Best Hockey Players to Play for Las Vegas

With the announcement that the NHL's thirty-first team, which will be added for the 17/18 season, is based in none other than Las Vegas, Nevada, I've decided to celebrate some of Sin City's hockey history with this list. From 1993 through 99, the now defunct IHL included the Las Vegas Thunder, a short-lived team to be sure, but one that had quite a lot of interesting players, including many NHL fans are familiar with. For six seasons the Thunder were a mixed bag but always entertaining. They were arguably the first team to prove that professional hockey in the desert could indeed work.

From the outspoken and frequent Off The Record guest, enforcer Lyndon Byers (31 games and 176 penalty minutes in 93/94) to high scoring minor league defenceman ace (and former Cape Breton Oiler) Greg Hawgood (a 20 goal, 85 point season in 95/96) to diminutive NHL scorer Daniel Briere (a single game during the team's 97/98 season), the Thunder boasted lots of noteworthy and interesting talent. Brent Gretzky represented Vegas at one time (96/97) and so did longtime Detroit Red Wings goalie Manny Legace, several years before reaching the NHL (97/98) and sharing the net with former Red Wings goalie, Tim Cheveldae. And how about Manon Rheaume? Remember her? The female goaltender who once played an exhibition game for the Tampa Bay Lightning? Well, she played two actual-for-serious regular season games for the Thunder in 1994.

But enough with the honourable mentions/shoutouts (and honestly, there could be more; for more on the team's history follow this link); let's get to the best.

5. Petr Nedved, LW (1997-99)/Curtis Joseph, G (95/96)

He doesn't want anyone to know he played there, I guess

In terms of sheer talent and career, Nedved would rank higher if he hadn't been limited to just 16 games spread over the 97/98 and 98/99 seasons. After leaving the Pittsburgh Penguins due to a contract dispute following the conclusion of the 96/97 NHL season, Nedved returned to his native Czech Republic to play for Sparta Praha. But he would return to North America towards the end of the season, still unhappy with his NHL contract but still technically Pittsburgh property, to join the Thunder for three games. He acquitted himself very well, scoring 3 goals and 6 points but he didn't suit up for their playoff series. All summer his contract status with the Penguins went unresolved so he began the next season in Las Vegas, racking up 18 points in 13 games before being traded from the Penguins to the New York Rangers for Alex Kovalev.

The second overall pick of the 1990 NHL draft and a veteran of 982 NHL games, Nedved is easily one of the higher profile players to play for the Thunder.

The same rules apply to Joseph - heck, he could even be number one on this list if he'd played more games but as he started just 15, I've decided to have him share this slot with Nedved. And just like Nedved, it was a contract dispute that landed Joseph, certainly an NHL star in his own right, in Las Vegas. He played like one too, going 12, 2 and 1 with a sparkling .929 save percentage and miniscule 1.99 goals against average before returning to the NHL with the Edmonton Oilers. Cujo was definitely the most talented and accomplished man to ever guard the net in Las Vegas.







4. Sergei Zholtok, C (1995-97)
Zholtok is one of several one-time Las Vegas Thunder players to meet a premature and tragic end. During the NHL lockout year of 2004/05, he was playing in his native Latvia for Riga 2000 in the Latvian National  Hockey Championship and the Open Belarus Hockey Championship when he left a game with five minutes remaining, collapsing in the dressing room and dying. He had a pre-existing cardiac arrhythmia and ultimately died of heart failure. He was thirty-one years old.

But back when his professional career was in its early stages, the Boston Bruins draft pick (55th in 1992) would move from the AHL with Providence (the Bruins's AHL farm team) in the 94/95 season to the IHL to play for the Thunder. He played every game of the 95/96 season with them and established himself as a star in the league, scoring 51 goals and 101 points and adding 20 points in 15 playoff games.

He would begin the 96/97 season again in Las Vegas, scoring 13 goals and 27 points in 19 games before returning to the NHL (he'd played sparingly for the Bruins a few years before) as an Ottawa Senator. He would go on to be an NHL regular, also playing for the Canadiens, Oilers, Wild and Predators until his untimely death. He's probably the greatest hockey player to ever come out of Latvia besides Sandis Ozolinsh.

His 95/96 season in Las Vegas is one of the greatest offensive seasons in the team's history - only one other player had a 50 goal season for them and only two others managed 100 points in one, including his teammate Patrice Lefebvre.

3. Radek Bonk, C (1993-95)
In its day (1945-2001), the IHL was an interesting league. It coexisted alongside the AHL, providing the same function (farm system for NHL teams) and containing players of basically the same skill level. I'm not sure when the rule was implemented but at least during the period that the Las Vegas Thunder was in operation, players under eighteen years of age were eligible to play. Nowadays in the AHL, no underage players are permitted and even eighteen and nineteen year olds are extraordinarily rare due to the current rules. It's led to the awkward problem of North American players who have proven ridiculously dominant in the CHL (Canada's three major junior leagues) but may not be quite ready to play in the best professional league in the world (um, the NHL) having no choice but to return to junior even though it's unlikely to help their development.

Anyway, I mentioned all that because this entry, Radek Bonk (one of the best names in sports, right?), was one of the IHL's such players - a seventeen year old foreign import who was talented and physically mature enough to play pro, but, as the NHL draft is for eighteen year olds, couldn't yet play on the biggest stage. He signed with the Thunder for their inaugural season and was an instant sensation. He finished third on the team in scoring with 87 points, including 42 goals. He even wore the flashy #76 (worn by the likes of P.K. Subban in the NHL these days) for them; a far cry from his #14 with the Sens.

But the statistic I find most interesting about that year was his penalty minute total - 208 - that's in the range of an extremely physical player and in Bonk's case, a power forward who scores. That stat line is akin to players like Brendan Shanahan, Gary Roberts and Rick Tocchet. But here's the thing - if you knew Bonk from his days in the NHL, you'd remember him as a fairly mild mannered player. Even though he was 6'3 and around 215 pounds, in the NHL at least, he wasn't particularly physical at all and his PIM totals reflect that. His career high in the league is 66 - a very average amount.

Not having seen him play for the Thunder and since I can't really find much info on his season there, I can only theorize that Bonk's status as a hotshot seventeen year old who was also quite big caused his IHL opponents to take it upon themselves to challenge him physically. You don't put up over 200 penalty minutes without fighting. I can't recall him EVER fighting in the NHL but it must've happened at least a couple times.

So Bonk's awesome season led directly to him being drafted third overall by the Senators in the 94 draft. He likely would've jumped straight to the NHL the next year but a lockout delayed the 94/95 season and he played his first 37 games back in Vegas. We all know now that he never turned into the dominant star player he was envisioned to be but he was definitely one of Ottawa's most consistent and reliable players over the near decade that he played for them. He established himself as a good second line player with some scoring ability, topping out at 70 points in 01/02, but most years he was more in the range of 45 or so.

