Edward James Olmos discusses his experiences as the star and director of the new direct-to-DVD film Battlestar Galactica: The Plan

GIANT: Did the studio have to twist your arm to get you to act in and direct The Plan.
Edward James Olmos: It took me awhile-about two seconds, maybe two-and-a-half, I’m not quite sure.  [Laughs]  I wouldn’t have said yes had I not understand that The Plan was needed to enhance the viewing of the piece itself.  To understand how and why the Cylons did what they did is important to the enjoyment of this entire story.  It was a privilege to be on the show and an incredible honor to be asked to direct my first feature film in this universe.  This has become a labor of love; I get paid for it, but it is something beyond my wildest dreams.  It’s truly a gift in my career and the most extraordinary TV event I’ve ever been a part of.

GIANT: How closely did you work with the writer, Jane Espenson, to shape the finished film?
Olmos: We worked very hard on it together for many, many days and went over every moment, every beat and every single word.  Jane hadn’t been with us for the first year and a half of the show so she had to research and that’s always a process that is so overwhelming.  That’s probably one of the reasons they asked me to direct the piece because I spent every episode in that world from the beginning, from the very first shot of the very first day.

GIANT: You’ve taken advantage of the DVD format to do things you couldn’t do on the show-nudity, for example.
Olmos: In the reality of what we’re doing, this is something that’s really important.  The sexuality and the nudity are not done for effect, they have their story points.  We couldn’t show it in its entirety during the series because of TV regulations, but when we got to the film, all of the constraints were off.

GIANT: The Plan also contains one of the most shocking scenes in the entire series, featuring the Cylon leader Brother Cavil (Dean Stockwell) and a little boy who seeks to befriend him.
Olmos: What viewers won’t really get is that Dean did a film back in 1948 called The Boy With Green Hair in which he played the title character.  For this movie, I wanted the boy to have green hair out of nowhere, but the studio and the producers dismissed it as something too over the top.  I felt just the opposite-The Boy With Green Hair is one of the strongest anti-war films ever made.  So what my clothing designer did was recreate every stitch of clothing Dean wore in that movie.  Someday, they’re going to allow me to go back and put in green hair through CGI and then people will realize what that character really represents.

GIANT: What do you hope viewers take away from The Plan?
Olmos: I would just like them to know that this is the second movie we’ve made and the studio told me that we can visit this universe again if this DVD sells 5 million copies or more.  The sadness is that someone uploaded The Plan on the Internet and you can see it for nothing.  People don’t realize that if they see it for nothing, this is the last time you’ll see this universe again.  So if you’ve seen it for nothing and you appreciate it, please buy it and give it to friends.  Place your vote-invest your time and money.  Tell the studio that you want to see more of it and then we’ll get the opportunity to do stuff nobody can imagine.  Like, wouldn’t you like to know where the Final Five came from?

Battlestar Galactica: The Plan is available on DVD now.

Bidding farewell to Battlestar Galactica and extending a royal welcome to Kings

When it was announced over a year ago that Battlestar Galactica‘s fourth season would also be its last, I was both thrilled and terrified.  Thrilled because the show came dangerously close to losing its direction at several points during its junior year and, as Lost had already proven, setting an endpoint is a great way to get a series back on track.  And that’s exactly what happened—despite a few dud episodes here and there (as well as one major creative mistake, namely the laborious and illogical twist involving the true parentage of Tyrol’s son Nicky) Battlestar‘s fourth year has mostly been terrific, as everyone involved with the show—from the writers, to the actors, to the special effects guys—have challenged themselves to outdo what they’ve done before.

And I’d argue that this final run of episodes may be the most daring (though not the most successful) arc the powers that be have attempted yet.  A feeling of despair has always loomed large over the series—how could it not when the premise of the show involves the extinction of the human race?—but in the past, it’s been held at bay by hope: hope in finding Earth, hope in the leadership of President Roslin (Mary McDonnell) and Admiral Adama (Edward James Olmos), and hope in humanity’s basic decency.  With the revelation that the home they had been searching for all along was actually a bombed-out husk, those hopes vanished and despair ran amok.  Over the past nine episodes, many characters have died (at their own hand and the hands of others), others have mutinied and even the strongest of them—that would be the steely Adama—have broken down.  In other words, it’s been a rough few weeks for the folks aboard the Galactica and those of us watching their exploits at home.  Series mastermind Ronald D. Moore could be accused of wallowing too much in emotional pain, but I admire how he’s remained committed to this unavoidably grim vision of humanity’s last days.

Which brings me to why I was terrified of tonight’s two-hour finale.  After four years and some 80-odd hours of television, would Moore be able to craft an ending that would answer many of the show’s long-standing questions, send our favorite characters off in style and provide all the fireworks we expect from the final confrontation between the humans and the Cylons?  In short, would he stick the landing?  Or would he pull a David Chase and pass a non-ending off as an ending.  (For the record, I still admire the ballsiness of The Sopranos finale, but I can’t call it a satisfying ending.)

