If there is one truth that is universal to every human being, it is that we are all going to die someday.  For some people that is a terrifying prospect, for others it is just another stop on life’s journey.  Whatever your beliefs are, I think that all people have innate curiosity about what happens when we die.  After all, no one knows for sure.

I’m sure it is no coincidence that Clint Eastwood has turned to this subject matter at this point in his life. The man is 80 years old.  He’s likely had more than a fleeting thought about his own mortality.

Hereafter juggles three distinct storylines throughout the movie until they converge in a neat and tidy package at the end of the movie. The film doesn’t even give you a moment to get settled in your seat before you are subjected to  a gut-churning Tsunami action sequence.

It’s one of the most amazing set pieces I’ve ever seen.  It is terrifying and fantastically realistic, and it will leave you a slack-jawed mess.

Marie (Cécile De France from High Tension) is a successful French news reporter with her own show.  She is on vacation with her boyfriend (who happens to be the producer of her show) when the Tsunami hits.  She has been buying souvenirs for her boyfriend’s children in the marketplace.  As the giant wave starts bearing down upon the market, everyone starts running for their lives.

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Now that the dust has settled, and we’ve adjusted to the fact that Guillermo Del Toro is not taking the director’s chair, as Middle Earth native Peter Jackson is taking the reins back, it’s time to look to the film as, well…a film. That means finally casting some of the characters we’ve treasured since first reading the book decades ago.

Last week, news came forward that Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy star Martin Freeman will fill the very big feet of Bilbo Baggins, and now Jackson has decided to let us in on the rest of the cast, and who exactly they’ll be playing. Here’s the full list from Deadline.

Jackson has cast several other significant Dwarf characters. Richard Armitage (MI-5 and Captain America: The First Avenger) will play Thorin Oakenshield, leader of the Company of Dwarves which sets off to reclaim the Lonely Mountain from a thieving dragon. Aidan Turner (Being Human) and Rob Kazinsky (EastEnders) will play Kili and Fili, members of the Company of Dwarves. Graham McTavish (Secretariat) will play Dwalin, John Callen (Power Rangers Jungle Fury) will play Oin; Stephen Hunter (All Saints) will play Bombur, and Mark Hadlow (King Kong) plays Dori, while Peter Hambleton (The Strip) will play Gloin.

As if these names weren’t enough, there are rumors that David Tennant (Doctor Who) and James Nesbitt (Jekyll) will make an appearance, and also possible speculation that Andy Serkis and Sir Ian McKellan will reprise their roles.

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I shudder to think that I almost didn’t go see this film.  The press screening was early in the morning, it was a purported 2 and 1/2 hours long, it was subtitled, and I just didn’t know if I had the stamina that day, as I had four other films lined up.  It ends up that this is my favorite film of the entire festival, and I would go so far as to say it is a masterpiece on its own accord, not just within horror circles.

Director Kim Ji-Woon  has quickly differentiated himself from the pack of talented South Korean directors with exceptional genre films like A Tale of Two Sisters and The Good, the Bad, the Weird.  Here he ups his game with an epic tale featuring one of the most chilling serial killers I have ever seen in a film.

On a snowy night, beautiful Joo-Yun (Oh San-Ha) gets a flat tire on her way home, and is stranded by the side of the road.  A man approaches her vehicle and adamantly insists on helping her.  After she declines his offer of help, he savagely attacks her by breaking out the car window.  She is dragged from her car, leaving a trail of blood across the top of the crisp white snow.

The film wastes no time bringing on the horrific visuals, as poor Joo-Yun is systematically tortured and brutally killed in a nondescript building lined with plastic tarps. Her tormentor is Kyeong-Cheol ( Choi Min-sik), who we come to find out has murdered a lot of people.

The murderer has made the grave error of messing with the wrong woman, though.  She was engaged to federal agent Dae-hoon (Lee Byung-hun), who vows he will hunt down whoever butchered her, and exact a terrible revenge.

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When you’ve gone down as long a road as Conan O’Brien has to get to a brand new talk show on TBS, you hope that the first week when your show premieres you can knock it out of the park with guests. You also might hope to stray, at least a little, from the usual cavalcade of Hollywood types that populate most talk shows these days.

