Mannequin - 1987

I decided to go a little old school for my latest review. I recently picked up Mannequin and Mannequin 2 in a movie two pack. Each movie is on its own disc in the case. I haven't watched Mannequin 2 yet and it's been years since I've seen it, so my review is just on the first one.

Strangly enough, Mannequin has been on cable a lot recently. This is a movie I remember fondly from my childhood. It isn't what I consider top notch cinema, but a fun rompy movie.

It stars Kim Cattral as Ema, an Egyptian transported through time eventually being incarnated into the body of a mannequin. The mannequin is created by often out of work artist Jonathan Switcher played by Andrew McCarthy. James Spader has a stand out performance as the geeky double crossing store manager, and Meshach Taylor is a lot of fun as Hollywood, the super gay widow dresser Switcher becomes friends with. Only Switcher can see Emmy outside of the mannequin form which leads to lots of comic moments and what the film excels at.. montages. There are a few montages in this movie and what really stands out is the fun 80s sound track to go with them. In the end, it's your typical romantic comedy with your typical ending, but still fun when you need comedic cheese in your diet.
I award this comedy 3 Popcorns out of 5

The Ark of Truth

Finding the Ark

You can watch Stargate SG1's movie The Ark of Truth without having watched the series; however, it might not make a lot of sense to you if you haven't watched the series. One thing this direct to dvd movie does is include an intro that more or less talks about what was going on in the series up to the movie. The Ark of Truth was created to close out the storyline of the Ori since they ended the series. Such a good series it was. I didn't need to watch it every week, but I really like the stories and the chemistry of the cast.

Plot:

During the series, Merlin, of our the myth, is discovered to have been an Ancient (the good ascended beings in the universe). Merlin was responsible for the creation of weapons that could kill ascended beings. The main villains in the series at this time are ascended beings known as the Ori. They are out to spread a cult like religion called Origin, and the more followers they have, the more powerful they become. In the immoratal words of Star Trek, "Resistance is Futile." You either join Origin or you die.

In the last episodes of the series, SG1 manages to create the weapon to kill ascended beings and they send it into the Ori Galaxy. At the being of The Ark of Truth, they still don't know if the weapon worked or not. They are on a mission for another ancient weapon in the war against the ori because even if the Ori are gone, their followers are still great in number. During their search, they discover it may be in the Ori's own home galaxy. As the Ori prepare to send ships through to the Milky Way to attack Earth, SG-1 travels to the Ori galaxy aboard the Odyssey. The International Oversight committee has their own plans and SG-1 finds themselves in a distant galaxy fighting two powerful enemies.

The movie didn't disappoint. If you enjoy good sci fi, the Stargate universe is a good place to get it. Since I got it through netfilx, I decided to watch the special features. They ended up having some of their panel from Comic-Con in 2007 there. It's only be a little over a month since Erik and I were at Comic-Con and it made me want to be back there. I really enjoyed the 2 panels we got in for and the one for Stargate was hysterical. Ben Browder who used to be on Farscape and took over for Richard Dean Anderson looked like he just woke up, and Christopher Judge who plays Teal'c gave a shout out to Riverside. I wish I'd been there. By hook or by crook, I will be at all 4 days of next years comic-con.

4 Popcorns out of 5

Babylon A.D.

Disjointed Babylon

I recently found out that the move was supposed to be 20 minutes longer and it might have improved it in my eyes if they had kept the original length. This was a pet project for the French filmaker Mathieu Kassovitz. I hope when they bring it to DVD they have a director's cut so I can see how the director envisioned this story.

Going in, I was worried that 90 minutes wouldn't be long enough for this movie and it wasn't. It was an interesting premise. I enjoy a good postnuculear movie. Vin Diesel is a Mercenery exhiled from American. He is hired to escort a young lady who grew up in a convent to America. Sheltered her entire life, Aurora has trouble ajusting to the outside world. Strange things also happen with the girl. She starts having paranormal experiences of preminision. The film work during the action segments were a little to disjointed for me. The way the action segments were filmed reminded me of the Bourne movies, but not as good. If you like a good action movie, wait for this one to go to DVD. It's worth a view but not theatre prices. I'm on the fence on whether I'd own it or not. Bad movies tend to grow on me, so who knows.

2 Popcorns out of 5