The sports movie genre is pretty bipolar. Sports movies jump from the maudlin (“Rudy! Rudy!”) to the asinine (“Dogs can’t play basketball!”) with very few steps in between. Division III: Football’s Finest is definitely closer to the latter, but holds on to reality enough to stay out of Air Bud territory (a good call, considering how that terrain is marked).

That is not to say the movie does not reach heights of ridiculousness. With Andy Dick, Paul Henderson, and no less than four MadTV alumni in the cast, Division III is host to several characters that would seem over-the-top in a cartoon, but the film stays grounded enough to be aware of its own silliness. Most importantly, Division III is very funny, easily on par with a first-tier Happy Madison comedy.

Expect first-time feature director Marshall Cook, pulling quadruple duty here, to graduate to the big leagues in no time at all. His comic instincts are good both on camera, as a slacker quarterback, and off, directing, editing, and co-writing (along with Dick and Henderson). Thanks to Cook and company, most of the gags hit home, and the movie never dwells on those that don’t.

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When I was growing up it was always ABC’s Monday Night Football with Howard Cosell, “Dandy” Don Meredith and Frank Gifford. Meredith would often sing ‘Turn out the Lights, the partys over” as one team or another dominated the proceedings and Cosell would often clash with Meredith or insult one or more players. It was fun and it seemed like anything could happen at any moment.

That was then, this is now. Monday Night Football has a home on ESPN and has been there since 2006. Now, it seems, ESPN is determined to hold on to the venerable franchise and has announced a new agreement to keep it until 2021. The cost? A reported $15 Billion.

The new agreement will cost ESPN 73% more than its previous NFL deal which likely means the Disney-owned sports channel will ask cable and satellite companies to pay more. Some other terms of the new deal kick off immediately.

Today ESPN’s NFL Live expands to an hour from a half hour. A discussion show based on fan-submitted questions, Audibles, also joins the Thursday night line up. This weekend Sunday NFL Countdown will run three hours, up from two.

On Tuesday ESPN2 will introduce a weekly, hour-long show NFL 32, followed on Friday by another weekly hour long show NFL Kickoff. Click through for all the details from the official ESPN press release.

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WWE had an eventful first day at this year’s Comic-Con International. During their panel, WWE Champion CM Punk made a surprise appearance during the Mattel panel where the new head of the WWE, whom CM Punk referred to as a doofus during his already infamous shoot promo on Vince McMahon four weeks ago on Raw, was discussing the latest WWE toy line.

On the show floor, fans were treated to WWE Hall of Famer and legend, the Hitman Bret Hart and San Diego’s own Rey Mysterio doing an autograph signing at the Mattel booth. It has been a busy past week for Rey as on Monday night he defeated two men in order to advance in a championship tournament for the WWE Championship which Vince McMahon said he did not recognize CM Punk as champion as he was no longer a part of the company.

This upcoming Monday, the 619’s own biggest little man plans to take on the Real World alumni turned professional wrestler, the Miz. Both Rey and Miz have held a number of titles in WWE, including world championships, so the match looks to be something fans can really get behind on Monday night.

During our interview, Rey also mentions to us that this is actually his first ever Comic Con despite being a San Diego resident and how he has brought his kids to the show with him.

Take a look below at our interview with WWE Superstar Rey Mysterio below and stick to the Flickcast for more from the floor of San Diego Comic Con where way just might get a word tomorrow with WWE Divas Champion Kelly Kelly.

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Yesterday in our San Diego Comic-Con Preview, we took a peek at Z-Girl and the 4 Tigers. Today we take a look at the Headlocked Chronicles. From Michael Kingston, Headlocked is the first ever comic that takes a realistic look at the world of professional wrestling. Unlike the WWE’s sports entertainment branded comics that place their superstars in the role of more traditional comic book super heroes, Headlock takes a peek behind the curtain at the inner workings of the wrestling industry.

In the first Headlocked miniseries, the Tryout, which featured covers from WWE Hall of Famer Jerry “the King” Lawler, Kingston told the tale of Mike Hartmann, a college theater major who falls in love with the world of wrestling and sets out on his own journey to become a part of it. Headlocked shows that the wrestling world is far from being all glitz and glamour as Mike goes through a pain filled try out where one of the old guard tries to weed out those he doesn’t feel deserves to be a part of the business.

Headlocked is an intriguing take on an original concept revolving around a world not many people fully understand. The pages of Headlocked are greatly reminiscent of some of my own experiences in an industry that is as drama filled behind the scenes as it is on TV. It is a great representation of the world of Wrestling.

