Castle Keep (1969) is a very anti-heroic World War II film filled with lots of dark humor and beautiful photography. The film is based on William Eastlake’s novel about a weary squad of American soldiers who come upon a tenth century castle in Belgium in December 1944.

Sydney Pollack, who was still yet an unknown in Hollywood circles, was chosen to direct this large scale film. Veteran Hollywood great Burt Lancaster stars as Major Abraham Falconer, who leads a reconnaissance squad badly in need of R&R. The remaining cast includes Peter Falk (Sgt. Orlando Rossi), Patrick O’ Neal (Capt. Lionel Beckman), Scott Wilson (Cpl. Ralph Clearboy), Tony Bill (Lt. Amberjack), Al Freeman (Pfc. Alistar P. Benjamin), Michael Conrad (Sgt. De Vaca), and wide eyed screen great Bruce Dern (Lt. Billy Byron Bix).

In the opening scenes of the film, the men are trying to maneuver their battered jeep through heavy mud down an old road. The use of slow motion photography of two individuals on horseback establishes the meeting of the two residents of the castle and the American soldiers. The Count of Maldorais (Jean-Pierre Aumont) welcomes the American soldiers and hopes that they will help protect his castle and its vast treasures and art from the advancing Germans who are preparing to counter-attack in the Ardennes Forrest.

Once in the castle, Maj. Falconer (Lancaster) begins fortifying in preparation of the attacking Germans. His adjutant Capt. Beckman (O’Neal) is an art historian who stresses the importance of the Count’s art collection and that the castle holds some of the greatest treasures of Western Europe.

Beckman tries to convince the Major that they should pull back towards the Meuse River and spare the castle from any destruction. Falconer is a career soldier and cares nothing for the statues, paintings, tapestries, and other treasures. Falconer’s men quickly find ways to keep themselves entertained whether its using expensive bottles of wine as bowling pins, defacing bust sculptures, or satisfying certain requirements at the local whore house in the nearby village known as The Red Queen.

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By Jane Almirall and Shannon Hood

Day three of the festival we got some screenings in, a few interviews, and lots of shorts.

I Saw The Devil Directed by Ji-woon Kim.  Starring Byung-hun Lee (The Good the Bad, the Weird) and Min-sik Choi (Oldboy, Lady Vengeance.)

Shannon:  I seriously contemplated not attending this screening, because it was so early, and because it was subtitled, and it was 2 and 1/2 hours long.

I am so glad I decided to attend.  This Korean revenge movie blew me away, and is my favorite movie of the festival thus far.

I Saw The Devil is a beautiful, brutal, and horrifying revenge tale.  It has the most chilling sociopathic villain I have seen in any movie since Hannibal Lector. The 2 and 1/2 hour running time flies by.  Full review forthcoming.

Interview: Simon Rumley (director; Red, White, and Blue.)  Simon is from London, but directed his film entirely in the Austin area, and even hosted a pub crawl to the various venues that he used in the movie.  He talked about the taboos he broke in the movie, the jarring musical score, and how influential pal Tim League helped him with the movie.  Full interview forthcoming.

We Are What We Are Directed by Jorge Michel Grau.  Starring Adrián Aguirre, Miriam Balderas, Francisco Barreiro, and Carmen Beato. Summary:  When the patriarch of the family passes away, the teenage children must take responsibility for the family chores: the preparation of the rituals…

This was a bit of a mixed bag, about a mexican family of cannibals who must make do after the patriarch of the family passes away unexpectedly.

What’s surprising is that cannibals are usually depicted as redneck backwards ass families.  This is, by all appearances, a normal family.

They eat humans for “the ritual,”  but the movie never really explains what the ritual is.  I wish we would have found out more about their motivations for the cannibalism.  I’m kind of in the middle on this one.

