Sometimes we watch Machinima because it tells a compelling story with some of our favorite characters. Most of the time we end up watching it because we appreciate a quick, cheap laugh. Ultrahouse 13: Mega Kitchen comes from an entirely different perspective: amazine visuals. You are probably asking how a Machinima could bring amazing visuals if it is just taking footage captured from a game.

Ultrahouse 13 uses the assets from the Half-Life 2 engine and places them in a real life house. Combine soldiers, no taller than a few inches, storm their way through a home and deal with resistance fighters along the way. The Combine don’t come alone as they are quickly joined by a Strider walker and drop-ship. But the rebels don’t go down easy as they defend their home with a gigantic DOG robot.

The short presentation seems very reminiscent of the style of “Ataque de Panico” which led to director Fede Alvarez being signed to Sam Raimi’s studio. Not to say that a “simple” Half-Life 2 Machinima will bring massive success to an aspiring effects artist, but after seeing what was accomplished here, it wouldn’t a huge surprise to see creator Eddie Smithson’s name in the credits of the silver screen someday soon.

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With his film Tucker & Dale vs. Evil playing the crowds at Austin, director Eli Craig is looking to become the American Edgar Wright. We recently had a chance to sit down with him to chat about his new movie, classic horror in general, and plans for the future.

The Flickcast: What are some of your classic horror influences?  I see some Texas Chainsaw in there.

Eli Craig: I really tried to put a lot of different films into this one; I like a lot of the older horror films going back to Sam Raimi and The Evil Dead and a lot of Peter Jackson’s older films—the old zombie slasher films. Texas Chainsaw Massacre, a bit of Friday the 13^th, Cabin Fever, and even threw in a little bit of Fargo.

And definitely Wrong Turn. This is basically the opposite of Wrong Turn. And then sprinkled on top is just a little bit of I Love You, Man.

TFC: Is there something about the splatter genre that attracts you?

EC: In regards to I Love You, Man?

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Make no mistake about it, Chloe Moretz (500 Days of Summer) owns this movie. She may only be 11 years old, but her performance as Hit-Girl is spunky, sassy, and exciting. Hit-Girl is poised to become a new comic cult icon, and Kick-Ass is quite simply a rollicking good time.

At one of the panels I attended this weekend, someone likened Kick-Ass to a comic type Pulp Fiction, which I would say is a pretty accurate description. British Actor Aaron Johnson plays Dave Lizewski, a nerdy high school type whose only interaction with the popular kids is when he brushes up against one at his locker.

One day out of the blue he decides he is going to become a vigilante superhero. He concocts a hideous green costume that resembles a wet suit, sets up a social media homepage for his alter ego, and starts “training.” When someone asks his name, he proudly proclaims, “I’m Kick-Ass!”

Completely inept and not blessed with any actual powers, Dave gets the living crap beat out of him by a few thugs mere moments after his official debut as Kick-Ass. This results in a multitude of injuries requiring steel plates and rods being placed throughout his body, which makes him a little more impervious to injury, but still not in possession of actual powers.

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Feeling a little bummed that you couldn’t make it to SXSW this year?  Feeling even worse because the people that did get to go got a sneak peak at Robert Rodriguez’s upcoming Predators film?  Well, you can start feeling a  little better because The Flickcast has you covered!

Fox was nice enough to post the premiere footage online for everyone to see and  it looks pretty darn awesome. Directed by Nimród Antal, Predators follows the same kind of plot as the first film but with a fresh take on the subject matter:

“Official Plot Synopsis: Royce, a mercenary who reluctantly leads a group of elite warriors who come to realize they’ve been brought together on an alien planet… as prey. With the exception of a disgraced physician, they are all cold-blooded killers mercenaries, Yakuza, convicts, death squad members human “predators” that are now being systemically hunted and eliminated by a new breed of alien Predators.”

The synopsis sounds bad ass enough, but when you watch the clip you’ll certainly get that original Predator vibe (which is a good thing in this case). Predator 2 and subsequent films involving these intergalactic hunters really haven’t cut it (no pun intended) in my opinion.  As such, it’s great to see Predators get back to the roots of this interesting character/creature.

Predators are set to invade movie theaters July 7, 2010. Click through to check out the sneak peak.

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It’s a grab bag of items on the radar this week. Wolverine and Sabretooth have dinner together, Bruno himself could be the next Man in Black, and in honor of The Flickcast crew attending SXSW some Predators love (of which they may get a taste).

Predators get dark and scary…finally!

Robert Rodriquez’s Predator reboot, Predators, is starting to get some buzz.  While the first film of the series was a great sci-fi/action hybrid subsequent films have been less than stellar.  Predators star, Alice Braga talked a little about the new film and what we can expect:

“The new Predators are dark. They are really, really scary. So I think the fans are really going to be happy with it. I hope so. The director Nimród Antal, he’s a fan of the Predator films. So it’s like a fan directing this, [it was] like a kid on set, and having that energy was very special. I wish I could tell you more.”

Here’s hoping “dark” and “scary” means an R-rated film and not a watered down PG-13 movie.

Conan will square off against Avatar villain

As an update to our last ‘On The Radar’ article, it has now been confirmed that actor Stephen Lang will indeed play Conan’s villain, Khalar Singh.  Speaking with MTV, Lang stated:

“I have no idea how I’m going to do it,” Lang laughed. “First I’m going to find out how I’m going to sound. I’m going to get back on a Mongolian pony and ride like the wind. I’m going to flash my scimitar. I’m going to cut the nuts off Conan and his father.”

That last threat may seem really out there, but after seeing Lang’s bad ass side in Avatar I have no doubt he can make good on it.