At Comic-Con, Headlocked will be releasing a special $2 preview issue, the Headlocked Chronicles, which reprints one of Headlock’s original 5 page stories as well as a brand new 8 page tale and a ton of new artwork and sketches. Headlocked can be found at booth 1901.

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Whether it’s the customization or the ability to play as your favorite wrestlers, something keeps drawing an audience of people into buying the newest WWE or TNA wrestling game year after year. Now fans are getting the chance to use more than their thumbs in the digital squared circle with Hulk Hogan’s Main Event.

From Majesco, the game is set to release on the Xbox 360 and utilize the console’s Kinect system by integrating the moves and motion of the player themselves into the game’s mechanics. Here’s a breakdown.

In Hulk Hogan’s Main Event, players will learn the ropes from the man himself as Hulk Hogan schools them on delivering the best show for the crowd by emulating famous Hulk poses and performing more than 30 punishing combos.  The Kinect sensor tracks players’ every move; the more dynamic the motion, the more high impact the wrestler’s performance is.  Players will create their own unique wrestler personality through a robust create-a-wrestler feature including many choices for face, hair, tattoos, outfit, ethnicity, body type, and entrance music.

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You know you can tell a film is going to be quality when you see certain elements in a trailer. one of those elements, is, obviously, the titular line in the film. Thankfully, that’s exactly what we get in the very first trailer for WWE’s newest family heist comedy, The Chaperone, starring top wrestler Triple H.

This is Triple H’s (real name Paul Levesque) first film role since 2004′s Blade Trinity in which he played a muscled vampire henchman with a cute little dog. This role is slightly different than that.

In the film, Ray Bradstone (Triple H) is the best “wheel man in the business,” but he is determined to go straight and be the best parent he can be to his daughter, Sally (Winter), and make amends with his ex-wife, Lynne (Gish). As Ray struggles to find honest work, his old bank-robbing crew, led by Phillip Larue (Corrigan), offers him one last job.

He agrees at first, but changes his mind at the last second leaving the crew without a driver. Ray decides instead to serve as a “chaperone” for Sally’s school field trip. When the robbery goes awry, Larue blames Ray and chases the school bus all the way to the Museum of Natural History in New Orleans. Ray must deal with Larue, while supervising Sally’s class on what becomes one of the craziest school trips ever.

The film is set to go straight to DVD and Blu-Ray be distributed by Samuel Goldwyn Films and will hit theaters on Friday, February 18. In the meantime, you can check out the first trailer for the flick after the jump.

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Hockey Fan? Feel like your favorite team needs the perfect boots-and-cape wearing hero to represent everything that city stands for? Well, Stan “The Man” Lee feels the same way, and is currently working on The Guardian Project for the NHL which will bring a create a brand new superhero for every team in the league. Here’s a press release you have to read to believe.

Stan Lee’s vision for his latest superhero franchise, The Guardian Project, which will encompass the creation of 30 Guardians (one to represent each NHL team) as a new series of superheroes, with a creative concept that organically and authentically incorporates various NHL elements but is not set in the world of hockey. “I’ve always believed that every great plan starts with a great story,” says Mr. Lee. “In the creation of GME and its unique and unprecedented relationship with the NHL, I truly believe we have the perfect combination from which to launch 30 new superheroes and excite young fans around the globe.”

Created and developed by Stan Lee and Tony Chargin, EVP of GME Creative Affairs, and Jake Shapiro, each Guardian has been derived from its corresponding hockey team, complete with special powers representative of each team and city. These 30 Guardians will be unveiled together in a special presentation during the 2011 NHL All-Star Game on January 30 in Raleigh, NC.

While this was just mentioned today, there will already be a teaser package for the project revealed this weekend at New York Comic Con. This plan comes from the idea of bringing a whole new audience to the NHL, and dramatize the interteam rivalry with symbolic heroes and villains battling it out in many forms of media.

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It may look a bit like Oscar fodder, but the very first trailer for The Fighter starring Christian Bale and Mark Wahlberg has hit the web, and it looks like it could be the next Rocky. At least, that seems to be what it’s going for.

The film comes from David O. Russell, the man who brought us I Heart Huckabees and Three Kings starring George Clooney and Ice Cube. It follows the story of boxer “Irish” Micky Ward as he broke into the sport in the mid 1980s.

The movie pits Bale and Wahlberg together as contentious brothers, who’s tension will drive the film and that looks to be a major appeal from the trailer. Also joining in is Oscar nominee Amy Adams, who plays Wahlberg’s love interest.

This script has been on the shelf for quite some time, with nearly half a dozen rewrites and changed studio hands countless times more. It looks like it’s finally found a home at Paramount and will hit theaters on December 10th.

