The fourth installment of the Underworld franchise tried to bring the series back to it’s bread and butter, Kate Beckinsale in skin-tight leather. That was seemingly all you need as the film bounced back from the disappointing third installment and stands tall with a similar start to that of the first two movies.

The estimated twenty-five and a half million dollar haul puts Awakening on pace to top the over all totals of the first and third movies, whether or not it can catch the series peak, set by Evolution, will depend on it’s hold next weekend. The per theater average and total screen numbers are comparable to the second film which performed the best up to this point in the series.

Coming in at an impressive nineteen million is Red Tails, the Lucasfilm tale of the famed Tuskegee Airman. The movie surpassed many expectations and out paced other fighter pilot films by a solid margin. Much like Underworld: Awakening, the critical reception of Red Tails has not been kind, so it will need strong word of mouth to maintain momentum into next weekend.

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Say what you will about Mark Wahlberg but his movies are often entertaining and he does know his way around an action sequence. Case in point is his latest upcoming film Contraband.

In the action thriller, which is based on the 2008 Icelandic film Reykjavic-Rotterdam, Wahlberg plays a security guard trying to go straight who must return to his old life of high-stakes smuggling to settle a family member’s debt with a ruthless former boss. Naturally, things don’t go exactly as planned and, you can bet, stuff ends up blowing up.

Starring with Wahlberg are Giovanni Ribisi, Kate Beckinsale, Lukas Haas and Ben Foster. Check out the trailer after the jump.

Look for Contraband to hit theaters early next year.

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Fans of last year’s hit buddy-cop comedy The Other Guys will be delighted by news that the hilarious on-screen team of Will Ferrell and Mark Wahlberg will be re-teaming with Adam McKay for the upcoming film Turkey Bowl.

Here’s the official synopsis from Deadline.

Will Ferrell and Mark Wahlberg [will star] as guys from football-obsessed towns who lead rival teams in an annual tackle football game for bragging and trash-talking rights. The tackle games are grandiose, and I’m told they plan to pack it with fun cameos, just the way they did during the rival broadcaster gang fights in Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy.

Alec Baldwin is already aboard as Wahlberg’s father. Sold as a pitch, the project will be written by 30 Rock’s Robert Carlock, and Scott Silveri, with the story by Owen Burke of Gary Sanchez Productions. Ferrell, Adam McKay and Chris Henchy will produce through their Sanchez banner and Wahlberg through his Closest to the Hole banner.

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I was surprised at how much trouble I had narrowing down my top ten movies this year.  My top 20 were all very close, but here are the movies that I ultimately enjoyed the most. I readily admit that I did not see near as many foreign films as I would have liked, but by the time I cover most of the mainstream fare, there is simply no time left.

Honorable Mentions: Fair Game, Tiny Furniture, Greenberg, Cyrus, The Tillman Story, The American, Mother and Child, Scott Pilgrim.

10. Waiting for Superman
This Documentary was equal parts frustrating, inspirational, and heartbreaking. Director Davis Guggenheim (No End in Sight) sheds light on the dismal state of our public school system. He follows the plight of several children who live in various geographic regions who are placing all of their hope for an decent education into lottery systems for charter or private schools. Guggenheim relies on their compelling stories for a narrative, while interspersing lots of graphics and cartoons illuminating some pretty harrowing statistics.

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Indeed it is the time of year when inevitability the lists appear and people pick their favorites of 2010. Some have already done their lists and some, like me, like to wait a bit. That said and since I don’t want to be accused of not following trends, I will also be making a list (or two) of my picks of the best of 2010. However, in the interest of clarity and brevity (or neither), I’m going to pick my top 5 (or so) things in the main categories we cover here at The Flickcast.

Although, as our own John Carle covered the best of 2010 in games so well already, I won’t make much (if any) a list of those and will just mention my two favorites. In case you’re not familiar with those main categories we cover, they are as follows: Movies, TV, Comics, Games, Tech and all things Geek.

So, to that end, here’s my list (or lists really) of my picks of the top stuff of 2010.

