Oliver Stone is a very capable director. His visual style makes almost anything he crafts watchable. Unfortunately, lately his choices in films have not really allowed him to embrace his more frenetic skill sets.

That is about to change when the gloriously chaotic Savages hits theaters. For those unfamiliar with Stone’s new film here is the synopsis:

Laguna Beach entrepreneurs Ben (Aaron Johnson), a peaceful and charitable Buddhist, and his closest friend Chon (Taylor Kitsch), a former Navy SEAL and ex-mercenary, run a lucrative, homegrown industry—raising some of the best marijuana ever developed. They also share a one-of-a-kind love with the extraordinary beauty Ophelia (Blake Lively).  Life is idyllic in their Southern California town…until the Mexican Baja Cartel decides to move in and demands that the trio partners with them.

Sounds like a ton of fun, and now thanks to MTV we get a chance to see the trailer deliver on that promise. The film looks like a cross between Domino and Traffic with all the best parts of each preserved. Of course we wont know if that for sure until the movie is actually released, but this trailer has put Savages high on our to-see list.

Check out the full trailer after the jump.

Continue Reading →

As skeptical as I was when Ben Affleck took his first turn as director, he managed to prove himself more than adequate to the task with his first film Gone Baby Gone. Now with his latest directorial effort, The Town, he proves once again that all those years spent working with other directors, with a bit of his own talent thrown in, is more than enough to craft a suspenseful and entertaining crime thriller.

As this is a review of the Blu-ray Ultimate Edition of the film and not a full review of the film itself, suffice it to say I enjoyed The Town enough to watch it more than once. In fact, I’ve seen it at least three times. First, in a theater. Then, on Blu-ray and then again on Blu-ray in this Ultimate Collectors’s Edition.

The cast is excellent, especially Jeremy Renner and, somewhat surprisingly, Blake Lively. I also enjoyed watching Jon Hamm’s performance and, sadly, one of the last onscreen appearances of Pete Postlethwaite. Affleck is also quite good in the movie and has matured as an actor. At this point I can almost forgive him for Daredevil. Almost.

Continue Reading →

Green Lantern is a comic-book movie that’s ripped straight from the comic book. To some people, that will be a plus, to others a minus; more specifically, those who enjoyed the cartoonyness of The Fantastic Four movies can appreciate it; those who didn’t and want a half-hearted “message” to justify their camp will not.

The premise is ridiculous: The Green Lanterns are a gang of buff aliens sworn to protect the 3,600 sectors of the universe. One day a nasty alien called a “Parallax” shows up and starts bumping off the Lanterns, including one Abin Sur, apparently the protector of earth’s sector, who escapes to our planet, mortally wounded.

Hal Jordan (Ryan Reynolds) is a test pilot and “man without fear” (fearlessness being a big plus to the Lanterns) who’s chosen by Abin Sur to take up his mantle, or ring, or lantern, or whatever. Soon after Hal’s traveling through the galaxy to the planet Oa, where fish men and talking brick shit-houses explain the origins of the Lanterns.

There’s the obligatory scenes of Hal’s cross-training, which introduces us to the power of the Lanterns—basically anything goes so long as it’s green and comes from the ring all Lanterns wear; they can fly, construct objects of any size and shape, and, presumably, whip up some dynamite green eggs and ham.

Continue Reading →

Who doesn’t love a good old fashioned sneak peek? Everybody does, which is why we’re bringing you a heaping chunk of clips from next weekend’s super hero blockbuster Green Lantern.

In the clips, we’ve got just about everything you’ll be looking forward to in the film (minus any big spoilers, of course) such as the origin of Hal’s oath, the introduction of Dr. Hammond, some great moments with the aliens on Oa, and a few bad ass ring manifestations from GL himself.

The clips are just enough to get any fan on the fence about seeing the film, especially after seeing the first shots of Reynolds’ CGI mask. For the die-hards, this will only make you want to see the film a little more, again without spoiling anything.

Be sure to check out the full 7 minutes of clips after the jump, and catch Ryan Reynolds, Mark Strong, Peter Sarsgaard, Blake Lively, and many more in Warner Bros’ Green Lantern next Friday, June 17th.

Continue Reading →

It’s beginning to smell a lot like Summer so that means one thing (no, not that). It means Summer blockbuster movies will be coming at us in droves over the next few months all vying for your hard-earned entertainment dollar.

