Movies by year: 1994

(It's not that hard, once you know the vowels - look out for spoilers!)

There were some pretty good films in 1994, so this was a hard choice. Tim Robbins got busy livin' in The Shawshank Redemption; Brad Pitt made death sexy in Interview With The Vampire; Hugh Grant became everyone's sweetheart in Four Weddings And A Funeral; Jean Reno was slick in Léon: The Professional; Tom Hanks ran in Forrest Gump; Quentin Tarrantino revived John Travolta's career with Pulp Fiction. But none of these were my favourite. That would be...

Stargate

Archaeologists digging in Egypt in 1928 discover this massive ring with symbols all over it, which gets hidden away until the present, when Daniel Jackson (James Spader) translates the heiroglyphics and then we're off.

Turns out the ring is actually a 'stargate' planted by aliens, allowing for travel to another world ridiculously far away. Daniel is sent with a military team led by Colonel O'Neil (Kurt Russell) to make sure it's not a threat - and they find a pyramid on that end as well, and a population of people transplanted from Earth thousands of years ago. There's a big bad - Ra (Jaye Davidson, hot off The Crying Game), the source of the original Egyptian mythologies - using them to mine some ore and he plans to come to Earth and subjugate the planet, oh no!

The movie is really just so much fun. O'Neil's a broken soldier, Jackson is all wide-eyed and innocent, and Ra looks amazing. French Stewart squints his eyes a lot as one of the soldiers. There's love, bonding, revolt, explosions - what else could you ask for?

I don't think it did very well at the box office initially - I didn't know anyone who went to see it other than my friend Mike and I - but it must have turned heads somewhere because less than three years later the TV show started, and we all know how popular that was.

Apparently there are 2 sequel movies in the works, at least in the planning stage. How awesome would that be?