Upon leaving J. Edgar, neither my buddy nor I could nail down the point of what we just watched. Was it a hard look at the man? The film takes a vague stance on Hoover’s actions, and there’s not a very well-defined character arc—Hoover starts out as a stiff prima donna and ends up pretty much the same. And it’s certainly not an action flick.

The best I can surmise is that it’s a look at the relationships of someone who closed himself off from all human contact. Maybe that’s the reason the film’s titled “J. Edgar”–the first name is closed off while the second is used. There’s a lingering shot of the first time Hoover signs his name as such, so it’s obviously important, but then again the context is Hoover opening a new account in a men’s clothing shop. Anybody’s guess.

Hoover is played by Leonardo DiCaprio, using a slightly affected accent that’s not quite convincing but isn’t distracting. He goes through a number of emotions, and I suppose plays that part well, but I think the weakness is in the writing: He’s just not a very compelling character. Of course he’s underplayed and quiet—that’s the point, right? But even a dull character well played is still a dull character.

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This is one of those weekends that proves the merit of the American moviegoer. Will people fill theaters to go see Adam Sandler get in a fistfight with himself dressed in drag? Or will they go see a biopic of one of the most important men in US history?

Looks like it was neither, as people would rather see the next Superman take out Mickey Rourke while a bunch of Greek gods watch from above (not to knock the movie, it was entertaining). Opening in just over 3,000 screens, Immortals made it to the #1 spot this weekend with a reach of $32 million in the domestic box office, and over $60 million worldwide.

Sadly, coming in at a (too) close second, Sandler’s Jack and Jill managed to pull in $26 million this weekend, averaging roughly $7,500 per screen. In second and third are last weekend’s top hits, Puss in Boots and Tower Heist, which are still making strong money.

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Even Eddie Murphy and his band of not-so-ready for Ocean’s 11 players couldn’t knock Antonio Banderas and his animated counterpart “Puss” from their place on the box office mountain top this week. Whether that’s a good thing, or a bad thing, we’re not entirely sure.

That’s right, Dreamworks’ Puss in Boots managed to steal another weekend with an estimate of $33 Million and a total of $75 Million overall. Universal’s Tower Heist was able to come in second, however, with $25 Million. Not very good, considering the film cost upward of $75 Million to make.

Also hitting theaters this weekend, Warner’s A Very Harold & Kumar 3D Christmas opened to a small $13 Million, which makes sense, seeing as how Halloween was less than a week ago!

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For the record, I don’t know all that much about the early years of the infamous J. Edgar Hoover. I do know that he helped make the FBI what it is today but also had some other, more secret, proclivities that make him a rather controversial figure in history.

So, it makes sense that someone like Clint Eastwood, who likes complicated characters and to explore the “grey area” of morality, would take on a biopic about the late FBI director. That’s exactly what he’s done and cast Leonardo DiCaprio as the man himself.

Today, Warner Bros released the theatrical trailer for the film and in it we get a good look at DiCaprio’s portrayal of Hoover as well as some insight into the movie itself. Gotta say, and not really surprised here, it looks good.

Check it out for yourself after the break. J. Edgar, which in addition to DiCaprio features Naomi Watts, Josh Lucas, Armie Hammer, Dermot Mulroney, Lea Thompson and Judi Dench, hits theaters on November 9.

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You have to hand it to Quentin Tarantino. Besides being a very talented director who tells interesting stories well he’s also got the ability to put together some great ensemble casts. From his fist film Reservoir Dogs, through his most recent Inglorious Basterds, the director never ceases to lock in some great actors for his films.

He’s continuing that trend with his upcoming Sergio Leone-inspired western Django Unchained. He’s already got Jamie Foxx, Christoph Waltz, Samuel L. Jackson and Leonardo DiCaprio. Now, according to Deadline, we can add Oscar-winner Kevin Costner to the mix as well.

According to the report, Costner would play Ace Woody, “the sadistic trainer of the male fighting slaves who entertain the white patrons of Candyland as well as the female slaves who are forced to be prostitutes. The club and ranch are owned by Calvin Candie (DiCaprio) and Ace Woody is the one who pits the “mandingo” fighters against one another.” Sounds like a nice guy. Mmm, not.

Once Coster is set for the role he and DiCaprio should make an interesting pair of bad guys. I’m sure it will be very interesting to see how it all turns out. The film is set to go into production in the Fall with an eye to a late 2012 release.

We’ll bring you more on this film as we get it.

It’s probably only a matter of time before every movie ever made is converted to 3D. Fortunately, that’s just an exaggeration as we can’t see something like Ishtar, Heaven’s Gate, Norbit or Catwoman getting the 3D treatment any time soon.

However, that hasn’t stopped James Cameron from going ahead with his plans to convert Titanic to 3D and release it into the wild. And now that blessed event has a firm date: April 6, 2012.

In case you’re wondering, that date kinda makes sense considering it marks the centennial anniversary of the actual Titanic’s maiden voyage, although I believe the date is a little early and the ship actually left port on April 10th. Oh well, details, details.

Considering Cameron himself is not a fan of converting 3D  movies and prefers to shoot them that way from the start, its interesdting that he decided to convert  Titanic. Let’s try not to be cynical and see this as just another grab for cash by a guy who’s already a Billionare.

I’m sure he’s got perfectly altruistic motives for doing this. I’m sure, okay? Get off Jim’s back. Damn.

Check out the full press release from Paramount and Fox after the break.

