For those of you going through action movie withdrawal, fear not, as Sylvester Stallone’s Expendables are coming back for a second round with an even more star-studded cast.

After the announcement yesterday that Chuck Norris and Jean Claude Van Damme would be joining the film, we have received awe- worthy news that both Arnold Schwarzenegger and Bruce Willis will have significantly expanded roles in the sequel.

Millennium Films has finally begun confirming which rumored stars will actually be showing up in the action-packed blockbuster, which will be directed by Simon (Con Air) West. An official cast list for The Expendables has made its way online, with the obvious returning stars Jason Statham, Jet Li, Randy Couture, Terry Crews, Dolph Lundgren and Mickey Rourke, who are all returning as part of Stallone’s mercenary crew.

Along with Jean Claude Van Damme and Chuck Norris, Scott Adkins was also confirmed for the film.  It is rumored that these are not the only names that will pop up in the coming months.

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The film may not have a director, and a cast is still in the process of being shuffled into place and signed, but that hasn’t stopped a brand new poster and plot from being released for the upcoming sequel The Expendables 2.

What we do know, however, is that Stallone will be returning to act in the film, just not direct. No word on who Lionsgate is courting to take on the task, but a script is already in place by the man who brought us Muppets in Space and Curious George, Ken Kaufman. Here’s what Millenium Films is touting as the official plot:

The Expendables are back and this time it’s personal! After Tool (Mickey Rourke), the heart and soul of the Expendables, is brutally murdered on a mission, his comrades swear to avenge him. They’re not the only ones who want blood.

Tool’s beautiful young and wild daughter Fiona embarks on her own revenge mission, complicating matters when she is captured and ransomed by a ruthless dictator plotting to destroy a resistance movement. Now Barney and the Expendables must risk everything to save her and humanity.

Just about everyone and their mother is rumored to return for the sequel, including a meatier role for both Bruce Willis and Arnold Schwarzenegger. There is even talk that Jean-Claude Van Damme is planning on making an appearance this time as the film’s villain, making this, without question, the ultimate action cast.

We expect to hear more about the film as it travels to Cannes. Lionsgate says that the current scheduled release is August 17th, 2012. Take a look at the full poster after the jump, courtesy of First Showing.

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It’s that time of year again. The time when actors and actresses are honored for all the hard work they piled together in the 12 months leading up to one moment of pay off and a tiny little statue. We’re speaking, of course, about the Razzie Awards. These are the awards given out on the eve of Oscar night to those actors, actresses, and fimlmmakers who have produced some of the worst film projects to hit theaters in the past year.

Many remember last year’s big Worst Actress winner being Sandra Bullock, who went on the very next night to win an Oscar for a role in a completely different film. This year’s potentials could have the same luck, but we doubt it. Here’s the shortlist of actors from LA Times.

Among movies and actors shortlisted for the Razzies are Jessica Alba, who is eligible for worst supporting actress for four films (“The Killer Inside Me,” “Little Fockers,” “Machete” and “Valentine’s Day”), and Emily Blunt, eligible in the same category for her work in “The Wolfman” and “Gulliver’s Travels.”

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As summer dies down with explosive fire power and spiritual journeys to other lands, I recall the glorious action fest that was The Expendables. In turns out Julia Roberts has nothing on protein packed men with a mission on their minds. My female counterparts have voiced their love of meaty men in droves and unexpectedly taken away business from Julia’s love fest. Nearly 40 percent of The Expendables‘ audience was women. X-Men Origins: Wolverine‘s audience raked them in as nearly 50 percent of the audience was female. It seems women have tired of the boys akin to Michael Cera and instead jones for something with a little more muscle. Stallone should have learned the key to Hugh Jackman’s success to driving women in throngs- taking off his shirt.

I hear Hugh gave up his lead in Avon Man to start his insane work-out to become the ferocious mutant once again. If you take months upon months to beef up like these 80‘s action legends did, you’d think they’d want to show it off. Plus, wasn’t it super hot in Louisiana and Brazil where The Expendables shot? It was like 100 degrees with 100 percent humidity. Stallone couldn’t have been the only one who was feeling the heat.  Take off those shirts and up your female movie-going audience to 51 percent.

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George Clooney still has it, at least for this weekend.  His latest film The American made an estimated $13M over the weekend, which was good enough for a first place finish.

Labor Day weekend is typically very slow, so believe it or not, that is a healthy box office total. The real shocker is how audiences responded to the film. Cinemascore is a tracking system used to tally audience response to a film.  Exit polls are used as indicators of a film’s longevity at the box office. The American earned a shocking D- grade, meaning audiences really hated it.  It garnered an F from women. (You can read our positive take on the film here.)

Of course, mis marketing the film as an action movie no doubt led to lots of false expectations.  It’s a good film but a tough sell. It is a deliberately paced pot-boiler character study.  Those looking for a jolting action flick probably found themselves snoozing in no time.

Holdover Takers landed the number two spot with $11.5M.   Machete was hot on its heels with an estimated $11.3M.  Considering how graphically violent the movie was, this is a pretty good take, plus its reported budget was only $20M, so it should easily earn back its budget.

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This week on The Flickcast Chris and Matt take on a slew of new and recurring topics. Some of these include the recent Emmy Awards, Fantastic Four casting rumors, X-Men: First Class, Jimmy Fallon’s career and the Clash of the Titans Sequel.

