After Dark Films, who over the last couple of years have become well known for releasing horror films to theaters and home video,  has partnered with Dark Castle Home Entertainment to bring you a new franchise of films, this time all action based.

Aptly named After Dark Action will present a collection of original action flicks starring a myriad of established and new talent.

Like they did with their horror compilations, After Dark Films does a tremendous job of bringing  films that would otherwise not get distributed to market. Any one familiar with their previous horror films knows that we can expect some of these films to be great and some to be stinkers, but they are all usually worth a viewing.

There are few actors these days that can play just about any part in most geek-driven properties these days. Neal McDonough has gone from playing Bruce Banner in the animated Hulk series, to having a part in Star Trek: First Contact, M. Bison for some reason in Street Fighter, and even playing the fan favorite Dum Dum Dougan in last year’s Captain America: The First Avenger.

Now, McDonough is taking the center stage again with Frank Darabont’s upcoming TNT series based on the video game L.A. Noir. Deadline reports.

LA Noir tells the true story of a decades-long conflict between the LAPD, under the determined leadership of Police Chief Parker (McDonough), and ruthless criminal elements led by mobster Mickey Cohen, a one-time boxer who rose to the top of LA’s criminal world.

This week’s pick is Clint Eastwood’s World War II masterpiece Flags of Our Fathers that depicts the famous flag raising on Mt. Suribachi on the Pacific island of Iwo Jima. The film stars Ryan Phillippe (Navy Corpman 2^nd class John “Doc” Bradley), Jesse Bradford (Corporal Rene Gagnon), Paul Walker (Sgt. Hank Hansen), and Robert Patrick (Col. Chandler Johnson).

The film is told through a series of flash-forwards and flashbacks, through the three remaining men who were responsible for the flag raising which helped to raise America’s morale as the Pacific war raged on with no foreseeable end in sight. The seven Marines that are the focal point of the film begin their training at Camp Tarawa in Hawaii with mountain climbing and other P.T. drills.

As they set sail towards their destination, it is revealed that the target in question is the Japanese held island of Iwo Jima, which sits just seven hundred miles away from the Japanese mainland.

During a debriefing, the company commander, Captain Severance (McDonough) tells the men that they will meet stiff enemy resistance than ever before because Iwo is Japanese soil and its defenders will fight to the last man in order to prevent the Americans from gaining a closer foothold toward Japan.

Sometimes the anticipation and enthusiasm for a movie can be enhanced by a series of great trailers. Unfortunately, anticipation and enthusiasm an also be killed by bad trailers or ones that just don’t resonate with the audience. Green Lantern is a recent example of this.

Fortunately, we don’t have that problem with the latest trailer for Marvel’s upcoming Summer action blockbuster Captain America: The First Avenger. In it we get a better look at the man who is to become Cap and we also get some wise, sage advise from Stanley Tucci’s Dr. Erskine as he tells our hero that “Whatever happens, stay who you are.”

Good advice and a great trailer. This movie continues to look amazing and I can’t wait for it to be released. I’ll be in line before day one if possible.

Check out the trailer after the break. Captain America: The First Avenger hits theaters on July 22nd.

This week on The Flickcast Chris and Matt chat about one of the bigger cultural events of this past weekend, the MTV Movie Awards. They delve into why people actually watch the awards, and some of their favorite moments. Plus, they talked all things iPhone 4, which was just announced this week.

Also, the boys weighed in on some pretty big casting news for Marvel fans with Stanley Tucci, Neal McDonough and Jeremy Renner joining various upcoming movies. Plus, they debated the various actors in the running to play the title role in the new Spider-Man reboot.

This week’s picks stayed in the realm of science fiction as Chris picked the recently released movie Splice, which is currently in theaters. Matt also stayed inside the sci-fi world as he picked the comic Serenity: Float On, which takes place after the film, and is written by comedian Patton Oswalt.

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.

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