I’ll admit it, I jumped onto the Battlestar Galactica bandwagon late.  The show was just about to air Season 4 when I decided to give it a shot.  After hearing nothing but positive reviews of the show and constant talk on the forum board on Comic Geek Speak, I decided not having the SciFi, or now SyFy, channel wasn’t going to stop me.  I rented the first disc of the first season which was set as a mini-series and was instantly hooked.  I went on a massive dvd marathon and was caught up by the end of the first half of season 4, dubbed season 4.0, and was eagerly awaiting for the 2nd half of the final season.

After the series ended, with a bit of controversy on the finale, I knew of a prequel called Caprica was in the works.  Though I still haven’t watched the pilot of it, I just knew it wouldn’t be the same without the characters I grew to love.  In August of this year, I attended a panel at the yearly comic-con that featured Edward James Olmos and Luciana Carro who played Commander William Adama and Pilot Louanne “Kat” Katrine respectively. In that  panel, Olmos revealed to the crowd that a direct-to-DVD movie was set to be released in November based on the Cylons point of view called Battlestar Galactica: The Plan.  Naturally myself and other fanboys…and girls…were giddy with the notion of seeing more of the humans struggle with survival at the hands of the robot race called Cylons.

I can think of worse ways to die.

To begin to talk about the DVD, I want to point out that you need to have watched the complete 4 season series to understand and appreciate this.  Plus, major spoilers would be revealed here to those who haven’t seen the final two seasons themselves.  Many series regulars return here with the absence of only a few ket players, but some are shown in cut scenes from the show itself.   The series patriarch, Olmos, directed this with Jane Espenson writing.  Interesting thing I found out was that The Shawshank Redemption director Frank Darabont was originally attached to direct but when he was unavailable, Olmos took over.  Having directed a handful of the show’s episodes, he was up to the task.  That was one of the tidbits revealed in the DVD’s extras, but we will get back to that later.

The direction the story-line takes winds up giving  actors Dean Stockwell (Cavil), Rick Worthy (Simon), and Michael Trucco more screen-time.  Stockwell shines as the main focus and gives us great range for the ability to play two different versions of the same Cylon model.  Worthy is finally given the chance to show off his acting ability and does so quite well.  Trucco, Samuel Anders, has always been one of my favorite characters in the show and I am glad to see him given more material to work with since I was kind of disappointed with how his character was used in the final handful of episodes.  Of course, you can’t talk about Battlestar Galactica without mentioning Tricia Helfer and Grace Park.  The two of them get more screentime and material to work with as well and show good acting range.

While I did enjoy watching some revelations of how some scenes and events came to be, I was disappointed Olmos and Espenson went with the approach they made that the film felt like a completion of deleted and/or deleted scenes.  There was many archive footage used from the series used here with most being re-shot to extend and add to scenes.  When the last dvd movie, Battlestar Galactica: Razor, was made it was a well written side plot using new characters intertwine into the main story-arch.   Here was nothing of the sort.  While Razor felt original, The Plan does not.

Since this is a DVD review, it’s time to talk special features.  The audio commentary with Olmos and Espenson was intriguing as they talked about both the characters and their development plus visual effects amongst other things.  Featurettes here such as From Admiral to Director, The Cylons of The Plan, and The Cylon Attack all feature Olmos commenting on different fixtures of the show and this film.  The best featurette in my opinion is Visual Effects: The Magic Behind ‘The Plan’ is also the longest of the four.  This one goes into the development of the stunningly realistic visual effects that go not only into this film but also what was seen in each of the episodes.

Overall this film was enjoyable, but for die-hard fans only.  New viewers to the series will not get much out of this.  I give Battlestar Galactica: The Plan 3 1/2 pitchforks.  I wish I could give it more, but I can’t get past the issue of it feeling like a rehash of a story told in the first 2 seasons and not a stand-alone side plot which made Razor such a great complement to the series.

