This week sees the release of several new movies and TV shows, some for the first time ever on Blu-ray. Of the ones coming out this week, we’re excited for not as many as last week. But still, the release of An Education, Collateral and Sherlock Holmes (pictured above with Robert Downey, Jr and Jude Law) is reason enough to be excited. Plus, there’s always next week. . . and the week after that.

Check them out:

Film

Alice in Wonderland (2-Disc Special Un-Anniversary Edition) ~ Kathryn Beaumont, Ed Wynn, Richard Haydn (DVD)

Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel ~ Anna Faris, Christina Applegate, Justin Long (Blu-ray and DVD)

An Education ~ Carey Mulligan, Peter Sarsgaard (Blu-ray and DVD)

Collateral ~ Tom Cruise, Jamie Foxx (Blu-ray)

I Sell the Dead ~ Dominic Monaghan, Ron Perlman (Blu-ray and DVD)

Rivals of Sherlock Holmes: Set 2 ~ Derek Jacobi, Judy Geeson, Jean Marsh (DVD)

Sherlock Holmes ~ Robert Downey Jr., Jude Law, Rachel McAdams (Blu-ray and DVD)

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It looks like Verizon and Motorola have decided it’s time to give users what they really want: the ability to use Android OS 2.1. According to reports around the tech Internets, the update is now being pushed out to users of the Moto DROID smartphone. However, don’t get worried if you haven’t gotten the update yet as it will be a “gradual” rollout” which should hit most of you DROID loving folks by week’s end.

Here’s what the update does for you:

Enhancements

• Pinch-to-zoom now available when using the browser, Gallery, and Google Maps.
• New Weather and News application plus widget.
• The Weather and News app pulls the information you want from the Web and brings it to your fingertips.
• New support for voice-to-text entry.
• Whenever a text-entry box appears, simply tap the microphone icon on the virtual keyboard and speak.
• New Gallery application with 3D layout. View and share photos taken with your phone and images from your online Picasa Web albums.
• Live Wallpapers offer richer animated, interactive backgrounds on the home screen. Access them with a long press anywhere on the home screen.

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Before there was Avatar, before there was even Dances With Wolves, there was Broken Arrow.

I wasn’t expecting much out of this film. I picked it solely because it had Jimmy Stewart, and he’s been missing from this feature for too long. I knew from the description that it was about the wars with the Apache, who have always been the genre’s favorite villainous redskins. Again, I wasn’t expecting much.

If there was one thing that was pounded into my head in college, it was that no movie ever portrayed Native Americans fairly. They were all John Wayne propaganda pieces that justified our rape and pillage of the land over and over again. It was one of those little facts that justified my disdain for Western movies for years.

But it turns out my American history classes weren’t entirely right, at least in the case of one film. Broken Arrow was the first film to actually portray the Native Americans in a sympathetic and fair light, and while it stumbles in authenticity, it deserves an A for effort. The fact that it comes from one of Hollywood’s stauncher Republicans (Stewart was a proud conservative) is a nice surprise.

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In the past decade or so, comic and movie fans have gone from just guys drawing their favorite scenes in their basements, to people actually becoming pretty good at the art of Photoshop, and churning out some impressive pieces. Of course fans took to their laptops as soon as Ryan Reynolds was cast as Green Lantern, and now they’re looking to Marvel’s upcoming films.

First to hit the web was a cool image brought to our attention by our friends at MTV Splash Page. The “poster” is a cool compilation of all the different actors signed to play their parts in the upcoming Avengers film, including a first look at Chris Hemsworth as Thor and Chris Evans as Captain America.

Next, fans thought that Thor needed a bit more focus, so one put together an image that was half drawn and half manipulated digitally in order to come up with a cool render of Hemsworth as Thor.

And finally, the piéce de résistance, as fans over at Film School Rejects put together their idea of what Chris Evans’ Captain America should look like. These images came out to be nearly flawless, and you can check them all out after the jump.

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One thing I can’t get enough of are comic book conventions. I started attending eight years ago and haven’t looked back. If  you’ve never been (and are at all interested in comics) I encourage you to check out at least one if it’s within a reasonable distance.  I promise, you won’t experience anything like it as they have an energy all their own.

This passed weekend Wizard World delivered their comic convention to Toronto, Canada.  It was an inaugural event here in Canada but there were no shortage of attendees. While the list of guests was not as huge as I would have liked, there were some interesting names.  Firefly’s Jewel Staite, Battlestar Galactica’s Kandyse McClure and Luciana Carro, Buck Roger’s Gil Gerard and Erin Gray, and Caprica’s own Magda Apanowicz.

A couple very notable appearances were made by Bob Clark, The legendary Gorn Captain from Star Trek and a personal favorite Doug Jones, best known for his portrayal of The Silver Surfer in Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer. Jones, well known for his very articulate portrayal of movement in the roles he takes on also played Abe Sapien in both Hellboy movies.

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This week on The Flickcast Chris and Matt celebrate a one year anniversary milestone with guest host Elisabeth Rappe. Some of the topics under discussion this week include proposed sequels to Independence Day, a reboot of the Godzilla franchise, the Caprica mid-season finale and the oddity of “Chat Roulette.”

The trio also made some great picks as they always do including Elisabeth’s pick of the Gerard Butler film Beowulf & Grendel, Matt’s pick of AMC’s series Breaking Bad and Chris’ pick of the original Clash of the Titans featuring Laurence Olivier and Harry Hamlin.

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

Just weeks before his latest show Treme debuts on HBO, TV writer and producer David Mills has died of a reported brain aneurysm in New Orleans at the age of 49. Mills was head writer and producer on the show, which is about how a group of people of New Orleans rebuild their lives after Hurricane Katrina.