Having seen the last episode, which airs tonight at 9pm on Sci Fi, I can reassure those folks still scarred by memories of The Sopranos‘ abrupt cut to black that there’s no such finale interruptus in BSG‘s farewell.  This series does have an end—quite a few, in fact.  I’m bound by an embargo (as well as common decency) from providing any spoilers, but I will say that I expect the episode to provide plenty of fodder for discussion.  I don’t expect there to be much disagreement about the awesomeness of the first hour, which finds Adama leading a desperate charge deep into Cylon territory to rescue Hera, the half-human, half-Cylon offspring of Athena (Grace Park) and Helo (Tahmoh Penikett).  This is the pedal-to-the-metal battle royale that’s been brewing for four seasons now and, man, is it worth the wait.  The action is spectacularly choreographed and the intensity never lets up.  Best of all, this sequences offers a sight that warmed my geek-loving heart: numerous shots of the new BSG‘s redesigned robotic Cylons kicking the crap out of the Cylon models from the original ’70s series.  If these moments don’t make you stand up and cheer, than you better get your sci-fi nerd credentials checked.

And then, at the height of this gonzo free-for-all, the show literally makes a jump that completely changes the mood and tone of everything we’ve experienced so far.  What happens in the course of the remaining hour will undoubtedly divide BSG fans.  It’s been a few day since I’ve experienced it and I’m still sorting out my feelings.  Overall, I’m pleased with how the show draws to a close; there are some beautiful moments in the final act and, more importantly, this feels like the right ending for the crew of the Galactica.  At the same time though, the writing and pacing aren’t as smooth as they perhaps should be.  There’s a clunkiness to the proceedings that’s distracting at times and detracts from the emotional power of the where Moore takes the story.  In the past, BSG‘s grand thematic ambitions have led it to overreach dramatically and I think that happens here to a certain degree.  But the more I think about it, the more I like how the show signs off from the airwaves.  Sure it’s a little messy, but you’ll definitely be talking and thinking about it long after it ends.

We won’t be seeing another BSG anytime soon, but I’d like to make a quick plea for folks to start tuning into Kings (Sundays at 8pm), NBC’s hugely entertaining fantasy series, which premiered to low ratings last Sunday and is in desperate need of a viewership bump if its going to stick around.  Set in an alternate America that’s ruled by Silas (the magnificent Ian McShane), Kings is a 21st century re-telling of the famous biblical story of King David.  In this version, David is a young farm kid who becomes a war hero when he faces off against a Goliath—a massive enemy tank—and wins.  Brought to the capitol, he is initially taken under Silas’ wing, but the older man recoils when he witnesses a miracle that makes it clear that David will one day replace him as King.  That’s where the premiere ended last week and this Sunday’s episode picks up with lots more intrigue, as David is forced to go to extreme lengths to preserve the peace treaty his actions helped bring about, while unwittingly being targeted for an assassin’s bullet.  Rich in detail and filled with terrific performances, Kings is shaping up to be a solid replacement for Battlestar.  Here’s hoping a bigger audience discovers this unique, addictive series.

Click here to read about Battlestar Galactica‘s night at the United Nations

Click here to read GIANT’s interview with Galactica star Grace Park

Click here to read GIANT’s interview with Kings star Eamonn Walker

The creators and stars of Battlestar Galactica were honored at the United Nations last night.

The United Nations let their geek flag fly on Tuesday night, hosting what they billed as a Battlestar Galactica Retrospective–a two-hour long panel that examined various issues the cult show raised during its four-year run.  BSG creators Ronald D. Moore and David Eick were in attendance as well as stars Mary McDonnell (who plays President Laura Roslin) and Edward James Olmos (who plays Admiral Adama, the commander of the titular ship).  All four were featured on a panel moderated by self-confessed sci-fi nerd Whoopi Goldberg and a revolving chair of UN representatives who specialized in various issues, from human rights, to children in armed conflict to terrorism.  Also in the house were high-school students from prestigious schools around New York, who sat behind UN placards displaying the names of the 12 colonies from the show.  (Sadly, these placards were not given away as freebies, but will be auctioned off at a later date.)

Although the event got off to a bit of an awkward start as the BSG crew tried to wrap their heads around the idea that they were actually addressing the United frakkin’ Nations, the panel took a lively turn the moment Olmos–who is one of the nicest guys you’ll ever meet, but also completely crazy–launched into a lengthy diatribe about, as he said, the use of “race as a cultural determinant.”  After loudly declaring in a thundering voice that “There is only one race–the human race!” he then got the entire room to follow him in Adama’s signature chant: “So say we all!”  Best.  Moment.  Ever.

