As I was watching the new Eclipse trailer, out of sheer boredom and a hint of curiosity, I found myself wondering why in the world two super-powered boys would fight it out over a girl clad in American Apparel who’s a hell of a downer.

How is there an entire film series devoted to one girl’s delusional obsessions of a fairy tale ending with a born-again killer? Sparkely vampires want to kill you, strapping werewolf shape-shifters want to keep you safe.

Do these Edward fans have a death wish and a yearning for abandonment? Is Bella Swan so heavily marketed as mesmerizing that it erases the history of the brazen blonde that came before her?

A long time ago, otherwise known as the 90’s, there was a series called Buffy the Vampire Slayer where a feisty girl from the southland slayed Urban Outfitted demons. This legendary show paved the way for multi-tasking girls who cheer by day, slay by night, and every once in a while hook-up with a tormented blood sucker.

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Women, you can’t live with them, you can’t live without them — especially if you’re a grown man-child living in your parent’s basement. That is, until now. The “Women of Marvel” is a year-long celebration of, you guessed it, the women of Marvel Comics.

Marvel intends to celebrate women not only in the superhero realm but also the real life creators and artists. Marvel sees us standing impatiently in lines for Avatar and says, “Hey, maybe she’d like to read something to take her mind off of the 3 hour and $18 dollar ticket price.”

First off, I commend Marvel for spotlighting half of the human population. Yes, we women are out there and some of us are geeks. For the past few years I have been reading about Marvel’s company and comic book events.

I found Civil War to be expertly drawn and relevant, I was thankful that House of M was both brief and Wolverine-centric, and I was patient as Skrullacost (aka Secret Invasion) ended in a forgone conclusion. I was ecstatic when Marvel also dedicated a month to my favorite hairball, Wolvie.

Now that I liked, especially the article about the state of the canuckle’s head when he sat down on the couch for some therapy. It’s safe to say I’m excited about some Marvel events and less so about others, which is fine considering events span the far reaches of the Marvel universe.

However, when I heard about a year-long celebration of a gender I am wholly bias about, a smile spread on my face. Maybe it was due to the fact the most recent San Diego Comic-Con was comprised of 40% women or the line of Twihards stretched for miles, but whatever the cause the impact is slowly changing the marketplace for the well-rounded better and Marney (Marvel + Disney) is diving into the deep end.

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Back in 2003, a risque Sesame Street inspired musical by the name of Avenue Q featuring puppet leads came out with a shocking statement: “The internet is for porn.” How could this be that a network that enabled global communication and business opportunities could come down to such a lowbrow concept as porn? But as the audience began listening to the lyrics, it was hard to argue that the internet really my revolve around men cozying up to watch various acts of depravity they weren’t experiencing at home.

The truth is, everyone knows that the internet is for porn. The only ones who don’t are just living in denial like Kate Monster does in Avenue Q. And, interestingly enough some of the most frequent patrons of this less than social activity may end up coming from the world’s most social game: World of Warcraft. It was only a matter of time before a mash up of the two came to be.

Using their beloved MMO, a group of players came together and put together an animated version of the song using their on screen avatars. Still in the early days of machinima creation in 2006, “The Internet is for Porn” does a fantastic job of taking the canned animations of World of Warcraft and lip synching the song to the on screen characters. The result turned in to another internet hit as the Machinima closes in on almost six and a half million views up to this point.

Sit back, relax and let yourself open up to some high culture by viewing the following clip. Yes, culture. If it has been on Broadway, it’s considered culture. That’s our story and we are sticking to it.

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My unwavering love of NBC’s geeky spy show with a heart of a Pentium chip, Chuck, began one cramped and overly air-conditioned afternoon at the San Diego Comic-Con. Many of the straight-laced network honchos had their doubts, until that one fateful day at Comic-Con changed everything.

I sat in one of the smaller rooms surrounded by geeks of all ages and gender as the cast of Chuck impatiently stood to the side awaiting our response to the debut of NBC’s latest pilot. As the first scene began, the entire audience was hooked. They erupted in sounds ranging from fits of laughter to surprised exclamations. After the credits rolled, the audience roared in rapturous applause and took to their feet in a standing ovation. The cast then ran onto the stage like rock stars playing to a sold-out crowd.

Since that day I have been an avid Chuck supporter. Chuck sky-rocketed geeky spy splendor into the new millennium by fearlessly ripping pre-conceived molds to shreds. Chuck is a computer geek who seeks to prove he can also be a super secret spy. Agent Sarah Walker is a super secret spy pretending to be his girlfriend while working at a yogurt shop. It’s as refreshing as a vanilla scoop of Pinkberry goodness that Sarah wasn’t strictly relegated to the girlfriend role.

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This week’s pick is the 1969 Guy Hamilton (Goldfinger, Force 10 From Navarone) directed classic Battle of Britain, which depicts the valiant struggle of Great Britain’s Royal Air Force against the onslaught of the numerically superior German Luftwaffe during the summer of 1940. The film opens as France falls in May 1940, and the British and their allies avoid capture with the massive evacuation at the coastal city of Dunkirk. With time to regroup and strengthen their home defenses, the British lie and wait for Hitler’s forces to eventually invade England.

The film is told through a collection of fighter squadron groups (English and German) who are veterans in the skies over France and the low countries during early 1940. Like many films of the mid to late 1960’s, Battle of Britain has its fare share of brilliant English and German actors. Screen legend Sir Laurence Olivier leads the cast as Chief Air Marshal H.C. Dowding who helped to coordinate British forces to total victory in the battle.