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As comic book legends go, Stan ‘The Man” Lee is probably the most famous. His amazing creations and co-creations like The Fantastic Four, Spider-Man, The Hulk and Iron Man have captivated audiences worldwide for decades and given rise to an entertainment empire that endures to this day.

So, when Stan Lee decides to create another comic book, we pay attention, This new one, known as The Traveler, teams Lee with writer Mark Waid and tells the story of a mysterious new superhero with time-traveling powers who battles the Split-Second Men, super-powered assassins from the future.

To commemorate this event we’ve got a bunch of pages from the comic to share with you today. Plus, a few covers as well. So, click through to check them out.

The Traveler issue #1, published by Boom Studios, hits comic store shelves in November.

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Earlier this month, we brought you a host of new product announcements from Apple, including news that Apple would be releasing a highly-updated version of their Apple TV. Unlike the new iPods which went on sale shortly after the news event, the Apple TV was slated for pre-order status and Apple claimed it would ship later in September.

Well, it appears that either Apple has a production issue with the new device, or the Apple TV is attracting a whole lot more pre-orders than were expected. Flash-forward to today, and a quick perusal of the Apple Store reveals that the updated Apple TV will now ship in 2-3 weeks, easily pushing things into Mid-October.

Lending credence to a potential ship date snafu, Apple Insider is reporting that some pre-order customers who specified rush shipping, are now starting to receive an email from Apple claiming that these rush shipping charges will be refunded due to a ‘possible delay.’

“Our records indicate that when you placed your order you paid for upgraded shipping,” Apple wrote in the emails. “Due to a delay, we may have not been able to meet our delivery commitment.” The email goes on to say that Apple has “processed a refund for the shipping charge on your order. Please contact your card-issuing bank for information on when the credit will be posted to your account.”

Curiouser and curiouser. While Apple has insisted that their new streaming media device would ship in September, and even the company’s online store is reporting a status of “Ships: September” for pre-orders, it’s simply not clear at this time if first Apple TV shipments will be pushed back into mid-October.

It will be interesting to see if Apple ends up citing a hiccup in production or whether crushing demand for the new device is to blame. Either way, we’ll be bringing you all of the latest news from Apple and from around the web as it breaks.

Just this weekend, Saturday Night Live returned with its 36th season to a 15 percent ratings bump from last season’s premiere. Amy Pohler and Katy Perry were the guests, along with a whole slew of former cast members dropping by throughout the show.

The premiere had its funny moments. But one of the main things the episode also accomplished was to make the audience look back and fondly remember the classic episodes of the series over its rich 35 year lifespan. Fortunetely, we don’t have to scrounge YouTube or Hulu for old episodes as Netflix and NBC have signed a deal to get every episode of SNL available on Netflix’s streaming service.

But that’s not all as according to the press releasing announcing the deal, along with SNL, we’ll also be treated to tons of other NBC Universal properties coming to the service.

Episodes from every season of NBC’s signature comedy franchise “Saturday Night Live,” including day-after broadcast of the upcoming 2010, 2011 and 2012 seasons plus hundreds of episodes from the first 35 years of “SNL.”

Every episode from the last season of the multiple Emmy® Award-winning series “30 Rock,” “The Office” and “Law & Order: SVU,” as well as earlier seasons of those shows renewed for streaming from Netflix under the current deal.

All prior seasons – and eventually next year’s final season – of “Friday Night Lights,” the small-town drama surrounding high-school football in Dillon, Tex.

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It’s been a big month for Spider-Man. His recent title, Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions was released to strong reviews and now he has officially been added to the roster of Marvel vs. Capcom 3.  Spider-Man has not only become the most iconic character in Marvel, he has also been a staple of Capcom’s Marvel fighting games since their inception.

It is no surprise to see him officially a part of Marvel vs. Capcom 3′s roster. Now the question remains if one of his fearsome foes like the wildly popular Venom will be added as well or if a totally different opponent of his will make their way into the game. It seems like a versatile and different character like the Sandman or Green Goblin might have a strong showing in the series.