While he's most remembered as a solid if unspectacular player in the NHL, for the Las Vegas Thunder, he was one of their very best and brightest stars.

2. Pavol Demitra, LW (1996/97)

While most of his brief IHL career was spent with another franchise, the Grand Rapids Griffins (who shifted into the AHL when the IHL folded), Demitra's 22 game stint in Las Vegas in 96/97 can't be overlooked. Because...well, it's Pavol Demitra. As with Sergei Zholtok, Demitra is tragically no longer with us. One of the most talented and accomplished Slovakian players of all time, he was killed in September of 2011 along with the rest of his Yaroslavl Lokomotiv (KHL) teammates in a plane crash.

Like Bonk, Demitra was an Ottawa Senators draft pick, but he was at the other end of the spectrum, going 227th overall in 1993. He never really found his footing with the Sens but after playing in the IHL with the Thunder and Griffins, he joined the St. Louis Blues and soon developed into a star player. On the international stage, he was always one of Slovakia's best and most prominent players. This was punctuated nicely at the 2010 Olympics where he was named Best Forward after leading the tournament in points.

A brief teammate of his in Las Vegas was Belrussian defenceman, Ruslan Salei, who also carved out a very respectable NHL career. But unfortunately, that wasn't their only link. Salei was also a member of Yaraslav Lokomtiv  in 2011 and was killed in the crash as well. So that's three former Las Vegas Thunder players I'm aware of who died prematurely.

1. Alexei Yashin, C (94/95)
By now it's pretty clear that the Ottawa Senators are the NHL team with the strongest link to Las Vegas. That's all going to change in a year but the history will always be interesting. Like Bonk, Yashin was a top three pick at the NHL draft (1992 this time) for Ottawa but unlike Bonk, proved right away he was a genuine star at the NHL level. It's only because of the lockout in 1994 that a player of his calibre wound up playing for the Thunder. He and Bonk were actually teammates that year so right off the bat Bonk got to meet the guy who would keep him from being a number one centre in the NHL.

And while I could probably devote several lists to Yashin based on the kind of career he's had, mostly due to the reputation he would develop as an underachiever whose heart didn't match up to his talent, in Vegas he pretty much delivered. In the only 24 games he would ever spend at the minor league level, Yashin showcased his all-world skills, racking up 15 goals and 35 points. Unfortunately for the Thunder, the 94/95 NHL season did eventually start and their Russian star returned to the big league so they were without him down the stretch and for the playoffs.

With 781 points in 850 NHL games (an impressive total especially
considering he sat out the entire 99/00 NHL season with a contract dispute right smack in the middle of his most productive years), I think it's safe to say the enigmatic and sometimes frustrating Yashin was the greatest hockey talent to ever play in service of the city of Las Vegas. With the NHL about to put a team there I guess that won't be true for much longer. But you never know.

Cole's Most Hated Movies of 1998

I figured I should try a movie list to pull myself out of my recent funk since I pretty much always have some sort of idea in mind when it comes to listing films. The first thing that sprang to mind: abject hatred.

Last year I joined Shane in the tradition of listing my top five favourite films of the past year and plan to continue that. But Shane also follows up his favourite list with a most hated. I've shied away from that so far because since I started doing this, I've felt I hadn't seen enough movies from the year in question to do a truly worthwhile list. At best I would probably just be repeating what Shane had already said. But awhile ago it occurred to me that if I wanted to do a most hated movie list, there was no reason to just stick to the past year.

1998 was the year which brought us such cinematic excrement as Soldier,  Species II, Snake Eyes, and Legionnaire - none of which made my list (be afraid, be very afraid). So with that in mind, I present to you my most hated movies of 1998.

5. Lost In Space
I saw this one in theatres under sort of weird circumstances. Several of my friends and I had gone without having any plan in mind and when it seemed we decided on what movie to see (I can't remember what it was) my friend Ryan (not affiliated with Five-O-Rama) suddenly said he didn't want to see that. He said he'd rather see Lost In Space. Before everyone started arguing, I volunteered to go with him. It was a decision I would come to regret. Whatever the movie our other friends went to had to have been better than this piece of junk.

And it was such an expensive piece of junk! It had an eighty-million dollar budget and used the best special effects of the day. I don't know if the original 60's tv series was ever particularly popular but it seemed the movie's producers were definitely committed to making the film a success. Except that throwing a bunch of money into special effects isn't the recipe for a good movie. You need other things like well-defined, well-acted characters, good direction and editing and that little thing called a good STORY. Lost In Space failed spectacularly in all those areas casting bland actors (Matt Leblanc, anyone?) to play bland characters trudging through a boring and ridiculous series of events. Even the great Gary Oldman is horrible in this disaster.

While it was universally panned it still made a profit at the box office and was actually the movie to knock the mighty Titanic out of number one in North America. But I guess something eventually had to. Previews for the movie actually made it look half-decent with all its flashy effects. But years later I remember it sourly as one of the worst movies of 1998.


4. The Avengers
Believe it or not, I saw this travesty in theatres too. 1998 was certainly a banner year for me wasting money on cinematic trash.

I can't recall having any sort of expectations for The Avengers going in. I was only mildly aware of the show on which it was based (another series from the 60's) and I don't remember ever being impressed by its previews. It's most likely that we just chose to see it for the sake of seeing something at the theatre. It had Sean Connery as the villain - it couldn't be that bad, right?

Wrong. What a mess this movie was. I mean, I usually have excellent recall when it comes to film but I can't remember anything substantial about The Avengers except that it was goddamned terrible. I understand that the original series had certain elements that made it very hip and stylish especially to a North American audience because it was so inherently British. Well, this film was made principally by Americans and it sure showed. It was clumsy, over the top and anything but cool. The plot was like something out of the most forgettable of Saturday morning cartoons - an evil mastermind betrays his government and schemes to TAKE OVER THE WORLD using a ridiculous weather-controlling machine.

Ralph Fiennes and Uma Thurman played agents Steed and Peel and both managed to leave absolutely no impression whatsoever. I mean it. I can't remember a single line of dialogue from either of them. Connery must have been drunk or high on his medication or something when he took the role of Sir August de Wynter and it definitely carries over into his performance. Seriously, check this shit out:




This one was a huge box office failure, grossing only $43 million against its $60 million budget. And it cleaned up at the Golden Raspberrys too, earning nine nominations (including worst actor, actress and supporting actor for the three leads and worst director) and taking home the award for Worst Remake or Sequel.

The whole movie is mercifully only 89 minutes long, as a substantial amount of stuff was cut out in editing which helped render it even more choppy and confusing. Maybe someday they'll have another go at an Avengers movie - it couldn't possibly be worse than this one.


