This week on The Flickcast, Chris and Matt are back and better than ever. Or, they’re pretty much the same as ever.

But that’s not a bad thing. In fact, the “same” for these two talented dudes is pretty much awesome. So, sit back, relax and enjoy this episode where the boys discuss all manner of topics including the awesome Insane Office Escape video, some visual effects news, X-Men: Days of Future Past, The Hobbit, the first day of shooting on Godzilla, new Ant Man footage, Jean-Claude Van Damme in The Avengers and, the most important thing, a fundraiser for their friend Flitz who needs an operation and doesn’t have the money.

Fortunately, you can help right here.

Chris and Matt also made picks this week incluidng Matt’s pick of Justice League Unlimited and Chris’ pick of the iOS app Feedly.

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 or via email.

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Yes, that’s right. After a bit of time apart to “find themselves” and/or work on solo projects, Chris and Matt are back together again for an all-new season of The Flickcast.

And to kick things off, the boys talk all-things Oscar and make some predictions about who and what will take home the gold guy during Sunday’s festivities. Plus, they take a bit of a detour through the upcoming Star Wars movies and the various casting rumors as well as the most recent installment of the Die Hard franchise.

Hopefully you won’t be too disappointed but Chris and Matt don’t make any picks this time around, mostly because they don’t know if that bit is going to continue. So that means you don’t have to link to anything this week.

However, if you do want the picks bit to continue, let us know via the comments. And, if you have any other comments or suggestions about the show, feel free to let us know that too.

Look for brand new episodes of The Flickcast right here each and every week!

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As we’re a site covering the movies, it would probably be a disservice not to put up something about the Oscar (aka Academy Award) nominations which were announced this morning by Seth MacFarlane and Emma Stone. So yes, the nominations are here and as always there’s a few surprises, a few “snubs” and the rest is rather predictable.

Here’s the nominations for your reading pleasure. Look for the actual ceremony, featuring host Seth MacFarlane, to air on Sunday, February 24th on ABC.

Performance by an actor in a leading role

Bradley Cooper in “Silver Linings Playbook”
Daniel Day-Lewis in “Lincoln”
Hugh Jackman in “Les Misérables”
Joaquin Phoenix in “The Master”
Denzel Washington in “Flight”

Performance by an actor in a supporting role

Alan Arkin in “Argo”
Robert De Niro in “Silver Linings Playbook”
Philip Seymour Hoffman in “The Master”
Tommy Lee Jones in “Lincoln”
Christoph Waltz in “Django Unchained”

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The following was discovered in the journal of Sir Heinriech Blossom Bugfellow, Gentleman:

During my travels, I came across a curious figure of Mr. Snipe, a derelict of the town who, for a small sum, would relate his tales from across all corners of the world. On this occasion, he spoke of his journey to the Gallery of the Wizened Master, a painter of rich and moving tapestries. As Mr. Snipe recalled, the Master was well known throughout the world, and his latest exhibition featured works done with a new kind of paint, one which made the images leap from the canvas and poke at your eyes.

The works were representations of a famous folk tale featuring all mixes of animals, people, landscapes, and the like. Mingling with each other, they produced images of great wonder, such as a still ocean reflecting the sky above or endless pools of glowing bioluminscence or a vast and enveloping view of a sunken ship. Certainly they stole many a breath, for one viewer was scared to cough for fear that the painting would disperse. Mr. Snipe, he assured me, found them delightful as well, but noticed, when he walked behind these pictures, that each one disappeared when viewed from a different angle.

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It’ll be interesting to see how audiences who haven’t read Life of Pi, Yann Martel’s 2001 novel respond to director Ang Lee’s vision of the colorful tale. Piscine Molitor “Pi” Patel is a twice-strangely-monikered, religiously insatiable 16-year-old Indian boy immigrating by freighter from Pondicherry to Canada with his parents, brother and the animal inhabitants of their family zoo who finds himself the sole human survivor of a shipwreck at sea.

The book is a rare hybrid: gripping survival thriller crossed with metaphysics and theology. That hybrid paid off in spades: it was both a runaway best-selling and massive award winner, starting with the Man Booker Prize in the UK. The story is bold and fantastical, yet as I remember it also dwelled for long, engaging stretches on the tedium and loneliness of sole survival at sea, with the world narrowed to Pi’s all-consuming counting of the cans of potable water and the packets of sea biscuits.

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Ang Lee has never really been known for visual flair. His films are always beautiful, but his best works always seemed to have a quite beauty to them. The major exception of course being Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, but it seemed for a while that we might not get another visual stunner from the master filmmaker.

Thankfully that is not the case, it looks as if he knocked another feast for the eyes out of the park, and knowing the story of Life of Pi it will know doubt be a feast for the soul as well. For those in the dark on this film, here is its synopsis:

Director Ang Lee (Brokeback Mountain, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon) creates a groundbreaking movie event about a young man who survives a tragic disaster at sea and is hurtled into an epic journey of adventure and discovery. While marooned on a lifeboat, he forms an amazing and unexpected connection with the ship’s only other survivor — a fearsome Bengal tiger.

It is really starting to feel like 2012 is going to end up as one of those great cinematic years, and if this trailer is any indication Life of Pi might be one of those marquee titles that headline a long list of quality films.

Check out the gorgeous trailer after the jump.

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