O nosso Top 10 do mês de outubro ficou assim (posição/nome):

01 – Aki Hoshino – ほしの あき

02 – Florencia Tesouro – Outubro
03 – Stephanie Ly
04 – Joanna Krupa #2
05 – Juju Panicat – Juliana Salimeni
06 – Tila Tequila Nguyen #2
07 – Reon Kadena – かでなれおん
08 – Renata Fukumura
09 – Grace Park #3
10 – Ursula Mayes

They look hungry

Con el nombre de “Desmontando”, inicio una sección en la que hablaré de una serie en concreto, de un episodio, de una temporada, o como aquí sucederá, de la serie en conjunto.

Battlestar Galáctica, o Galáctica para los amigos, se estreno en 2003 a través de una miniserie y era el remake de una antigua serie con el mismo nombre. El remake gustó y se dio luz verde a una serie que ha durado 4 magníficas temporadas, destacando para mi gusto, la cuarta y última.

Galáctica es una serie de ciencia ficción, (aclarar que a mi este tipo de series con extraterrestres o cosas parecidas como Star Trek, o la saga Stargate, no me gustan). Empecé a oír de la serie y vi los primeros capítulos y me encantó. Y la recomiendo a todo el mundo, sí es una serie que tiene lugar en un futuro lejano, donde unas máquinas creadas por el hombre, “los cylons”, han evolucionado tanto que algunas tienen forma humana, y han provocado una guerra entre humanos y cylons. Y los únicos supervivientes humanos se encuentran en el espacio sin rumbo y buscando un camino y una esperanza para la raza humana.

Pero Galáctica es más que una serie de ciencia ficción. A través de las cuatro temporadas muestran temas de nuestros días, como el gobierno de la humanidad, la política, la democracia, el racismo, el fanatismo, las religiones, la supervivencia, el amor, la tolerancia, y un sinfín de tramas más.

A través de unos personajes principales muy bien dibujados, y de unos secundarios geniales, sobre todo en la cuarta temporada (destacando a Gaeta sin desvelar la trama) evoluciona la serie hasta unos episodios finales muy bien hechos, consistentes y coherentes con el resto de la serie, y destacando un buen final de la serie.

Los personajes son muy importantes, así destacamos al jefe de la nave Galáctica, Bill Adama (Edward James Olmos), su hijo, Lee Adama y jefe de la flota militar (Jamie Bamber), la Presidenta Roslin (Mary McDonnell), Starbuck, la rebelde piloto (Katee Sackhoff), Boomer, una cylon con forma humana (Grace Park), Baltar (James Callis) este personaje, no os explicó nada, pero está muy bien interpretado, y muestra la dualidad moral tan presente en la serie, y número seis (Tricia Helfer)

La cuarta temporada que acabo de finalizar es mucho más concreta que las otras, la mayoría de los capítulos están relacionados con la trama final y son geniales. Destacar, entre otros, el capítulo 10, buenísimo el final. Los capítulos 13 y 14, (el final del 14, es histórico), y los tres últimos.

No sé si os he convencido, para acercaros a esta serie que en principio no es tan llamativa a las otras, tipo Anatomía de Grey, Perdidos, etc, pero merece igual la pena. Y os animo a que conozcáis a la presidenta Roslin, a los Adama, y Starbuck, entre otros. Y recordad, ¡Buena Caza!

A big, unorganized roundup of news and items we didn’t feel deserved a full blog post.

Well, so much for October. Here comes November right on its heels as always, the month with bitter cold, Thanksgiving, Black Friday, and the beginning of the Christmas season. October wasn’t much of a month for film, unless you’re a horror fan, in which case you got yet another part of the seemingly endless Saw franchise. You mabe even participated in the Paranormal Activity phenomenon/marketing blitz.

We spent a good part of the month not trekking through the chilly rain to see whatever else was in the theatres, but instead stayed home and watched film noirs and some classic 70s cinema. What follows below is stuff from the outside world that caught our diminished attention, assembled in no particular order of importance.