3. A Night at the Roxbury
I saw this one when my poor ignorant parents rented it. I have no idea what drew them to it since they were in no way aware of the vapid SNL sketch on which it is based. At the time, I wasn't either actually. I hadn't watched the show for over two years and I wasn't familiar with most of the cast members. The names Will Ferrell and Chris Kattan meant absolutely nothing to me.

And if first impressions truly were everything, I probably would believe there's a special place in hell for those two because of that movie. Thankfully the two, particularly Ferrell, would go on to show they actually had some talent and could put it towards worthwhile things. But after seeing A Night at the Roxbury I could only conclude that I was absolutely right in my abandonment of SNL. This was a movie only in the loosest sense of the word.

Question: How can you possibly make a decent movie that's based  entirely around an inane sketch featuring two losers dancing in a night club?


Answer: You can't. But you can make A Night at the Roxbury and give millions of people simultaneous headaches and bouts of indigestion leading to outbursts of profanity and violence.

The film features crappy acting, ridiculous dialogue and a slapped together series of events trying to pass for a story all accompanied by one of the most aggravating soundtracks of all time. Luckily, SNL selected John Fortenberry, director of the cinematic masterpiece known as Jury Duty to take the helm. Somehow, all these elements combined to make a movie that totally sucked. The world's leading movie scientists still toil even today to determine what could have gone wrong.

2. The Patriot
You know, I thought the 2000 Mel Gibson movie The Patriot was pretty lame. It came across as yet another movie that takes American history and tries to turn it into the greatest story ever told filled with amazing heroic Americans fighting against vile, despicable forces. But compared to this Steven Seagal direct to video (his first) diarrhea , it's Citizen fucking Kane.

Now I know that Seagal isn't exactly known for fine cinema. I also know that direct to video very rarely equals anything close to good. So it may seem like I'm picking on a movie that doesn't really deserve it. Well, to that I say this: in even the worst crap that Seagal has made, it's reasonable to expect some decent action. Even in his prime, his fighting style is pretty slow and mechanical but it could still be made to look somewhat cool. And it's not like he was completely over the hill in 1998. But none of that actually matters because there is about as much action in this movie as there is lesbian sex in E.T..

But the movie does feature Seagal killing plenty of soldiers. Confused? Allow me to explain. He plays a doctor (who of course is also a weapons and self-defence specialist) trying to combat a  deadly virus released by a rogue militia. These geniuses realize that the vaccine they have for the virus doesn't actually work and now they're at risk too. Seagal is kidnapped and forced to come up with a working vaccine. But he can't seem to figure it out. Thus we get scene after scene of Seagal frowning over some beakers and shit then injecting sick soldiers, frowning some more as time passes, then REALLY frowning as he covers the now dead soldier with a sheet.

Eventually he discovers that some Native American herbal remedy is the answer. Some more junk happens, roll credits.

If you're wondering why I ever sat through this entire snoozefest it's because I kept telling myself that the action was going to start any minute now. And yes, before the end, he does kick and throw a few people but it's barely anything. It's easy to see why this didn't get a theatrical release considering Seagal was indulging his stupid desire to show how awesome and wise Native Americans are rather than just giving us what we want; that is, him killing lots of people. Although I have to say that watching him kill soldier after soldier by ineffectually trying to cure them is pretty amusing.


1. Pi
Unlike the rest of the movies on this list, this is one that actually has a good reputation. It holds down solid ratings on imdb and Rotten Tomatoes and has received some critical acclaim. It's Darren Aronofsky's directorial debut (he also wrote it) and of course he has gone on to be a very accomplished and respected director.

But....I....HATE Pi. I hate it. It doesn't just bore me, it unsettles me. It somehow makes me uncomfortable. Really, I hate to disappoint you and not really deliver with my number one but I just don't know what to say about this movie. I can't offer any valid arguments for why you should think it's a bad movie. I can't elucidate my thoughts into anything that would make a compelling case. I just know that I truly hate this movie. I hate everything about it: its concept, its look, its flow, its conclusion. Everything. I know it's regarded as an intelligent film but I remember actually feeling dumber after seeing it. I guess i just didn't "get it".

And you know what? I'm comfortable with that. Pi sucks. It sucks like a fucking vacuum cleaner in a black hole and it's the worst movie of 1998, period.

Best Educational Shows for Kids

I think the title is pretty self explanatory. This list focuses on kid shows from the 80's and 90's that gave us a proper television education growing up.

5. Beakman's World (1992-1997)

What do you get when you combine a mad scientist, his energetic lab assistant, and a strange man in a filthy rat suit? Saturday morning gold, is what. The whole show was about these three weirdos hanging out in laboratory answering viewer's questions with zany experiments and demonstrations. While the questions they tackled covered a wide range of topics, I remember a lot were about gross biological questions (eg. Why do we have snot?).

For all the slime and farts there was a lot you could learn and it was really funny and entertaining. For kids it was a winning combination of craziness, humour, and facts. The only question they never answered was if Lester was supposed to be an overgrown lab rat, or just some creepy hobo in a costume.

4. OWL/TV (1985-1994)

Of course we need to get our Canadian content in here. I have to be honest, there was something about this show that was kind of strange. I don't know if it was the animated owl wearing sneakers, the shrinking children, the talking skeleton, or just the ugly 80's hair and clothes, but I just have weird memories of the show.

Anyway, much of the show focussed on kids learning about animals, human biology and nature (a Canadian show about Nature!? Surprise!) and participating in environmental projects. It was fun, engaging, and eye-opening. Plus as a bonus, it has a pretty catchy theme song.

3. Bill Nye the Science Guy (1993-1998)

If you couldn't guess, this is a science show.

It shared similarities with "Beakman's World", but it was on the slightly more mature side (meaning less rats and boogers). Each episode of the show was great at teaching a specific topic in an understandable and interesting way, using segments with elaborate props, experiments, parodies of famous songs, and more.

It used the fun Disney approach, but it never treated the viewer like an idiot. Bill Nye tells it like it is, in his own fast-paced and funny way. It's obvious the guy cares about science and spreading an appreciation for the subject. The show is smart enough to be used in classroom learning, and fun enough that you'd watch it at home too.

2. Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego? (1991-1995)

A game show about geography might seem like a boring concept, but this was anything but boring. You got your contestants playing as detectives trying to catch an ambitious thief, tracking her and her goons around the globe and hunting for clues along the way. I really wanted to be on this show. Too many times I found myself yelling at the screen because some kid running around a giant map couldn't find Norway.

The show had interesting characters and, as Cole has pointed out, a wicked theme song. By having the players facing a common enemy it made a competitive game show more like a battle of good vs. evil. You were learning AND fighting injustice. I mean, that bitch stole the beans from Lima, people.