They also discuss potential directors for X-Men Origins: Wolverine 2, True Blood, Mad Men, the Community Emmy commercials, the awesomeness of AMC network’s TV shows, the greatness of Joss Whedon’s Firefly and casting for The Expendables 2.

Plus, the guys made some picks this week including Matt’s pick of the innovative sci-fi show Lexx and Chris’ pick of the classic series Firefly starring Nathan Fillion and Summer Glau.

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.

Often its fun to watch great films featuring A-list stars doing what they do best. It’s also fun to watch a big budget sci-fi or action film full of amazing effects, death-defying stunts and hugely imaginative worlds exquisitely realized. And then sometimes you just want to see stuff explode.

This new trailer featuring Dolph Lundgren in The Killing Machine is pretty much that third one. Still, that doesn’t mean the film is bad, just not as expensive or fancy as others.

Directed by and starring Lundgren, the film follows the exploits of Edward Genn (Lundgren) a Soviet-era sleeper agent and trained assassin living in America. But times have changed and Edward is ready to leave that life and move on.

With a new identity, Edward is ready to re-introduce himself to his wife and daughter. But even though he may want to live a new life, there are others who still remember him and will do anything to destroy him.

The Killing Machine also stars Stefanie von Pfetten, Samantha Ferris and Bo Svenson. It will be available on DVD from Anchor Bay Entertainment on October 19th.

Check out the trailer after the jump.

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The Expendables is a prime example of a “because they can” movie: Why do they have a moment where Jason Statham takes on five guys at a basketball court for roughing up his girlfriend? Why do they have Terry Crews marching down a hallway eviscerating an army of South American militants? Why do they have Mickey Rourke give five-minute monologue of complete incomprehensibility? Why? Because they can.

There’s no pretentious want of consistency or deeper meaning other than Stallone wanting to show you that he can still blow shit up and make people laugh when a man’s head gets twisted 180 degrees around (complete with bone-crunching sound effects). When the first scene of the film shows the top half of a man getting blown up in gooey detail, you know what you’re in for. When the camera lingers for a second on the bloody stump of his lower half, you know you’ve got it.

This is the kind of movie reviewers love because the entire plot can be recapped in one sentence: The Expendables are a team of mercenaries sent to some fictional South American country to overthrow the government. That’s about it. At a time when action movies are overly concerned with psychological depth and ponderous plot complications, The Expendables is like mouth-to-mouth from a humongously well-buxomed lifeguard.

First and foremost, it’s a throwback to the mindlessly fun action movies of the ‘80s that were drenched in blood, muscles, and testosterone. Stallone knows this material well, and delights in showing us the innumerable ways in which he and his five-man army (made of himself, Statham, Crews, Jet-Li, Randy Couture, and, for a time, Dolph Lundgren) can kill.

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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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This weekend, the movie going masses will be split into three camps. Some will be buying tickets for Julia Roberts’ new film Eat, Pray, Love while the younger generation will be headed to Scott Pilgrim vs. The World. That leaves the rest of us to go see the biggest collection of action stars together for the first time in one film. You know it as The Expendables.

The film’s premise isn’t all that important considering what most people are probably seeing the movie for. However, if you do care about that sort of thing the film is basically about a group of renegade mercenaries who uncover a international plot that they are called in to take down. The film is written by, directed by, and stars Sylvester Stallone and also includes some of the biggest names in action cinema. Here’s a brief list:

Arnold Schwarzenegger, Bruce Willis, Steve Austin, Jason Statham, Dolph Lundgren, Jet Li, Terry Crews, Randy Couture, Mickey Rourke, & Eric Roberts. Not bad, right?

We’ve got a brand new clip from the film in which Sly and Statham argue about which is faster: Sly’s bullets or Statham’s throwing knives. Check out the clip after the jump and catch The Expendables in theaters this Friday. You know you want to.

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This week on The Flickcast Matt and Chris go a little off topic while discussing all kinds of new things. Some of these things include Deadpool directing rumors, new trailers for Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark and The Expendables, the intricacies of Christopher Nolan’s Inception and how people today have a serious case of self-entitlement.

They also made two more picks this week including Matt’s pick of the TV show Dream On and Chris’ pick of Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles Season 2.

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.

Now that Inception is far behind us, there’s one more film slated for release this year that we can’t wait to see. Of course, that film is Stallone’s action masterpiece The Expendables. The cast alone is enough to bring in most passerby’s, but we fans of the film genre only need to hear the names Arnold, Bruce, and Sly in order to pre-order our tickets.

The casting alone is proof that Stallone is making this film for fans of the genre, and anyone else caught in the crossfire is OK, too. With that in mind, Lionsgate has done a neat new viral ad to promote the film on YouTube. Unlike the last viral web spot we’ve seen for the film, which called for us to prove our manhood by buying a ticket, this one is official and actually sanctioned by Lionsgate. Still, they’re both pretty awesome.

Be sure to check out the full video over at YouTube, and make sure you’ve got about 2 minutes to kill, because there’s no pausing allowed. With this kind of ad possible over at Youtube, you can expect to see plenty of studios taking the chance and trying out viral marketing for the first time.

Expendables is set to hit theaters on August 13th, and stars Sly, Bruce Willis, Jason Statham, Jet Li, Terry Crews, Randy Couture, Steve Austin, Mickey Rourke, Arnold Schwarzenegger, and Dolph Lundgren.