While that was the evening’s high point, there were a number of spirited exchanges still to come, as well as some genuinely moving speeches about the hardships and challenges that too many individuals face in developing nations.  At times, you could tell that the BSG folks weren’t always sure how to lead the discussion back to their show.  It didn’t help that some of the UN representatives hadn’t seen the series before the panel–although, to their credit, they acknowledged this upfront–so they had trouble finding a way to smoothly integrate discussions of real-world issues with how they were interpreted on BSG.  Still, just the fact that a respected organization like the United Nations took the time to honor a science-fiction series speaks volumes about the profound impact Battlestar Galactica has had during its time on the air.  The series draws to an end this Friday night–I’ve already seen the finale (look for a quick, spoiler-free review that day) and can tell you its a must-see–but its influence will hopefully linger on for years to come.

Oh and by the way–the food at the UN?  Awesome.  Those diplomats sure know how to entertain in style.

Battlestar Galactica is back and better than its ever been.

Battlestar Galactica guru Ronald D. Moore told fans to expect some major developments in the first episode of the show’s final 10 installments and boy, he wasn’t kidding.  Only three minutes have elapsed in tonight’s premiere (airing tonight at 10pm on Sci Fi Channel) before the writers unleash their first revelation about the bombed-out Earth the crew of the starship Galactica discovered at the end of the mid-season finale, broadcast last March.  Two more big surprises follow at the 10 and 15-minute marks and then 27 minutes in, a gunshot rings out, signaling the passing of a major character.  I’d tell you when to expect to learn the identity of the fifth and final Cylon, but that scene was clipped from the screener by the powers that be at Sci Fi, the first time I’ve ever seen that done for a non-reality show.

Maybe its just my glee at having Battlestar back after such a long hiatus, but based on this episode, it seems like the show is the best its ever been.  The writers used their time off wisely bringing a momentum back to the series that often faded away during the third year and even the first half of this season.  There’s no question that giving the storyline a definitive end-point is largely responsible for this welcome burst of energy.  Going into this last batch of episodes, I was concerned about whether there was really enough plot left to fill 10 hours of television, but I’m happy to say Moore knows what he’s doing.  This episode is exquisitely paced, answering several long-standing questions, while also showing there are new angles to existing mysteries.  It also contains what may just be the best-performed scene I’ve seen in the show’s history–and that’s saying something–a tense face-off between Admiral Adama (the brilliant Edward James Olmos) and his friend/second-in-command/recently revealed Cylon Saul Tigh (the equally brilliant Michael Hogan) that’s both pulse-pounding and emotionally overwhelming.  As sorry as I’ll be to see the show come to an end, it’s clearly gonna go out at the top of its game.

Battlestar Galactica veteran Grace Park tells all about bidding the good ship Galactica farewell, which keepsakes she brought home and where she wants her to career to go next.

For five years, Grace Park has juggled not one, but several roles on the beloved sci-fi series Battlestar Galactica.  And even though the show is heading into its final 10 episodes starting tomorrow night, her workload isn’t getting lighter.  On deck, the 34-year-old actress has a Galactica flick that will arrive on Sci Fi and DVD later this year, a recurring role on the Canadian immigration series The Border and just landed a role in the big-screen comedy Punctured opposite Eugene Levy.

GIANT: Congratulations on making it across the finish line in one piece.  Has it sunk in for you that the show is over?
Grace Park: That’s a multi-ended question, because we wrapped the series for the most part last July, but I still had a couple of re-shoots, as well as the movie and then some web episodes.  So I was sort of the last person standing.  In July it was great because all of us where there and we had two soundstages going until the wee hours of the morning.  When we ended it, we popped champagne and watched the sun come up.  Then everyone stuffed their souvenirs in their cars and drove home.  This time around it was quite different, because the set started coming down while we were there.  It was easier to end on a high note with everyone there.  To come back to the party and break the sets down by yourself and be the last janitor sweeping everything up is kind of depressing.  The last night I was there I found my last call sheet ever and wrote a little thank you note to Battlestar.  Then I started crying!

GIANT: What souvenirs did you grab from the set?
Park: I took my flight suit, a chair back and the sign for Eddie [James Olmos'] parking spot.  It was the last thing there, so I told my driver to wait, grabbed it and threw it in the back of the car.  There are a couple of other things that I took, but I can’t say anything about them because it would give away plot stuff.  Towards the end, it was a little weird because we would want a prop to work with and someone would have taken it!  We couldn’t even shoot because parts of the show were missing. [Laughs]

GIANT: Was there anything you didn’t get to take home that you covet now?
Park: Yeah, I really wanted those little wooden versions of the Raider, Raptors and the Galactica that are always shuffled along the war board.  I heard they were all taken on the day I had to leave early.  I’m sure I’m going to go online and buy some more things!