1. If you’re one of the thousands of visitors this month who got here looking for our picture of Grace Park, welcome and please enjoy the rest of our articles. We hope you stuck around and didn’t just right click and run, but read our whole piece about casting the long-in-Development-Hell Flash movie. We’ll have a comparable article for the far-more-definite Green Lantern project published right here later in November. You should also check out our mission statement, located on the task before just this entry.

2. A few idle thoughts about how Mad Men might end its third season. Last season Don Draper’s (John Hamm) nemesis Duck Phillips (Mark Moses) left the company in a snit after learning Draper had no contract at Sterling Cooper. This season Phillips has joined an aggressive rival agency apparently eager to expand its work force. With Sterling Cooper up for sale by its British parents, Draper could find himself working for Phillips once again if Phillips’ new agency buys his old one out. The difference is that this time Draper would find himself hemmed in by the contract boss Bert Cooper (Robert Morse) blackmailed him into signing. The walls are closing in on Don from all sides, and we can’t wait to see how this freight train of a season reaches its conclusion.

3. Warner Brothers used to release their Film Noir Classic Collection box sets once a year, giving fans of America’s most hallowed film genre a fresh crop of famous and not-so-famous crime and detective movies to pore over. They stopped that last year, though, with Chapter4 in the series containing relatively obscure gems like Act of Violence and Crime Wave, and the long-awaited cult favorite Decoy. But there are lots of other noir favorites to bring to the DVD format, including works by some of the era’s biggest directors and actors. Who do we beg, nag, or offer to bribe for a fifth volume in the series? And on that subject, is Fox no longer releasing titles under its “Fox Film Noir” imprint?

Watch this show.

4. Are you one of the hundreds of Americans watching NBC this season? The troubled network sees the ratings of its much-trumpeted The Jay Leno Show continue to erode, while once-mighty ratings earners Heroes and Law & Order circle the drain. Actually, the ratings attrition of Heroes has been going on for years, but it seems now the network may be ready to wrap things up with a finale to air next spring. Meanwhile the promising hour-long drama Trauma, which would’ve stood a fair chance in one of the 10 PM berths currently monopolized by the Leno show, won’t get its full season order.

5. While we’re on the subject, the network’s freshman comedy Community continues to get better and better as it finds its comic momentum, turning out one inspired episode after another even while its ratings remain wanting. The pilot was a bit stiff, admittedly hurting its first impressions, but subsequent episodes have focused on what works (the comic chemistry between stars Joel McHale and Chevy Chase; Yvette Nicole Brown’s irresistable charm) and downplayed what doesn’t. It’s TV you can’t wait to quote to your friends the next day, espcially just about anything that comes out of Spanish instructor Senor Chang’s (Ken Jeong) mouth.

6. Why are they only now making sequels to films that Gen X’ers loved in college? Both Boondock Saints II: All Saints Day and Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans have releases just around the corner, even though expectations for either one haven’t exactly set the world afire. Actually, director Warner Herzog swears his Bad Lieutenant isn’t a remake or sequel to Abel Ferrara’s notorious 1992 neo-noir, but the comparisons are inevitable and probably at least a little bit deserved. We want to get excited about the new Bad Lieutanant, though we’re skeptical about Nicolas Cage tackling the fine subtleties of New Orleans life and culture. (Remember his last attempt at filmmaking in the Crescent City? Most people don’t.)

7. Also something presumably for Generation X members, the first official cast photo from the upcoming A-Team movie was released earlier this week. That’s Bradley Cooper (The Hangover) as Face, UFC star Rampage Jackson as B.A. Baracus, Sharlto Copley (District 9) as Howling Mad Murdock, and the great Liam Neeson as Hannibal Smith. Jessica Biel and Omari Hardwick (Deep Blue) also star.

We’d be less enthused about this, yet another 80s show getting the movie treatment, if not for Joe Carnahan’s place in the director’s seat. The original series was impossible to take completely seriously, much like Carnahan’s own bullet fest Smokin’ Aces. So much like its inspiration, we can likely enjoy the A-Team movie best if we don’t expect too much from it.

