This week’s pick is yet another African adventure. Zoltan Korda (Sahara) directs the 1939 version of The Four Feathers based on the novel by A.E.W. Mason, which is one of the greatest redemption stories set during the Sudanese campaign to reclaim the region ten years after the death of General Gordon and the siege of Khartoum.

Both Zoltan and his brother Alexander (the Ridley and Tony Scott of their day) direct with amazing precision and deliver a fantastic period piece. The cast are John Clements (Harry Faversham), Ralph Richardson (Capt. John Durrance), June Duprez (Ethne Burroughs), Donald Gray (Lt. Peter Burroughs), Jack Allen (Lt. Willoughby), Frederick Culley (Dr. Sutton), and C. Aubrey Smith (General Burroughs).

The story begins in 1895 where after ten years, a British expeditionary force is sent to reclaim the Sudan and to avenge the death of General Charles Gordon who was killed by a Muslim army which is now led by the Kalifa (John Laurie). Lt. Harry Faversham (Clements) comes from a long line of military men in his family and joined the Surrey Regiment which has been chosen to lead the expedition along with General Sir Herbert Kitchener’s Anglo-Egyptian army.

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Way back in November, Capcom already announced the first batch of DLC coming for Marvel vs. Capcom 3.  Jill Valentine and Shuma Gorath would be on their way to the roster. Last week, coinciding with the game’s actual release, Capcom announced another set of DLC. This time, much in the vein of Super Street Fighter IV, it is new costumes. Now we know what you are thinking. Why would you care about a different colored pair of jeans on Haggar or an alternate paint job on the Sentinel. Well there we would agree with you.

But this isn’t just any set of alternate costumes. Six characters will receive new attire. Captain America, Thor, Iron Man, Chris, Ryu and Dante. Instead of just being fresh coats of paint on existing templates, these are entirely new costumes being added to the game.

Captain America will be given what Marvel fans have affectionately coined the Captain Steve outfit. As the world’s new top cop, Steve Rogers Super Soldier doesn’t hide behind the mask anymore. Instead he has a more modern costume. Interestingly enough, Capcom chose to give him the classic Cap shield though instead of his current comic weapon, a light disk shield.

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Audiences collectively thumbed their noses at the new box office releases this past weekend, paving the way for a three week old release to top the box office.  Gnomeo and Juliet only dropped 26% in its third week to nab the number one spot with a puny $14.1 million.

That brings its three week total to $75 million; not too shabby for a film featuring garden gnomes. The film was bolstered by a jump of 101% (yep, you read that right) from Friday to Saturday night.  Families seem to be clamoring for something to take the kiddos to.  That bodes very well for Rango, a film that will open next weekend and features the voice talent of Johnny Depp.

Hall Pass was widely predicted to be a slam dunk at the box office, but the newest film from the Farrelly brothers only made $13.4 million. That’s quite a bit short of their best opening weekend back in 2001, when Shallow Hal debuted to $22 million during its opening weekend. Many were hoping this would signal a rebirth of the duo at the box office. A less than stellar B- from cinemascore means this film won’t be in theaters long. Catch it while you can.

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Okay, here’s my official take on the Academy Award show this year. The entertainment world is abuzz today with reports of how horrible James Franco and Anne Hathaway were as hosts of the show. I think that they are being unfairly maligned. I found Hathaway charming, beautiful, and eager to please.

On the other hand, Franco seemed like he didn’t give a crap about the show or his performance. He was obviously stoned out of his mind, and I am not one to judge, but that is flat out disrespectful. Do that stuff on your own time, not when you are in front of a billion people. Anne Hathaway didn’t stand a chance when she was saddled with the stoner from hell. I genuinely felt bad for her.

Franco has had an amazing year. I used to dismiss him as a joke, until I saw his performance in 127 Hours. He was astounding. Shortly after I saw the film, I spoke at a public event, and swore that I would never sell him short again. Until now.

Franco has squandered all the good will he has earned in one catastrophic hosting gig. Back in the penalty box you go, Mr. Franco. This time it won’t be so easy to earn your way out. For a very funny take on Franco’s questionable frame of mind, check out this Gawker.com article.

To be fair, I truly didn’t feel that the two were given much to do. Outside of a great film montage at the beginning of the show, they were barely present. Perhaps that was a blessing. Still, Hathaway deserves props.

Franco’s quick little appearance in drag was bizarre, jarring and random. I felt like I was watching an SNL skit.

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Now that we have a relative unknown with Henry Cavill playing Superman in Zack Snyder’s upcoming film for Warner Bros, it seems that Snyder and the studio are taking more of an “over the top” direction when it comes to the supporting cast. Two weeks ago, it was announced that Kevin Costner was being approached as a “person of interest” to play Jonathan Kent. As if that wasn’t a big enough name, The Road star Viggo Mortensen is now being approached to play the Kryptonian villain General Zod in the film.

From Heat Vision:

Mortensen, who is still in negotiations for Universal’s Snow White and the Huntsman, is said to be at the top of the list to play General Zod, the evil and super-powered scientist who was portrayed by Terrence Stamp in 1980′s Superman II.

If Mortensen’s Snow White deal doesn’t close, that would potentially free him up to make Superman. Or Universal and Warner Bros. could work out his schedule and enable him to do both.

So given what we know about Snyder’s previous work with Warners, we know that there will be plenty of slow-motion scenes and that he does tend to go for talent over “names.” Mortensen could just be the talent to take over for Terrence Stamp’s iconic character.

Penny Arcade is known for their stirring satyrical commentary of the video game and geek world. Back when Prototype was released, they posed the question: “In Prototype, you can do karate kick on a helicopter. What the f**k else do you want?” When we played through the game, we would have been hard pressed to come up with an answer. Now, the good folks at Activision and Radical have found it for us.