A debuting character to the series is Resident Evil’s Wesker. (Spoiler) Coming back from the dead will be the main antagonist from the survival horror series.

Starting out as a supporting character, Wesker was eventually revealed to be the main big bad for Resident Evil, and has made an appearance in another Capcom franchise, Lost Planet 2 as a multiplayer skin. His glowing red eyes and superhuman abilities make him a great fit for the franchise as seen in his trailer below.

Make sure to peek at all the new screens for Marvel vs. Capcom 3 along with both new character trailers and stick close as more Marvel vs. Capcom 3 news becomes available.

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Just in case you thought nobody would go see a sequel to a 1987 Oliver Stone flick, the director pulled a rabbit out of his hat and helped the film release at #1 at the box office with an estimated $19 Million opening weekend. Zack Snyder’s Legend of the Guardians, which also opened on Friday, came in a close second with $16.5 Million.

Many may feel like $19 Million isn’t much of a take for a film of Wall Street’s caliber, but if you were to compare it to the film’s predecessor, it made nearly half of the all-time domestic gross of the original film in it’s first weekend alone. That’s right, 1987′s Wall Street only made $44 Million to date, and a laughable (By today’s standards) $4 Million in it’s first weekend. So $19 Million may not be considered big money in today’s scheme of things, but it’s quite a step up from $4 Million.

One notable piece of news from the weekend box office is what a massive flop that You Again turned out to be. The film stars Kristen Bell, Jaime Lee Curtis, Sigourney Weaver, and the thought to be bankable Betty White. With an estimate production budget of $20 Million, the film greatly underwhelmed both critics and moviegoers, as it only pulled in $8.3 Million for the weekend and came in at #5.

In other films, Affleck’s The Town took an $8 Million cut from last weekend’s $23 Million at #3. Screen Gems’ Easy A took slightly more of a hit, only making under $11 Million this weekend.

Next weekend, we’re expecting a much bigger box office take, as Sony’s The Social Network opens in 2,700 screens. Horror remake Let Me In starring Kick-Ass star Chloe Moretz hits 2,000 screens from Overture Films, and Buena Vista’s Secretariat sneaks across the country in nearly 500 screens.

By Shannon Hood and Jane Almirall

On day two, we got several screenings in, and an interview.  Here’s how it all went down.

Mother’s Day Directed by Darren Lynn Bousman.  Starring Jaime King, Rebecca De Mornay, and Deborah Ann Woll.

Jane’ thoughts: Mother’s Day is an interesting remake of the 1980 Charles Kaufman feature.    Bousman updates the original by changing the story from a camping trip gone wrong (in which several campers are held hostage and terrorized by a criminally insane family) to a horrifying tale of home invasion – based on actual events – (in which friends at a birthday party are held hostage and terrorized by a criminally insane family).

Mother’s Day maintains a palpable tension throughout it’s running time as the party-goers turned hostages are humiliated, tortured and killed by this extremely dysfunctional family.  There are several nods to it’s roots in Troma – particularly Rebecca De Mornay’s performance, which is peppered with camp - though for the most part the torture and kill scenes play without a wink.  This film went on a little bit long for my tastes, but to it’s credit kept my heart rate up for it’s entirety.

Interview: Edward Norton

Shannon:  I got to attend a round table interview with Edward Norton, who was in Austin to promote Stone, co-starring Robert De Niro and Milla Jovovich.

Edward was charming and intelligent, and gave us some insight into how he prepared for his role as an inmate, why ambiguity is not a bad thing in movies, and gave us some details regarding the creative process that director John Curran worked through to bring the movie to fruition.  Interview is forthcoming.

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Welcome to this week’s On the Radar where we delve into all corners of the entertainment, tech and geek Internets for news, views and whatnot that may have escaped our regular coverage this week. Let is know if we missed something interesting. Otherwise, on to the links!

