War Games: The Dead Code is the straight-to-DVD sequel to the Cold War thriller starring Matthew Broderick as a teen computer whiz who almost starts World War III while under the mistaken impression that he’s playing a computer game. In The Dead Code, Matt Lanter is Will Farmer, a hacker who plays an online game called Ripley to win the money to go on a trip to Montreal with a girl [Annie D’Mateo, played by Amanda Walsh]. When his smartass best friend, Dennis [Nicholas Wright] up the ante while he’s not looking, Matt winds up catching the attention of the anti-terrorism computer program [R.I.P.L.E.Y. – voiced by Claudia Black] and being tagged as a potential terrorist.

Unlike the threat of “Global Thermonuclear War” that powered the original, The Dead Code’s threat is bio-terrorism – and Will’s problems unfold because of odd coincidences – fixing his neighbor’s computer [and borrowing the stake for the online game] link him to a possible terrorist in the middle east, and because his mother works for a company that manufactures chemically-based household products [one failed attempt was for an odourless bleach], her unsuccessful prototypes making it seem like she is also a possible bio-terrorist.

The problem with The Dead Code is that Will’s situation spirals out of control so quickly – and on such flimsy evidence – that it strains credulity. Worse, Will’s pal, Dennis only exists for the express purpose of getting him into trouble and then making sure he stays there before vanishing from the proceedings. Then there’s the girl. Annie is going to Montreal to play in a chess tournament and doesn’t even know Will at the film’s beginning – and yet, she puts up with all sorts of crap because of him for no other reason than because he followed her to the French-Canadian city.

War Games: The Dead Code hits all its beats pretty much when it should as director Stuart Gillard tries to keep the action distracting us from the flimsiness of the plotting and lack of real characterization. What special effects there are, are used well, and solid performances from Colm Feore [Slings & Arrows] and Maxim Roy [ReGenesis], among others, are wasted here. Probably the movie’s only original moments are provided by the manner in which the original film’s Joshua Project factors into the proceedings.

Features include: Audio Commentary by Gillard and Lanter [boring] a Making Of Featurette, and a Production Stills Gallery [and no, trailers are not a bonus feature – they’re a marketing tool – unless they are the trailers for the actual film].

Grade: War Games: The Dead Code: D

Grade: Features: C-

Final Grade: D+

Stargate: Continuum is the first DTDVD stand-alone adventure of the SG-1 team and it’s a bit of a time traveling doozy! It begins with SG-1 and General Jack O‘Neill [Richard Dean Anderson] attending the extraction ceremony for the last Goa’uld still existing in a Goa’uld System Lord. The Goa’uld is Ba’al [Cliff Simon], or rather, the last clone of Ba’al, who warns them that they’ve made a terrible mistake. As the ceremony proceeds, Vala [Claudia Black] and Teal’c [Christopher Judge] vanish. When members of the Tok’ra begin to disappear, too, the remaining SG-1 members and O’Neill realise that Ba’al has gone into the past to prevent the Stargate from being used – leaving Earth open to complete domination by the Goa’uld.

One of the best things about Stargate time travel tales is that they are usually a lot of fun. Continuum takes that to a whole new level, with appearances by nearly every major character in SG-1 lore – even though many are surprising cameos [check out the appearance of the System Lords, for example]. Also, Continuum is a stand-alone movie, so it’s not wrapping up a cliffhanger – or leaving fans hanging on yet another one.

In the alternate timeline that’s created by Ba’al’s maneuver, we get to meet alternate versions of O’Neill, General Hammond [Don S. Davis], Major-General Landry [Beau Bridges] and even President Henry Hayes [William Devane] – and we learn that, in this timeline, Col. Samantha Carter [Amanda Tapping] was an astronaut who died saving her shuttle crew and Daniel Jackson [Michael Shanks] is a discredited crackpot. Not only that, but Lt.-Col. Cameron Mitchell [Ben Browder] is in a position to create a Grandfather Paradox [look it up] if he screws up.

Stargate: Continuum works on a couple of levels: it’s a solid SG-1 adventure replete with action, humor and wit, and it’s also a breathtaking visual achievement, with some brilliantly shot sequences in the Arctic – and the first ever time that a nuclear submarine has been used in a movie [the captain being played by the sub’s real commander]. The writing is a bit above the average for the series and the cast get to play some interesting variations on their characters – especially, Shanks, whose Daniel Jackson suffers more than usual [even for him]. The direction is, as with the series, pretty snappy. Even the expository scenes are rife with wit and fun. As for the effects, they’re terrific – though they can barely hold their own against the majesty of the Arctic.

