Did you know that there was a sequel in the works for 2006′s Smokin’ Aces, with practically none of the original cast? Neither did we, until this trailer came across The Flickcast desk. It would be an interesting take, if it had any of the same people involved as the original film.

While the film doesn’t look like it will do much justice to Joe Carnahan’s original, the trailer was quite clever. It starts off by making sure we see some of our favorite faces from the original, such as Jeremy Piven, and then it throws a record scratch in to tell us that we won’t see them anymore.

Instead of a well-rounded cast consisting of Piven, Ray Liotta, Ben Affleck, Ryan Reynolds, Alicia Keys, and tons others, we now treated to the all-star cast of Vinnie Jones, Ernie Hudson, Tom Berenger, and the guy who had no lines in the first Smokin’ Aces.

Director P.J. Pesce seems perfect for the job, as his previous titles include other DVD sequels like Lost Boys: The Tribe, and From Dusk Till Dawn 3: The Hangman’s Daughter. Joe Carnahan is listed as writing the story for the film, but so is his assistant, so there’s no real secret there.

Check out the first full trailer after the jump, and be sure to pick it up on DVD, Blu-Ray, digital download, and the bargain bin shortly thereafter on January 19th, 2010.

Continue Reading →

On the night of the big high school prom, the dead rise to eat the living, and the only people who can stop them are the losers who couldn’t get dates to the dance. Filled with a plethora of high school stereotypes, the group takes on a town for of brain hungry zombies and vow to save what’s left of the town from the adjacent power plant that seems to be the cause of the recent resurrections.

Those in the mood for a great zombie flick should pick this one up. Other critics have been quoted saying this film “makes Carrie look like Pretty in Pink,” though if you were to truly classify it, it’s much more like Shaun of the Dead meets Breakfast Club. Any fan of film who has seen dozens upon dozens of zombie movies knows the feeling of “how much ass they would kick if zombies were real.” Well, this movie does it for you, bringing out the Sci-Fi nerd in all of us as a group of high school freaks and geeks take on a town full of zombies.

The group is filled with just about everybody you would need in a zombie uprising: the Jackass-style bad boy, the heroic yet sassy wise-ass, the ditsy cheerleader, the know-it-all class president, the stoner rock band, the militant gym teacher, and of course the pack of nerds. Each member has their fifteen minutes as a hero, and then dies off or becomes second banana to the main love story between the wise-ass and the class president. That’s right: the zombie comedy has a romantic twist, and you’ll enjoy it.

Continue Reading →

This week on The Flickcast, Chris and Matt jump in after a week off with a whole bunch of new topics including the new Doc Savage movie, written and directed by Shane Black, the performance of Paranormal Activity and Saw VI, the reboot of Short Circuit, horror films in general and much more.

The guys also make some great picks this week including Matt’s pick of teen horror zombiefest Dance of the Dead and Chris’ pick of the 1979 horror classic Phantasm, featuring Angus Scrimm as “The Tall Man.”

As always, if you have comments, questions, critiques or offers of sponsorship, feel free to hit us up in the comments, on Twitter and at Facebook, MySpace or via email.

Thanks for listening.

Late yesterday, Warner Bros. released the first trailer for Clint Eastwood’s next Oscar contender, Invictus. In case you’re not familiar, it tells the true story of Nelson Mandela (Morgan Freeman) who joins forces with Francois Pienaar (Matt Damon), the captain of South Africa’s rugby team, to help unite their country.

At the time of his election, Mandela knows his nation remains divided racially and economically after the end of apartheid. He hopes to bring his people together by rallying them behind their rugby team as they make a longshot attempt to win the 1995 World Cup match.

You really can’t go wrong having Morgan Freeman and Matt Damon in your film and this one looks very interesting to me. Being a big fan of Eastwood as both actor and director, I’m sure I’ll see this when it comes out. Until then, we can be entertained by this new trailer, which you can watch courtesy of Apple after the jump, or at Apple’s website in HD.

Continue Reading →

Like many things in life these days, a music video about a rather famous group of mutants and the comic chronicling their adventures is probably something that’s inevitable. So, its with almost no surprise at all, really, that we bring you this brand new music video about the Astonishing X-Men.