1. Sesame Street (1969- Present)

Is there really any need for me to explain why this is number one? Look at how long it's been on the air for crying out loud. The show, the characters, and lessons are hardwired into every child's brain. Sesame Street is the quintessential educational kid show; it lays the groundwork for early childhood learning.

But of course, Sesame Street is for every age group, because it presents basic concepts in clever and creative ways: skits, musical parodies, animated segments, celebrity appearances, and a main storyline.

Yes, this show introduced us to the upsetting and annoying, Elmo, but we can forgive that since every other character is awesome and memorable: Big Bird, Cookie Monster, Grover, Bert and Ernie, Kermit, to name a few. On Sesame Street kids saw that a large bird, a hairy mammoth, a trash monster, and humans could all get along and work together.

Not only did these colourful characters teach us how to count, spell, and sing, but they taught us important life lessons. To be independent, to solve problems, to treat everyone equally and fairly, to share, to cooperate, to care for each other and the earth. Because of this show millions of kids had a foundation of information to become smarter, better people, and that makes it the greatest educational show for kids ever.

Dated Games That Still Look Great

 It looks like it's up to me to rescue this wretched blog. Again. Ok then.

Videogames have come a long way since their inception. We've gone from two lines knocking a dot back and forth against a black background to games that can rival big budget movies in terms of visual splendor and realistic visuals. Technology constantly marches on and these days it doesn't take long for a format to become obsolete and what was once the graphical standard to look primitive.

But some games have made such effective use of the technology that existed at the time, paired with some great artwork, that even when they became outdated graphically, they remained great to look at anyway.

This list includes games from up to the fifth generation of consoles plus one PC game that uses early CD-ROM format.


5. Donkey Kong Country (SNES, 1993)

This hip nineties revival and reimagining of a classic eighties franchise came with some sweet cutting-edge graphics that are still pretty nice to look at. Developed by Rare, the game used pre-rendered 3D graphics - something previously unseen on the SNES or Sega Genesis (the two leading home game consoles at the time). To achieve greater graphical detail, a new compression technique was used. Nintendo and Rare promoted the technique as "ACM" for Advanced Computer Modeling.

Luckily, the game didn't just look pretty and also featured some really solid gameplay and it became the highest selling non-bundled SNES game of all time, eventually reaching over 8 million copies sold worldwide. Not bad for a game that didn't feature any direct involvement from the father of Donkey Kong, Shigeru Miyamoto.


4. Myst (PC, 1993)

1993 was  a cool year, wasn't it? There was Jurassic Park, Nirvana's final studio album In Utero, a Canadian team won the Stanley Cup (even if it was the Habs), the Blue Jays won their second consecutive World Series and all sorts of girls I find myself looking at when I'm at the the mall were born.

It was also a pretty good year for videogames as the fourth generation of consoles was at its peak. But cool stuff was happening in the world of computer gaming too and there was no bigger event back then than the phenomenon that was Myst.

Often referred to as "the game for non-gamers", Myst took the whole point-and-click adventure game concept and flipped it on its ear, pretty much inventing the "graphic adventure" genre. While the game offered a very interesting story which a player navigated through clever and sometimes maddeningly difficult puzzles, I think it's fair to say that it wouldn't have been the smash success it was (best-selling pc game of all time until The Sims in 2002) without its incredibly cutting-edge graphics.

Designed and directed by brothers Robyn and Rand Miller, developed by Cyan, and created on Macintosh computers, Myst used StrataVision 3D with retouching by Photoshop 1.0 to create pre-rendered 3D environments and also employed Quicktime animation. The result was a beautifully atmospheric gameplay experience. To this day, it's still one of the most immersive gaming experiences I've ever had (this is also helped by having some truly great music) and while its graphics have long since been surpassed, it's still quite pretty to behold.

The game was remade in 2000 (realMyst: Interactive 3D Edition) with enhanced graphics that were in realtime 3D instead of pre-rendered stills plus weather effects.

3. Starfox (SNES, 1993) And Stunt Race FX (SNES, 1994)
The first 3D game for the SNES was Star Fox which introduced many gamers to those wonderful things called polygons. Harnessing the awesome power of the Super FX Chip, Nintendo, with assistance from Argonaut Software, brought a new experience to console gamers. Luckily it also featured incredibly stellar gameplay rather than just relying on the gimmick of trendy graphics.

The following year, Nintendo and Argonaut put the FX Chip to work once more, this time for a wacky racing game, Stunt Race FX. It remains one of my favourite racers of all time.

Sure, it didn't take long for their blocky and non-detailed graphics to become outdated but I still find both these games very nice to look at. And if you compare and contrast their look to other 3D games of the era on allegedly more powerful systems, it's all the more impressive. Seriously, dig up some screen shots of Atari Jaguar games (the world's first 64-bit system according to Atari) and you'll realize just how well done these games really were.





2. Final Fantasy VII (PSX, 1997)
The graphical splendor of Final Fantasy VII was such that it helped introduce an entirely new generation of gamers to the rpg genre - a genre that was previously limited to a fairly small and specific cross section of gamers - and luckily, beneath all the shiny pre-rendered environments and FMV sequences, there was an incredibly deep and affecting game. The seventh installment of this storied franchise was definitely a worthy entry and remains the favourite of many Final Fantasy fans.

Final Fantasy VI looked about as good as a SNES game could look, pushing the system to its absolute limits. At twenty-four megs, it's the largest (speaking from a graphical capacity standpoint) SNES game in existence and made wonderful use of the system's Mode 7 capabilities. But FF7 marked the first Final Fantasy of the fifth generation consoles and its leap in visuals was significant to say the least.

There was a series of commercials that aired in North America in early 1998 that only showed FMV footage that I'm sure misled quite a number of people who weren't previously familiar with the series. But even though most of the game didn't look quite as impressive as the cut scenes, it was still very pretty. For the first time ever, environments and characters were presented in 3D (fully rendered characters and pre-rendered backgrounds) and, like all Final Fantasy games, the colours were spectacular. But on the Playstation it was brought to an entirely new level.

The game is well over a decade old now but it's still very visually pleasing. Although longtime series artist and character designer Yoshitaka Amano found himself too busy with other projects to be as involved in the game as he would have liked, Tetsuya Nomura stepped in and did a wonderful job as the main artist. He would go on to be the concept artist and character designer for many later Square games including Final Fantasy VIII, X, X-2 and every entry in the Kingdom Hearts series. It was his work in Final Fantasy VII that put him on the map and even with the graphical limitations of the Playstation compared to the standard set by the current generation of consoles, FF7 still holds up extremely well and looks great.