Check out the first full trailer after the jump.

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The latest release from WWE Studios, Legendary stars WWE star and corporate mascot John Cena alongside Patricia Clarkson, Devon Graye and Danny Glover in the most heartfelt film the company has been a part of. Devon plays the role of Cal Chetley, a target for bullies in his small Oklahoma town, who lives with his mother Sharon (Clarkson).

Against his mother’s wishes, Cal decides to join the high school wrestling team despite his small stature as a way to reconnect with the father he barely knew and the brother Mike (Cena) he has rarely seen in the past ten years. Down on his luck and filled with self-loathing, Mike reluctantly begins to train his brother in the ways that made him a championship wrestler which ultimately helps bridge the gap between the two.

It’s hard to hear the premise of Legendary and not begin to see correlations to Rudy. An undersized kid trying to make it in a sport based on physical superiority and muscle mass that only has his heart helping push him forward. Thankfully, WWE Studios pushed past a story just about high school wrestling and added a layer to Cal Chetley and his new obsession.

As a result, there is a lot of emotion behind everything happening that doesn’t feel like a Rudy ripoff. This young man didn’t always dream of being a high school championship wrestler. He just sees it as a way to connect to a past and a family that is so far away from him.

The relationship between older brother Mike and mother Sharon is also incredibly well done. The few times they are on screen together is incredibly uncomfortable as Sharon appears to be in physical pain from being in front of a son that has chosen to stay out of her life for so many years that she never forgave for something that wasn’t even his fault. The deeply conflicted Mike also has some great scenes when he is apart from his family that show just how much his grief has consumed his life.

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Comic-Con doesn’t just mean comics as we are sure you have noticed. It means TV, movies and toys as well. Someone very familiar with this is the WWE. World Wrestling Entertainment has relaunched their action figure line under Mattel over the past year and as a result had a huge presence at SDCC.

And it wasn’t just toys that were being shown off. Unlike He-Man, the characters in the WWE action figure line are real people and they came to show themselves off at San Diego.

One of the most dominant men in the WWE over the past decade has been Kane. The Big Red Monster holds records in the WWE’s Royal Rumble match, garners multiple WrestleMania showcase matches under his belt and has been a multi-time champion with an impressive 16 title reigns, including a staggering 9 reigns in the tag team division and a WWE Championship.

Most recently, Kane won SmackDown’s Money in the Bank Ladder match at the Money in the Bank Pay-Per-View. In doing so, he was able to cash in his Money in the Bank title match and defeat Rey Mysterio later that night to start his first reign as World Heavyweight Champion.

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At Comic-Con, we got the chance to catch up with the Bella Twins, WWE’s first and only pair ever of twin Divas. We had the pleasure of talking to Brie back in April about her and Nikki’s experience with Extreme Makeover: Home Edition and their first WrestleMania.

This time, we got not one but both of the lovely ladies to sit down and talk to us at the Con. Having lived in San Diego for some time, this was the twins’ first time attending Comic-Con so we made sure to get their thoughts on all the things they had seen. We also talked about what the twins see for themselves moving forward as the special celebrity guests have ceased on Monday Night Raw as they had been officially the assistants each week for these guests.

Brie (on the left) and Nikki (on the right) give us some insight on their dream matches moving forward as well as intentions on the Diva’s Championship. The girls discuss with us wrestling inspirations and even let us know where they’d like to see themselves at the upcoming WrestleMania.

Make sure to watch the full interview after the jump.

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At The Flickcast, we have a special appreciation for anyone who has been able to harness the power of the Internet and use it as a tool to make their way into the spotlight. One such example of this in the world of wrestling is John Morrison. After a stint on ECW, John Morrison was relegated to mid-card matches on SmackDown until he was paired up with the Miz and won the WWE Tag Team titles.

There, the two came up with the Dirt Sheet, a weekly internet short on WWE.com which quickly skyrocketed the pair’s popularity. After that, Morrison and Miz have both been on the top of the card for both TV and Pay-Per-View.

At Comic-Con, we got the chance to sit down with John Morrison who is currently preparing for his upcoming SummerSlam match against the Nexus. He won’t be alone though as he is joining John Cena, R-Truth, Chris Jericho, Edge, The Great Khali and the legendary Bret “The Hitman” Hart in the ring.

John talks about his Muscle and Fitness cover and his workout ethic. John also gives us an in-depth analysis of his mindset and that of the rest of “Team Morrison” for his upcoming SummerSlam match. He discusses his new action figure and we even ask John about the future of a possible Dirt Sheet reunion.

Check out the full interview below and check back often for more upcoming interviews with some fan favorites at WWE.

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