For good or ill, it looks like Conan is going to be having the same people on his new show that everyone else has. How do we know? He’s announced his first week of guest that’s how.

Here’s the list (With a bit of commentary thrown in):

Monday, Nov. 8 – Seth Rogen and musical guest Jack White (Don’t really care, Sorta care).

Tuesday, Nov. 9 – Tom Hanks, Jack McBrayer and musical guest Soundgarden (Sorta care, Don’t care, Care quite a bit).

Wednesday, Nov. 10 – Jon Hamm, Charlyne Yi and musical guest Fistful of Mercy (Care, Really don’t care, Don’t care).

Thursday, Nov. 11 – Michael Cera, Julie Bowen and comedian Jon Dore (Meh, Care, Don’t know, don’t care).

So, to add things up, that’s quite a few “Don’t care” and some “Sorta care” with only a smattering of “Care.” Come on Conan talent bookers, we want this new show to be a huge success. Please try harder.

After some time sitting on a shelf somewhere (It premiered at Sundance in 2009) the film I Love You Phillip Morris is finally seeing the light of day thanks to a release from the folks at Roadside Attractions. From the creative team of Glenn Ficara and John Requa, who’s previous work Bad Santa is a subversive comedic favorite around here, comes this new film featuring Jim Carrey and Ewan McGregor as prisoners in love.

This new trailer has a little fun with the Christmas season release of the film but tends to tone down the gay storyline in favor of highlighting the comedic elements. And comedy we do get as in this film looks pretty funny.

In the film Carrey plays a man who after a series of failed relationships realizes he’s gay. He then goes on a crime spree to fund his new lavish lifestyle, gets caught and is sent to prison. While in the slammer he meets Phillip Morris (McGregor), falls in love, breaks out of jail and then tries to break out his partner.

Check out the trailer below but keep in mind it is probably NSFW. I Love You Phillip Morris opens in limited release on December 3.

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Just in time for Halloween, Rovio has released a special edition of its popular Angry Birds game in the iTunes store.  The new game is available for 99 cents for the iPhone and iPod touch, and $1.99 for the iPad.

According to the Rovio website, the new release will include 45 levels of pumpkins, ghosts and monsters. It will also have Halloween music and graphics.

Angry Birds has become wildly popular, and since it was released for Android phones last week it has already been downloaded over three million times. The publisher of Angry Birds (Chillingo) was acquired by EA (Entertainment Arts) on Wednesday for $20 Million.  They also publish the new hit Cut the Rope game.

The Angry Birds developers have announced that they will not use Chillingo  from now on. The Angry Birds game remains the property of Rovio, and was not part of the acquisition.  You can watch a short demo Angry Birds Halloween after the jump

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If there is one thing bringing both comic book and TV fans together, it’s the fact that Robert Kirkman’s critically acclaimed comic series The Walking Dead is coming to AMC, the home of Don Draper and Walter White. For the fans of TV, this is a chance for something groundbreaking and deep to fill that Mad Men void. For comic fans, it’s a chance to see their favorite panels taken to the screen. And for zombie fans, there is the promise of some kick ass kills week to week.

In an attempt to get more than those 3 centralized groups into the show, AMC is planning to incentiveize those loyal fans to spread the word (or in this case, the “dead”) all over the country in hopes to make the premiere the biggest night on television.

How does it work? Easy. Sign up at AMC’s Spread The Dead website with all the necessary info. Once registered, you’ll get a custom URL. For every click that URL gets from a different user, you get a certain amount of points.

Top two earners by the end of the contest on November 19th get $5,000 for first place and $2,500 for second. Don’t feel bad if you get close, because the top 15 still get some great Walking Dead prizes. So if you already have The Walking Dead premiere DVR’d, then it’s time to get your friends, family, pets, and strangers on the street to do the same. It could mean big money!

Catch The Walking Dead on AMC, October 131st at 10/9c and stay in touch will all things Walking Dead at their Twitter and Facebook pages. Good luck!

