Fan favorite, Joss Whedon’s TV show Dollhouse, is kind of like going back for a third date with someone you know can’t get it up. This week’s episode, “Belle Chose”, has the plot of a porno. Echo (Eliza Dushku) takes the implant to be an English student, and is contracted by a lonely English teacher. Yet another Battlestar Galactica alumni Michael Hogan (Colonel Tigh) guest stars on this episode and he has issues with Adelle DeWitt (Olivia Williams), the woman who runs this particular Dollhouse.

She informs Tigh that his nephew is a serial killer who kidnaps people that look similar to their family. He’s a dangerous guy, having smashed a woman’s skull with a croquet malet at the beginning of the episode. After the bludgeoning, Serial Killer gets hit by a car trying to kidnap another woman to replace the woman he just killed.

This puts him in a coma, and Tigh hires the Dollhouse to reconstitute his consciousness in an Active — which they do in Victor. He eventually tells Tahmoh Penikett how he (the Serial Killer) did it. Though Tigh releases him, and Victor escapes him on foot. Its at this point that Xander, I mean Topher, gets the idea to do a remote wipe of all the actives so that Victor doesn’t get all serial killer on someone.

This works, but Echo and Victor’s personalities exchange and Victor becomes a 19 year-old co-ed at a dance club, and Echo becomes the serial killer. Eventually, she flips out among the kidnapped women, and as she loses control of her multiple personalities she manages to hold back the Serial Killer until her Handler (Penikett) comes to the rescue.

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The Boys Are Back opens with Joe (Clive Owen) blasting through the surf of an undisclosed beach in his Land Rover Discovery, kicking up water and sand as he clips along at a rather impressive speed.  He gleefully laughs, then we see the trunk of the SUV, adorned with Joe’s son, who of course thinks this is great fun. As soon as the son entered the picture,  I became white knuckled, and fretted over the safety of the actor portraying Joe’s son. I never really recovered from that scene, and kind of despised Joe throughout the movie. That makes is rather difficult to be sympathetic to his plight.

Joe is a sports writer at an Australian newspaper, and is happily married  with a seven year old son, Artie (Nicholas McAnulty). He travels frequently for work and is somewhat of an absentee father. His wife Katy (played by Laura Fraser) pretty much runs the household entirely on her own. Unfortunately, his wife gets cancer and dies (no spoilers, it happens in the first 5 minutes). The opening scenes are quite upsetting, and I should caution you if you have a loved one suffering from a terminal illness, you might want to skip this movie.

Thrust into the role of primary caregiver, Joe fails miserably.  Dishes and laundry pile up, and questionable food items become the norm (ketchup with noodles, anyone?). In the real world, his household would be a prime target for Child Protective Services. The movie depicts Joe’s struggle  running the household quite realistically. Complicating matters further, Joe’s teenage son from a previous marriage decides that this is the appropriate time to go hang out with the father who abandoned him when he was six years old.

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If you’re an astute reader, which we know you are, you’ve probably noticed a few new reviews popping up on The Flickcast over the past few weeks. For the month of October, in addition to our regular film, TV and DVD reviews, we’ll be bringing you lots of reviews of horror films to commemorate the month as well.

We’ll be bringing you a few new Horror Reviews each week, of both new theatrical releases, as well as new films on DVD. We’ll be doing this all month long so be sure to check out each horror review as they hit. Or, you can check out our most current list of reviews at the site by clicking on the link at the top.

Finally, on October 30th (Devil’s Night for those in the “know”), we’ll list all of our reviews and let you know which films to watch to get into the Halloween spirit. So, be sure to check back here frequently for all your horror film review needs.

Happy Halloween!

Let me start by asking doesn’t “Star Trek Trio” sound like a really geeky jazz band? Someone that is musically inclined should totally make that happen. Vegas show, perhaps?

That said, three of the big names behind the Star Trek reboot, J.J. Abrams, Roberto Orci, and Alex Kurtzman, spoke independently regarding what is to come for the franchise. Being a writer, let me start with my favorite scribes Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman. ComingSoon caught up with the pair and discussed what was on deck for the sequel. Kurtzman explained how they looked to some of the best sequels when working on their own:

“I think that for us it’s always about going back to the sequels that we loved as kids and asking ourselves why we loved them. “Empire Strikes Back,” “Superman 2,” “Aliens,” “Terminator 2,” “Star Trek 2,” what do all of those movies have in common? Well, they are amazing stories all on their own. You didn’t have to see the first movie.