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We love fan films. Especially well done fan films. The constant growth of YouTube and New Media in general has helped fans on both side of the lens come together and enjoy these videos somewhere besides the basement of a comic book store.

With that, we’ve got a brand new fan film by YouTube user TheManBatman compiled several scenes from several Batman films (and many non-Batman flicks as well) and portrayed a story that plays Bruce Wayne as a bit of a lunatic. That makes Batman a figment of his imagination. Here’s what the Man himself has to say about the mash-up.

Here we have a full length theatrical trailer that delves a little deeper into the story behind The Batman Complex. As explained in the teaser, the gist of the idea revolves around a few fun topics, mainly the whole “what is real?” train of thought, and also every fans desire, deep down or upfront, to be Batman at least once in their lives. LOL. And so, I tried to craft a story where we see what happens when someone takes their dream of being Batman a little bit too far. An idea, after all, is a truly resilient parasite.

While some of it is still left a bit ambiguous (both unintentionally and intentionally – while there’s only so much that can be strung together, I often like to leave a little bit open so as to see what fellow fans are able to imagine/create), I believe it offers a bit more than the teaser.

Take a look at the fan film after the jump, and be sure to subscribe to TheManBatman’s channel for more of his upcoming trailer mash ups and fan films.

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Today, in what can be considered a pretty groundbreaking move, Warner Bros. Digital Distribution announced it is the first to launch “App Editions” of movies for the iPhone, iPod touch and iPad. Starting with the popular Christopher Nolan films Inception and The Dark Knight, the special edition movies and bonus content are now available for free in the U.S. app store in and more than 30 other countries.

According to the studios, these “App Editions” provide “a fully-loaded, connected viewing experience that gives consumers the first five minutes of a feature film and a portion of bonus content that can include games, trivia, soundtracks and soundboards. The entire feature film can be unlocked via an in-app purchase, which enables downloading and unlimited streaming, as well as access to the entire array of bonus content available within the App.”

With the apps arriving in the iTunes store today, this is something we’re going to have to check out for sure. On the surface it seems like a great way to expose these films to an even larger audience, especially where they may not have been available previously.

Still, for more mainstream audiences who’ve already seen and enjoyed these films, it will probably come down to what new and unique content these apps bring and what they will cost. For even more on these new apps, check out the full press release after the jump. We’ve also included some screens of these apps for you to check out as well. So, check ‘em out and let us know what you think.

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This week on The Flickcast brings more insight, innovation and innuendo from your favorite co-hosts. That’s right, Chris and Matt are back and discussing all sorts of new and returning topics.

Some of those topics include the Oscars, Spartacus: Gods of the Arena, Call of Duty: Black Ops Map Packs, the Verizon iPhone, Fantastic Four developments, Smallville’s final season and potential spin-offs, the Dead Space 2 ads and much more.

Chris and Matt also made new picks this week including Matt’s pick of the Sam Raimi film Darkman the and Chris’ pick of the new Starz series Spartacus: Gods of the Arena.

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.

If you’re like the rest of the nerds around The Flickcast office, then you took your 30 minute lunchbreak on Tuesday to run out and grab Inception on Blu-Ray so you can relive all of Chris Nolan’s dreamworld madness. Of course, with the instant (and legal) accessibility of the film, come the bad ass fan edits.

We haven’t seen any cool Inception lightsaber fan edits like we have for Princess Bride, but there is one video that’s been floating around the Internets that needs to be shared as much as possible. Youtube user Weikang had the great idea (and was the first) to edit all of the dream worlds side by side at once, showing how they all played together.

Mind you, some worlds run faster than others because they are dreams inside of dreams (doesn’t sound as cool when you explain it, sorry Nolan). Check out the cool fan video after the jump.

Expect to see plenty more Inception fan films hit the web as more and more folks re-watch the psychological action flick over and over again. At least we hope so.

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For a while it seemed that every young starlet in Hollywood was vying for the part of Daisy Buchanan in Baz Luhrmann’s upcoming adaptation of the literary classic The Great Gatsby. Director Luhrman has finally announced that Carey Mulligan won the coveted role.

Leonardo DiCaprio has been cast as the wealthy and mysterious Jay Gatsby, and Tobey Maquire will play Nick Carraway. The story is set in the 1920′s, and Daisy is Gatsby’s long-lost love, now married to another man.

Mulligan has made a quick name for herself by appearing in some critically acclaimed roles.  She was nominated for an Oscar for her performance in An Education as Jenny, a naive teenager who is seduced by an older playboy.  She has also received accolades for her gut-wrenching performance in this year’s Never Let Let Me Go.

She beat out Scarlett Johansson and Blake Lively for the role of Daisy.

The Great Gatsby has been filmed several times, but the 1974 version is most well known. It was written by Francis Ford Coppola and starred Robert Redford as Gatsby, Mia Farrow as Daisy, and Sam Waterson as Nick.

This week on The Flickcast Matt and Chris return from a week off with way more energy and sense of purpose. Or, they do their best and just try to get through the show by bringing you even more interesting and exciting topics for discussion.

Some of these topics include Batman: The Dark Knight Rises casting rumors, Captain America photos, TV programs getting canceled, potential Superman casting, The Walking Dead, Matt’s love for all things Nic Cage and much more. The team also made some picks this week including Matt’s pick of the movie Hellboy and Chris’ pick of season one of the original The Bionic Woman starring Lindsay Wagner.

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.