GIANT: The new movie is set before the show ends, but was filmed after you shot the series finale.  Was it difficult keeping the timeline straight in your head?
Park: Absolutely and not just because the show was over.  The film is set so far back [in continuity] and sometimes when you create the story in your head you fill in all the blanks yourself.  So when you go back and have to revisit those pieces, it doesn’t always seem to fit because it doesn’t follow the storyline in your head or what was discussed on the day you filmed it originally.  Fortunately, the movie does a beautiful job of filling in a lot of gaps and its quite seamless because they use pieces of what we filmed four years ago with what we filmed a month ago and it ties a whole bunch of things together.  I can say that there will be a few things about the movie that will raise eyebrows.  Like, I didn’t know there was going to be so much nudity!  It’s just blatant nudity, like Porky’s meets Battlestar.

GIANT: Like many of your fellow Battlestar actors—both male and female—the series has turned you into something of a sex symbol.  Has that been a weird experience for you?
Park: I’m happy that it’s happened to both Tricia [Helfer] and Katee [Sackhoff] as well, because it’s easier to have strength in numbers.  Someone did just send me a link to this “Hottest Women on Television” list and I started going through it.  Tricia was up there and then I found myself lower on the countdown and it finally started hitting me.  I think I’ve always done a decent job turning a blind eye to that stuff.  It’s fun, but it’s obviously not my whole life.  I don’t strut around out there in chaps and a bikini on my motor bike.

GIANT: How does your husband feel about it?
Park: He loves it!  He’s like, “That’s my girl.”  The only awkward thing is when I have a love scene coming up.  He always says “Who is it this time?”  So those conversations get weird.  I’m like “Babe, do we have to do something to even out the score?”  But he only works in business, so I’m not really worried. [Laughs]

GIANT: Battlestar is often praised for the way it tackles weighty real-world topics.  Did the series ever cause you to re-examine or change your opinion on a specific issue?
Park: Not particularly, though I do feel that by working on a lot of the hot topics, my opinions grew more defined.  It gave me a clearer outline of what I do thing.  Because we did have big issues that were thrown on the table, we’d wrestle with them and attack from all different angles, not just in terms of filming, but our emotional and mental approaches as well.

GIANT: Now that you’ve done sci-fi, is there a particular genre you want to explore next?
Park: I don’t have a super overall plan, but I kind of want to do features.  I didn’t realize how much Battlestar was a bride between television and movies, because we had the luxury of doing multiple takes.  On the other shows I’ve been on since, it’s like bang, bang, bang.  One area I’d really like to tackle is comedy, because I’ve never really done it.  I think there is a definite art to making people laugh and it’s very challenging.  Personally, I like comedies that are on the quirkier side.  I enjoy Will Ferrell—I killed myself laughing Talladega Nights and Blades of Glory.

GIANT: You made a film about two years ago that I caught at New York’s Tribeca Film Festival—West 32nd, a crime drama about the Korean community in New York.
Park: That was one of those scripts that came my way that I started reading then and right off the bat I was drawn in.  I was like “Who’s in this thing?” and it was John Cho [from Harold & Kumar Go To White Castle].  And I was like “Oh fucking John Cho!”  I ran into him at a party one time several years ago and he totally dissed me.  It was one of those make-your-own-drama situations: go to a party get dissed by someone and keep bringing it up over and over again.  I wish him the best now but when I used to see him I’d be like “Did you hear what he did to me?”  The first time we got drunk together while making West 32nd I told him about it and he was like “What?  No!”  I was like, “It’s true!  I almost didn’t do the movie because of you!” [Laughs]

GIANT: Do you feel any pressure to represent the Korean community positively onscreen?
Park: No, I don’t feel any obligation or pressure whatsoever.  When I started doing press for Battlestar, I was surprised how many questions were about Asian Americans and what I thought about them.  Part of it is that I didn’t grow up in the States where there is a strong Korean American contingent that’s very proud and vocal.  I get it, but that’s not exactly how I portray myself.  It’s great to get in touch with, but it’s not the only story I’m interested in doing.

GIANT: You play a Homeland Security agent on the Canadian series The Border. Have you ever had any rough border crossings?
Park: I’m a dual Canadian/American citizen, so every time I would go to the States, I’d be super cocky and whip out my US passport.  But one time I got in trouble because my passport had expired.  I was telling the dude, “Look, I’m a freaking American citizen!”  And the guy actually said: “There are two types of people in the world—Americans and foreigners.”  I bit my tongue because I knew he could delay me for two hours.  He gave me a speech and then typed an essay in passport.  So it’s always best to be wise about what you say at the border.

GIANT: What do you hope viewers take away from the last episode of Battlestar?
Park: I hope people take a glimpse at the other side are willing to embrace all parts of themselves and others, both ugly and beautiful.  That’s Battlestar to me.  Amongst all the ugliness is a lot of beauty.  You’ve just got to wipe away the dirt and the grime and the blood to find it.

2008 is in the history books, so here are the flicks and TV shows that have us looking forward to the year ahead.

9. The Tonight Show Starring Conan O’Brien (June)
It took sixteen years, but that red-headed goofball who pals around with a masturbating bear and an insult comic dog finally becomes NBC’s main man in late night.  Victory would be sweeter if former host Jay Leno had departed the airwaves for good instead of simply moving to the 10pm slot, but look for Conan to make the Tonight Show timely and relevant for the first time in more than a decade.