There was some incredibly emotional test of character in all of those movies. Superman has to give up his powers for love. The Spock and Kirk relationship is being tested by Kahn. Ripley finding a daughter, essentially. All of those things are such big ideas in and of themselves.”

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Here’s your weekly Box Office report. Studio estimates are from Box Office Mojo. Vince Vaughn and Jon Favreau should be feeling pretty good about themselves this Monday morning.  Their film Couples Retreat received a critical drumming, but still made $35M over the weekend.  The likability of the two stars helped the film overcome negative buzz, and with no new competition, it easily won the weekend.

Zombieland looks like it will be sticking around for a while.  It only dropped 39% from its opening weekend and made$15M, which is impressive for a horror movie. A month after its release, Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs is still in the top five, and made $12M. Toy Story and Toy Story 2 continue to pull in audiences, dropping just 38% from last week for $7.6.

The real story of the weekend is the phenomenal performance of Paranormal Activity.  The film only played on 160 theaters in the entire country, and made over $7M! To put that in perspective, Surrogates came in at #6 this weekend. It played on 2,992 screens and made $4.1 million for a per screen average of $1,375.  The per screen average for Paranormal Activity was $44, 163. That’s unheard of.

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Since the announcement that Marvel would be making a Thor movie, people have wondered where the film would take place: Thor’s home dimension of Asgard or Earth. Early speculation gave the impression the film would be immersed completely in fantasy and as such take place in Asgard primarily. However, a recent casting call may indicate otherwise:

Thor – Official Casting Call

[MARCY LEWIS]

(20) Is a college student. Aloof, jaded beyond her years, she thought her internship with scientist Kate Spelling would be an easy 6 college credits. However, she’s been stuck for months in this small New Mexico town and relegated to a wide range of unglamorous activities.

Kate has been particularly hard on Marcy, making it her personal project to see that Marcy lives up to her potential. Marcy deals with her situation both by using subtle irony and by being an overt wiseass.

Considering Marvel’s plan to incorporate Thor into the upcoming Avengers movie, we expected the character to show up on Earth at some point. Marvel wasn’t going to send Iron Man to Asgard after all…but now that I think of it that would be great!

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MGM Studios has decided to push back Joss Whedon’s The Cabin in the Woods by nearly a year. The horror film was set to open Feb. 5, 2010 but will now open Jan. 14, 2011.  Don’t worry though, this scheduling adjustment is for good reasons instead of bad.

First off, the film has been testing very well with audiences. No surprise there, Joss Whedon wrote it. This in turn lead MGM to the second reason for the delay, spending six months converting  The Cabin in the Woods to 3D. As an added bonus this puts the film on track to open during a four day weekend which could help ticket sales.

Given MGM’s recent struggles financially it’s good to hear they may have a hit on their hands.  While delaying the film is not the best situation better for them to take the time and do The Cabin in the Woods right instead of rushing it out the gate. This may also afford the studio some extra time to get The Hobbit or next Bond film on the fast track.

The Cabin in the Woods is being directed by Cloverfield’s Drew Goddard. Considering how well he captured the events of a giant monster rampaging through New York I’m anxious to see how he handles the horror genre head on.  I’m not a real fan of horror but even I want to see this movie. Consider that a win MGM.

Every great romance needs a great soundtrack. So one huge problem I had with Twilight (other than the overacting, terrible script, and all the screaming fans around me in the theater) was the music. This movie was part of a pop culture sensation, and the filmmakers had the chance to entwine the romance on screen with some amazing tunes to culture its pre-teen audience. “Flightless Bird, American Mouth” by Iron and Wine was really the only standout track on the soundtrack to me, while Paramore and Linkin Park seemed like obvious choices for the time in which the film came out, and while these bands added to the angsty feeling of teen romance, they just didn’t do it for me.

Luckily, the film’s sequel, New Moon, looks like it’s got a killer soundtrack in the works. Most of the choices are a bit surprising, like Black Rebel Motorcycle Club and Grizzly Bear, but it’ll be exciting to see how these add to the feeling of New Moon, which looks far more mature and evolved than its predecessor.

By combining the likes of Death Cab for Cutie, Thom Yorke, and Lupe Fiasco, hopefully the romance between Bella, Edward, and Jacob will be a little bit more believable, and easier on the ears.

New Moon hits theaters November 20th. To satiate your thirst for all things vampire, the soundtrack comes out October 20th, giving you a month with these tracks before the film’s release. You can check out the full track listing for The Twlight Saga: New Moon soundtrack after the jump.

