As families shop for gifts, travel to be with loved ones and make final preparations for the holiday season, we here at The Flickcast are doing the same. In order to let our contributors have some fun during the holidays and spend time with their families, we are taking some time off during the next couple weeks.

Consequently, we will have a reduced posting schedule for articles. Of course, if any breaking news hits, we’ll bring it to you. Also, we will have more in our series of “Best Of 2009” articles covering topics such as movies and games, so be sure and watch out for those.

In addition, we won’t be having a podcast this week. However, we will return next week with our “Best Of” edition of The Flickcast podcast where we will discuss everything movie, tv, comics, games and geek we thought was the best of 2009 and of the decade. So, be sure to check that out next Wednesday right here and in iTunes.

For now, we thank you for being here and from all of us at The Flickcast, we wish you the best for the holiday season and for the new year.

Here’s to a happy, healthy and even better 2010!

Vera Cruz is a film that’s often name-dropped in the discussion of Great and Influential Westerns. Starring genre heavy-weight Gary Cooper and Burt Lancaster, every synopsis you’re likely to come across promises a film with adventure, a Mexican countess, and bromance. Don’t believe them.

Cruz is set in the midst of the Mexican Revolution of 1866, a time when mercenaries and adventurers crossed the border in search of profitable employment. In fact, it’s the very same setting as Two Mules for Sister Sara, and if fanfiction had existed in the good old days, someone would have written a sexy crossover. Thank goodness it didn’t.

The film wastes no time in setting up Ben Trane (Cooper) and Joe Erin (Lancaster) as that most reliable of Western archetypes — the broken down Confederate, and the daring mercenary. Their characters are rigidly defined within the first ten minutes over the matter of horseflesh. Trane shoots his injured horse because it’s suffering.

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2009 was a huge year for gaming. With some games not living up to lofty expectations, others took the reins set before them and ran with them further than many expected. Batman: Arkham Asylum proved it was possible to make a great game based on Batman, though it took the video game industry over 25 years to figure out how to accomplish that.

Wolverine: Origins proved that games based off movies didn’t have to be bad and in the eyes of many surpassed the quality of the film that inspired it. Legends were reborn as the Beatles were featured in their own Rock Band game. Yes, it was a momentous year for gaming which leads us to proudly present these awards for the Best Video Games of 2009.

Best Playstation 3 Exclusive Game

Uncharted 2: Among Thieves

Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune was easily one of the best early releases for the Playstation 3. But the problem is no one knew about it who didn’t have the system. A fantastic game, it fell victim to the lack of Playstation 3′s being in consumers’ homes. Knowing the gem they had their hands on, Sony made sure to give Uncharted 2: Among Thieves a spotlight at this year’s E3 along with a strong marketing push when it was released this year.

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I defy you to find an 80′s child who doesn’t recognize it when someone poses for the “Crane Kick.” The move was made legendary when it was used to win the “All Valley Karate Championship” at the end of 1984′s The Karate Kid. The film was the beginning of a franchise that became an institution for tons of teens during that decade, and now they’ve gone and remade it.

The reboot stars Jackie Chan as “Mr. Han” and Jaden Smith (The Day the Earth Stood Still and Will Smith’s son), as “Dre Parker.” It’s an updated story that takes the setting from Southern California to Beijing. Mr. Han will be teaching Dre karate (or maybe it will be kung-fu – most American audiences don’t know the difference) and putting him through workouts that might strain Jean Claude van Damme.

The movie also features Taraji P. Henson (The Curious Case of Benjamin Button) as Dre’s mother and has Harald Zwart (The Pink Panther 2, One Night at McCool’s) in the director’s chair. I have to admit there are a couple of cute and funny moments in the trailer, all involving Chan’s interaction with Smith.

There’s even a nice nod to the fly-catching scene in the original film. The only problem I see so far is that the “Crane Kick” seems to have been replaced with a high-splits kick – which just isn’t as cool.

Check out the trailer and let us know what you think.

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With a show that has it’s highest country-wide ratings on a broadcast during Christmas Day, which over shadow any ratings we have for any show here in the US, doesn’t it make sense that we finally get on board the Doctor Who craze? According the a BBC America press release, a recent special has broken records that nobody saw coming:

Television’s longest running hit science fiction series, Doctor Who, has never been bigger in the U.S. On Saturday, December 19, Doctor Who: The Waters of Mars delivered BBC AMERICA its highest ever primetime rating and delivery in total viewers and A25-54.

Over 1.1million viewers watched the program on Saturday, ranking BBC AMERICA #13 in coverage rating during the premiere among ad supported cable nets for A25-54.

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Out on DVD and Blu-Ray this week, District 9 is a new sci-fi masterpiece from writer/director Neill Blomkamp and produced by Peter Jackson (The Lord of the Rings). The film is a documentary-style account about a race of aliens marooned on earth who have been quarantined in a shantytown, known by humans as District 9, on the outskirts of Johannesburg, South Africa.

The film has an “apartheid” metaphor in that the aliens (referred derogatorily by humans as “Prawns” because they look like crustaceans) represent an oppressed minority, all while the humans see the aliens as a nuisance and want to be rid of them once and for all. The film mainly focuses on two main characters; a human who was the head of a relocation program for the aliens, and an alien trying to find a way to return home to his planet.