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Lots of names come to mind when thinking of the more popular film score composers of the past two decades. Names like Danny Elfman, John Williams, and Quincy Jones have dominated the craft for so long, it’s refreshing when a newcomer joins the ranks. In the last 5 years, Michael Giacchino has earned his slot in the Mount Everest of film composers.

Giacchino has shown his incredible range scoring projects such as LOST, Speed Racer, The Incredibles, Star Trek, and finally getting himself an Oscar for his work on Disney’s Up. It looks like the major studio isn’t letting go of Giacchino any time soon, as they have just hired him to compose the score for the upcoming space adventure John Carter of Mars.

It makes sense that Disney would go with this pick, given his work on their more recent Pixar films, especially with Pixar veteran Andrew Stanton directing the film. While that connection makes the most sense, it could also be attributed to the amazing score Giacchino composed for J.J. Abrams’ Star Trek, which could easily go down as one of the best sci-fi scores of recent history.

Even with this news, John Carter of Mars is most definitely not shaping up to be a small picture. With Disney backing the film, and a cast made up of Taylor Kitsch, Mark Strong, Willem Dafoe, Bryan Cranston, Dominic West, Polly Walker, Thomas Hayden Church, Samantha Morton and Lynn Collins, you can expect to see big things from the upcoming sci-fi epic.

Green Zone is the third collaboration between director Paul Greengrass and actor Matt Damon.  Previously, the two brought us The Bourne Supremacy and The Bourne Ultimatum.  If you are hoping for another adrenaline laced conspiracy drama, this movie will meet you half way.  There is conspiracy in excess, but the adrenaline-not so much.

The first half hour does a great job of depicting how unstable conditions in Baghdad were early on in the Iraq war. Greengrass ratchets up the tension and dread much like Kathryn Bigelow did in The Hurt Locker, by merely giving us a glimpse into everyday life after the initial destabilization of Iraq.  Soldiers wear heavy uniforms in blistering conditions, and crowded city streets could easily be harboring suicide bombers or other dangers.  Everyone is constantly and understandably on edge.

Unfortunately, during the second half of the movie much of the action takes place at night.  Greengrass elected to film these scenes with his signature hand-cam, and these scenes are grainy, jarring and indecipherable.

I don’t mind watching documentary style film, and fortunately I don’t get sick from shaky cam (heed my warning, if you have any tendency to get nauseous during this type of camera work, this movie will do you in), but it is really annoying when you cannot see anything that is going on.  I found my mind wandering to my mental list of chores during some really crucial chase scenes, because I just kind of gave up on trying to figure out what is going on.

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Though this was one of the weakest years for trailers at the Superbowl, it did give us one of the first HD looks at Russell Crowe’s newest project, playing the leader of the Merry Men in the upcoming Robin Hood. The first trailer looked cool, but a little bit like every other Crowe film. We new get a brand new trailer to snack on that gives us a bit more eye candy.

This incarnation of the classic goes a bit further into the lore than any other story (with the exception of the brilliant BBC series). The film spans over the time of Robin’s parents, his journey to the crusades, and his return to Sherwood Forest where he leads a revolution against the corrupt King John.

The film stars Cate Blanchett, Max von Sydow, and the now ubiquitous Mark Strong. Robin Hood marks the fifth collaboration between director Ridley Scott and Russell Crowe. Check out the newest trailer, courtesy of Yahoo, after the jump, and catch Robin Hood in theaters on May 14th.

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Tonight marks a pretty big night for fans of the USA Network series Psych as it finishes off another successful season. Ending the fourth season will be quite a big episode, as 80’s star Ally Sheedy reprises her role as the serial killer Mr. Yang in “Mr. Yin Presents.” The episode will also stand as a send up to many classic Alfred Hitchcock films in a half-spoof half-homage episode.

We were lucky enough to talk to star James Roday and Sheedy about the episode, and they were able to give us some insight on what we can look forward to seeing. Be sure to catch the season 4 finale on USA at 10 PM EST.

Clearly in this episode there is a lot of Hitchcock references.  James I was wondering if there is anyone else you drew inspiration from – influences from when you were directing this episode?

Roday: You know, I really do try to stay as faithful to Hitchcock as I could both aesthetically and in pacing and I just shamelessly ripped off four or five shots straight out of his films, quite frankly.  It was an homage episode and I’m a Hitchcock fan, and Andy Berman who wrote the episode with me, is a Hitchcock fan.  As much as we could get away with doing Hitchcock in a Psych episode that’s definitely what we set out to do. 

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What can we say, there’s a brand new preview of the trailer for the upcoming third chapter in The Twilight saga, which is better known as Eclipse, and we’ve got it for you today. Courtesy of the fine folks at Extra, the teaser doesn’t really give us all that much to go on because, basically, it’s just a preview.

Still, what it does do is provide yet another reason to show shots of the cast of the film, which includes all your favorites such as Robert Pattinson, Kristen Stewart and Taylor Lautner, and have them walking, standing, talking and otherwise looking as good as possible. The preview also clues us in just a bit on some plot points of the film, which, if you’ve read the book, you probably already know by heart.

Still, seeing even this short preview reminds us in some way why these movies are just so damn popular. They feature attractive people going through emotional times and doing it with a certain sense of urgency.

While I’m not much of a fan of these books or movies, I can certainly understand the appeal to their target audience. People love them and these characters and in the end, that’s all that really matters.

Check out the new teaser after the jump. The full trailer will debut on Friday at 9AM ET. The Twilight Saga: Eclipse hits theaters June 30th.

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