8. Ridley Scott says he says he wants to make a prequel to Alien, setting its story a full thirty years before the events of the classic 1979 original, which he also directed. That’s fine and all, but we can’t help but think it’s going to push back his adaptation of Joe Haldeman’s brilliant science fiction novel The Forever War, which he announced about a year ago.

We’d bet anything that there’s more story potential in Haldeman’s tale of soldiers fighting the same space war over millenia than there is in going to the Alien well a seventh time. The novel is a long time coming to film – Scott himself said he waited 25 years to get the rights – and its many, many admirers deserve to see a director of Scott’s caliber handle the project. So here’s hoping.

9. Finally, the trailer below previews the new comedy Pirate Radio, based on the true story of the outlaw radio station that broadcast off the coast of England in the 1960s. Retitled from its earlier international release name The Boat That Rocked, the film’s had a troubled production history, including many edits to trim it down from an original three-hour runtime. Just the same, we remain optimistic if only for the presence of Bill Nighy, an actor so versatile and charming he could probably sell sand in the desert.

Pirate Radio opens nationwisde November 13.

- Michael Kabel

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The other week we had pictures of Tricia Helfer and Grace Park in Maxim Magazine and today we have some outtakes from that photo shoot that are just Grace Park. I’m sure there are some Tricia Helfer outtakes floating around out there but I think we are all more into Grace Park because we have caught the deadly yellow fever. Yellow Fever is more deadly then Swine Flu for your information but it’s not deadly.

Tricia Helfer and Grace Park grace the latest cover of Maxim magazine.  HOT.

Here is a quick video from Maxim.

Why didn’t Maxim get Katee Sackhoff to join them!??

No se que problema tendría el cierre de Galactica que tiene que venir  James Edward Olmos ha dirigir un truñazo de casi dos horas que no aporta absolutamente nada nuevo, relleno, puro y duro, y a destiempo. Ha habido mil momentos en la serie para meter esa serie de escenas inconexas con abusos de fundidos en negro, incluso se podría haber hecho un episodio dentro de la serie regular antes del final, pero que esto sea lo último que va a verse de dicha serie es una vergüenza. The Plan es como esas colecciones anexas a las grandes sagas de las editoriales de comics, que sacan a la vez con afán recaudatorio, te meten personajes, tapan cuatro huecos ya contar billetes. A parte está el tema que el título es pretencioso, porque si el plan Cylon con el que han bombardeado cada intro de la serie es esto, mejor pasar.

The Plan es un timo total y absoluto, no es más que un montón de escenas que parecen sacadas directamente de las que se eliminan y se incluyen como extras en los DVD puestas en línea cronológica. Para empezar se abusa tanto del fundido en negro para separar los segmentos , el montaje es de lo más torpe que recuerdo. Luego el planteamiento, similar a aquel episodio de Lost de la segunda temporada titulado “The Other 48 Days” se basa en contar cosas que los espectadores no saben y que han sido simultaneas a la acción de la serie, pero es que son escenas tan intrascendentes, tan mal hiladas, tan mal dirigidas, tan mal interpretadas, abusando tanto de metraje recuperado directamente de la serie para situar al espectador, que dan bastante vergüenza y que hacen que el espectador se pase bostezando dos horas esperando que pase algo realmente impactante.

James Edward Olmos debería quedarse lejos de una cámara, porque su trabajo como director de este episodio es deficiente, no saca rendimiento ninguno al reparto, los conocidos están peor que de costumbres (algunos como Tyrol nunca tendrán remedio) y los pocos personajes nuevos, además de metidos con calzador, están sobreactuados como si andasen por una serie made in Globomedia. Tiene además detalles de ser un “quiero y no puedo”, recurriendo al típico recurso de enseñar carne porque sí para que la gente piense “que arriesgado, enseña desnudos”, que no sobrarían si The Plan tuviese algo de fondo, pero dado lo flojo de la producción suena a recurso fácil y barato.

