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Nostalgia Review Video

Rewatch: Starcrash

Starcrash Cover

To those of you who follow me on Tumblr, you may have seen me claim that Highlander: The Series would be the next Rewatch post, but I overestimated how quickly I could get through 6 seasons of 90’s TV. I somehow have even more respect for what my friends Mika and Tracy at LezWatch.TV do now. So, anyway, where’re back to films with an odd favorite of mine: 1978’s Starcrash!

Directed by Luigi Cozzi, Starcrash has everything you could ever want: starship battles, a robot with a Texan accent, nonsensical costumes, a knockoff Jedi, a John Barry score, Christopher Plummer, and David Hasselhoff! The story follows our heroes, played by Caroline Munro and Marjoe Gortner, as they race to stop Joe Spinell’s evil Count from unleashing a sinister weapon (which is never fully explained) on the galaxy. Their journey takes them to many different worlds, all ending in a crash between two starships, the titular Starcrash. What, you were expecting something more profound from the title? This is not a profound film. This is the kind of film you watch with your drink of choice, and thoroughly enjoy, because it’s exactly what you need right now.

Starcrash is not a great film, it has numerous easily identifiable flaws, and yet it still manages to hold itself together, and I keep coming back to watch it again and again. It is absolutely enjoyable, and I think we can all agree that enjoyable films are the best films. If you want to understand what I mean by of all that, you can stream Starcrash for free on Shout! Factory TV, or buy it on Apple TV for just $9.99.

I sincerely hope that you enjoy this not great, but also very entertaining, film. Laugher was not intended, but it is absolutely permitted.

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Photo

Ice House Canyon Trail

On Friday, Sarah and I decided to get out of the house and visit the Ice House Canyon Trail on Mount San Antonio. Overall, I think we did more walking that day than we have since March. We turned back at about 0.8 miles in, since that was 30 minutes of walking and we didn’t bring any water. Unfortunately, we found out that the titular Ice House was only 0.9 miles in, so we’ll definitely have to come back another day.

Safety-wise, this is a very narrow trail, so it’s impossible to effectively distance from passers. Fortunately, about 3/4 wore masks while passing, which is not perfect but also better than I expected.

I took a few photos along the hike to share, enjoy!

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Nostalgia Review Video

Rewatch: Stargate

Stargate Cover

Since I’ve switched Rewatch over to films for a while with my review on Charade, and since I’ve reviewed every Stargate TV series, it made sense to rewatch the film that started it all. What happens when you combine action archeology and military sci-fi? You get Stargate, a 1994 film directed by Roland Emmerich, starring Kurt Russell and James Spader.

When the Stargate is unearthed in 1928 Giza, it remains a mystery until its code is cracked by archaeologist Dr. Daniel Jackson (played by Spader). With the gate active, forming a wormhole between a similar gate across the known universe, Colonel Jack O’Neill (played by Russell) will lead a team, including Dr. Jackson, to the other side. What they discover is a world, and an adventure, beyond their wildest imaginations that I just can’t do justice with text, so please enjoy the trailer embedded below.

The whole cast is great, not just Russell and Spader. In particular, Jaye Davidason as Ra is uniquely captivating, and even French Stewart is here without being the comic relief. And the soundtrack by David Arnold, the second of his long career, ranks among my top favorite soundtracks of all time.

The story doesn’t stop with the film. While there were no film sequels, Stargate SG-1 (read the Rewatch review here) would follow as a direct TV sequel, running from 1997 to 2007. This would be followed by Stargate Atlantis (read the Rewatch review here), running from 2004 to 2009, and Stargate Universe (read the Rewatch review here), running from 2009 to 2011. That’s a total of 14 years of uninterrupted content following a single 2-hour film, not bad. I love Star Wars, and no offense to Star Trek, but Stargate spawned the greatest franchise in TV history.

You can stream Stargate for free on Amazon Video, or buy it on Apple TV for just $9.99. I hope you enjoy Stargate as much as I do, it’s a great film with an impressive legacy!

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Science Technology Video World

Earth Day, 2020

Flumin' Kohala Stream

Today is Earth Day, a day to reflect on our home world, the only one we have, and a great day to start saving the environment for free, going carbon negative, and donating to Trees for the Future.

This is definitely an interesting Earth Day for all of us, with many of us under some form of a lockdown due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The world is still out there, but it’s ok if it feels very different today than it did last year, we’re all coping differently. Please wear a fabric face mask (like this no-sew handkerchief mask or something more robust), and please reserve medical masks for medical professionals. The more of us who do our part to stop the spread, the sooner we can begin to get back to the way things used to be. (But, maybe with less pollution this time, right?)

Once equipped with a mask, try to spend some time outdoors, just make sure to stay 6 feet apart of people you aren’t sharing a home with. If you can’t make it outside today, or you’d rather not, please enjoy this video.

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Nostalgia Review Video

Rewatch: Charade

Charade Cover

I’ve run out of available, good, older TV series for now, so I thought it might be fun to check out some older films that I’ve enjoyed for a while. First up is Charade, a 1963 “romantic comedy mystery film” that’s not only great, it’s available entirely for free because they messed up the copyright (more on that later).

Charade follows a woman (played by Audrey Hepburn) as she unravels the mystery of her husband’s murder and a mysterious man (played by Cary Grant) who tries to help her. The quick whit and improvisation talents of Hepburn and Grant are on fully display here, it’s electric. Sometimes it feels like a scene will never end, and you won’t want it to either. And the score by Henry Mancini is captivating. It’s really hard to describe this film, but I’d suppose I’d say that the feel of classic James Bond is combined with the whit of Spider-Man, and it’s all wrapped in a charming love story. So now you’ll have to see it and provide me with a better short description.

Speaking of seeing it, this film came out at a time when including “Copyright”, “Copr.”, or the symbol “©” with the title was still required by law, and apparently someone forgot to do that. This means that the film immediately entered the public domain upon release. Oops. That may not have been great news for producer/director Stanley Donen, but it’s great news for us, because now you can stream and download Charade for free from The Internet Archive and stream it for free on Amazon Video!

Charade is a crazy fun romp, and definitely one of my favorite films. It’s a collection of things that really should have never gone together, but somehow it made them work and still managed to exceed expectations. I hope you enjoy it as much as I do!