1. Castlevania: Symphony of the Night (PSX, Sega Saturn, 1997)
What's interesting about this game's inclusion on this list is that its visual style was considered "outdated" (kindly referred to as "retro") even back when it was released. The late nineties were all about 3D and many developers abandoned the 2D style altogether - something many realized to be a mistake only within the last few years or so. But Konami recognized that its most popular series was best left in the 2D realm.

The result was a game that is almost unanimously considered to be the best Castlevania ever. As for its graphics, Symphony of the Night is one of the finest examples of beautiful hand-drawn art in any game. That, combined with the gameplay and soundtrack makes it nothing short of a masterpiece. The art is mostly by Ayami Kojima (no relation to Hideo - another giant of Konami) and she's gone on to work on five more games in the Castlevania series.


The game is probably best seen on the Sega Saturn because of its processor's superior ability in rendering 2D graphics  but I've only played the original Playstation version and can only say that it's absolutely beautiful. Over the past decade, Konami has tried to recapture the magic of Symphony with lots of sequels and prequels on the Game Boy Advance and Nintendo DS but none of them can compare graphically or artistically, really.

Cole's Nineties Crushes

I've been feeling nostalgic/masochistic lately so why not? To protect the innocent (even if they're not) we'll stick to actresses and performers I've never actually met. At least the pleasure/pain/confusion they inflicted on my fragile psyche and naive ideas of attraction and romance was nothing personal.

5. Tiffani Amber Thiessen
What I saw her in: "Saved by the Bell", Saved by the Bell Hawaiian Style, Son in Law, "Saved by the Bell: The College Years"

Kelly Kapowski

She's the least personal, facilitating her taking the five spot. Basically I got to know her through her portrayal of a single character, "Saved by the Bell"'s Kelly. Unlike the other entries, Thiessen (who doesn't use the Amber part of her name professionally anymore) didn't represent any sort of girl that I found relatable or attainable; she just represented a part of what her show told me was highschool. When I was a preteen watching this junk, I couldn't WAIT to get to highschool, where you were apparently never in class and absolute babes like Kelly walked the halls. I was too young to have really figured out my place in the social order of my peer group, so the fact that Kelly was definitely the type of girl I'd never exchange more than eight words with wasn't relevant. She was nice, she wasn't noticeably stupid and she was hot. That was enough.

What she's been up to in the past decade that I actually care about: Absolutely nothing. And she's aged terribly to boot. Hey, I calls 'em like I sees 'em.

4. Jennifer Love Hewitt
What I saw her in: "Kids Incorporated", Sister Act  2: Back in the Habit, House Arrest, I Know What You Did Last Summer, Can't Hardly Wait

A young and blurry Love Hewitt

What's most interesting about this entry is that during the nineties, I thought she was two separate girls. In the early part of the decade, Love Hewitt did three episodes of a lame show I watched on Family Channel called "Kids Incorporated" - a cookie cutter plot of the week show featuring an ever-rotating cast of preteens (including, oddly enough, Mario Lopez from "Saved by the Bell") who performed popular songs at their local hangout "Place" (the gag here being that it was called Palace but the second letter on the neon sign [SO MUCH FREAKING NEON on this show] was burnt out) - although I remember her being in more. But I guess I'll just have to trust imdb on this one.

Anyway, she played Robin and had what I then considered to be an absolutely enchanting voice. I think it's possible I watched the show for so long simply because I wanted to see more of her. A couple years later I would also watch Family's "The Mickey Mouse Club" nineties revival but neither Britney (Spears) nor Christina (Aguilera) made the impression on me Love had (I don't even remember Aguilera).

Hook Guy's gonna get you...

Flash forward to the late nineties - I'm a sassy teen now and girl-crazy to boot. I've also developed a taste for slashers (more on this later) and although I'd read my sister's copy of "I Know What You Did Last Summer" and found it yawnful, I was still pretty set on seeing the movie. Knowing the story was no great shakes, the filmmakers wisely elected to fill the main roles with extremely hot actors and Jennifer Love Hewitt (who at some point realized that just going by "Love" was retarded) was among them. I'm fairly certain this movie also introduced me to Sarah Michelle Gellar but my fixation on her didn't really kick in until the 2000's.

I would watch Can't Hardly Wait (1998) when it was new on video simply to get more of Hewitt. It was...um, alright. Seth Green was there. Doin' stuff. I was aware that she was on "Party of Five" but let's face it: I had a crush on her, I wasn't obsessed (you'll have to read farther to get to that). No way I was gonna watch that.

It wasn't until a few years ago that I realized that she'd been on "Kids Incorporated". It's kind of interesting that I had two separate crushes on her bookending the nineties.


What's she's been up to in the past decade that I actually care about: Once again, absolutely squat. She's in the two horrendous Garfield movies, one of Jackie Chan's worst mistakes and a show about talking to dead people. She is still quite pretty though and can actually sing.

3. Neve Campbell
What I saw her in: The Craft, Scream, Scream 2, Wild Things

My all-time favourite survivor girl, Sidney Prescott

Scream was something of a game-changer for me, and Canadian actress Neve Campbell was certainly a big part of that. Wes Craven's clever sending-up of the very genre that had made him a household name still doesn't get the credit I believe it truly deserves. But hopefully the time when it is properly appreciated is not far off.


As for Campbell, who was actually twenty-two when the movie was shooting, her youthful looks and reserved acting made her one of the very few believable fake high school students I've ever seen. Her performance as the nineties version of the "survivor girl" trope won me over instantly. Sidney Prescott was smart, spunky and strong - but still innocent, pure and naive.

Neve gets witchy in The Craft (1996)

I recall that the first time I watched Scream (1996) was in Ryan's basement and there were several of us present. We remarked on how hot the girls who were getting killed were. I kept quiet though, because although her looks didn't compare with, say, Rose McGowan, in the mainstream sense, I still preferred her. Sidney came across as a girl I would have been friends with, probably harbouring secret feelings for her in a rather obvious fashion much like Jamie Kennedy's character, Randy, did.

I was actually downright upset by her role in Wild Things (1998), and couldn't stand seeing Denise Richards and Matt Dillon with their paws all over her. I still won't watch that movie today. She played an even more prominent role on "Party of Five" than Hewitt and, in hindsight, maybe I should have watched it since I could see them both that way.

But I was happy to see her return for Scream 2 (1997), since it was really her character that I was infatuated with.

What she's been up to in the past decade that I actually care about: Sensing a trend yet? Really, the only thing that comes to mind is doing two episodes of "The Simpsons" and neither was particularly good. It was just as well, really, as I've really no desire to see her now that she's older. I just want to remember her for what she was. Apparently Sidney Prescott will indeed be in the upcoming Scream 4 and I'll have to watch it on principle but at the very best it could only be bittersweet for me.