Features include: Audio Commentary by Executive Producer/Writer Brad Wright and Director Martin Wood; The Making of Stargate: Continuum Featurette; Stargate Goes to the Arctic Featurette, and The Layman’s Guide to Time Travel.

Grade: Stargate: Continuum – B+

Grade: Features: A

Final Grade: A-

One thing you can say about the Stargate franchise – it may rarely reach brilliance, but it’s equally rarely less than fun. Season four of SG Atlantis found Torri Higginson’s Dr. Elizabeth Weir leaving her command for a pretty good reason – to keep the Replicators from destroying Atlantis. In her stead, the Atlantis Expedition welcomed [all except for maybe David Hewlett’s Rodney McKay] Col. Samantha Carter [Amanda Tapping] as their new commander.

Along with other familiar villainous faces [like the Genii], season four also brought the former Wraith Michael [Connor Trinneer] back and tied his arc into the story of Teyla’s [Rachel Luttrell] pregnancy [Luttrell’s real pregnancy sparked the writers’ ideas]. We got to see Rodney attempt to propose marriage; the deserted Atlantis of twenty-eight thousand years in the future, and a fable about a little girl who was about to become queen. The season’s creative high point may have been Tabula Rasa [with everyone’s memories gone, including his, Rodney has to save the city], but I particularly enjoyed Midway wherein Col. Carter asks Teal’c [Christopher Judge] to help Ronan [Jason Momoa] prepare for his IOA interview – and things go, of course, hilariously wrong.

Overall, Atlantis’ fourth season rarely disappoints. The writers have a firm handle on the characters and seem able to produce interesting new riffs on the many aspects of the series. The cast is a well-oiled unit, figuratively speaking, and each has shown the capacity for bringing new shadings to their characters as the writers delve more deeply into them.

Features include: Audio Commentaries on nineteen of the twenty episodes [excepting only the one I wanted most, Midway]; four Mission Directive Featurettes [Doppelganger, This Mortal Coil, Quarantine and Outcast]; A New Leader: Amanda Tapping Joins Stargate Atlantis Featurette; The Doctor is In: The Return of Paul McGillion Featurette; The Making of Trio Featurette; A Look Back at Season Four Featurette; Bloopers; Deleted Scenes, and the usual collection of Photo & Design Galleries.

Grade: Stargate Atlantis: The Complete Season Four – B

Grade: Features: A+

Final Grade: A-

Anchor Bay Entertainment is known for finding film oddities that are worth bringing back to new audiences and putting together packages that reward the viewer for buying them. In large part responsible for making the films of Mario Bava and Dario Argento available to North American audiences once again, Anchor Bay has repackaged five of Argento’s [“the Italian Hitchcock”] films [Do You Like Hitchcock?, Phenomena, Tenebre, The Card Player, and Trauma] in a cool “steelbox” edition. Individual reviews are separated by photos of their original DVD releases.

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In January, 1967, a new science fiction series called The Invaders premiered on ABC [“In Color”]. The show ran for two seasons and vanished. In its short run, it influenced a lot of writers – echoes of the series can be seen in one-season wonders like Dark skies and long-running hits like The X-Files.

The series revolved around architect David Vincent [Roy Thinnes], who had pulled off the main road after too many hours without caffeine to take a nap. He was awakened by an eerie sound and watched as a UFO landed scant yards from where he was parked. The basic premise of the series was that Vincent had to find proof of the aliens’ existence so the world could be alerted to its danger. The problem was that the aliens could assume human form – only deformed pinkie fingers were a sign of their otherness.

The first season DVD set includes all seventeen episodes. Shot in producer Quinn Martin’s trademark quasi-documentary style [like his best-known hit, The Fugitive], The Invaders was written and performed without resorting to colloquialisms, making it seem timeless [even some of the ‘60s fashions have been back a time or two]. Roy Thinnes does a marvellous job of making Vincent’s growing paranoia palpable, and the show’s plots felt very real.

