How tough? It was the toughest experience of her life says the actress. The shoot was hard, and the kung-fu training was hard. Downtime was spent playing Dead or Alive — not just for research per se, but out of boredom. Explains Valance:

Oh yes, we played so much. That's pretty much what we had to do in our rooms, because there was nothing else to do. That and buy pirated DVDs in the village. I'm so against buying pirated movies and music, because that's my business, but there was literally nothing else to do. So we'd watch these awful DVDs filmed on a camcorder in the cinema.

Why not, you know, read a book? Or have books shipped to you? Hey, it's none of my business — just wondering! But bonus points for honesty.

Vance appears in the new standalone expansion for Red Alert 3, which you should buy, unless by Vance's logic, you're in a remote village with nothing else to do.

Eurogamer meets Holly Valance [Eurogamer]

Netflix lists the DVD as already released, but the majority of online retailers are showing a 9/11 ship date. Please let us know if you find it "in the wild."

Anyway, apparently someone thought it was a good idea to make Elf Bowling into a movie. Then they convinced a couple other people this was also a good idea. Surely dozens, if not hundreds, of people with varying opinions on the idea were sent to work on it, resulting in the direct to video release Elf Bowling the Movie: The Great North Pole Elf Strike. It's coming to DVD this October. I predict it will perform far better than DOA: Dead or Alive.

Thanks for the tip, Matt!Michael McWhertor

Out of all the gaming things Europe gets first, one had to be DOA: Dead or Alive. The film was based on Itagaki's Tecmo fighting games and stunk up the box office. The movie was so horrible that the film studio didn't screen it for some of the actors. So, the burning question: When will we see an American theatrical release? Who cares! Actress Jamie Pressley, who played Tina in the flick, said:

I can't say that I'm upset that it didn't come out. We were working with a director, Corey Yuen, who is one of the number one action and marital arts directors in the world. That's why we did the film. In the process of filming, a lot of bad stuff came up and happened, being that we were over in China in little small villages, you didn't have the means necessary to get things done like you do when you're in Hollywood. So I think between things getting lost in translation because there were four dialects going on at all times, or languages I should say, and the lack of necessities, it just didn't turn out the way that it should have. And I think for gamers, a lot of the stuff was inaccurate because they changed it along the way.

Wow, it's not only bad for gamers, but also for Hollywood types. Brian Ashcraft

Why No DOA [Rotten Tomatoes via 1Up]