I don’t know how many of you remember movies from the early 1970s, or were even alive in the 1970s, but the period from 1969 to 1975 witnessed a wealth of gritty, nihilistic B-movie dramas.  The protagonists were often shady anti-heroes involved in some violent pursuit either above or below the law.

Easy Rider in 1969 probably spawned the genre (or Bonnie and Clyde in 1967), and was shortly followed by Dirty Harry (1971), Badlands (1973), Death Wish (1974), and my personal favorite, Dirty Mary, Crazy Larry (1974), among many others.  The genre died out about the time Smokey and the Bandit arrived in 1977, when a smirking Burt Reynolds and an over-the-top Jackie Gleason turned it into a southern-fried mockery.

This type of film was personified by Charles Bronson, the lead in Death Wish, who typified the craggy, mumbling, speak-little-but-carry-a-big-Magnum character that was often at the center of these movies.  Bronson, like Clint Eastwood, was never very likeable in his films, but he had an air of cold-blooded ruthlessness that made you cheer for him anyway, as the baddies he dispatched were always much more sinister (but much less charismatic) than he was.

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As sad as it was that Jackass 3D got snubbed at the Oscars, the antics get to live on in an awesome new “sequel” with Jackass 3.5. Coming to the internet via Joost.com in weekly installments, Jackass 3.5 brings you never-before-seen stunts and gags in about 85 minutes over the period of several weeks starting on April 1st (April Fools Day, how poetic).

Why would a website promote a digital sequel of Jackass as its first? Wel,l back in 2007 Paramount released Jackass 2.5 as a digital movie which quickly became the most successful non-theatrical release in the studio’s history, with over 20 million views in the first few weeks. So, they are obviously hoping for more of the same.

After the jump, you can check out the official trailer of 3.5, courtesy of Joost.com. Plus, a special photo of Steve-O to get you through the weekend. To keep up with all things Jackass, be sure to follow them on their official Twitter and Facebook pages.

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It goes without saying that NBC’s Americanized verison of The Office has been a smash hit since its debut in 2005. It did have a bit of a rocky start as some fans panned the show for being a cheap knockoff of Ricky Gervais’ UK original. Later, the show earned its wings and became a staple in current American comedies.

While the shows gone on to create its own identity, Gervais has slowly made his way into the hearts of American TV viewers everywhere. So it only makes sense to have Gervais’ Office character David Brent meet Steve Carell’s Michael Scott.

That’s exactly what happened in last night’s episode of The Office, as the shows cold open included a meeting of stars between Carell and Gervais and we have that clip just for YOU!

Check it out after the jump, and catch the rest of The Office season 7 every Thursday night on NBC.

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The whole exorcism theme has been to death in movies, and The Rite is one more reason it should be shelved for a while. No movie has been able to live up to the grand-daddy of them all, The Exorcist (1973).  The Rite doesn’t even try.  It’s an embarrassment to the genre.

The tale is based on the true story of Father Gary Thomas who serves as an official exorcist for the Diocese of San Jose. This is presumably the tale of how he came to be an exorcist, and it is dreadfully dull. Journalist Matt Baglio chronicled Thomas’s time in Rome in the book ”The Rite: The Making of a Modern Exorcist”.  I’ve got to imagine the book was far more compelling than the movie.

Director Mikael Håfström (1408, Derailed) centers the movie around fictional character Michael Kovak (playing the role based on Thomas) and his crisis of faith, which he must quickly sort out before, you know, he is possessed by the devil. Flashbacks show that  Kovak was raised in the family mortuary, à la Six Feet Under. He has a tense relationship with his father (Rutger Hauer) and after his mother dies, he decides to flee the family business and attend seminary school.

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You have got to hand it to the India film industry. They mostly turn out movies we will never understand which feature lots of dancing. However, occasionally they come up with a gem that’s just so blatantly absurd it turns out to be awesome.

I’m talking about, of course, the amazing film Endhiran (aka Robot) which has the distinction of being the most expensive movie ever made in India. Check out the compilation video we’ve got after the jump and see this movie that’s an amazing combination of I, Robot, The Matrix, The Terminator and pretty much most other popular sci-fi movies you can think of.

And yes, there’s also dancing. Come on, did you really think there wouldn’t be? Check out the video after the jump.

As an added bonus, we’ve also got another trailer for you to enjoy of a film we fondly remember as the first time the Indian film industry decided to make an homage to American films. Yes, it’s the trailer for the Indian Reservoir Dogs/Usual Suspects called Kaante. Enjoy and you’re welcome.

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If you’re an aspiring screenwriter, a veteran of multiple TV shows or pretty much any kind of entertainment writer, you’ve probably heard of, and most likely use, a piece of software called Final Draft. The screenwriting program has become industry standard on TV series and feature films and has helped writers bring their ideas to life for many years.

Currently, the program is on version 8 for Mac and Windows, which is great. However, many writers who use the program every day have been asking for a version that works on Apple’s iPad and patiently waiting for the company to develop one. Well, it seems that wait is over as the company has announced plans to release a version of its software for the iPad, iPhone and other iOS 4 devices.