2. Claire Danes
What I saw her in: "My So-Called Life", Romeo + Juliet, The Rainmaker,  Les miserables, Brokedown Palace

Highschool in the nineties - I was there, man

Oh, we're reaching mildly obsessive territory now. Unlike her contemporaries on this list, I did watch Danes's show. In fact, it's how I was introduced to her. The reason being that "My So-Called Life" was actually a very good show. Unlike almost any other teen drama I can think of, its drama was serious without ever being cheesy or forced. It could also be funny in a sort of devastatingly real and depressing way. So naturally, it only lasted one season.  As Angela Chase, Danes played an angsty, sometimes sarcastic girl torn between the loyalty she felt for her old friends, and the longing to be accepted by a "cooler" group, who were often trouble-makers. She also knew something about unrequited love, falling for a young Jared Leto who was barely aware of her existence.

I found her relatable (smart but insecure, disinterested in lots of things our peers thought important) and incredibly appealing. Definitely an ideal girlfriend.

Next she starred opposite the almost as pretty Leo Dicaprio in Baz Luhrmann's modern take on "Romeo and Juliet" in 1996. This film (Romeo + Juliet) features a scene where Danes is wearing a costume that has wings. Yeah, I was pretty sold. 1998's The Rainmaker then would have her as a bandage girl. The only thing she wasn't doing in those days was fighting crime and/or zombies in a sexy outfit. But she did play Cosette (Les miserables) which is still pretty cool.

What light from yonder window breaks?

What she's been up to in the past decade that I actually care about: Well, the only film of the 2000's I've seen her in was Terminator 3: Rise of The Machines (2003) and not only was that pretty lame, I also noticed that her looks were...not going right. As she's aged, Dane's somewhat angular features seem to have become more pronounced and, if you ask me, that's not a good thing. Honestly, you can joke all you want that I can never find a use for any women over twenty-five but just look at any before and after pics of her - it's true. She's lost her look and now seems downright ordinary.

I have a passing interest in seeing Shop Girl (2005) as it was written by Steve Martin and Stardust (2007), since it's based on a work by Neil Gaimon. But I really don't like seeing Danes now that she's older. Sue me.

(note: sometime in 2001 I saw 1997's Princess Mononoke (an amazing film that I own today) which stars Danes in the title role, but that obviously only features her voice and since it's a nineties work that I didn't see until after the nineties were over, doesn't fit the criteria for this list.)


1. Rachel Leigh Cook
What I saw her in: The Baby-Sitters Club, Carpool, She's All That

Rachel as Mary Anne in The Baby-Sitter's Club (1995)

It started in the books. My sister was just as much the voracious reader she is now when she was a kid and in those days probably about 80% of the stuff I read was stuff she had read first. Sometimes this veered me into strange territory as there was definitely some material that was more geared towards girls. The best example of this was Philis Reynolds Naylor's "Alice" series, which I continued to read well into adulthood. "The Baby-Sitter's Club" was a less successful endeavour. But I still read enough of them to become familiar with the characters. At first, my favourite babysitter was Dawn - the blonde hippy girl from California. But then I saw the movie and from then on, I only had eyes for Mary Anne Spier.

Of the babysitters, Mary Anne was the most caring and sensitive. In fact, she could be downright wimpy, often bursting into tears over the stupidest things. But when I could imagine her as Rachel Leigh Cook, those suddenly became endearing qualities. 

Ironically enough, Mary Anne was the only member who actually had a steady boyfriend - the chicken-fried Logan, whom I grew to despise. I should take my revenge in some totally immoral and disturbing fan fic.

Anyway I can't exactly recall how I wound up seeing the suckfest that is Carpool (1996) but I was delighted to see my Rachel in it. It was my main motivation for watching She's All That (1999) and I'll still defend that movie just to protect my sweetheart. Guess what, people? Putting glasses on Rachel Leigh Cook doesn't make her unattractive!

Sometime in the mid nineties she starred in a memorable update of the "This is your brain on drugs" public service announcement. It shows her desmonstrating the effects heroin can have on your body and your life by COMPLETELY FLIPPING OUT WITH A FRYING PAN. It was basically the hottest thing I'd ever seen in my entire life.

What she's been up to in the past decade that I actually care about: Hey, if she's in something, then I fucking well care about it. She's still amazing and beautiful. I really wish that the tv series based on "Fearless" (another series of books I wound up reading because of my sister) had gotten off the ground because Rachel Leigh Cook as Gaia = AWESOME. Apparently there is a tv movie of it that I guess was supposed to serve as the pilot so I really need to watch it then...go off by myself for awhile.

Also, her lovely voice can be heard in several otherwise forgetful episodes of "Robot Chicken" and she is the official English voice of Final Fantasy VII's Tifa which means a lot to someone like me.

RyHo's Favourite Episodes of The X-Files

When I was a kid I was at a friend's house on a Friday evening, 1993. I was 10 years old and we were playing video games in his basement. It was late – remember, I was 10 - and I was on my way home when I came upstairs and found his mother watching a TV show. It was The X-Files. I watched a few minutes of the show and instantly became hooked.

From that day forth I had to catch The X-Files every week. It eventually made its way to Sunday night TV with the likes of The Simpsons, Malcolm in the Middle, and many other great shows. Sunday was a ritual for me. The weekend was winding down. I'd make a snack and sit back and watch two hours of great TV, which included my favourite TV show of all time.

Here are five of my favourite episodes. I'd like to say on this occasion that these are in order, but I think my top ten shifts now and again. I haven't purposely avoided "mytharc" episodes here, which is a whole other can of worms, but none appear in the list. I've just always been more into the "monster-of-the-week" episodes when I look back at the series as a whole.

5. Paper Hearts: Season 4 - Episode 10

This episode is an interesting one because in it we have Mulder and Scully investigating a child- killer, played by Tom Noonan. It’s an odd duck of an episode because we have a seemingly real-world killer, with no real supernatural affiliation.

If you don’t know Tom Noonan, he’s been in some different films that you may have seen, such as The Monster Squad as Frankenstein’s Monster, RoboCop 2 as Cain and Heat as Kelso. I know him mostly from Manhunter, which was another Michael Mann film – like Heat – based on the Thomas Harris novel “Red Dragon”, which was remade in 2002 starring Ed Norton. Noonan played Francis Dollarhyde in the film – the role reprised by Ralph Fiennes in the 2002 version – a creepy, psychopathic serial killer that believes he is evolving into a god-like beast, the Red Dragon. I find him to be a really good character actor, even though his appearance and height, at 6’6, probably keep him out of a lot of roles he would be great in.

Regardless, he once again plays a fantastic “monster” in this episode of the X-Files. His character is a serial killer by the name of John Lee Roche, who killed little girls for many years as he traveled the country as a vacuum salesman, evading the police. He would take little cut-outs of hearts from their clothing as a souvenir.