In additon to Treme, Mills was an accomplished and award winning writer for such shows as the HBO miniseries The Corner, ER, Homicide: Life on the Street, Kingpin, NYPD Blue and was a story editor on the CBS drama Picket Fences.

Mills also worked closely for years with David Simon, creator of one of the best shows ever to grace television screens The Wire and who is also the creator of Treme. He also wrote for several newspapers, including The Wall Street Journal and The Washington Post.

Mills was a talented man who provided a destinctive voice for characters and stories through his writing. His work will be sorely missed.

Treme premieres April 11 on HBO. I’ll be watching and so should you.

While we’re still winding down from our crazy week over in Austin for SXSW, there are still plenty of great goodies and stories to share with you. One of which is for a film that debuted at the show, MacGruber, starring Will Forte.

The film is another skit-turned-film in the vein of Night at the Roxbury and Wayne’s World as the character is taken straight from Forte’s performance on Suturday Night Live. The film is directed by SNL writer Jorma Taccone, and written by the trio of Forte, Taccone, and John Solomon, another SNL writer.

With three writers from SNL working on the film, it only makes sense that head writer Seth Meyers would have some input on the film as well. He was down on the set for a while with the cast and crew. After the jump, check out a panel for MacGruber at SXSW in which Meyers discusses a harrowing  story about his experience.

MacGruber hits theaters May 21st.

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Some of the latest and greatest in gaming technology can be cool and exciting, but it can also be expensive and unnecessary. We saw a lot of both at this year’s PAX East, and while everything was a whole lot of fun to play with, here’s what we found to be either absolutely necessary to your gaming needs or a waste of time.

NVIDIA 3D Surround

I’m not a first-person shooter fan by any means, but when I saw Battlefield Bad Company 2 being played on 3 screens in 3D, I had to try it. And it was amazing. At first, 3D gaming technology seems like a gimmick, the same as 3D cinema.

But once experienced in the right format, its value becomes pretty apparent pretty quickly. Playing BBC2 in 3D gave me better visibility and depth in the game, but it also totally immersed me into the game play experience. I really felt like I was running around in the jungle shooting bad guys.

If 3D gaming is something you’re interested in, you’ll need an NVIDIA GeForce GTX 400 GPU, NVIDIA 3D Vision, and and NVIDIA Surround Technology plus three HD monitors. While this will cost you a pretty penny, it’s something to take into consideration if you’re looking for an incredible gaming experience on your PC.

Gunnar 3D Glasses

When I tried out NVIDIA’s 3D Surround technology, they told me they had specifically designed the 3D glasses to fit over my own prescription glasses. While they did, it wasn’t exactly comfortable. This is where Gunnar comes in.

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While Tom Cruise has been working like a fiend to pick a director for the upcoming sequel to his popular Mission Impossible franchise, he’s also got a new film coming out where he plays an international action spy. That’s called range.

While the characters may seem a bit played out, the premise is somewhat fresh. From 20th Century Fox:

An action-comedy centered on a fugitive couple (Cruise and Diaz) on a glamorous and sometimes deadly adventure where nothing and no one – even themselves – are what they seem. Amid shifting alliances and unexpected betrayals, they race across the globe, with their survival ultimately hinging on the battle of truth vs. trust.

The film also stars Cameron Diaz, Peter Sarsgaard, Lost’s Maggie Grace, and Buffy The Vampire Slayer’s Marc Blucas. Check out the newest trailer after the jump. Knight and Day hits theaters on June 25th.

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Last week, a new site came to the attention of the video game world. Game Crush launched with the promise of giving gamers something they have searched their lives for… a girl to game with. Unfortunately, this isn’t a social networking site to help gamer guys and gamer girls connect with an interest of mutual friendship. Instead, Game Crush more closely resembles a service you’d see advertised on late night cable that comes with a 900 number. For just $6.60, a gamer can play over XBox Live or a browser based game against a hot girl.

Yes, “connecting” to a hot girl has been reduced to 66 cents a minute for gamers (although that rate is better than the $2.99 for phone sex lines). With either voice chat over Live or video and voice chat through browser games, these girls will actually play certain games with their customers.

After each interaction, users are encouraged to rate each girl which, according to the site, will decide which girls get a stronger spotlight on the site. Without a doubt, the most “enterprising” of these gamer girls will quickly figure out what these guys are actually paying to hear.

What’s even more sad at a service like this coming into existence is the fact that it is already becoming an internet sensation. Logging on to Game Crush today, potential “dates” were greeted with the following message:

“The GameCrush Public Beta is temporarily unavailable due to the incredible user response (more than 10,000 inquiries in five minutes). We are adding new servers to provide players with the best PlayDate experience possible. Games with GameCrush PlayDates start at $6.60 for ten minutes.”

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Today is Tuesday so that means new comics drop tomorrow. And what better guys to support than your friendly neighborhood comic book publisher Marvel comics. This week, as they do almost every other week, the folks at Marvel are releasing a whole slew of new books for your reading pleasure.

Of the ones coming out tomorrow, we’re particularly looking forward to a new X-Force, Punisher #15, Dark Wolverine #84, the new X-Men Forever and the debut of Cloak and Dagger. Remember to get to your nearest comic shop early tomorrow for best selection.

Don’t know where your nearest comic shop is? Use this handy guide to find one.

Comics On-Sale:

AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #627 (GNTLT)
CLOAK AND DAGGER #1
DARK WOLVERINE #84 (S)
DOOMWAR #1 SECOND PRINTING VARIANT
FANTASTIC FOUR #577
INCREDIBLE HULK #607 SECOND PRINTING VARIANT (FOTHS)
MARVEL PREVIEWS #80
NEW MUTANTS #11
PRELUDE TO DEADPOOL CORPS #5
PUNISHER #15

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