Product Description

Studio: Lions Gate Home Ent. Release Date: 10/09/2008

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #2325 in DVD
• Brand: Lions Gate
• Released on: 2003-02-17
• Rating: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)
• Aspect ratio: 2.35:1
• Formats: Anamorphic, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, DTS Surround Sound, DVD-Video, Subtitled, Widescreen, NTSC
• Original language: English
• Subtitled in: Spanish
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 121 minutes

Amazon.com
Before they unleashed the idiotic mayhem of Independence Day and Godzilla, the idea-stealing team of director Roland Emmerich and producer-screenwriter Dean Devlin concocted this hokey hit about the discovery of an ancient portal capable of zipping travelers to "the other side of the known universe." James Spader plays the Egyptologist who successfully translates the Stargate's hieroglyphic code, and then joins a hawkish military unit (led by Kurt Russell) on a reconnaissance mission to see what's on the other side. They arrive on a desert world with cultural (and apparently supernatural) ties to Earth's ancient Egypt, where the sun god Ra (played by Jaye Davidson from The Crying Game) rules a population of slaves with armored minions and startlingly advanced technology. After being warmly welcomed into the slave camp, the earthlings encourage and support a rebellion, and while Russell threatens to blow up the Stargate to prevent its use by enemy forces, the movie collapses into a senseless series of action scenes and grandiose explosions. It's all pretty ridiculous, but Stargate found a large and appreciative audience, spawned a cable-TV series, and continues to attract science fiction fans who are more than willing to forgive its considerable faults. --Jeff Shannon

DVD features
Nothing beats a sci-fi movie with wall-shaking sound, and the Stargate Ultimate Edition delivers the goods with 6.1 DTS ES and 5.1 Dolby Digital EX. Yes, Stargate has been released on DVD numerous times, but this 2003 version is the best yet, with improved sound and a generally clean picture that's now anamorphically enhanced for widescreen televisions. Note: The current Stargate Ultimate Edition is a stripped-down version with only a featurette and commentary track. The Ultimate Edition originally released in 2003 included the combination of the theatrical cut and director's cut (nine minutes longer), and a 23-minute making-of feature that concentrated on the film's design and production. --David Horiuchi

Customer Reviews

Not the best bluray but the price was right
I wasn't too happy with the quality of the movie as others have said but then again I believe it was filmed in 1994 and wasn't expecting a full 1080p transfer to look that great. And I got this movie for $9.99 which I figure is a few bucks more than the dvd costs right now so it can't hurt. Other than that the movie itself is rather great; I have seen all of SG-1, Atlantis, and the two new Stargate movies but never the original.

The subtitles on the movie are not defective they are just hidden. If you hit your subtitle button a few times I believe track 5 English has the subtitles ONLY for when the aliens talking. The first English track is for subtitles on ALL the time.

I gave this movie 4 stars because I thought they could have done a better job transfering the movie to high-def and they could have figured out that English audio track 1 should have subtitles for the alien language instead of putting it on a separate track... as if any of us speak English AND the alien language to NOT need the subtitles....

What happened to the 1080p
I cannot get the movie to play in 1080p as advertised all over the box. I have an HDMI cable between my Blu-ray player and my plasma, but it continually says, 480p. Any suggested or did I get duped?

Stargate Blu-Ray
Like other reviewers, I love the movie and already had it on dvd, but was VERY disappointed with the Blu-Ray transfer. When the scenes are bright (e.g., in the desert), the picture is excellent. But darker scenes are horrible. Very grainy. I'm not even sure grainy is the right word. There's snow on the picture like I'm receiving it with an antenna and the signal is weak. But then, switch to a brighter scene and we're back to crispy again. I can't figure out what went wrong. Was the original film poor in lower light conditions? I doubt it. Did they transfer from a copy of a copy of a copy? Probably. Regardless, I CANNOT recommend this Blu-Ray for now. Perhaps an "ultimate" or "collector's" edition will come out so I can buy it a 3rd time and they'll have cleaned it up. Hello? Criterion? Are you there? Somebody get the rights off these Lionsgate boobs.

I understand a lot of companies are doing this - rushing to put out a blu-ray versions with no effort to make good transfers. I'd rather they hadn't issued a Stargate blu-ray at all. I suppose they know I'll buy it again and again, like a lab rat getting repeatedly zapped at an electrified food dispenser.

Also, I didn't see any extras on the blu-ray at all, just the commentary, which was on the dvd.