El guión es flojísimo, si realmente el plan de los Cylon es esto, y su forma de empezar a sentir la humanidad también, apaga y vámonos. Los momentos de “humanización” son accesorios, carecen de emotividad, están desubicados y en fila, no son necesarios puesto que en la serie ya se van intuyendo, la sobreexplicación perjudica mucho más que beneficia. A los fans talibán de la serie, a los equivalentes a los trekkies seguramente les gustará tanta recreación en lo nimio, para el resto de seguidores de la serie estas casi dos horas son una tortura.

De los actores poco que destacar, Tricia Helfer bien, haciendo de varias six y salvando los muebles, Grace Park ramplona, sin sangre, aburrida, como a lo largo de toda la serie. Dean Stockwell, el hermano Cavil, cabeza pensante del plan, está sobreactuado, como un malo de operata. Callum Keith Rennie está correcto aunque el guión limita mucho las posiblidades de este actor. Michael Trucco tampoco consigue destacar, aunque no es tan infame como Aaron Douglas.

En definitva, The Plan es un episodio doble que de haberlo metido en el momento adecuado dentro de la serie se podría haber salvado, pero que una vez cerrada no es más que un sacacuartos con un guión mediocre, una dirección pésima, un montaje insulso y unas interpretaciones ramplonas. Este invento no sirve ni siquiera para ampliar conceptos del universo de Galactica, esos planos de las colonias hechos malamente con gráficos de PS2 se hacen pesados. Lo más decepcionante es que después del buen cierre que tuvo la serie, ahora saquen este subproducto complementario. Ahora solo queda esperar que visto lo visto, dejen la serie como está y no la sigan hundiendo.

A Maxim deste mês fez um ensaio com as atrizes Tricia Helfner e Grace Park, duas das beldades protagonistas do sci-fi ‘Battlestar Galactica‘.

O editorial celebra o lançamento em DVD e Blu-Ray de ‘Battlestar Galactica: The Plan’.

Endelig har det vært premiere av The Border… Serien gikk nettopp ut i sin tredje sesong hvilket jeg er vel så glad for. The Border er en av mine favoritt serier (og definitivt den beste serien som har kommet ut av Canada). Forrige sesong slutta med en bang og masse rattattata gevær så det var godt å endelig kunne få vite hva som skjedde vidre. Litt trist var det da å finne ut ting og tang men det kom da noe godt ut av det som skjedde også… Skal ikke røpe noe… Om du ikke har sett The border så er det en flott serie å få med seg med mange interessante karakterer og høy eyecandy faktor.

Sofia Milos, kjent fra C.S.I Miami.

Grace Park, kjent fra Battlestar Galactica.

Jeg gir denne serien

(5/6 stjerner)

Two for the price of one with Canadian exchange today. Here are Canadian hotties Trisha Helfer and Grace Park.

Diego Maradonna is what the Argentinians would call a footballing legend. However, his tenure as manager of the national team has been less than stellar. Now that his side scraped into the 2010 World Cup, he has a few kind words for his supporters in the press. (Deadspin)

Did you know that Friday was National Boss Day? So what should you get some of the worst bosses in the sports world? (Real Clear Sport)

But what do you do if your ex-boss is a lunatic obsessed with becoming famous? You sell your story to the media. (Gawker)

After the jump, Temco-ized football highlights, something else, and don’t quit your day job, Kareem.