One of those potential blockbusters in Martin Campbell’s Green Lantern, featuring Ryan Reynolds as Hal Jordan/Green Lantern. If you’ve been keeping up with the TV spots and trailers then you won’t find much that’s necessarily new in this one released today.

Instead, the extended TV trailer takes the 90 seconds from the previous trailer and adds more footage to fill in the gaps and add scenes never seen before. It looks pretty darn cool.

In addition to Reynolds, Green Lantern also stars Blake Lively, Peter Sarsgaard, Mark Strong, Temuera Morrison, Geoffrey Rush, Tim Robbins, Michael Clarke Duncan and Angela Bassett.

Green Lantern hits 2D and 3D theaters on June 17, 2011. Check out the trailer after the jump.

Continue Reading →

As much pressure as a movie game has on it, Green Lantern: Rise of the Manhunters is getting an extra added dose as it is the first video game based on the DC comic book property as well. While various Green Lanterns have been featured as supporting cast in other games such as Justice League Heroes, Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe, Batman: The Brave and the Bold and DC Universe Online , this will be the first time Hal Jordan will be taking the starring role.

More important than the game’s graphics, story or even voice acting comes the question, will the game make a player feel like the Green Lantern? Some games recently have done a great job putting players in to the role of their headline hero and let players blissfully experience the super hero feel that they expect like Batman: Arkham Asylum or Wolverine: Origins.

Others haven’t been so successful, with the notable example being pretty much any Superman game ever created as the invincible Man of Steel seems to always constantly be in danger of dying.

When it comes to the Green Lantern, especially Hal Jordan, the use of the ring to create solid light constructs is paramount. While some Lanterns just shoot bolts of light, Hal has the creativity of someone from planet Earth backing him, resulting in everything from baseball bats to machine guns.

Take a peek below at how Warner Bros. Interactive has incorporated these concepts in to the in game combat of Green Lantern: Rise of the Manhunters. While we haven’t gotten our hands on the title yet, seeing these images gives us hope that they understand the excitement behind the prospect of playing as Hal Jordan.

Continue Reading →

With the upcoming Green Lantern eature film drawing ever closer to release, it is no surprise that there will be a licensed game title coming out around the same time. Enter Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment’s Green Lantern: Rise of the Manhunters which will be coming out for the XBox 360, PlayStation 3, Wii, Nintendo DS and Nintendo 3DS.

Harness the power of the ultimate weapon! Inspired by the upcoming Warner Bros. Pictures’ superhero feature film Green Lantern, Green Lantern: Rise of the Manhunters soars onto game consoles this summer, extending the theatrical experience of one of DC Entertainment’s most popular superheroes. Playing as gifted pilot Hal Jordan, the first human Green Lantern, gamers will create an arsenal of ring constructs and take flight in outer space and beyond to restore intergalactic order. Players will use the Power Ring to build an array of weapons from green energy to defeat the Manhunters – an evil android race bent on destroying the Green Lantern Corps.

Set for June 2011 release, Green Lantern: Rise of the Manhunters will place players in the role of Hal Jordan, the first Green Lantern of Earth, defending Oa from a group of Manhunter androids bent on the destruction of the Corps. The XBox 360 and PlayStation versions will feature the likeness and voiceacting of the film’s star, Ryan Reynolds.

Also exclusive to the next-gen consoles will be optional 3D:

Xbox 360 and PS3™ gamers can play in anaglyphic 3D with technology that is compatible with all standard TV sets and visible while wearing the 3D glasses that come packaged with the videogame product. Fans can also enjoy the game in stereoscopic 3D when playing on any 3D HDTV while wearing active shutter glasses that are compatible with the television.

As you can already see from the screens and trailer below, the game looks to capture some of the more iconic moments of Green Lantern’s combat whether it is creating power beams to shoot enemies to extra large firsts or even complex devices like a Gatling gun for combat. Take a look for yourself and let us know what you think so far about Green Lantern: Rise of the Manhunters after the jump.

Continue Reading →

This week on The Flickcast Chris and Matt are back and ready for action. Of course, that means a whole bunch of new and recurring topics to discuss and debate.

Some of these include the brand new Green Lantern footage/trailer from WonderCon, WonderCon itself,  Zack Snyder’s Sucker Punch, HBO’s Game of Thrones, more casting news, The Hangover II trailer, the Supernatural anime series,  and the new Thundercats animated series coming soon from Cartoon Network.