To be honest, the video is actually kinda cool but I’m not sure if that means it really is or if it just means I’ve given up. I like to think its the former. Anyway, as with videos of this sort provided by our friends at Marvel, we’ve got to include the following bit to explain the video and satisfy the legal department. So, here you go and enjoy the video after the jump.

Marvel is proud to unveil the official Astonishing X-Men music video, “Rise Up”, David Ari Leon, Guy Erez, Bronx Style Bob, Christian Altman and the Marvel Music Group. Featuring previously unseen footage from the hotly anticipated Astonishing X-Men motion comic, based on the acclaimed story by superstars Joss Whedon (Buffy The Vampire Slayer) and John Cassaday (Captain America), “Rise Up” will have you cheering for more!

Marvel is also proud to present MarvelFest NYC 2009, an all-new interactive outdoor experience in New York City to celebrate the iTunes release of the groundbreaking Astonishing X-Men Motion Comic on October 28th. Join celebrities and the biggest names in Marvel history to commemorate the Astonishing X-Men premiere, projected three stories high in Union Square at MarvelFest!

For complete details and official rules regarding MarvelFest NYC 2009 please visit www.marvel.com/fest.

Continue Reading →

Here’s a list of some of the new movie and TV shows coming to DVD and Blu-ray this week that we’re looking forward to seeing. Also, there’s some classic, and not-so-classic, movies hitting Blu-ray for the first time this week as well.

Of all the new releases, we’re particularly interested in the Blu-ray versions of movies and TV shows such as Battlestar Galactica: The Plan, Night of the Creeps, the original Stargate, The Sam Fuller Collection, Orphan and the complete The Prisoner series starring and created by Patrick McGoohan (pictured above).

Check them out.

Movies

Battlestar Galactica: The Plan ~ Edward James Olmos, Tricia Helfer (DVD and Blu-ray)

42nd Street Forever 5: Alamo Drafthouse Edition ~ Charlton Heston, Robert Englund (DVD)

Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs ~ Ray Romano (DVD and Blu-ray)

Into Temptation ~ Kristin Chenoweth, Jeremy Sisto (DVD and Blu-ray)

Continue Reading →

Score: 7.5 – Nintendo Wii – $49.99

Bakugan. Two years ago, much like name like Pokemon, Yu-Gi-Oh and various other soon to be Japanese trends, the word “Bakugan” would have meant nothing to the average person, and especially not to any children or parents. Now, it is an obsession selling DVDs and tiny shape changing balls that play a game that could be described as a combination of Magic: The Gathering, the Transformers and marbles. Activision has taken this license that has become popular enough to earn itself a spot as this month’s McDonald’s Happy Meal toy and brought it in to the video game world.

Gameplay:

As mentioned above, the Bakugan game plays much like a combination of a collectible card game and marbles. Players place cards on the field that contain magnets in them. They then take turns rolling their Bakugan, trying to land on a card. Players try to steer their ball towards the appropriate card while their opponent takes pop shots to divert the ball in the opposite direction in a shooting gallery style minigame.

When they do, the small Bakugan ball will pop open, revealing the monster inside. When two monsters land on the same card, their stats are compared and extra cards are played to enhance the power of the monster. The Bakugan with the highest total wins. This formula ends up translating really well in to the video game format.

Continue Reading →

The Alternative Press Expo is a small convention that is geared to, as you can guess, the alternative facets of what the comics industry has to offer. What’s more than that is APE is as laid back a comic convention as you will find. Small shows will do that simply because smaller size means more attention, and the increased ability to interact with others in the comics community.

That’s whether it’s fans amongst professionals, professionals among their peers, or otherwise. So inevitably, this means discovering new creators and new comics in a way that’s different from other cons.

I first met Stephanie Lantry and Carrie Smith a few years back thanks to the online community that is the now defunct Brian K. Vaughan message board, the Cabal. As Conjoined Comics, the quick-witted indie-creators have collaborated to self-publish their own comic, To the Power Against, mini-comic Emogician (which the description should be pretty self-explanatory), and their newest book The Yeti, in a format that is quite unlike the first two. Recently at APE, I got a chance to chat with these two creators.

Joey Pangilinan: How did you two first meet, and come to start collaborate with each other?