8. The Brothers Bloom (May 15)
Originally set to be released last October, Rian Johnson’s quirky con-man comedy—which features a career best performance by Oscar winner Rachel Weisz and an awesome supporting turn by Japanese starlet Rinko Kikuchi—reaches theaters at last.  Because a smallish distributor is releasing the flick you might have to look hard to find it, but you won’t feel ripped off after its over.

7. Shutter Island (October 2)
Martin Scorsese follows up his Oscar-winning crime drama The Departed with a ’50s-era action flick starring Leo DiCaprio (yes, again) as a U.S. marshal searching for an escaped mental patient on the titular secluded island.  Although it sounds closer to Cape Fear than Taxi Driver, every Scorsese picture is a must-see.



6. The Return of Geek TV
I can’t remember the last time I was this excited to see ABC’s Lost return to the airwaves.  The two-hour premiere kicks off on January 21 and the advance word is that the show is better than ever.  And with only one more year to go before its final batch of episodes, you know we’re in store for some major, major revelations.  I have seen the first episode of Joss Whedon’s highly anticipated new show Dollhouse (debuting February 13 on Fox) and I’m happy to say the Buffy creator is off to a strong start with his latest venture.  Between these two shows and the return of Battlestar Galactica (see below), geeks will have three good reasons to say inside glued to the TV during the cold winter months.

5. Watchmen (March 6)
While I’m not completely on board with all of Zack Snyder’s choices for the big-screen version of Alan Moore’s brilliant, groundbreaking, swoon-inducing graphic novel (for the love of God, stop with the slow-mo Zack!), I already know that I’ll be seeing it at least three times in theaters.  Of course, thanks to recent legal issues, we might have to wait a little longer to see Watchmen brought to life, but don’t freak out too much fanboys: this movie will get released.  It’s just going to cost Warner Brothers a heck of a lot of money.

4. Mad Men Season Three (Summer)
Instead of bailing out Detroit, why doesn’t the Fed give $700 million to Matthew Weiner so he can produce weekly episodes of Mad Men for all of 2009?  Because this year long wait to see the continuing adventures of ad man Don Draper is just not cool.

3. Avatar (December 18)
It’s been more than 10 years since James “King of the World” Cameron directed a feature film.  In that time, he’s released multiple versions of Titanic on DVD, helped get buddy Arnold Schwarzenegger elected governor of California and played himself on Entourage.  Some might call this creative loafing, but Cameron insists he was just waiting until CGI-technology caught up with his grand ideas for his next movie, Avatar, a top-secret sci-fi epic about a futuristic female warrior (played by Zoe Saldana).  Will the final product be worth the long wait?  You got me—all I know is, I’m buying my advanced tickets now.

2. The End of Battlestar Galactica (March)
Okay, so Battlestar Galactica as a franchise won’t be signing off for good two months from now.  There’s still a direct-to-DVD movie due out later this year and a prequel series Caprica launches in the fall.  There’s also a comic-book series and endless amounts of fan fiction all over the web.  But the show that launched this cult phenomenon is going away in March and television will be the poorer for it.  Memo to creator Ronald Moore: If Adama turns out to be a Cylon, I’m tossing my TV out the window.

1. Inglorious Bastards (August 21)
Holy crap, Quentin Tarantino has finally done it!  He’s made the World War II movie he’s been talking about since Pulp Fiction came out.  And somehow he convinced Brad Pitt to star in the damn thing.  So Quentin, does this mean we’re going to be seeing The Brothers Vega in 2010?  Travolta and Madsen aren’t getting any younger…

This week, Seth Rogen and James Franco get high on life in Pineapple Express; the crew of Battlestar Galactica fights for their frakkin’ lives; and a New York teenager is exposed to the wack side of life in The Wackness.

Pineapple Express
Sony
Single Disc: $28.96
Two-Disc: $34.95
Blu-ray: $39.95

Plot: A process server (Seth Rogen) and his pot-dealer (James Franco) accidentally run afoul of a local drug kingpin (Gary Cole) and are forced to go on the lam before they’re added to the list of his victims.

Opinion: It took me two viewings to really start grooving on the latest Judd Apatow comedy, Pineapple Express and even the second time around I didn’t come away with a complete contact high.  This fitfully funny, but wildly uneven picture tries to blend a stoner comedy with an ’80s action movie and the two genres never really fit together comfortably.  The fact that this is director David Gordon Green’s first experience directing a comedy doesn’t exactly help matters.  Unlike Apatow, Green doesn’t have a great feel for his actors’ rhythms; he allows some scenes to run on way too long, while others feel ultra-abbreviated, ending before anything really funny happens.  He’s also not certain how to direct Rogen, a very funny guy who needs a strong presence behind the camera to help him deliver an actual performance, not just a series of riffs.  The best thing about the film is Franco, who delivers a comic tour-de-force that ranks amongst the best pot performances ever captured on film. In fact, I’d watch a Saul solo sequel in a heartbeat, particularly if he somehow managed the make the acquaintance of Harold and Kumar.

