Let’s be honest, we’ve played a lot of videogame adaptations of hit movie franchises here at The Flickcast, as we’re sure you have. And, let’s face it, they tend to not be of the highest quality. While I’ve played both games adapted from Toy Story and Toy Story 2, one on Genesis when I was seven and the other on PC when I was twelve, I was not excited for either of them as much as I’m excited for Avalanche Software’s Toy Story 3: The Videogame, especially after Kotaku posted the trailer up on their site earlier this week.

Along with some quality looking graphics and some fun gameplay featuring Woody, Buzz, and the gang, the trailer for Toy Story 3: The Videogame shows off the game’s innovative “Toy Box” mode, where you can create and customize your own levels and play through them with your favorite Toy Story characters. This feature looks incredibly in-depth, with the ability to place buildings, space aliens, or cowboys on racetracks, shooting ranges, or rainbow-colored paths in the jungle.

Toy Story 3 climbs out of the toy box and into theaters on June 18th, but you can pick up Toy Story 3: The Videogame on June 15th for Xbox 360, PS3, Nintendo Wii, PSP, and Nintendo DS on June 15th. While you’re anxiously waiting like the small child you once were when the first Toy Story film was released, you can watch the trailer for the game after the jump.

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Sometimes good shows actually get the treatment they deserve instead of being unceremoniously dumped from their network. Case in point is TNT’s excellent cop drama Southland which began life on NBC but after only a limited run, wan’t asked to continue on the network.

Instead, TNT picked it up and aired the remainder of episodes to what was apparently good results as the show has been given another season. In case you’re not familiar with Southland, it was created by Emmy winning writer Ann Biderman (NYPD Blue) and concerns a group of uniformed LAPD officers, among them Ben McKenzie (The OC), Michael McGrady (Band of Brothers), Regina King (Jerry McGuire, 24) and Tom Everett Scott (That Thing You Do), who deal with the daily trials and tribulations of life as a front line police officer.

Sporting a very good cast who deliver nuanced performances, good writing and excellent visuals, the show deserved a chance to find an audience and I, for one, am glad it seems to be doping just that. And even though we are all big fans of many of NBC’s shows, at least with this show in particular, they made a mistake letting it go. Oh well, their loss is TNT’s gain it would seem.

In honor of the HBO mini series The Pacific, this week’s pick goes out to the “devil dogs” of the United States Marine Corp with the 1967 release Beach Red, directed by and starring Cornel Wilde. Beach Red is a “Vietnam morale booster” which came out at a very critical time during America’s involvement in Vietnam.

The film centers around a company of Marines (commanded by Wilde) who storm a Pacific hell hole of an island to take it back from the Japanese. A majority of the film is told through a series of montages/narration by both American & Japanese who are tired of fighting, and of the war (very similar plot to Clint Eastwood’s Flags of Our Fathers & Letters From Iwo Jima.) Captain MacDonald (Wilde) and Gunnery Sgt. Ben Honeywell, played ever so convincingly by veteran character actor, and one who confuses his home with a local bank Rip Torn, lead the cast.

The scenes involving the Marines invading the beach head are quite well done, even though a majority of it is stock footage that Wilde spent a considerable amount of money on in order for the deteriorating film stock to match up with his film. Many of the scenes are somewhat “Saving Private Ryan like” in which there are shots in the water, and jerky camera movements which show the disorienting nature of combat.

Spielberg may have shot those scenes in Saving Private Ryan as an homage to Wilde’s directing style. When the film was wrapped and it was shown to some high ranking officials in the USMC, they thanked Wilde for doing a great job at restoring the old combat footage and that they personally didn’t have to restore the footage themselves. I trust the money they saved went towards helping many veterans, and those still fighting in the jungles of Vietnam?

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If you’ve felt something was missing from your Monday nights you’re in luck because Chuck returns tonight with an all new episode. To commemorate this great event, we’ve got a preview and another cool video for tonight’s episode to share with you right now, courtesy of our friends at NBC.

Up first, Chuck and Sarah are back and working as a couple in Europe with Morgan and Casey following close behind. Of course, as you might guess, Morgan and Casey don’t stay in the shadows for long once the bullets and fists start flying.

Next, a terrific video in the form of a “Hart-felt Homage” where Morgan pays tribute to Chuck and Sarah in the vein of classic spy stories. It’s pretty clever and sorta makes me nostalgic for those first episodes of Chuck and how it all began.