With its release date under a week away, THQ has revealed a new trailer for SmackDown vs. Raw 2011 featuring all of the biggest moves in the WWE, the finishers. Much like the real WWE, in SmackDown vs. Raw 2011 a match can be ended in an instant if a player is able to hit their big finish out of nowhere.

In the trailer below, you will see just how good SmackDown vs. Raw 2011 looks in action and how much effort was put into making the finishers look as realistic as possible.

Some of the highlights below include classic’s like the Undertaker’s Tombstone, Shawn Michael’s Sweet Chin Music, Bret Hart’s Sharpshooter and Jake “The Snake” Robert’s DDT. In addition, SmackDown vs. Raw 2011 is doing a great job of highlighting some of WWE’s newer and younger talent with the likes of Santino Marella’s Cobra, Zack Ryder’s Zack Attack and Kofi Kingston’s Trouble In Paradise.

Make sure to take a peek below and stick to The Flickcast for more on WWE’s SmackDown vs. Raw 2011 including a review once the game is released.

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It seems to be a distant memory now, but there was a period in time when Pixar and Disney has split up over financial and creative differences. Obviously, Disney didn’t suffer all that much, and went on to do less-than-Pixar quality films like Meet the Robinsons and Chicken Little. The megastudio finally came to their senses and acquired Pixar in 2006, leading up to it’s first feature film after the purchase, Cars.

The lack in preparation on the marketing side of things hurt the film in the long run, leaving it to get beaten by Ice Age: The Meltdown back in 2006. Now, it’s time to change all of that with a brand new film in the works.

From what we gathered in the teaser after the jump, we know that Owen Wilson an Larry the Cable Guy are returning. Sadly, three of the voice actors from the first film have died since it’s original release, which means we won’t get Paul Newman, George Carlin, or voice actor Joe Ranft in the upcoming sequel.

Check out the new teaser after the jump, as well as some great concept art showing us that the whole gang is making a world tour in this story. Be sure to catch Cars 2 in 3D and 2D, in theaters on June 24th.

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We know, we know, Apple announced all this new cool stuff yesterday. Sadly, we were having some technical problems here at the site yesterday and we didn’t get a chance to bring you the news about what the company announced. So, in the interest of thoroughness, here’s what Apple had to say. Get your credit cards ready.

First up is the new version of Apple’s Mac OS X operating system. This version, known as OS X 10.7 or Lion, sports the following new features and enhancements:

• Multitouch gesture support
• App Store: Mac apps available in a centralized location with a payment system, 1-click purchasing, customer reviews, screenshots, etc
• Launchpad – app home screens for OS X
• Full-screen apps
• Auto-save and auto-resume within apps
• Mission Control: unification of full-screen apps, Expose, Spaces and Dashboard

Lion will launch this coming Summer, though no specific release date was provided. The Mac App Store will be available within 90 days, however, as an addition to Snow Leopard.

Next, let’s turn to Apple’s suite of applications called iLife. As expected, the suite was updated to give us the new iLife ’11.

Here’s the specs:

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It’s not very often that you see the words “Muslim” and “Punk Rock” in the same sentence, but the tagline for the upcoming film The Taqwacores is, “Punk. Muslim. American.”

Directed by Eyad Zahra, The Taqwacores played at South by Southwest and Sundance film festivals.  Now Strand Releasing will be rolling out a slow limited release of the film starting on Friday, October 22 in New York, followed by California on November 12.

Synoposis: Yusef, a first-generation Pakistani engineering student, moves off-campus with a group of Muslim punks in Buffalo, New York.  His new “unorthodox” housemates soon introduce him to Taqwacore – a hardcore, Muslim punk rock scene that only exists on the West Coast.

The film is based on a book by Michael Muhammad Knight, who co-wrote the movie.  Originally the novel was handed out for free in parking lots, but it has since been published in the US, France, England and Italy. The novel is said to have inspired a real life birth of Muslim Punk Rock in the United States.

Want to know what Muslim Punk Rock sounds like?  Check out the album on iTunes.  The film stars Bobby Naderi, Noureen Dewulf, and Dominic Rains.

You can watch the intriguing trailer after the jump.

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