Bonus Features: The single-disc edition offers a commentary track with the cast and crew (including Apatow, Franco, Rogen and Green), extended and alternate scenes (most notably a longer version of the final diner scene, which may just be the funniest bit in the movie), a gag reel and making-of featurette.  The two-disc version offers the slew of additional outtakes, deleted scenes and meta featurettes that are featured on every two-disc set released by the Apatow Factory.

Verdict: Rent It

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Battlestar Galactica: Season 4.0
Universal
$49.98

Plot: The long-suffering crew of the starship Galactica makes their final push to Earth while confronting some earth-shattering revelations (Tigh’s a frakkin’ Cylon!), jaw-dropping deaths (so long Callie!) and a galaxy-spanning Cylon civil war.

Opinion: It’s always sad when a great TV show leaves the airwaves, but I’m thrilled that Battlestar guru Ronald Moore is bringing his remarkable sci-fi series to an end while its still on a creative upswing.  Truth be told, BSG‘s third season was a little rocky, so giving his writers a definite endpoint was a smart move on Moore’s part.  The first half of the show’s fourth year offered one breathtaking episode after another—with only one or two duds tossed into the mix—climaxing in an incredible final shot that has had the show’s small, but devoted following buzzing for a whole year.  At this point, any predictions I might have had about where the series is headed have gone completely out the window.  Don’t bother asking me who the fifth and final Cylon is or how Starbuck returned from the dead.  I.  Have.  No.  Idea.  And you know what?  I’m fine with that.  Like everyone else, I’m just looking forward to seeing how things will end for Adama, Apollo, Tigh, Roslin and everyone else aboard that ship.  Naturally, I’m expecting plenty of heartbreak and pain along the way, but it wouldn’t be Battlestar Galactica if their lives weren’t constantly frakked up.

Bonus Features: In case you don’t listen to Moore’s weekly podcast commentaries, they’re all included here along with lots and lots of deleted scenes, behind-the-scenes documentaries featuring the oh-so-beautiful cast and oh-so-brilliant writers, directors and production folks.

Verdict: Buy It

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The Wackness
Sony Pictures Classics
$28.96
Blu-ray: $39.95

Plot: Luke (Josh Peck), a recent high-school grad, cruises the streets of New York City in the summer of ’94 toting a walkman filled with hip-hop mixtapes and an ice cart packed with dime bags of weed.

Opinion: One of the Ten Commandments of screenwriting is to write what you know and Jonathan Levine clearly took that lesson to heart while penning his sophomore feature, The Wackness.  The writer/director drew on his own experiences as a mid-’90s Manhattan teenager to craft this seriocomic tale and strives to connect Luke’s coming of age to the growing pains New York experienced in 1994, when Giuliani came to power.  But let’s be real for a sec: the ‘94 setting is mainly a gimmick to distract the audience from the film’s overly familiar narrative. Fortunately, this gimmick pays off like gangbusters. Packing the soundtrack with classic hip-hop tracks.  Levine gets the audience grooving on his flick’s funky vibe from the first frame.

Bonus Features: Levine—who talks in the same woozy cadences of his leading man by the way—reveals what’s real and what’s not in his semi-autobiographical feature.  The director also stars in a pointless “day in the life” featurette that follows him around Hollywood as he talks to various journalists and industry folks.  There’s also a 17-minute making-of featurette, two pretty funny episodes of a fake early ’90s public-access show starring the film’s main character and a batch of deleted scenes.

Verdict: Rent It

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Also on DVD

January is the month where Hollywood burns off some of its more dubious movies in theaters (Paul Blart: Mall Cop and Undeworld: Rise of the Lycans anyone?) and the same goes for DVD.  That’s why three of 2007′s biggest box-office bombs are slinking onto  disc this week, beginning with the Vin Diesel sci-fi flick Babylon A.D. (Fox, $39.98), which was famously disowned by its director right before its release last August.  This two-disc edition offers a longer cut that is supposedly closer to the filmmaker’s preferred version as well as making-of featurettes and a five-minute animated prequel to the movie.  Also getting an unnecessary 2-disc release is the Thailand-set action movie Bangkok Dangerous (Lionsgate, $29.95), featuring Nicolas Cage in a career-worst performance.  Extras include an alternate ending, a featurette devoted to the current state of Hong Kong and Thai cinema and a digital copy of the movie for your iPod.  Finally, there’s Disaster Movie (Lionsgate, $29.95), the latest—and hopefully last?—entry in the awful spoof franchise founded by Jason Friedberg and Aaron Seltzer.  This one features such D-list  performers as Carmen Electra and Kim Kardashian in lame send-ups of summer blockbusters like Iron Man and Sex and the City.  Please, please, please let the film’s anemic $15 million gross keep Friedberg and Seltzer from making Meet the Spartans Again.