And for a fourth week running, no Charlie Sheen. Believe us, we’re happy about it too.

Of course, your hosts also made some picks this week including Matt’s pick of the movie Creepshow and Chris’ pick of the brand new AMC’s TV series The Killing.

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.

While San Diego Comic-Con still reigns supreme, one of the other big shows on the wast coast every year is San Francisco’s WonderCon. Much like SDCC, this show is for comic fans and movie fans alike, and some studios bring some great footage to share for their upcoming projects.

Luckily, Warner Bros. brought along a whopping four minutes of their upcoming Green Lantern flick, and we’re finally getting a chance to see the tone and some great moments in the movie. That first trailer felt a little to Iron Man-y for many, so this one will definitely help you decide if you’re going to the midnight screening or not.

In the footage, we get plenty of Oa, lots of Mark Strong as Sinestro, and we finally nail down exactly how they squeeze Parallax and Peter Sarsgaard’s Hector Hammond into the movie as two separate villains. For those editing buffs out there, they even managed to sneak a Yourahh! scream into all the chaos.

Take a look at the footage after the jump and catch Martin Campbell’s Green Lantern in theaters on June 17th.

Continue Reading →

It’s here! Just when we thought we’d have to wait a WHOLE 3 days to get a glimpse at the full Green Lantern trailer, it’s now made it’s way online. Of course there were a few poor bootleg copies making it’s way around the web yesterday, but this is the real deal.

If you haven’t heard of the character, or just want to know how they’re going to bring our favorite Emerald Hero to the silver screen, here’s the full synopsis.

In a universe as vast as it is mysterious, a small but powerful force has existed for centuries. Protectors of peace and justice, they are called the Green Lantern Corps. A brotherhood of warriors sworn to keep intergalactic order, each Green Lantern wears a ring that grants him superpowers. But when a new enemy called Parallax threatens to destroy the balance of power in the Universe, their fate and the fate of Earth lie in the hands of their newest recruit, the first human ever selected: Hal Jordan.

Hal is a gifted and cocky test pilot, but the Green Lanterns have little respect for humans, who have never harnessed the infinite powers of the ring before. But Hal is clearly the missing piece to the puzzle, and along with his determination and willpower, he has one thing no member of the Corps has ever had: humanity. With the encouragement of fellow pilot and childhood sweetheart Carol Ferris (Blake Lively), if Hal can quickly master his new powers and find the courage to overcome his fears, he may prove to be not only the key to defeating Parallax…he will become the greatest Green Lantern of all.

Check out the full trailer after the jump. Green Lantern is set to hit theaters June 17th, 2011.

Continue Reading →

We’ve seen photos. We’ve seen the corpse of Abin Surr. We’ve heard Ryan Reynolds utter the oath. But this past weekend, all that paled in comparison to the very first video footage of next year’s Green Lantern film hitting the web. It may be pretty short, but it’s only a taste of what we’ll be getting this Tuesday night, thanks to (the incredibly cocky) Entertainment Tonight.

The footage shows the film off as being pretty epic, with a nice blend of comedy mixed in, much like Marvel’s highly successful Iron Man franchise. It’s been speculated, and this proves, that DC Entertainment and Warner Bros. are looking to compete with that franchise with their own Robert Downey Jr. in Reynolds.

If you are hoping to skip out on any potentially spoilery images, you may want to go late to Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Pt. 1 this Friday, because a full trailer for Green Lantern will be attached to that film.

In the meantime, catch the brief footage after the jump, and see the full report this Tuesday night on Entertainment Tonight.

Continue Reading →

It may be taking a bit longer than someone like Blake Lively, but Mila Kunis has some rising stock in Hollywood. A few flops may have held her back, like American Psycho 2 or Max Payne, but with the tandem success of Family Guy and Forgetting Sarah Marshall, Kunis is becoming quite the name in the comedy world. Now she’s teaming up with another recent comedy favorite, with his outrageous SNL popularity, Justin Timberlake.

The two are teaming up for the upcoming sex comedy Friends With Benefits about a two friends that try to master then art of “stringless sex”. Of course, things don’t go as planned, and one falls for the other. Who will it be?

The interesting part of the film is it’s R-rated nature. In the newest red band trailer, you get plenty of vulgarity from both Kunis and Timberlake. And yes, ladies, Justin even sings a Semi Sonic song.

Check out the NSFW red band trailer after the jump, and check out Friends with Benefits in theaters on July 22nd.

Continue Reading →