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The subject of vampires seems to be all the rage these days. Between the overwhelming success of Twilight and even the sweeping of yesterday’s People’s Choice Awards in the favor of all things vampire, they are a pretty sure thing these days. Hoping to continue in that success would be the folks involved in Daybreakers, which hits theaters today.

We recently got a chance to sit down with veteran actor Sam Neill (Jurrasic Park, Merlin) about his role and the film in general. While most people would consider this film a horror, Neill’s take is a bit different.

According to Neill, the film is “best described as a futuristic sci-fi thriller about an upside down vampire world. A lot of the vampire stuff that we’ve seen lately, their always the moody, pale-faced outsiders. In this film, everyone is a vampire, and the humans are a diminishing species, and more of a resource.

Of course, in a vampire world, you need lots of blood to keep everybody alive [laughs]. And since there are fewer and fewer humans available for hunting and bloodfarming, it becomes a bit uncomfortable for them.”

The Flickcast: You were pretty excited when this project was first offered to you. What was the appeal here?

Sam Neill: Well, I’ve played a lot of different characters but to play someone who is so evil and demented is not something you get asked to do a lot. I’ve had a blast, and I haven’t really enjoyed myself on a film in quite some time.

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2009 has been a great year for TV. Everyone’s favorite shows like The Office, Lost, Weeds, and True Blood continued with some killer seasons, new shows like Trauma, Castle, and Lie to Me caught audience’s interests. We’ve got a list for you of our favorite TV shows of this year, including some of the latest and greatest of 2009 as well as some old favorites.

Glee – Fox

Glee has stolen viewer’s hearts this season not just with its love triangles and intense drama, but also the song and dance that the students in William McKinley High School’s glee club perform. The mid-season finale just aired, and it surely made “gleeks” even more anxious for the rest of the season, which will air beginning April 13th.

Not only has Glee swept the nation’s TV sets, but also it’s iTunes playlists. The first soundtrack to the season has already gone gold, while the second soundtrack is climbing the charts in the top 5.

True Blood – HBO

Where the Twilight series fails to thrill audiences, True Blood succeeds. Just finishing its action packed and hair-raising second season, the show, based off Charlaine Harris’ vampire mystery series continues to confuse us, surprise us, and make our blood boil with such storylines as an anti-vampire cult, a love triangle, and flying Eric, all in this season alone!

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This is only the second installment of Western Wednesday, and I believe I have already seen the messiest and strangest film that ever boasted a horse, a pistol, and a sunset: Mad Dog Morgan. It was a toss-up between Morgan and The Ox-Bow Incident, but I had a thirst for some Ozploitation, and Morgan is a pretty legendary piece of Australian filmmaking.

It also seemed like a good idea to expand the cinematic frontier early on in this feature, and visit a place that has a remarkably similar history. Americans tend to think that the myth of the Wild Wild West is theirs, and theirs alone – and it certainly is, but Australia enjoyed a settlement experience that was just as violent and lawless as our own. They just had kangaroos instead of buffalo, and convicts instead of hardy pioneers.

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While most folks like to sleep in after consuming mass quantities of tryptophan and sweet potatoes on Thanksgiving day, some crazies (myself included) are up at the crack of dawn the next day, waiting in line at the local electronics and DVD store to fight the masses and get the best deals.

Luckily, with the invention of the Internet comes some sly dogs who have posted most of the great Black Friday deals online, mere days before the epic sales. Thanks to sites like BlackFriday.info and GottaDeal.com, we can now sit back in the luxury of our homes to check out some of the great deals we plan on taking advantage of this Friday.

Of the many, many deals going on that day, we’ve decided to break down a few of our favorite picks for the holiday sale, just for you, our loyal readers. One of the best picks, by far, is Best Buy’s Samsung Blu-Ray Player with Netflix and Pandora support for $149.99. If you’re looking to finally upgrade to Blu-ray, that would be the machine to start with.

Once you’ve got the Blu-ray player out of the way, why not grab some good Blu-ray discs? If you don’t want to leave the house, Amazon has got some great deals including Chuck: The Complete First Season for $20.99, the Batman Anthology for $51.99, and even Ocean’s Eleven and Twelve for $9.99.

Switching over to video games, Best Buy seems to have some of the better deals (even the “best”), but only if you’re able to get to the store before noon on Friday. You can pick up Brutal Legend, Left 4 Dead 2, and Dragon Age for the Next Gen systems for only $34.99.

These are just some of the great deals going on Friday, and we hope you’re able to get out to the stores (or not) and take advantage of some of these great sales. Happy Thanksgiving!

It’s a crime that there are only a dozen or so films about, or involving, the world of broadcast radio. Not too many actually deal with the tribulations of censorship, though, which is where the upcoming film Pirate Radio comes in.

The film is about a group of rogue DJ’s on a boat in the middle of the Northern Atlantic who broadcast a pirate radio station in the 1960s, despite the laws forbidding Rock and Roll…all for the love of music. Given the fact that the film is all about 60’s Rock, you can believe that the soundtrack is pretty killer, and you may get to win a copy!

Starting today, keep an eye on our Twitter account every week for a trivia question involving “Radio in The Movies.” The question may be the name of the radio station from Grosse Point Blank or the name of the epic band in Airheads, you’ll have to know your stuff to get this two-disc soundtrack.

The film, starring Philip Seymour Hoffman, Gemma Arterton, Bill Nighy, and Emma Thompson, is set to hit theaters on November 13th. We’ll be sure to keep you updated with all kinds of coverage of the film in the leading weeks. Until then, check out the complete track listing of the giveaway after the jump, as well as the trailer for Pirate Radio.

Good Luck, and keep an eye on our Twitter!

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