Elsewhere, Dimension’s horror-themed direct-to-DVD label Dimension Extreme unleashes Eden Lake ($19.98), a Straw Dogs-style revenge movie where a nursery school teacher has to take on a gang of young punks who have beat up her wimpy hubby.  The documentary New York Noir: The History of Black New York (Little Dizzy Video, $14.99) takes on an expansive subject—the role African Americans played in transforming New York City into one of the world’s cultural capitols—and tries to condense it into a 45-minute history lesson.  As a primer, the film is mostly successful (although the low budget shines through fairly often) but it could have used at least an other half-hour to really do the topic justice.  On the other hand, don’t go looking for too much historical accuracy in Showtime’s bodice-ripping series The Tudors: The Complete Second Season (Paramount, $42.99), which follows the conquests and sexploits of serial groom Henry VIII (played by Jonathan Rhys-Meyers).  The week’s best TV-on-DVD release is Frisky Dingo: Season Two (Cartoon Network, $19.97).  Still one of Adult Swim’s funniest and most innovative cartoons, the show’s sophomore year found not-so-super hero Xander Crews (a.k.a. Awesome X) running against his sworn nemesis Killface to occupy the highest office in the land—no, not the Fortress of Solitude, the Oval Office in the White House.  Now that the good guys have triumphed in the real-world election, it makes rooting for the villain much more fun.

What would you do if you were the last person in NYC? Well, Will Smith decides he gonna fight vampires. I mean if that’s what floats your boat…

I Am Legend (Warner Bros, $28.98)
At this point, it’s clear that Will Smith could headline a movie about a guy reading the Sunday New York Times in his living room and it would make over $100 million at the box office. Still, the ridiculously high grosses of the Fresh Prince’s latest blockbuster I Am Legend (over $500 million worldwide) prove that audiences still prefer Action Will to Romantic Comedy Will or Dramatic Will. It took a mega-star of Smith’s caliber to jumpstart the troubled project, which had been trapped in development hell for well over a decade. Everyone from Arnold Schwarzenegger to Tom Cruise were considered for the lead role of Robert Neville, the lone survivor of a deadly virus, which killed off most of the population and transformed the rest into blood-sucking monsters. The original story, which sci-fi novelist Richard Matheson penned in 1954, took place in sprawling L.A., but Smith and director Francis Lawrence chose to move the action to Manhattan. That proved to be the smartest decision they could have made, because the real star of I Am Legend is the crumbling city that used to be the center of the world. From a Times Square overrun by tall grass and predatory animals to a South Street Seaport that exists in the shadow of a destroyed Brooklyn Bridge, the film’s depiction of a post-apocalyptic New York feels breathtakingly real. It’s a shame an equal amount of time and effort wasn’t put into the script, which starts out strong, but grows progressively sillier as the movie goes along. The design of the CGI vamps is also too slapdash; at least the effects appear more finished on the DVD than they did in theaters—the F/X folks must have done some tweaking to the film before it was transferred to disc. Looking to earn even more dough off their money-maker, Warner’s is putting out three versions of the I Am Legend DVD, a single-disc edition, a two-disc special edition and a Blu-Ray edition that has two bonus featurettes not included on either of the other releases. Extras are light on the non-Blu Ray releases anyway; the single-disc edition offers four animated comics—all of which are decidedly not for kids—that were released on the film’s website prior to its release and several additional features that can only be accessed on a PC with a DVD-Rom drive. (Which means Mac users like myself are SOL.) The two-disc version meanwhile offers a digital copy of the movie that you can save on your desktop as well as alternate cut that’s pretty much the exact same movie that was released in theaters, save for a strikingly different ending. That version of the ending found its way onto YouTube a few weeks ago, but was taken down after the studio complained. Some websites still have it if you go looking though, not that we would encourage you to that or anything…

Battlestar Galactica: Season Three (Universal, $59.98)
The third year of Battlestar Galactica proved to be a controversial one for the show’s small, but loyal fanbase. Everyone more or less agrees that the season began and ended with some of the best episodes in the show’s history. It’s the middle chunk that folks are divided about. Certainly, the second half of the season was hurt by some truly subpar episodes. Even I, a staunch BSG defender, have a hard time finding anything good to say about installments like “The Woman King” and “Dirty Hands.” I also think the producers shot themselves in the foot by being so coy about the fate of Starbuck. After supposedly killing her off with four episodes left in the season, they gave a series of interviews where they more or less confirmed that she’d be coming back, robbing her demise of any real emotional impact. But the show found its footing again in the two-part finale, which revealed the identities of four new Cylon agents and suggested that Earth may be closer than the fleet thinks. This fan-friendly box set comes packed to the gills with extra features; each episode contains a commentary track from showrunner Ron Moore, as well as a slew of deleted scenes. There’s also an extended cut of one of the season’s best episodes and numerous video blogs from exec producer David Eick that feature candid cast and crew interviews. Having seen the season premiere, I can say that Galactica‘s fourth year is going to be mind-blowingly good and if we had to go through some of season three’s valleys to get there, so be it.