The supernatural aspect of this episode is that Mulder is having dreams that lead him to Roche and through the investigation for one of Roche’s victims, whom Roche claims is Mulder’s little sister, Samantha. One of the driving forces of the show, in case you don’t know, is that Mulder witnessed his sister’s abduction by aliens when he was a boy, resulting in his fascination with aliens, UFOs, and all things “X-File”.

I think the characters and the acting drive this episode, Noonan playing a great villain. Again, it’s an interesting episode because it isn’t really “mytharc” – an episode that follows the backbone alien invasion arc throughout the series – but involves Samantha, shedding doubt on Mulder’s experiences as a youth. It is also a great episode for Duchovny, who’s pushed off the deepend with Roche and the possibility that this man did abduct his sister – which could completely negate his life’s work, in a way - and voraciously hunts this final victim both in the real world and in his dreams.

4. Jose Chung's From Outer Space: Season 3 - Episode 20

This episode is one of those kismet moments in the series where everything just comes together. It’s an excellent script, perfect acting and timing as well as fantastic characters. The episode is also strewn with inside jokes and homages that make it a must-see for anyone that’s into The X-Files.

Occasionally throughout the series there would be these tongue-in-cheek episodes where the show takes some time to make fun of itself. Whenever these sorts of episodes come along it’s a nice breath of fresh air from the usual conspiracy and straight-forward monster-of-the-week stuff, and are always memorable. For me, none are as memorable as Jose Chung’s From Outer Space.

In this episode we have an author, Jose Chung, played by Charles Nelson Reilly – an American actor known for his comedy roles – who is consulting with Mulder and Scully as he’s trying to write a book about alien abduction. They speak to him about a specific case of theirs involving a young couple who both had conflicting stories about their alleged alien abduction.

The episode goes from crazy to full-on insanity as it advances. In the beginning we have the two teenagers being found, the girl with her clothes on inside out, which leads to Scully thinking she was a victim of rape by her boyfriend. Her boyfriend, however, claims they were abducted by aliens, which the girl corroborates after a hypnosis session. This snowballs into a conspiracy involving the government and an apparent witness that claims a giant, Harryhausen-themed alien, by the name of Lord Kinbote, took the teenagers. At one point Mulder is confronted by Men in Black, played by Jesse Ventura and, wait for it, Alex Trebek...

Please, folks. Even if you don’t watch X-Files, but can appreciate a fun, comedy piece, do yourself a favour and watch Jose Chung’s From Outer Space, from Season 3 of The X-Files.

3. Ice: Season 1 - Episode 8

Ice is an oft-cited episode by horror buffs because the storyline is very reminiscent of a widely popular horror film by John Carpenter. This episode most definitely takes cues from the short story “Who Goes There?”, by John W. Campbell, which was the inspiration for the Howard Hawk’s film The Thing From Another World (1951) and its subsequent remake by Carpenter, The Thing (1982).

In the first season of the show creator Chris Carter and his go-to writers, Glen Morgan and James Wong, wanted to set the tone as a “monster-of-the-week” series. (I’m sorry I keep using that term, but if you were to search anything X-Files, you’d see it’s the most prominent buzzword for the series, next to the term “mytharc”, which I explained above.) As this was the first season, and the backbone of the series would really be developed in the next few seasons, we were treated to lots of these mini-horror films.

In this episode we have Mulder and Scully traveling to a desolate location in the North. Several researchers are working in Alaska drilling for ice cores and when a very distressing transmission is received from their base, the FBI and several other researchers and scientists are sent in to see what’s wrong. Much like in The Thing we have Mulder and Scully trapped in the research bunker with several other individuals, which are one-by-one being taken over by some entity long-forgotten in the ice.

Again, like The Thing, the isolation and confinement of the research bunker play a great role in this episodes success, as does the acting and characters. This episode actually has Xander Berkeley, whom you’d remember from countless TV shows including The A-Team, The Twilight Zone and 24, as well as films like Terminator 2, Candyman, Heat – oddly enough - and most recently Taken and Kick-Ass. He’s just one of those guys that end up in everything.

This episode was actually intended to be a “bottleneck show”, which is a term used for an episode that costs the least amount of money, in this case due to the one, small location. However, it ended up being one of the most costly with the special effects used.

It might be due to the short story it’s based on, but this episode is considered not only one of the best from Season 1, but one of the best the entire show has to offer and I think stands up just as well – although on a much lesser scale – with a film like The Thing. Horror fans should at least check this one out.

2. Detour: Season 5 - Episode 4

With all of the different monsters that have made their way into X-Files episodes, the creature featured in the episode Detour is one the most memorable, in my opinion, and you don’t ever really even see it.

The premise is that Mulder and Scully are on their way to a team-building exercise, much to their chagrin, but fate steps in as they are stopped en route and become involved in the case of a missing hunter in the forests of Florida, which remarkably look like British Columbia.

In the search for the missing hunter, Mulder, as usual, starts to figure out what’s going on, and surmises that they’re dealing with an invisible hunter; a species of creature, divergent from human evolution, that has remained unseen and unnoticed in the forests for thousands of years.

What makes this episode stick clearly in my mind is the visual effects. In showing us the creatures they use what I’d call a poor man’s Predator effect. You know when they show the Predator in cloak? Well, it’s like that, but on a TV show budget. This is blended, very well, with dark scenery and the eerie landscape of the forest and it comes out as a great effect.

The landscape itself is fantastic as well. As is often the case in X-Files episodes, the location is almost a character in and of itself, creating a great atmosphere that helps the show deliver as much scary as it could.

1. The Host: Season 2 - Episode 2

My number one episode, by far, must go to The Host, from Season 2.

I remember the first episode of The X-Files I ever saw very well. It was called Fallen Angel and aired mid-way through Season 1. Although I hold this memory near and dear, in a way – even though it’s odd to say that I remember something like a TV show so fondly – there was never such an episode that scared me like The Host.

This episode is a brainchild of series’ creator Chris Carter. Carter didn’t actually write all that many episodes, mostly being involved as the show’s producer and the major backbone storylines for the series, but when he did do an episode, they were pretty much always great. The Host came about from several topics ranging from his dog having worms to Chernobyl. It’s amazing how this sort of thing can come together.

The plot follows Mulder who is sent by Assistant Director Skinner to look into the case of a Russian sailor found half eaten in the sewers of New Jersey. An interesting aspect of this episode is that in the first few episodes of the show, Scully actually acts as a sort of spy. She’s sent in by the powers-that-be to look into Mulder’s work on the X-Files, which sets up her skepticism in the majority of the series. In this particular episode she’s decided to leave the FBI to go back to being a medical doctor - her former profession - and Mulder feels that this case is a form of punishment against him and his work. After talking Scully into performing an autopsy on the Russian man’s body, the two become intrigued with the case and pursue it.

