In spite of its rather depressing subject matter and its bleak outlook on most of humanity, The Road manages to be an insightful, relevant, entertaining and important film which will not only hook you from the opening moments but will cause you to do something that most movies released these days do not: Think. Based on the Cormac McCarthy best selling and Pulitzer Prize winning novel, adapted by Joe Penhall and directed by John Hillcoat, the film follows the journey of a father and son making their way to supposed safety in “The South” after an unknown disaster destroys most of humanity and reduces the world to snow and ash covered ruin.

Along the way the father and son encounter the worst of society reduced to ruin and come to realize that they may never reach safety and that that safety may, in fact, not even exist. The dynamic between the father and son is meticulously explored with both Viggo Moretnsen and relative newcomer Kodi Smit-McPhee giving standout performances. Mortensen is brilliant and physically transformed to inhabit his role and Smit-McPee takes what could have been a two dimensional role and infuses it with depth and courage well beyond his years. Looking at him as he progresses and his character evolves before your eyes, you experience what this journey must be like for him and how his relationship with his father changes during the course of it.

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When it comes to the Terminator mythology, I often wonder if the War Against the Machines is best left unexplored. I mean, let’s be honest — it’s the glimpses of grilled rats and a desperate humanity that made it so frightening. Once Terminator: Salvation and Fox’s The Sarah Connor Chronicles spent a lot of time in the Can’t-Really-Be-Changed future, it became rather boring.

However, I think if you’re going to explore that bleak future, a Dark Horse series is the place to do it.  As you may have heard already, Zack Whedon has been given the enviable task of penning a new series that will explore the life and times of Kyle Reese. Before Reese was sent to 1984 to save Sarah Connor and inadvertently fathered John, he was just your average soldier. Whedon’s six issue series aims to bring him to life, and describe just what it’s like to live under the robotic regime.

Whedon is joined by some top-notch artists. The new “Terminator” series will be drawn by Andy MacDonald, who you’ll recognize from NYC Mech, Punisher War Journal. If you’ve read NYC Mech, you should be pretty excited as he’s really the man for Skynet’s rubble. But if you prefer to judge a comic book by its cover, you’ll undoubtedly be pulling these, as the covers will be done by Y: The Last Man’s Massimo Carnevale

The first issue will be on shelves by March 2010. Even though my interest in the Terminator franchise has really cooled, I’d be interested in picking this up.  2 hours of raging against the machines and scrounging for food is a bit much, but 6 issues strung over a period of months? That’s a dystopia I can invest in.

With both Chris and Matt extremely busy and the American Thanksgiving this week, you know what that means? The Canadians are taking over The Flickcast (are you with me Sal?).

Having celebrated Thanksgiving weeks ago, we’re in the clear to keep the geek news coming while our neighbors to the South take a few days off.  So be prepared to face sentences ending with “eh”, weird dialect (can you say “aboot”) and an abundance of unnecessary apologizing.  Alright, maybe I’m overstating all that but let me take a moment to wish a very Happy upcoming Thanksgiving from all of us up North.

Now, let’s get to that geek news I was talking aboot. Speaking with Collider, writer J. Michael Stracynski commented on one of our highly anticipated film adaptions, Max Brooks’ World War Z. Even having written five drafts of the film Stracynski only had one response as to whether the script was finished, “One never knows.”

He did however mention that a director (no name was given) was attached to the project and Paramount was looking to get the film done having invested so much money in development so far. Given the unique first person narrative of the story Stracynski took a somewhat simple approach to adapting the book for film:

“A series of interviews, so I basically said, ‘Well, who did those interviews?’ And you tell the story of the guy who works for the UN going around the planet interviewing folks to see what happened to them and report on what happened. Through his eyes, you see flashbacks of those storylines.”

The great thing about this is that Stracynski is one of the best character-driven writers in the industry in my opinion.  As great as the zombies will be, the characters should be as equally entertaining to watch. We can’t wait to see World War Z move forward and will keep you posted as more news develops, eh!

With Twilight: New Moon breaking all kinds of records and such this past weekend, it only makes sense that studios would be trying to jump on the gravy train (whether or not the train is “Edward” or “Jacob” is neither here nor there). It was a little surprising when the first studio to jump in was the cable network FX, however.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, the network has purchased the rights along with Summit Entertainment for exclusive TV distribution:

FX has acquired the ad-supported TV rights to the four “Twilight” movies in a package deal with producer Summit Entertainment that also includes the indie studio’s Oscar hopeful “The Hurt Locker,” the Nicolas Cage thriller “Knowing” and actioner “Push.”