• You asked for it, (or maybe you didn’t). Either way, here’s the list of the Top 10 Most Ridiculous Character-Branded Products.

• If you find yourself asking if a poster would be too nerdy to put in your room…Chances are you probably know the answer.

• If you caught last night’s Community, then you’re most definitely going to want to go back and read the Twittersodes leading up to the airing. Trust us.

• In prepping for his epically animated Owl Fighting movie, Zack Snyder admits that he had people dress up in owl suits to choreograph the fight scenes.

• Katy Perry recorded a spoof of her song and sang it alongside Elmo on Sesame Street. The song was immediately pulled from the episode before airing. What’s the world coming to when a girl can’t sing about kissing other girls on a show with Muppets?

• A student dressed like The Hulk smashed a car and is now getting in trouble for it. The real crime? The fact that there wasn’t a camera rolling the entire time.

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This week’s episode picks up where last week left off—in Dennis’ apartment, where he’s deep in the throes of connubial misery with his impromptu wife, the bad-breathed, dead-toothed, crazy-cat-heads-glued-to-her-sweatshirts Maureen Ponderosa (who doesn’t look half-bad on her side and in a T-shirt).

Dennis is trying desperately to get to work (that’s an odd sentence) while his new bride coos at him to come cuddle (and I love the subtle implication in his automated response “There’s cab fare on the table”). As it turns out, Maureen doesn’t have a job, another check on the ever-growing list of her annoyances, which is just about to send Dennis over the edge.

Back at Paddy’s, where Mac has taken up residence after getting thrown out of Dennis’ apartment, Frank and Charlie are going over their own marriage, namely what Charlie brings to the table, which is, as Frank puts it, “diddly-squat.” Makes sense. And Sweet Dee’s reeling from her new car, purchased by her current infatuated conquest, Dennis’ brother-in-law, Bill Ponderosa.

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If, like me, you were a fan of the old school animated series Star Blazers then you’ve probably heard they’re making a live action version of the series called Space Battleship Yamato. In fact, if you’re a regular reader of this site, you’ve already seen the first trailer for the movie and got some info about it.

But if you thought that earlier trailer was cool, you ain’t seen nothing yet. This latest one brings everything you would expect from a movie like this including a glimpse of the show’s signature weapon: The Wave Motion Gun. Plus, it’s got all the action, drama, suspense and characters you remember from the anime series all in a pretty impressive package.

As I mentioned previously, the film doesn’t have an official U.S. release date. However, I’m sure it will eventually make its way here so those of us looking forward to it will be able to see it. Or, if by some chance the filmmakers are reading this article, please feel free to send us a copy. We promise to give it a thorough review. Domo Arigato.

Check out the trailer after the jump.

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By Shannon Hood and Jane Almirall

Each day we will provide you with capsule reviews and impressions of the films we see at Fantastic Fest, along with any activities or interviews we attend.  Complete reviews and interviews can be found on the site in upcoming weeks.

Day one of fantastic fest we hit the ground running and went straight from the airport to pick up our press badges.  We managed to cram in three screenings for the day, starting at 4pm.  Not too shabby.

Screening: Stone. Directed by John Curran and starring Edward Norton, Robert De Niro, Frances Conroy, and Milla Jovovich.  Summary: A convicted arsonist (Norton) looks to manipulate a parole officer (De Niro) into a plan to secure his parole by placing his beautiful wife (Jovovich)  in the lawman’s path.

Jane’s thoughts:  This was an unusual experience for me.  I was half expecting this to play out like a thriller-but instead I watched a slow (but evenly paced) meditative, existential character study.

The performances were great, but I can’t say I enjoyed the film (to its credit,we discussed it a great deal afterwards.)

The characters in Stone never quite feel like actual people, rather they represent certain characteristics of humanity.  Their stories slowly unfold to reveal that in the end, we are back at the beginning and haven’t moved an inch.

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