On the Russian’s body Scully finds a fluke worm, which couldn’t have caused the damage to the man’s body and raises Mulder’s suspicions that something out of the ordinary is afoot. As the episode progresses there are other deaths in the sewers of Jersey, which some people think are a result of the old urban legend of alligators in the sewers. What they find is much more sinister than that... the Flukeman.

The Flukeman is an awesome use of monster special effects. The idea here is that a fluke worm was radiated, possibly by Chernobyl, and evolved into some kind of new man-like species. This monster, guys, is so creepy and gross. I saw this thing in my nightmares for weeks. There’s just something so placid in its eyes and so jarring in its appearance. If you’re ever looking for a good scare, check out Season 2’s The Host.

Big CGI Films of the 90s

Computer-generated imagery has been used in film since the early 70s. Being a child of the 90s, though, I remember how big of a role CGI played in film. With computers becoming a household item, and the Internet changing how we lived, the use of computer technologies in film left us in awe. These are a few of the big CGI films that were released in the 1990s.

5. Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace (1999)

In the late 90s Star Wars geeks the world over were in a state of euphoria. Although nowadays nerds cry about it constantly on Internet forums all over the web, when George Lucas decided to re-release the original Star Wars trilogy in 1997, the theatres were packed to see his updated versions of these classic films. Amidst the cries of “Han shot first!” and “I rather the cantina scene with the muppets”, we also caught wind of Lucas’ newest project. In 1999, 16 years since the last Star Wars film, and 22 years since he left the director’s chair, Lucas would return with an all new film, Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace.

What can I really say that hasn’t been said? The Jar Jar Binks fiasco has come and gone, but when that film came out, you gotta admit, it was pretty damned cool. I remember the film somewhat fondly, as painful as some of the storyline can be. There was a bitchin’ new Sith, Darth Maul and the introduction of Pod Racing. Qui-Gon and the young Obi-Wan were pretty cool as well. I mean, there were tons of Jedi!

Regardless of your feelings about the film, it was a special effects masterpiece in its time. The battle with the Gungan, the landscapes, it expanded the Star Wars Universe exponentially. As much as I love the original trilogy, and I find a real “character” in the use of puppets and animatronics, The Phantom Menace was a visually epic film from the 90s.

4. The Matrix (1999)

This is a film I hold near and dear to my heart. Although I find it hard to say, “This is my favourite film of all time”, with changing tastes and new films coming out all the time, I have called this movie my favourite, and I still love it. I’m a huge cyber/steam punk fan, and this film is like an action/kung fu/cyberpunk enthusiast’s wet dream. Another 1999 delight, this was essentially a Western, feature film anime, with real friggin’ people. There was awesome hand-to-hand combat, amazing gun fighting and giant freakin’ robots.

The marketing behind the film was one of the major keys to its success. “What is the Matrix?” was on everyone’s mind that year. The viral marketing, along with intriguing storyline and geektastic background made this film and instant win, without any of the great aspects I’ve listed above. This film also single-handedly redefined the term slow-motion. No one calls it slo-mo anymore. It’s “bullet time”. The effect took a combination of wire-work, CGI and a series of still-frame cameras taking hundreds of images in a swooping arc to pull off, and man, did it look awesome.

After this film, movies of the early 2000s struggled to do what they could to keep up with its technological feats. The sequels would continue on this trend, raising the bar each time, but would never touch the original film.

3. Jurassic Park (1993)

Here’s another film that made a huge impact on my youth and I still consider one of my favourite of all time. Stephen Spielberg, the big adventure film king, was taking a Michael Crichton novel to the big screen. That’s like having pizza and Coca-Cola… a winning combination.

With the leaps in CGI-related technologies coming out in the early 90s, Spielberg took on the task of pushing the technologies further than anyone had done before. Even though CG was still in its infancy, he seamlessly blended animatronics, stop motion, puppetry and computer-generated imagery to the point that even today it looks amazing.

The dinosaurs were the big ticket and did they ever look good: the flocking group of Gallimimus, the thundering Brachiosaurs, the Velociraptors and of course, the big daddy of them all, T-Rex. Even though a good portion of the film was actually animatronics, there are scenes where you can’t tell the difference, and you know it. In 1993, there was nothing like it.

2. Toy Story (1995)

Pixar is a household name these days, but in 1995 no one expected such a leap in animation. Pixar had been around for years, using their advanced computer technologies in conjunction with companies like Industrial Light and Magic (ILM) as well as the team behind Star Trek II: Wrath of Khan. It wasn’t until the company was facing some hard times and signed a three picture deal with Disney that it would take off in ways that no one would ever imagine.

The first film they released was Toy Story, a full CGI “cartoon” with big name actors voicing the characters, such as Tom Hanks, Tim Allen, Jim Varney and John Ratzenberger. That’s right, I just put the guy from Cheers, Tim the Tool Man Taylor and Ernest in the same sentence with Tom Hanks.

The effects were stunning. The film opened the same year as the newest Batman film (Batman Forever) as well as Apollo 13 (which also featured Hanks), another film that would be somewhat suitable for this list, and pounded the two of them, the highest grossing Disney film since The Lion King. [To be fair, that's only one year - it basically outgrossed the woeful Pocahontas - cole*]

It had a fantastic cast of toy characters, a great storyline and an award-winning soundtrack. In a lot of ways, the CGI in the film was a secondary element, but most certainly helped to catapult Toy Story into the realm of instant classic.

1. Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991)

You saw this coming, right? No one has pushed film technologies like James Cameron, and his seminal masterpiece, often called the greatest action film of all time, T2 was like a beacon for CGI-related filmmakers.

Using CGI to push his 1989 film, The Abyss, Cameron began his love affair with computer generated effects, and would continue to be the pioneer of these technologies, even to this day. He made the (now) second highest grossing film of all time, the phenomenon that was Titanic in 1997 (another film that could have fit this list, if I cared about it), which was only recently topped by his latest blockbuster, Avatar, which expanded the use of IMAX and 3D into realms no one has ever experienced.

In T2, Cameron paved the way for Spielberg, Lucas and the Wachowskis by creating one of the most memorable villains in cinema, the T-1000; a liquid-metal harbinger of death from the future, bent on destroying humanity's greatest hope.

The visuals of T-1000 were jaw-dropping in their time. Even though the technologies of today have grown exponentially, I think T2’s effects still stand up. Even the CG used to create a Terminator exoskeleton was amazing.

Computer effects continue to evolve, and with virtuosos like Cameron at the helm, we can only expect bigger and better things in the future. Although I think cheaply used computer effects have ruined a lot of films in the last 15 years, and there is still a place for conventional special effects, the big CGI blockbusters will still come and knock our socks off, and I for one can’t wait.