Maybe you should have taken your boss out for a drink. Just don’t have too many and embarrass yourself by turning into this guy who is literally too drunk to move. (Crimesider)

Is email slowly dying and about to be replaced? The Wall Street Journal thinks Google Wave is the start of something good. (WSJ)

This would normally be an Entertainment Link-Off thing but celebrities need to learn to shut the hell up. (LA Times)

And even when celebrities aren’t tweeting in the middle of a feud, anything they put on Twitter will piss someone off. (WSJ)

Canada is on the verge of becoming extremely popular on the world stage. A court case could make brothels legal across the country. (Toronto Sun)

A public service message from the Sacramento Kings: Don’t use medicine balls ever. (Sacramento Bee)

Zombies are a topic of conversation on the next episode of the radio show. We aren’t planning on talking about NBA zombies, though. (Sports Hernia)

Let’s keep building the hype for the 14th season of Top Gear. Here’s a great interview with host Jeremy Clarkson. (BBC)

Who knew that Jon Hamm was a hockey fan? Who knew that he’s getting in early on the Blues? (River Front Times)

Speaking of hockey, the head of the IIHF isn’t very happy that NHL commissioner Gary Bettman is considering not letting his players go back to the Olympics in 2014. (CTV Olympics)

The NFL is a little draconian when it comes to dealing with new media. For example, they don’t like videos of NFL games on YouTube. So someone has gone through the trouble of recreating great plays using Tecmo Bowl. (Gibbs 12)

One football highlight that you won’t see is the latest one from Toronto high school football. Actually, you’re likely not to see it anywhere because I don’t think anyone wants to see microwaved shit. (Deadspin)

Today’s photo gallery brings us to the wonderful world of technology. Here’s a look at the 10 coolest laptops on the market today. (Oddee)

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar may be a basketball superstar but his memory isn’t so good anymore. That was your line, Kareem!

The Toronto Maple Leafs have announced their latest acquisition: This 9-year-old kid who pulled off a shootout move that the pros struggle with.

Las estrellas de la popular serie de televisión Battlestar Galáctica, Tricia Helfer y Grace Park posan sensuales para el último número de la revista para caballeros MAXIM. Tricia Helfer finalmente alcanza el punto más alto hasta ahora de su carrera artística interpretando al agente cylón Número Seis. Aparece regularmente en sesiones de fotos de la revista Maxim y fue su chica del calendario de 2005. En Febrero del 2007 fue portada de la Revista Playboy.

That’s right, my fellow pervs. Grace Park and Tricia Helfer are the featured eye candies of the November issue of Maxim magazine. I really don’t have a lot to say about this. I mean, yeah, I know we’ve seen Tricia nekked as her name day, but I’ll be damned if I get tired of seeing her show us the goodies.

My only disappointment in this shoot is in Grace. Don’t get me wrong, she’s still smokin’ hot. And I won’t complain about getting glimpses of her under-boobies. But I miss her faux military bod. Cylon Boomer could dominate me any day of the week…and make me like it, no less. Post Galactica Gracie doesn’t even look like she could dominate a sandwich.

Still, both of these ladies are unbelievably hot, and I won’t keep you guys from the rest of the shots I got off Maxim….as if you haven’t already disregarded this post and gone straight for the good stuff. Dicks.

DS Out.

They did maxim, and some day id like them to do our blog…and by “our blog” i mean me and me alone. yes i am selfish but im sure the other admin will be married to taylor swift by then and ill just be living like charlie harper. ive already got a stalker and a string of bat shit crazy ex girlfriends. im just waiting for that lit road flare to go flying through my bed room window.

its widely known that i am a sucker for asian girls, why? i do not know…or do i? anyways heres grace park i think shes in battlestar gallactica or whatever and ive never seen one episode not really interested unless she has many lesbian scenes on there…then im all game for it.

A TV show called Battlestar Gallatica doesn’t really scream out hot chicks to the common man but we should all stop and consider that nerds are lonely and studios know how to exploit that. Thus is the reason that Tricia Helfer and Grace Park on a show called Battlestar Gallatica. A side not though; I actually heard that this show is really good and that it is nothing like Star Trek: The Next Generation, okay back to the babes. It is hard to decide who is hotter in these Maxim photos, Tricia or Grace so take your time and really look them over. I mean it, take your time. *wink* *wink* *nudge* *nudge* *zip*