Carrie Smith: We had a venn diagram of friends that met in the middle mostly through Star Wars.

Continue Reading →

As much as I might think this is yet another in a series of needless remakes, reboots and re-imaginings, it seems inevitable that they will keep getting made and my protests will go unheard. So, with that in mind I bring you the news that director Steve Carr (late of Paul Blart: Mall Cop) has been tapped to take on a reboot of the film Short Circuit for Dimension Films.

I’ll let that one sink in for a minute. Okay, now that you are probably making your “WTF?” face I can tell you some potentially good news about this project. It’s being scripted by Robot Chicken’s Dan Milano, so at least that gives it some kind of chance to be funny — especially if they actually follow the script. Plus, the story, which concerns military robot Johnny 5 who “develops a conscience and personality after being hit by lightning and then befriends a lonely boy and his fractured family” doesn’t sound that bad.

Also, I don’t really blame Carr for Paul Blart being terrifically unfunny. He didn’t write the thing after all. That blame lands squarely in the lap of writer/star Kevin James. Nor, did he edit it or probably even get final cut. So, its probably not completely his fault. However, seeing as his other credits do include Dr. Doolittle 2, Daddy Daycare and the far less amusing sequel Next Friday does not really bode well for this movie.

I guess we’ll find out to what level this movie sucks when it hits theaters sometime in 2010.

In what may come as no surprise to some, Microsoft has backed out of the Family Guy special that would have promoted Windows 7. Well, thanks a lot Microsoft for completely undermining the article I already wrote regarding this very event. Microsoft responded in a statement:

“We initially chose to participate in the Seth and Alex variety show based on the audience composition and creative humor of Family Guy, but after reviewing an early version of the variety show it became clear that the content was not a fit with the Windows brand.

We continue to have a good partnership with FOX, Seth MacFarlane and Alex Borstein and are working with them in other areas.  We continue to believe in the value of brand integrations and partnerships between brands, media companies and talent.”

“…not a good fit with the Windows brand.”  Has anyone at Microsoft even watched an episode of Family Guy? How did they not see what was coming? Well, as much as I was somewhat skeptical of the whole deal it would have been interesting to see what Seth McFarlane thought up for the show. Maybe Apple should jump in and pick up where Microsoft left off to promote Snow Leopard?

Before I begin this review I have to disclose that I’m a huge fan of Ron Moore and David Eick’s re-imagined Battlestar Galactica tv series. From the first moments I saw it I was hooked and I followed the show religiously through its entire run. To this day I regard it as one of the finest shows ever to grace the small screen. In fact, I liked it so much I even got the entire series on Blu-ray. Yes, I’m the one.

So, when it came time to watch and review the latest Battlestar Galactica movie The Plan, I went into it with high expectations but was wondering how they were going to pull off this movie and tell this very well-known story from a completely different perspective: that of the Cylons. Much to my happiness, when I did watch The Plan, I was impressed with the way it turned out and how this rather complex undertaking was handled, with a few notable exceptions.

Before I get too deeply into anything negative, let’s talk a bit more about the story. The Cylons began as humanity’s robot servants. They rebelled and evolved and now they look like us. Their plan is simple: destroy the race that enslaved them. But when their attack fails to wipe out every human, the Cylons have to improvise to finish the job. The Plan tells the story of two powerful Cylon leaders, Cavil (Dean Stockwell) and Six (Tricia Helfer) and their determination to finish that job.

Continue Reading →

We at The Flickcast can’t wait to play Bioshock 2, and although its release was delayed until early 2010, we’ve got a brand new trailer for your viewing pleasure courtesy of Game Trailers.

Siren Alley shows off the new weapons and plasmids you’ll wield in the single-player mode of the game. You’ll also get a look at what’s happened to Rapture since the end of the first game, battling the Big Sisters, underwater gameplay, and a taste of all the action awaiting you in Bioshock 2.

Set ten years after the events of Bioshock, Bioshock 2 puts you in the shoes of the Big Daddies you hunted throughout the first game, in an attempt to save the Little Sisters being kidnapped by the Big Sister.

Bioshock 2 will be available for Xbox 360, Playstation 3, and PC on February 9th, 2010. You can watch the trailer after the jump. By clicking through you certify you are 18 years of age or older.

Continue Reading →