Under the pact, FX will start running last year’s “Twilight,” the first movie in the franchise, beginning in late 2011. “The Twilight Saga: New Moon,” which shattered projections to open at $142.8 million domestically this past weekend, will be available in late 2012. “Eclipse,” which is slated for a June 30 release, will have its premiere on FX in early 2013. Summit has yet to greenlight production on “Breaking Dawn,” an adaptation of the fourth book in Stephenie Meyer’s “Twilight” series.

With the purchase of the Twilight rights, the network also purchased the distributions rights to other huge 2009 hits such as 2012, Star Trek, X-Men Origins: Wolverine, Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian, Monsters vs. Aliens, Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs, The Proposal and Zombieland.

Apple rarely, if every, discounts its products so this latest “leaked” brochure, which seems to showcase the consumer electronics giant doing just that should be taken with one of those ginormous grains of salt. Still, if true, these deals do look pretty sweet and seem far more reasonable than other reported “deals’ being shown around the Internets.

If its a little difficult to see the fine print, we’ll give you a hand and highlight some of the deals. They are available only at Apple’s online store, and include iMacs starting at $1098, iPod nanos starting at $138, iPod touch starting at $178, MacBook Pros starting at $1098, Apple TVs starting at $208, Airport Express starting at $88, Magic Mouse and Wireless Keyboard going for $64 each, and a whole lot more.

We realize that the deals are pretty hard to read over there on the right, so be sure and click through to see a much larger version. Good luck on Friday and be safe out there.

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Here’s this week’s DC comics going on sale tomorrow. Yes, even with the Thanksgiving holiday, comics will still come out this week. Hey, is this a great country, or what?

Some of the DC comics we’re most interested in this week include the latest Blackest Night, the new Green Lantern, the latest Justice Society of America, a new Wonder Woman issue and the book Sgt. Rock: The Lost Battalion. Of course, we’ve also got some cover art for a few of these books after the jump, so be sure and check those out.

Comics on Sale:

ARKHAM REBORN #2 (OF 3)
BATMAN: THE BRAVE AND THE BOLD #11
BILLY BATSON AND THE MAGIC OF SHAZAM! #10
BLACKEST NIGHT #5 (OF
DETECTIVE COMICS #859
THE FLASH VS. THE ROGUES
GOTHAM CITY SIRENS #6
GREEN LANTERN #48
JUSTICE LEAGUE INTERNATIONAL VOL. 3

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We are all pretty excited that Chuck is coming back to NBC on January 10th, which we told you about recently. Its one of our favorite shows and with some other of our favorites being canceled of late, we’re glad Chuck, at least, is making its way back to the air. Now, to commemorate that return, we’ve got a couple new promos for season 3 to share with you today.

In these, we see that Chuck has gone through some changes and is now trying to be more of a “real” spy than before, especially now that he’s got Intersect 2.0 going around in his head. He’s pumping up the action and getting involved in the missions more than he ever did before. This season, Chuck will definitely not be waiting in the car. Not that he did much of that anyway.

Check out all the new, improved Chuck action after the jump. Also, be sure to tune in for the season 3 premiere of Chuck on January 10, 2010.

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When I watch a movie like James McTeigue’s Ninja Assassin I think about what could have been. Its not that the film is terribly bad, it is just not terribly good. But oh how I wish it was. Nothing would make me happier than to see a resurgence of the ninja movie genre driven by a big budget studio film with all the money, time and craft that could be brought to it.

Instead, we’re given a movie which intercuts the Ninja story with Europol agents and their search for the ninjas. Every time the action cuts away from the story of the ninjas and went to the agents, I was bored. On top of that, the main female researcher is played by Naomi Harris, one of the most annoying and weak actresses in recent memory.

One surprise for me in this film is how much I actually liked Rain in the title role. Sure, his acting for a non-native English speaker isn’t particularly good, but he has a certain screen presence that works here. Seeing him in this film its easy to understand why he has such a huge following in Asia.

