Stargate is a blast from the past in many ways, but it imaginatively employs the latest special effects technology to give audiences new thrills.

The kind of flick where Kurt Russell dispatches an Anubis-looking baddie after first telling him, in the kind of bon mot that elevates the thing an entire letter grade, "Give my regards to King Tut, a**hole."

It works not because ridiculousness is concealed, but because ridiculousness on this scale becomes something else. Don't let anyone tell you that Stargate, lifeless script and all, isn't clunky fun, proudly trembling on the brink of classic camp.

Not enough of the plot was designed well enough to stand out from the pack of other ’90s sci-fi flicks; creative complications are simply far too few.