Even though it is at least a year away with a 2012 release date, we are keeping a eye out for any information we can get about Prototype 2. This time, without going head to head with Infamous, Prototype 2 will get a chance to shine on its own as the story of the antihero in a world gone mad. We hope the team at Radical is able to take what they learned from the original game and improve upon the success of the franchise.

Take a peek below at the new teaser trailer showing some of the first action from Prototype 2, also plugging the exclusive first look coming to EGM in April. Stick to the Flickcast for more on Prototype 2 as it becomes available.

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The 2011 Oscars attempted to differentiate itself from past telecasts by bringing in younger hosts (Anne Hathaway and James Franco) and keeping things fresh. The opening montage featuring the best films nominees was quite funny. Though Franco appeared to be a bit out of it *ahem*, Hathaway was engaging and adorable.

Hathaway was hilarious in a fake musical number.  As for Franco, he randomly appeared in drag. He donned a hot pink satin gown and rocked it like Marilyn Monroe in Diamonds are a Girls Best Friend (or like Madonna in the  Material Girl video if you are of the younger generation).

Hathaway and Franco were oddly absent for most of the show.  They had nice chemistry, but most of the categories kind of took care of themselves.

Here is a list of the winners. These awards are in the order they were presented on the show. Analysis coming later today.

• Art Direction Alice in Wonderland
• Cinematography Inception
• Best Supporting Actress Melissa Leo The Fighter
• Best Animated Short The Lost Thing
• Best Animated Feature Film Toy Story 3
• Best adapted screenplay Aaron Sorkin The Social Network
• Best Original Screenplay David Seidler The King’s Speech
• Best Foreign Film In a Better World
• Best Supporting Actor Christian Bale The Fighter
• Best Original Score Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross The Social Network
• Best Sound Mixing Inception
• Best Sound editing Inception
• Best Makeup The Wolfman
• Best Costume Alice in Wonderland
• Best Documentary Short Strangers No More
• Best Live Action Short Film God of Love
• Best Documentary Feature Inside Job
• Best Visual Effects Inception
• Best Film Editing The Social Network
• Best Original Song Randy Newman “We Belong Together” Toy Story 3
• Best Director Tom Hooper The King’s Speech
• Best Actress Natalie Portman Black Swan
• Best Actor Colin Firth The King’s Speech
• Best Picture The King’s Speech

It’s Oscar day so that means we’re going to try to bring you all the fun, excitement and awards live. We’ve done this once before last year and it met with great success.

This year, we’re doing it a bit differently and using a new interface. So, sit back, relax and check out the fun. Also, be sure yo let us know how we’re doing.

Now, let’s get to it!

I like the dynamic Todd Packer brings to The Office. Among the group of miserable souls who have their own beefs with each other and whose allegiance depends on whatever the week’s plot requires, Packer was always a fun wrench to toss into the cogs and, somehow, make them work better.

Basically, in his earlier appearances, Packer became the one thing towards which every petty person at Dunder-Mifflin could put aside personal differences and rally against. There’s something heartwarming in that solidarity. I also love David Koechner.

Of course, Packer has only made a handful of those appearances (four? five maybe?), but they’ve all been memorable thanks to Koechner, who finds the relishing humor in school-yard insults such as “Michael Snot!” and adolescent put-downs regarding Jim’s sexuality. He’s the missing link in the evolution of the 1^st-grade-bully-to-frat-boy-to-?-to-child-molesting-Uncle-John. Naturally an episode devoted entirely to him wouldn’t work.

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Chris and Ben are both extremes of Leslie’s personality—Chris being her unflappable zeal and Ben her insecurities, particularly regarding the acceptance of others—and that’s a good enough starting point, but, as I’ve said way too many times when I couldn’t think of anything else to write, they need to develop into their own characters. Fortunately I think they’re starting to explore the possibilities of Ben, last week being a delightful lambasting of his Pawnee PR ignorance, but Lowe’s Chris still isn’t quite there, and I’m not sure if he’ll ever get a chance to be.

The core plot revolves around Leslie and Ron heading up to Indianapolis to receive a commendation for reviving Harvest Festival, but that’s quickly dismissed once it becomes clear that Ron’s sole incentive for going is to visit his favorite steakhouse, and Leslie gets sidetracked into spying on Chris, now back home in Indianapolis, when Ann Perkins suspects he’s cheating on her.

I love it when Leslie and Ron are put in light opposition to each other, but placing Chris in the crossfire seemed doomed to fail because his character is so upbeat that he’d deflect the spitwads. So the humor falls back on Poehler and Offerman, in particular a scene pitting Chris’s ultra-healthy views on diet squarely against Ron’s aggressively meat-oriented tastes.

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On the night of January 16th, Hollywood was split in twine after Ricky Gervais’ performance as the host of the evening’s events. One half felt that Gervais went over the line with his sardonic humor and felt that he was rude and crass, while the other half understood his sense of humor and realized he was doing his job as a “comedian.”

Now, continuing in his trend of bitterness, the original Office star has posted on his blog some suggestions to Oscar hosts James Franco and Anne Hathaway, in case they have time they need to fill.

Without further adieu, we present to you Ricky Gervais’ suggested script for this year’s Oscars. We’ve got what we think is a pretty good sample below, and check out the full script full of self-deprecating humor over at Gervais’ official blog.

JF
Thank you. I’m James Franco.

AH
…and I’m Anne Hathaway.

JF
You probably know me from 127 Hours where I play a man trapped in an enclosed space who decides he would rather cut his own arm off than stay where he was. Now that sounds “way out” but wait till half way through this fucking ceremony and you’ll start to identify with him.

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