Movies

Inception – I love smart movies and this one is pretty damn smart. Featuring great performances, a mind-bending plot and twists galore, director Christopher Nolan delivers with one entertaining ride I was talking about for weeks (and months) afterward. And with all the ways I can get distracted by other things, to still be taking about this movie now is a testament to just how great it is.

True Grit – I love Westerns and this one will go down as truly one of the best I’ve seen in a long time. Jeff Bridges, Matt Damon and the rest of the cast are superb and newcomer Hailee Steinfeld owns the screen. She is definitely one to watch. Plus, the Coen brothers have a genuine love and reverence for the classic Western conventions, even when they twist and turn them into new and even more compelling shapes.

The Social Network – When I first heard of this movie I was skeptical, as probably most were, about how interesting a movie about Facebook really could be. I had nothing to worry about. This brilliant film, directed by David Fincher and written by Aaron Sorkin, delivers on all levels and tells a compelling story of one of the most impressive success stories in history. Along the way it also shows us a little something about the nature of greed, friendship and the real cost of success.

Winter’s Bone - This tale of a real heroes journey to find out what happened to her father before the bank forecloses on her home resonated with me for quite some time after watching this film. Jennifer Lawrence as the young mother and John Hawkes as her meth-snorting uncle really deliver top performances. Part crime movie, part thriller and part coming-of-age-story this film’s stark realism takes you into a world you didn’t know existed and holds you there until the lights come up.

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The Fighter is the perfect award season movie. It’s based on a true story, it showcases some great acting, and it’s uplifting. It’s the type of movie that allows you to leave the theater happy and proud. How many times does that happen?

Director David O. Russell managed to bring a magnificent cast to this story about a working class boxer who is making one last push for a title. Mark Wahlberg plays Mickey Ward, a welterweight whose career  has been horribly mismanaged by his overbearing mother Alice (played by Melissa Leo).

In fact, his entire boxing career has been a family affair. His seven sisters frequently offer up unwanted opinions.  What a treat they are, swilling beer in their acid washed jeans and sporting amazing bang claws on the top of the heads. They steadfastly stand behind anything their mother says.

His half-brother Dickey is Mickey’s trainer, whenever he is not passed out in a crack flophouse. Dickey just floats about, showing up whenever it is convenient. Poor Dad is too beaten down by Alice to speak up.

The family completely enables Dickey.  Everyone knows what is going on with him, but no one dares to acknowledge it. After all, he’s the apple of their eye, because long ago, when Dicky was boxing, he knocked down Sugar Ray Leonard.  Dickey has been the pride of Lowell ever since.  There is a documentary crew from HBO following Dicky around. He thinks it is for his comeback.  It’s really to show the chronic effects of crack use.

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There were a few competitors for this year’s biggest movie comedy but hands down one of the ones in the top 3 is Adam McKay’s The Other Guys starring Will Ferrell and Mark Wahlberg. The film was a great satirical take on some of the top buddy cop films of the 90′s and had an all-star cast. Starting December 14th, you can relive the laughs from the film unrated on DVD and Blu-ray.

If Ferrell and Wahlberg aren’t enough to keep you entertained, how about Michael Keaton, Rob Riggle, Eva Mendes, Daman Wayans Jr., Dwayne Johnson, Steve Coogan, and Samuel L. Jackson? Here are the official features and bonus material from the releases.

Blu-ray Exclusive Bonus Material

• The “Mom”-mentary- Unrated Version
• Additional Deleted & Extended Scenes
• Line-O-Rama
• Gag reel
• “Pimps Don’t Cry” music video
• Alternate Action
• Bonus Featurettes:
• Extreme Close Up
• Everyone Hates The DVD Guy
• Wasn’t That
• Why Are There Brits On This Movie?
• Rob Riggle Like To Party
• We Shouldn’t Kiss a Chicken
• Mark Walberg’s Eating Contest Entourage
• Lendl Global Commercial
• movieIQ®+sync and BD-Live connect you to real-time information on the cast, music, trivia and more while watching the movie

Be sure to catch The Other Guys on Blu-ray and DVD next Tuesday from Sony Entertainment.