Do I wish he was an actual martial artist and could more realistically accomplish the fights himself without the aid of stunt doubles or CGI, of course. Also, the fact that he’s actually Korean and not Japanese and is playing the lead in a very deeply felt Japanese genre film may cause some, as director McTeigue put it after the screening I saw, “push back.” Maybe so, but that’s not really the problem here.

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Once again, we’re back with another character profile from Marvel’s animated show for kids (and kids of all ages) Super Hero Squad. This time around, we’ve got a profile video of another character on the squad, the Falcon. Be sure to check out this new video after the jump.

And also, as we do, here’s the “official” word on this character directly from Marvel:

Falcon

Falcon flies with wings made of “hard light” (a solid type of hologram). He’s upgraded them with Stark-built “feathers” that shoot out as projectiles. Falcon communicates telepathically with birds, particularly his pet falcon REDWING. He can even “see” through their eyes, which comes in handy when the team needs recon. T

he original adrenaline junkie, Falcon loves anything that moves fast, flies high or causes severe motion sickness. Passionate and optimistic at 17, he’s a born hot-dogger who’s finally made it to the big leagues. Beneath his jokester persona, he’s got a lot to prove.

Falcon’s going to figure out, over time, that he’s as powerful a hero as any and it’s got nothing to do with how much he can bench-press (260, if you must know). The others are going to learn that his tactical judgement is approaching that of his mentor, Cap.

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All this week, in preparation of the world premiere of Ben 10: Alien Swarm on Wednesday, we will be covering the film with our exclusive interviews with some of the cast and crew from the project. Yesterday, we posted our interview with star Ryan Kelley, and today we’re bringing you something a bit juicier.

In addition to speaking with Ryan about playing “Ben,” we also got to speak with the rest of the main cast from the upcoming TV movie. Nathan Keyes, who plays Kevin E. Levin, Alyssa Diaz who plays Elena, and even Galadriel Stineman who plays Ben’s cousin, Gwen.

We talked with the actors about their roles in the upcoming Ben 10 sequel, and what it was like working as the bad guy/girlfriend/superpowered cousin. Check out our exclusive interviews after the jump. Be sure to catch Ben 10: Alien Swarm on Cartoon Network, Wednesday November 25th at 7PM (E/P).

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In the milieu of “better-than-they-have-a-right-to-be” action movies, I need to add 1992′s Universal Soldier. From the team that later brought us Stargate and Independence Day, Universal Soldier starred Jean-Claude Van Damme and Dolpf Lundgren back when those names actually meant something at the box office.

Still, even with a mediocre script and some stilted acting, the movie actually managed to be pretty good and even more importantly, fun. Now, many years later and after at least one sequel already down, the very forgettable Universal Soldier: The Return, we now are going to get a third installment of the franchise, cleverly entitled Universal Soldier: Regeneration. And yes, we’ve got a trailer for you, so don’t worry.

This one goes direct to video this time but does feature returning stars Jean-Claude Van Damme and Dolph Lundgren. It also brings UFC heavyweight champion Andrei “The Pitbull” Arlovski into the mix, which could prove interesting. Or, maybe not. Either way, the movie hits Blu-ray and DVD on Feb. 2, 2010.

In the meantime, click through to check out the trailer and enjoy some Regeneration.

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Even with Thanksgiving right around the corner, that hasn’t stopped Marvel from dropping some great comics this week for your reading pleasure. Some of the one’s we’re particularly interested in this week include the latest issue of Avengers: The Initiative, the new Hulk, the latest Criminal: The Sinners and Dark Wolverine #80.

Be sure to check out the list of all the upcoming Marvel comics below. And, as always, be sure to click through for some cool cover art from some of these comics after the jump as well. Now go and enjoy some Thanksgiving comics.

Comics On-Sale:
AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #613 (GNTLT)
AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #613 VILLAIN VARIANT (GNTLT)
AVENGERS: THE INITIATIVE #30
CRIMINAL: THE SINNERS #2
DAREDEVIL #501 2ND PRINTING VARIANT
DARK AVENGERS: ARES #2
DARK REIGN: THE LIST – HULK 2ND PRINTING VARIANT
DARK REIGN: THE LIST – SECRET WARRIORS 2ND PRINTING VARIANT
DARK TOWER: THE FALL OF GILEAD #6
DARK TOWER: THE FALL OF GILEAD #6 RANEY VARIANT
DARK TOWER: THE FALL OF GILEAD #6 SKETCH VARIANT
DARK WOLVERINE #80

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