Exact details and features of the iPad version of Final Draft are still a bit vague. However, according to the company the iPad and iPhone version of the app, dubbed Final Draft version 8 mobile, will “work with Final Draft version 8 FDX files and allow you to make edits and notes on the go for greater mobility. Plus, you can easily move the same script from iPad or iPhone to desktop and back.”

Sounds pretty cool to me. Guess I won’t be selling my iPad after all. Expect to see Final Draft version 8 mobile sometime this Spring.

We all know how terrible some of 2010′s films were because, let’s face it, we actually saw most of them. Now, much like they’ve been doing for years, the folks over at The Razzies are bringing us together so we can get final closure on how bad some of these films really were.

Sure, some easy picks like Twilight: Eclipse and Jennifer Aniston are up for some of the worst of the year, but if last year’s picks were any indicator, we could be seeing some potential Oscar winners among this list.

With that said, without further adieu, we present to you the complete list of nominees for this year’s Razzie Awards.

Click through for the whole (justified) list and get that final closure when the awards are presented on February 26th.

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A couple of weeks ago, I named The Company Men on my top 10 films of 2010 list. The movie tracks a handful of employees at a large company, and follows their stories through the economic downturn.

It’s an amazing film (full review will run tomorrow) that captures all the anguish, anger, and fear I have witnessed through my own friends and family experience. This movie absolutely nails it, and it can be difficult to watch at times, because it hits so close to home.

When I was given the opportunity to interview director John Wells, I jumped on it.  This film means a lot to me, and I couldn’t wait to talk to the man who wrote, directed, and produced it. Wells has an impressive filmography as a producer on a myriad of projects.

He served as executive producer during the entire run of television’s ER and The West Wing. He has also been President of the Writer’s Guild of America.  Although he has directed several television episodes, this is his first feature film.

Right before we started the interview, I told him how much the movie meant to me, and shared a few personal stories about friends and family members who have suffered since the recession.

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We all know that sci-fi and fantasy book adaptations are huge right now. Harry Potter just about broke the box office, Twilight is continuing the trend, and Hunger Games is in the process of bringing that even further with another huge screen adaptation. Well, that’s not all, as Ron Howard and super producer Bryian Grazer are getting some movement on their adaptation of Stephen King’s Dark Tower series.

It’s now being announced that No Country For Old Men star Javier Bardem is now being courted for the lead in the film, and potentially “films”. From Deadline.

I’m told that Bardem has officially been offered the lead role by director Ron Howard and Universal Pictures. While formal negotiations haven’t yet begun, there’s a high level of enthusiasm internally that they’ve got their cowboy. Akiva Goldsman has scripted the first movie, and will write the TV component as well. Imagine Entertainment’s Brian Grazer is producing with Goldsman and the author.

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After several missteps with their online registration process, San Diego Comic-Con organizers have finally announced an official registration date for 2011 attendees. For fans of the country’s largest comic convention, you may be familiar with some of the event’s online registration melt-downs that have plagued the con’s organizers over the last few months. Attendees trying to score passes to the July 2011 event were met with server errors, frozen screens and an overall frustrating time with the online registration system.

Con organizers faulted an online registration system run by a third-party company called  EPIC, which managed to fail twice in spectacular fashion: first on November 1st, the original on-sale date for Comic-Con 2011, and yet again on November 22nd. Potential attendees took to Facebook and Twitter in droves to complain about the technical glitches.

It remains to be seen whether convention organizers have switched registration providers, or whether they’ve perhaps worked out their problems for good this time around. Either way, we hope the third time is the charm.

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This week on The Flickcast brings more insight, innovation and innuendo from your favorite co-hosts. That’s right, Chris and Matt are back and discussing all sorts of new and returning topics.

Some of those topics include the Oscars, Spartacus: Gods of the Arena, Call of Duty: Black Ops Map Packs, the Verizon iPhone, Fantastic Four developments, Smallville’s final season and potential spin-offs, the Dead Space 2 ads and much more.

Chris and Matt also made new picks this week including Matt’s pick of the Sam Raimi film Darkman the and Chris’ pick of the new Starz series Spartacus: Gods of the Arena.

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.

We all know unconventional superhero stories are all the rage right now, between Kick-Ass, Green Hornet, and the popular BBC series Misfits. Now one indie filmmaker is taking that trend to the web with a super low-budget short about your not-so-average super powered crime fighters in Lazy Teenage Superheroes.

Filmmaker Michael Ashton, who shot, wrote, cut, and did VFX for the short, brings humor, pop culture references, and the voice of this generation all together in a classic comic team-up setting. Here’s the synopsis.

Tyler is your average awkward teenager just trying to get by like the rest of us. Until one day, he moves in with three unusual roommates – Mitchell, Calvin, and Richard all have extraordinary, super human abilities. Although Tyler still has one thing they don’t have: ambition. Lazy Teenage Superheroes follows Ty as he tries to get his new “super” friends to put down the video games, get off the couch, and use their powers to help save the world, instead of themselves.

There are some low budget elements that you have to look past in order to get some some amazing visual effects and storytelling. With any luck, this will turn the heads of a few Hollywood bigwigs and allow them to realize that productions like these are what fans of the genre are looking for, not things like The Cape or a sequel to Ghost Rider.

You can check out the short after the jump, which is rapidly approaching the 500,000 views mark on YouTube in just over a week. You can also hit up Ashton’s official site for more details on the production.

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