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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Congrats to all those who have made it past Comic-Con’s endless Hall H lines, sat through countless hours of the studio’s pleading with you to buy movie tickets, and made it back home in one, tired piece. What awaits you is a month filled with the studio’s last line of blockbuster attack ads until the holiday season.

Fear not, as the lines will be vastly shorter than the wait for Eclipse. Instead of emos and soccer moms in “Team Edward” T-shirts, you’ll find yourself beside teenage boys who watch Rocky V on their Evos while waiting for The Expendables.

Curiously, the generals of Universal and Lionsgate both decided to fire missiles into the 13-30 years old guys camp. With the troops dispersing, you should be able to deftly maneuver yourself to the safety of a comfy recliner at the multiplex.

My advice, do like Julia Roberts and Eat some buttery popcorn, Pray for a film worth the ticket price, and Love the below reviews. Let’s check out what’s in store for us in August.

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The fourth offering from the comedy team of Will Farrell (star) and Adam McKay (director, writer), The Other Guys doesn’t reach the zany heights of their earlier hits Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy and Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby, but still gives Farrell plenty of opportunities for the inspired silliness and extended surreal bits that are his strengths.

Will Farrell plays Allen Gamble, a police forensic accountant with a hidden dark past, now partnered with Terry Hoitz (Mark Wahlberg), a disgraced detective who has been relegated to a desk job after making a catastrophic error.

The movie opens with the hot shots of the department, played with patented swagger and bombast by Samuel L. Jackson and Dwayne Johnson, but when they unexpectedly leave the force, so to speak, Hoitz jumps at the chance to get back on real cases. The only hitch is that he has to convince the reluctant, conscientious and safety-loving Gamble to join him.

Meanwhile, Gamble’s painstaking forensic accounting and obsession with unpaid scaffolding permits has actually turned up a real case, a financier (Steve Coogan) about to pull off a $32 Billion heist. It’s classic bumbling cops versus cool, efficient and ruthless mastermind criminals with MBAs and meat-head body guards, but the sometimes creaky plot does its job—that is, set up lots of hilarity involving Priuses, hot Broadway shows, the pitfalls of hyperbole and more.

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Last week, Steve Carell and Paul Rudd’s newest film, Dinner for Schmucks opened across the nation, and immediately won the title of “funniest film of 2010″ by many critics. While that may be true, that title may be trumped this Friday, as Will Ferrell and Mark Wahlberg star in The Other Guys.

The film is sort of a mock buddy cop film, with plenty of genre satires along the way. Not only will we get the always adlibbing Ferrell, but Wahlberg, Sam Jackson, Duane Johnson, Michael Keaton, and Eva Mendes fill out the cast.

Not only is this a Ferrell comedy, but his long-term partner Adam McKay, who wrote and directed Anchorman, Step Brothers and Taladega Nights, and also co-created FunnyOrDie.com with Ferrell is stepping behind the camera once again.

If you don’t know much about the film (or even if you do) we’ve got a bit of a treat for you. After the jump, check out four brand new clips from the film, showing off some of the on-screen chemistry of the leading team.

Be sure to catch The Other Guys in theaters everywhere this Friday, August 8th.

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When Eva Mendes, Will Farrell, Adam McKay and Mark Wahlberg sit down for an interview, you can expect results to be anything but ordinary. Based on the camaraderie that was clearly present during a recent Q&A during SDCC, fans of the upcoming movie can expect a good time when the movie premiers later this summer.

Since this movie stars Will Farrell, one of the most obvious questions would be how much of the script was actually written, and how much was McKay allowing his actors to ad-lib and run with it. It turns out, McKay is so well prepared for this, he brings in a professional.

“For our bond company, we actually have to give them the exact percentages,” explained McKay. “So we brought in an actuary to break it down and this movie was 14.3789% was improvised and then the rest was scripted.”

A quick thinking Farrell noted, “that would be 86-85% scripted, if you round up.”

“It’s about 15-20% that is improvised, because we goof around in the scenes,” said McKay. “But the overall story structure obviously stays the same.”

Being a Buddy-Cop flick, comedic timing and approach are in the cards for both actors. Since Wahlberg isn’t a name that immediately springs to mind when you think summer comedy, how much did he end up learning from Farrell in the course of filming the movie?

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