain villains who want to change the past for their own nefarious purposes. Whenever the baddies achieve any success, ripples of change spread out from that point in the past, sometimes affecting Van Damme's circumstances in the present. People who used to be close friends no longer ever met him.

History gets rather convoluted as numerous attempts are made to adjust and repair the past, so you need to concentrate on the plot if you don't want to get left behind. But if you do concentrate you'll find that it is all reasonably consistent.

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{fh200FFA0Star Trek Generations
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{fb1000000James T. Kirk meets the crew of the Next Generation, and together they face a grim situ- ation with the odds stacked against them. Chekhov and Scotty make fleeting appear- ances but the main action involves the mainly Next Generation crew.

The evil Dr. Soren (Malcolm McDowell) tastes the delights of being in the Nexus, before being rescued, and he will do anything to get back there, even if it costs the lives of millions.

If you're a Trekkie, all you need to know is that this is the best so far of the Star Trek movies, even better than Wrath of Khan. So go out there and see it on the big screen now, and don't wait for the video.

The special effects are brilliant. The various explo- ding spaceships are all well executed. The exploding planet is amazing. The crash landing of the saucer section is fantastic. Watch out also for the Enterprise's star carto- graphy room.

At some points William Shatner gets a bit over the top, and the overload in Data's new emotion chip is rather overplayed.

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