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Whether you understand Twitter or not, it’s hard to argue the phenomenal success of the social web site. For those few of you who don’t know, Twitter is an online service that allows you to follow other people’s message “stream,” sharing thoughts, comments and web links 140 characters at a time. It’s sort of like instant messaging but instead of isolated conversations you’re speaking to a crowd (although, you can send messages to individuals if you want).

While it has been around since 2006, Twitter really picked up mainstream momentum this year. Moving beyond your standard web service, the social tool has become a platform for communication. Corporations and consumers alike now broadcast everything from product sales to thoughts on the latest films. It’s that last point I want to focus on.

The L.A. Times ran an interesting story about the “Twitter Effect” on movies. That being, how talking about films on Twitter may effect moviegoers and influence their movie watching choices. Take the data at face value and Twitter sounds like it may not be the smart bomb of film criticism everyone thinks it is:

“OTX did an online survey of nearly 1,500 moviegoers in mid- September, the bulk of the sample being moviegoers from age 13 to 49, the key moviegoing demographic group. When asked what was the most influential source for word of mouth, most respondents picked “family and friends and coworkers,” which scored 40%, followed by Facebook (31%), MySpace (9%), IMDB (8%), with Twitter and online message boards bringing up the rear with 6% each.”

I completely disagree. Why? Simply put, the study is inherently flawed. OTX went and separated sites like Twitter and Facebook from the “family and friends and coworkers” category which fails to recognize the fact most of the information we get from those two social sites are from family and friends and coworkers. Take that into consideration and it stands to reason Twitter is making up a portion of that 40% belonging to the other category.

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I find it somewhat surprising that as successful as NBC‘s Thursday night lineup can be (how many Emmy’s has 30 Rock won?) the network continues to struggle. In what seems like a perpetual fourth place position, NBC is constantly trying to drum up ratings. This year is no exception and only a month or so into the new season we’re staring to see television schedules being  juggled.

In light of this, Entertainment Weekly’s Michael Ausiello is reporting that NBC may bring back Chuck earlier then anticipated:

“As early as late October, my moles tell me. And while it remains unclear whether the little show that could (and has and shall again) would return to its Monday timeslot or find itself a new perch, NBC insiders who’ve seen the first four episodes are calling this season the best yet.”

Originally Chuck was slated to return in March. The show was set to pickup the timeslot Heroes held on Mondays once that show concluded its shorter season. While this early return is good for Chuck, the same may not be said for Heroes.

The struggling super hero drama continues to slip in ratings. This week’s episode gained just over 5 million live viewers. Bad news considering it ended last season holding around 8 million until the finale. Granted, once you factor in DVR numbers, Heroes may fair better, but even then the show just isn’t gaining as much traction this season.

Chuck’s rumored October return combined with the sudden cancellation of Southland makes me wonder if NBC is looking to make even more radical changes. If Chuck takes over the Monday night timeslot what will that mean for Heroes? Will it be bumped to another night or from the schedule completely? At this point, anything seems possible and it may be in Heroes‘ fans best interest to start a “Save Heroes” website just like the one for Dollhouse.

Though Zombieland hit theaters a week ago, it’s still making headway with viral marketing on its official site. Over at the site, we’ve just stumbled across a cool new tool that is bound to get even the most timid of zombie fans excited.

Welcome to Zombify-Yourself.net where you can turn yourself into a flesh-eating member of the undead, without having to go through all the trouble of being bitten and the actual eating of flesh. The site uses a flash application to upload a picture of your choosing, and adds in great features like “bleeding eye cavity” or “missing lips” to complete your zombie look.

With Zombieland coming it at number 1 at the box office last weekend, and taking home roughly $30 million in a week, we are bound to see more from this franchise, in either a possible sequel or, if we’re lucky, a good old-fashioned Hollywood reboot.

Catch Zombieland in theaters everywhere now.

Late yesterday Apple released an update for the software on its flagship iPhone products. This update, dubbed OS 3.1.2, contains several fixes and enhancements to prevent things such as wake from sleep issues, cellular network problems and video streaming crashes. All in all, its probably a good idea to fire up iTunes, connect your iPhone and do the update.

This update is available for the original iPhone, iPhone 3G and iPhone 3GS, and the iPod touch. In addition to this update, there’s also a carrier settings update, which doesn’t seem to do anything special. There’s also an update to the iPhone SDK on the iPhone Dev Center, for all you iPhone developers out there.