DVDIALOG

July 21, 2008 | Link This | Email this | Comments (0)

Star Trek sex symbol Jolene Blalock receives a promotion of sorts in the new DVD Premiere feature Starship Troopers 3: Marauder,due from Sony on Aug. 5. Where she played an enticingly logical Vulcan commander on TV’s Enterprise, Ms. Blalock has now graduated to the rank of captain in ST3.

“My character, Captain Lola Beck, is a pilot. She’s a rather strong female, a leader, who’s got a lot of brains and brawn,” she says of the role. The movie revolves around the efforts of Johnny Rico (Casper Van Dien, back from the original 1997 film) to rescue Capt. Beck and other Troopers who have are stranded on a planet ...Read More

July 18, 2008 | Link This | Email this | Comments (0)

A DVD Premiere sequel to the 1983 smash WarGames will be issued on July 29 from MGM/FOX. WarGames: The Dead Code doesn’t star anyone from the original cast, not surprisingly, and features an all-new, state-of-the-computer-art storyline. I haven’t seen it yet, but I have checked out the new 25th Anniversary Edition of WarGames, which proves to still be a lot of fun. Parts of it may be silly, yes, but at various times in the movie, it convincingly put over the idea that the world was on the brink of nuclear war. Not bad for a flick that clocks in at less than two hours.

An hour-p...Read More

July 15, 2008 | Link This | Email this | Comments (0)

New York-based independent filmmaker Larry Fessenden, whose socially and environmentally horror films include No Telling (1991), Wendigo (2001) and Habit (1997) and took his filmmaking habit on the road for his most recent movie, The Last Winter (Genius/The Weinstein Company, Street: July 22). And where did that road lead him? Wouldja believe Iceland!?

“Shooting in Iceland was quite an experience,” Fessenden told us in a recent interview. “It was a 34-day shoot—and it was a tough shoot!”

Written, produced and directed by Fessenden and starring ...Read More

July 9, 2008 | Link This | Email this | Comments (4)

Last week, I spoke with the legendarily curmudgeonly speculative fiction writer Harlan Ellison, who had a lot of nice things to say about Anchor Bay’s upcoming Masters of Science Fiction anthology (Street: Aug. 5), for which he was the co-writer of the teleplay for the episode “The Discarded.” Ellison also heaped praise on Masters producer Keith Addis (“A wonderful and intelligent man,” he said.), co-scripter Josh Olson and fellow Damon Knight Memorial Grand Master Award-winning sci-fi writers Isaac Asimov, Ray Bradbury and Frank Herbert. It’s ABC Entertainment president Steve McPherson and his treatment of the Masters s...Read More

July 3, 2008 | Link This | Email this | Comments (2)

Sitting down to record commentaries, featurette interviews and episode introductions for the 24-installment first season of the legendary private eye detective TV series Mannix (just released on DVD by CBS/Paramount), star Mike Connors thought he was going to have “a good time”—he just didn’t know how good until he started to sink into the project.

“It was fun to work on it, very fun,” Connors—that’s right, Joe Mannix, himself--told me in a recent phone interview. “But then I sat down to do a commentary with [former Mannix co-star] Joe Campanella, and it ...Read More