This week on The Flickcast Chris and Matt welcome back recurring guest co-host Elisabeth Rappe and dive head first into a bunch of new topics including potential Star Wars prequels and sequels, Clint Eastwood’s latest film Invictus, the latest Kick-Ass character posters, Clash of the Titans and Sam Worthington, the success and animation style of Disney’s The Princess and the Frog, and the family history of Lando Calrissian.

They also made some great picks yet again this week including Matt’s pick of the series Legend of the Seeker, Elisabeth’s pick of the musical Oklahoma! featuring Hugh Jackman and Chris’ pick of Quentin Tarantino’s Inglourios Basterds, which is now on Blu-Ray.

As always, if you have comments, questions, critiques or offers of sponsorship, feel free to hit us up in the comments, on Twitter and at Facebook, MySpace or via email.

Overall, it was a pretty quiet weekend at the box office for Hollywood. Invictus and The Princess and the Frog were new releases vying for the top spot, and Disney’s Princess easily won. Princess made about $25 Million on 3400+ screens.  This is good news for fans of hand drawn animation, as this is the first time Disney returned to the method since 2004, when Home on the Range was released.

It’s been all computer generated ever since. I haven’t seen Princess, but people I’ve talked to really liked the look of the movie, and said it looked like the older Disney movies. The Blind Side also continues to impress, and came in at number two with $15.4 Million.

In its fourth week of release, it only dropped 22% from last week. It now has a domestic gross of over $150 Million. With a budget of around $30M, this movie is shaping up to be one of the biggest hits this year.

Invictus made a paltry $9 Million over the weekend. Considering the star power (Matt Damon, Morgan Freeman) and the director (Clint Eastwood), I think everyone expected this movie to perform better. Critical and audience feedback has been positive, so perhaps it will pick up a bit.

The Twilight Saga: New Moon placed fourth, with about $8 Million, bringing its domestic total to over $267 Million. In fifth place, A Christmas Carol only dropped 11% from last weekend, and made about $6.8 Milion. Now in its sixth week of release, the movie continues to perform , but it has not yet recouped its budget of $200 Million.

Holdovers Brothers, 2012, Old Dogs, Armored, and Ninja Assasin rounded out the top ten. Outside of the top ten, Up In The Air also did very well, making $2.4 Million on only 72 screens for an average of $34,000 per screen. The film will roll out more theaters next weekend.

Clint Eastwood follows up his racially charged Gran Torrino (2008)  with a movie that is based on historical events that occurred shortly after Nelson Mandela became the president of South Africa in 1994.  Post apartheid South Africa was still deeply racially divided and Mandela had the idea that getting the entire country behind their Rugby team  (The Springboks) would help unify it.

Problem is, for a movie that is supposed to be an inspiring story about an underdog sports team that overcomes enormous obstacles to win the World Cup, the movie feels very….uninspired.  I can’t really point to anything that is inherently wrong with the film, but I never felt emotionally invested in the team, and that makes for one long, dull movie.

The acting in the movie is quite good. A buffed up, blond Matt Damon plays the captain of the rugby team, Francois Pienaar.  He’s honorable and likable, and when he is summoned by Mandela to have tea, he shows the proper respect toward the man.

His light skin and light hair represent the white minority (Afrikaners) that has held most of the power in South Africa. Damon aptly handles the South African accent and seems well suited to the role.

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I used to hate Westerns.  I live in the wide and rugged expanse of Colorado, grew up in the shadow of the Rockies, and see cowboy boots on a daily basis. Heck, I even did a volunteer stint at a western museum. I couldn’t stand watching films that were basically set in my own backyard, even if the days of gunslingers and posses were long gone.

Later, I finally came around. I can’t say when this shift happened — probably upon my first adult viewing of Lonesome Dove, or maybe even as recent as James Mangold’s remake of 3:10 to Yuma. But I suddenly found Westerns to be a lot of fun, and I’ve enjoyed going back and watching all John Wayne and John Ford offerings that I’ve missed due to my snobbery.

Because I’m the type of girl who overshares everything, I thought it would be fun to chronicle this obsession, and encourage others to ride along with me. Thus, Wednesday Westerns was born. Every Wednesday, I’m going to explore this dusty and acrid genre, finding the good, the bad, and the ugly examples along the way. I hope you’ll watch and discuss along with me — and I’m going to try and make as many selections from online streaming options to prevent you from putting off the ride.

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Late yesterday, Warner Bros. released the first trailer for Clint Eastwood’s next Oscar contender, Invictus. In case you’re not familiar, it tells the true story of Nelson Mandela (Morgan Freeman) who joins forces with Francois Pienaar (Matt Damon), the captain of South Africa’s rugby team, to help unite their country.

At the time of his election, Mandela knows his nation remains divided racially and economically after the end of apartheid. He hopes to bring his people together by rallying them behind their rugby team as they make a longshot attempt to win the 1995 World Cup match.

You really can’t go wrong having Morgan Freeman and Matt Damon in your film and this one looks very interesting to me. Being a big fan of Eastwood as both actor and director, I’m sure I’ll see this when it comes out. Until then, we can be entertained by this new trailer, which you can watch courtesy of Apple after the jump, or at Apple’s website in HD.

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