Check out all the action when Chuck returns tonight at 8/7C on NBC. Until then, be sure to check out both of these great videos after the jump.

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Move over Spider-Man, there’s a new caped crusader looking to take over the stage! Warner Bros. and DC Entertainment are looking into developing a live Batman stage show to tour across the country. While the idea was ultimately a flop for Marvel and “Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark”, DC and WB think that the idea will flourish, as it’s not a musical or broadway-style production.

This would be an arena production made for kids, like Disney on Ice or Cirque De SoLe, just less trippy and erotic. Also unlike the failed Spidey musical, there will be some veteran comic talent behind this production. From Heat Vision:

Alan Burnett and Stan Berkowitz, longtime animation veterans whose credits include Batman and Superman television shows as well as such animated movies as “Batman: Mask of the Phantasm” and “Justice League: The New Frontier,” are writing the story and script. The logline is being kept under wraps, but it’s known that the show will feature numerous villains.

Warner Bros. Consumer Products is spearheading the project, whose deals with NGM and WLP are licensing agreements. Other partners might come aboard.

With Berkowitz and Burnett working on the script, you can expect to see less of a “watered down” version of the hero’s adventures, much like you would see at the top of the hour at most Six Flags theme parks. Also, with the team writing a script, you can plan for this story to take place inside the walls of the rich animated Superman/Batman/Justice League continuity.

The company is still in the early planning stages, but the idea has been planted, and they plan on moving ahead. There is no set time table, but the idea is to have the show open around the time of Christopher Nolan’s planned Batman sequel.

Warning: spoilers ahead. Tonight was a welcome change from all the domestic drama of late. We got an episode that focused on the down and  dirty drug manufacturing, and ratcheted up the tension to unbearable levels.  Did everyone exhale a sigh of relief when Hank was summoned away from the junkyard?  I did, even though I know the showdown between Hank and Walt is inevitable.

‘Sunset’ begins with a New Mexico police patrol summoned to the residence of a woman who has not been seen for a few days.  When he arrives at her isolated adobe, things are rather quiet. We see the sketch of Walt from ’No Mas’, along with tell-tale candles and cult paraphernalia.

After the officer  sees two suit coats hanging out to dry, he knows something is amiss, and starts checking the perimeter of the house.  Buzzing flies (never a good sign) are swarming on one side of an outbuilding (which appears to be the same one that all the people were slithering toward on their bellies in ‘No Mas’), and the officer discovers a body.

He calls for back-up, and is confronted by one of the cousins, who refuses to stand down or obey orders, and nonchalantly munches an apple while his counterpart stealthily sneaks up behind the officer and bludgeons him to death, with what I believe was a scythe.

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About a month ago, we brought you the first look at this summer biggest vampire film based on a bestselling novel with Twilight: Eclipse. The film is the second to last in the series, which is followed by Breaking Dawn, which can’t seem to find a director or structure.

The trailer for the film seems to focus more on the action of the film, and less on the drama, which is a nice switch from the previous films. In this one, Jacob (Taylor Lautner) and his pack of family members must team up with the Edward (Rob Pattinson) and the Cullens to take down the rest of the vampire nation.

Of course, there is plenty of Edward-Bella-Jacob drama mixed in there, but it’s nice to think of a Twilight film to be about more than just an awkward love triangle.

Check out the first full trailer of The Twilight Saga: Eclipse after the jump, and be sure to catch it in theaters everywhere on June 30th.

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Much like the weeks leading up to the release of the first Iron Man film, fanboys and fangirls are taking to the Internets with loads of rumors and speculation on what we can expect to see in the upcoming sequel. Of course, there are all manner of possibilities including things as outrageous as a scene in which The Hulk shows up, as well as a few things like “names on a dossier” which may give clues on the makeup of The Avengers.

It looks like we may be getting some confirmation on what to expect in two weeks. One of the major expectations is what the “easter egg” in this film will be.

We all remember the post-credits sequence with Sam Jackson as Nick Fury (and how much craze that started in the fan community).

Now, we’re getting word that there is yet another scene after the credits, and this one is a doozie. From the Italian site badtaste.it:

“A 100% trusted source (NOT from the production/distribution, but very familiar with the movie) confirmed us today that there will be an easter egg in IM2. It’s an extra scene, just like the one in the first movie, after the end credits.

We are able to tell you what’s about! It’s a scene about… Captain America and Thor! Maybe this doesn’t seem a big reveal, but it’s nice to have a confirmation.”