Special features for the disc include a series of interesting deleted scenes that never made it into the final cut.  Director commentary from Neill Blomkamp shows how the concept of District 9 was turned into a reality. In the special feature “Metamorphosis: The Transformation of Wikus”, we see behind the scenes footage of how the F/X team slowly turned actor Sharlto Copley from a human into a “Prawn.” Two other features include a concept design with production planners into creating the world of District 9 and the dazzling special effects that were generated for the film.

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Box Office Mojo has reported that Avatar added another $16 million to it’s box office on Monday. Considering the soft opening that the movie had over the weekend ($77 Million), due to sold out shows and a snow storm that hit most of the east coast, this might just be the beginning of some staying power for James Cameron’s latest project. Titanic, the previous Cameron film released 12 years ago, managed to stay in theaters for almost 11 months, which helped to make it one of the top box office earners in history.

Compared with one of this year’s other financial heavy-hitters, Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, which opened to around $102 Million in June but only made $14 Million on the Monday following it’s opening weekend. They’re slightly comparable in that both were released during a time when families and younger fans have more free-time, with Independence Day being the following weekend for Transformers 2, and Christmas coming this weekend, which is Avatar‘s second weekend .

It’ll be interesting to see how well Avatar is able to hold on, between the varied opinions on the film, the positive word of mouth, and the opening of another potential box office smash with Robert Downey Jr. and Guy Ritchie’s Sherlock Holmes. Whether or not Avatar proves itself to be the next financial Titanic or not, it’s sure to be an epic clash at the box office this weekend.

Now, before Zachary Quinto supporters get all bent out of shape, allow me to first explain. The following is a fan-edit of the audiobook for Alan Dean Foster’s novelization of this year’s Star Trek. The audiobook was narrated by the film’s co-star Zachary Quinto, who played Spock.

From there, an overzealous fan decided that the narration would make a much better romance novel than a story about intergalactic heroism. With that, “Spork! An Erotic Love Story” was born. Dean Foster is quite descriptive in his narrative, and sadly this is only used against him in this slashfic (fan fiction which ends in romance).

Check out the video after the jump, but be warned, if you’re sure dialogue and descriptions from a novelization of Star Trek can’t be considered NSFW, you might be proven wrong. Also, be aware, it can get pretty intense towards the end, but overall it’s quite hilarious. Enjoy.

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Latino Review has an exclusive look at who might be Carol Ferris, the lucky lady that doesn’t get the ring from Ryan Reynold’s “Hal Jordan” in the upcoming Green Lantern film from DC Entertainment and Warner Bros.

Ferris has been described as “the daughter of aerospace mogul Carl Ferris. She works for her dad’s company FERRIS AIR, got an MBA, and has a lifetime crush on Hal Jordan.” The website seems to believe that the role comes down to the following five actresses: Eva Green, Keri Russell, Diane Kruger, Blake Lively or Jennifer Garner.

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With Christmas less than 72 hours away, it looks like the studios are putting out quite a few last-minute gift ideas for you to snatch just in time to throw under the tree. This week’s big releases include District 9, (500) Days of Summer, and the second Family Guy Star Wars Special: Something Something Something Dark Side.

Of these releases, we are all pretty excited about the new Family Guy DVD this week. It’s the sequel to 2007′s Blue Harvest Star Wars special. This time, Seth McFarlane and his team spoof the events of The Empire Strikes Back. This special is never-before-seen, and won’t get airtime until mid-March.

Check out this week’s releases:

Movies

District 9 ~ Sharlto Copley, David James, Jason Cope (DVD and Blu-ray)

(500) Days of Summer ~ Zooey Deschanel, Joseph Gordon-Levitt (DVD and Blu-ray)

All About Steve ~ Sandra Bullock, Bradley Cooper, Thomas Haden Church (DVD and Blu-ray)

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The very first trailer for Knight and Day, the Cameron Diaz, Tom Cruise action movie that we showed you the poster for the other day is now online. With James Mangold (Walk the Line) directing the film, it looks to be a great action-comedy with both Cruise and Diaz looking like they’re having a good time.

Seeing these two actors together for the first time since Vanilla Sky, I’m reminded of the chemistry they had on-screen; and it’s fully evident again here. The trailer’s funny moments seem to be a continuation of Cruise not taking himself so seriously, much like in Tropic Thunder – which really helped to lighten the atmosphere around him, after all the Scientology and “Katie-gate” snafus.

Of course, the comedy meeting the action scenes make this seem like a perfect match for everyone involved. Diaz is showing her comedic side, such as she did in her hits, There’s Something About Mary and My Best Friend’s Wedding - where she plays much better as the ‘straight-man’, rather than trying to actually be a comedian. Mangold also comes through, giving us the action that he’s proven to do so well in films like 3:10 to Yuma and Copland. Put it all together and it’s a bundle of fun.

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With the birth of fan fiction and pop art many years ago, the mainstream world was introduced to the artistic side of fandom. There have been plenty of unoriginal outlets for this medium, but with those also come some incredible (or incredibly odd) pieces of work.

Now that ABC’s LOST is going into it’s 6th and final season, artistic fans everywhere (or in this case, the greater Los Angeles area) are stepping up to contribute to The LOST Underground Art Show. The exhibit is currently running until Thursday night in downtown LA’s Gallery 1988, and you can even purchase some of the art from the exhibitors’ website, Damon, Carlton, And A Polar Bear.com.

The art varies from pop-like canvas style to physical models and figures (such as the Dharma polar bear). Check out a bunch of the pieces after the jump, and check out the full list of work at their website. Definitely worth it for a fan of the show.

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