Stargate: The Ark of Truth

Short of actually having a working stargate in the back yard – for which we’d unquestionably never be able to get a building permit – Stargate: The Ark of Truth remains the most entertaining way to spend 97 minutes in living memory. With its series cancelled by SciFi channel, Stargate appears to have morphed into direct-to-DVD movies, a format that clearly agrees with it.

This is the first of at least two such movies.

Having enjoyed more than seven days to complete this uber-episode, the writing’s tight, the sets are flawless, the CGI is better than superb – the bad girl on fire is worth buying the disc all by itself – and the actors have their characters absolutely nailed. The quirky humor and intricate plots that made the Stargate episodes more fun than is legal in some jurisdictions never seem to quit. The bad guys are really, really bad… but it’d spoil the fun to know what becomes of them.