The show had an all-star selection of guest-stars to add to its impact – J.D. Cannon, Ellen Corby, James Daley and Diane Baker appeared in the premiere alone. Others to guest star include Roddy Macdowall, Laurence Naismith, Suzanne Pleshette, Arthur Hill, Louise Latham, Jack Lord and Diana Hyland [and that’s just in the first half-dozen eps!].

Besides crackerjack writing and the all-star guest starring cast, the series also had extremely good effects for the time. Both the UFOs in flight and the alien immolations hold up pretty well when compared with similar work being done today.

Features include: The Extended, 60-Minute Version of the Series Premiere; A New Interview – and Episode Introductions By – Roy Thinnes; Commentary on The Innocents by Series Creator Larry Cohen, and Network Promotional Spots.

Grade: The Invaders: The First Season – A

Grade: Features – B

Final Grade: A-

The innovative Cloverfield, which brought a whole new, personal style to monster movies, fares even better on DVD than it did in the theater. That’s because the film was shot as if by a guy who happened to have a camcorder with him when the monster appeared in Manhattan. Of course, even on the small screen, Cloverfield remains a truly intense experience, with its visual references to 9/11, its monster lice, and its very “old gods” looking beastie.

Cloverfield is unique as monster movies go in that it takes much more time to establish its characters than the average genre effort. This is because we have to know these people before we are plunged into the action with them. Since the only view of the action we get is from the point of view of the guy with the camera, we only catch glimpses of the monster – but are right there when one character gets mauled by one of the lice. The attempt to rescue someone we’ve seen only briefly on a bit of recording and for a few minutes at a party only makes sense if we know these people.

Overall, Cloverfield is a pretty special achievement in the monster movie genre, with its almost constant intensity and the intimacy of being right there with “The Man on the Street” as it were. The FX are amazing – and although we never quite see the whole monster at any one time, we see enough bits to be able to figure out its appearance.

Features include: Audio Commentary with Director Matt Reeves; Deleted Scenes; Document 01.18.08: The Making of Cloverfield; Cloverfield Visual effects; I Saw IT! It’s Huge! It’s Alive!; Clover Fun; Deleted Scenes; Alternate Endings, and www.cloverfieldfiles.com.

Grade: Cloverfield – A+

Grade: Features – A+

Final Grade: A+

It’s been twenty years since Heathers was released by a dying New World to critical acclaim and some box office success. Now, Anchor Bay has released the dark high school comedy as part of its Cult Classic Film Series. The film’s indictment of kids who will do anything to be popular – and become the ultimate jerks once they achieve it – is as grotesquely funny today as it was when it was first released.

Veronika [Wynona Ryder] is one of the Heathers – the most popular girls in school [the other three are all named Heather] – and the least ruthless. About the same time as she reaches her limit with her so-called friends, she meets a charismatic new guy in school, J.D. [Christian Slater] and becomes in embroiled in a series of murders that the two stage as suicides.

First-time director Michael Lehman and first-time writer Daniel Waters produced a terrific film with its own peculiarly daring sense of humor – and its own slang. With its budget constraints, what propels Heathers is the energy of its performances. Ryder and Slater have, frankly, never been better – And Shannen Doherty stands out as the shyest of the Heathers.

Features include: Audio Commentary by Lehman, Waters and Producer Denise DiNovi; Swatch Dogs and Diet-Coke Heads [a 30-minute of reminiscences by the cast, director, writer, producer and editor]; Trialer; Screenply Excerpt; Original Ending, and Talent Bios.

Grade: Heathers – A

Grade: Features – A-

Final Grade: A

The Upright Citizens Brigade is a group of improvisational comics who have taken their game to the next level.

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The day after John Lennon was killed outside his New York home, The Tomorrow Show with Tom Snyder aired his last televised interview, which had been aired five years previously, along with appearances by journalist Lisa Robinson and Lennon’s producer, Jack Douglas. Interviews with Paul and Linda McCartney and two other members of Wings, and Ringo Starr and his wife, Barbara Bach, briefly touch on John and The Beatles. Plus, Angie Dickinson…

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Pucca is an animated series about a girl with super strength who loves a ninja with super speed. Sounds pretty basic, doesn’t it? But add a group of renegade ninjas who will stop nothing to destroy Pucca’s One True Love and you get an action-packed, beautifully designed series. These two DVDs are great fun for all ages.

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