Enchanted (Disney, $29.99)
Amy Adams won well-deserved praise for her thoroughly charming performance as a real-life Disney princess in this cute, if slight romantic comedy. On the day of her wedding to Prince Edward, heir to the throne of Andalasia, wide-eyed innocent Giselle is tricked by her betrothed’s evil stepmother and exiled to New York City, where she meets divorce lawyer Robert (Patrick Dempsey) and his adorable daughter Morgan. The story is boilerplate rom-com stuff, but what makes Enchanted so…well, enchanting is the way it gently spoofs classic Disney cartoons. Highlights include the “Happy Working Song” sequence, where Giselle enlists the help of rats, pigeons and cockroaches to clean up Robert’s apartment and any scene where James Marsden pops up as the delightfully daft Prince Edward. Director Kevin Lima has said that he filled the movie with all sorts of Disney in-jokes, so it’s a surprise that the DVD doesn’t include a featurette highlighting these gags for those of us who don’t know every Mouse House cartoon by heart. That would have been more interesting than the seven deleted scenes and boring blooper reel the studio did put on the disc. At least they remembered to include behind-the-scenes looks at the movie’s three big musical numbers; it’s particularly cool to see how the production took over Central Park to stage “That’s How You Know,” a showstopping song-and-dance sequence with a tune that’s guaranteed to be stuck in your head for days after you see the movie.

After Dark Horrorfest: 8 Films to Die For (Lionsgate, $159.84)
Thanks to the Saw and Hostel movies, Lionsgate has become the go-to place for extreme horror movies. Using the proceeds generated by its star franchises, the studio recently partnered with After Dark Films to launch the mini-film festival After Dark Horrorfest: 8 Films to Die For. As the name suggests, this program consists of eight low-budget horror flicks featuring B-list stars like Frank Whaley, Traci Lords and Michael Madsen. After turning up in theaters late last year, 2007′s Horrorfest finalists are now arriving on DVD and you can purchase them separately for $20 a pop or in one box set for $160. Titles include Mulberry Street, an I Am Legend-esque tale of a virus that transforms the residents of the famed Lower East Side boulevard into mindless killing machines; Lake Dread, about three sisters who travel back to the deceased grandfather’s country cabin and encounter a family of deadly rednecks; and Borderland, in which three college kids decide to spend the night before graduation in a small Mexican town and wind up being targeted by a vicious blood cult. I’d also recommend The Deaths of Ian Stone, a neat British flick about a guy who literally seems to have nine lives and Tooth & Nail, another post-apocalyptic tale. Extras vary by disc; some of the movies come with commentary tracks and featurettes, while others only include webisodes from a tie-in reality show conteset, in which a group of goth chicks compete for the all-important title of Miss Horrorfest.

Also on DVD
Curious about how accurate I Am Legend‘s depiction of a depopulated New York is? Check out the History Channel documentary Life After People (A&E Home Video, $24.95), which scored record ratings for the network when it premiered last December. Using computer graphics and interviews with various scientists, the filmmakers certainly convinced me that a humanity-free Earth is not a place I’d want to be. The end of the world is also the subject of Donnie Darko director Richard Kelly’s sophomore effort, Southland Tales (MGM, $24.96), which, depending on who you listen to, is either the worst film ever made or a misunderstood classic. Check out the DVD and decide for yourself. The bizarre cast alone—The Rock, Sarah Michelle Geller and Seann William Scott????—makes it worth checking out. Extras include an animated short and a featurette about the making of the movie. You can tell baseball season is finally upon because MGM has issued special editions of three hardball classics, starting with the Lou Gehrig biopic Pride of the Yankees (MGM, $14.98), which starred Gary Cooper as the legendary ballplayer. A less uplifting bit of baseball history is at the center of John Sayles’ acclaimed 1988 drama Eight Men Out (MGM, $14.98), which looks back at the infamous Black Sox scandal that captured the headlines in 1919. My personal favorite of the three is Bull Durham (MGM, $14.98), Ron Shelton’s hilarious minor-league comedy that features career-best work from Kevin Costner, Susan Sarandon and Tim Robbins. Each disc comes suited up with various extras, including commentary tracks and documentaries. Finally, Woody Allen completists will probably want to track down the 1969 movie version of the writer/director’s mid-’60s stage farce Don’t Drink the Water (Lionsgate, $19.98), which stars Jackie Gleason, Estelle Parsons and Joan Delaney. Fun trivia fact: years later, Allen would remake the film as a made-for-TV movie and cast himself in the Gleason role opposite Michael J. Fox and Mayim “Blossom” Bialik. That version is also available on DVD for $10 on Amazon.