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A long time coming, the definitive bio-pic of Jack Kevorkian, the controversial physician who made headlines in the late ’90s by performing physician-assisted suicides, is here. You Don’t Know Jack covers the main events from Kevorkian’s tenure as “Dr. Death”: His first assisted suicide, his meeting Geoffrey Fieger, the subsequent trials culminating in Kevorkian’s trial for the death of ALS patient Thomas Youk (in which the doctor, with great difficulty, represented himself), and ends with his incarceration.

These scenes and others are obligatory, but the film is less concerned with presenting an argument for assisted suicide or depicting history as it is with understanding Kevorkian the man.

As the doctor, Al Pacino holds the film together with one of his more subtle performances in recent memory. Likewise, it’s been a while since Pacino so immersed himself in a role that you forget you’re watching the actor. He plays Kevorkian as a man so convinced of his own view that he often falls into the same sort of dogmatic stubbornness he attacks.

When he shows up to a courthouse dressed in colonial garb and encased in a prop stock, one can’t help but think of the scene from The People Versus Larry Flynt when Woody Harrelson similarly goes to trial wearing the American flag as a diaper, both men putting aside the furthering of their cause for petty grudges. But Kevorkian at heart is not first and foremost a showman.

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One of the major issues many fans of the original Nightmare on Elm Street films have about the upcoming reboot is the look and style of the film’s villain, Freddy Krueger. The main appeal to the original 6 films (and full season of the Freddy’s Nightmares TV series) was that Robert Englund brought a witty cynicism to the character, making him the antagonist, but still entertaining.

Much like the Friday the 13th franchise, towards the later films, fans were going to watch Jason, and really didn’t care about the teens that were getting slaughtered. Now, with Jackie Earle Haley donning the glove and sweater, many fans have been worried whether he would continue the “hilariously evil” style that Englund and Craven brought to the character. He was like Groucho Marx with a burnt face and claw.

In a new clip from the film, we finally get some chatter from Freddy, which is exactly what we’ve been looking for. It’s slightly darker than the originals, which is the same case for the Friday the 13th reboot, but it’s still a nice nod to fans of the original.

Check out the clip after the jump, and be sure to stay awake for A Nightmare On Elm Street when it hits theaters this Friday.

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Things were awful quiet at the box office this weekend, you could hear a pin drop at your nearest multiplex.  The combined gross of the top four films this weekend did not even hit the $50 million mark.  Also, audiences did not have a lot of love for new movies this weekend, as How to Train Your Dragon won the weekend over The Back-Up Plan, starring Jennifer Lopez, and The Losers.  Ultimately, Dragon dropped about 23% from last weekend and made $15 Million on its fifth week in release.

The Back-Up Plan was no doubt a disappointment for fledgling film company CBS films, and for Lopez.  The company’s first and only other release was Extraordinary Measures, the Harrison Ford/Brendan Fraser medical drama that was released in late January.

That film only managed $11.8 Million in its first three weeks in release, so The Back-Up Plan is faring a bit better, with $12.2 Million for the weekend.  Still, it is a very underwhelming gross for an opening weekend, and CBS films and Lopez could definitely have used a hit.

In fourth place came an action movie that a lot of people thought would win the weekend.  The Losers is based on a comic book, and features a sexy ensemble cast, and plenty of explosions. Audiences barely gave the $25 Million film a second glance, and it limped into fourth place never breaking $10 Million in ticket sales.  It stands at $9.6 Million.

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Before we get started, congratulations are in order for QuakeHOLD I of Escondido California who is officially the one millionth user to sign up for a Foursquare account. It’s always a momentous occasion when an app or web service surpasses the one-million user threshold and I’m guessing that there will be some celebrating in Foursquare’s HQ this Friday as they savor this achievement. In fact, a tweet from the popular location-aware service implied exactly those sort of festivities are on tap:

“We’re closing in on 1 million users! Current count is 969,775. Looks like that’s we may have something to toast during Friday Happy Hour ”

Exciting stuff indeed, but what I’m really enthused about is a novel way for brands and organizations to leverage Foursquare to help users unlock their immediate surroundings. With Foursquare, one of the sticking points is that unless your friends live in your immediate area, Foursquare doesn’t really offer a lot of regional intelligence.

Sure, you could check-in at nearby locations, maybe even become the mayor, but after a while, the allure of such things wore off and the general sentiment seemed to be, “So what?”

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