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.

The fan with knowledge of video editing is a marvelous creature. They are just like the rest of us, but they are able to show their love and geekdom off by producing some pretty high quality viral videos, thus creating an infitine loop of fans and enjoyment.

The Monocular Group, who also brought us the famed 2012 retro trailer last year are at it again, and this time they are sending out a call to arms for men everywhere to go see The Expendables on August 13th.

The trailer takes a pretty strong stand against the state of Hollywood lately, and points out that Expendables, which can easily be considered the quintessential “guy movie”, will be opening against the film adaptation of Eat Pray Live starring Julia Roberts. Basically (according to the message of the trailer) if you are a “real man”, you’ll go see The Expendables that weekend, and help it beat out the alleged “chick flick”.

Check out the fun fan trailer after the jump, and be sure to live up to it’s directions and catch Stallone’s The Expendables on August 13th.

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This week on The Flickcast Chris and Matt dive right in and discuss a whole bunch of new and exciting topics. Some of these new and exciting topics include the new Predators film, the upcoming San Diego Comic-Con, Edward Norton out as Bruce Banner in The Avengers, various casting news, The Expendables, Inception, Johnathan Nolan directing the Superman reboot, Zachary Levi as Clark Kent/Superman the awesomeness of Alfred Molina and a whole lot more.

You favorite co-hosts also made some great picks including Matt’s pick of the new sci-fi action film Predators and Chris’ pick of the new game Singularity.

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.

So, it begins. The powers that be in control of San Diego Comic-Con have announced the Thursday schedule. We were going to wait and put all of these schedules together but Thursday is such a full day you might need more time to digest it.

Some of the highlights we are looking forward to include the Tron Legacy panel, a City of Heroes panel, Summit Entertainment’s RED panel, several USA show panels including Burn Notice and White Collar, Caprica, Battlestar and Beyond, the Mondo Marvel panel, the EW Visionaries panel with J.J. Abrams and Joss Whedon and a panel about The Expendables. There’s also a ton of other stuff with conflicting times that’s sure to drive any fans of movies, tv, comics, games and geek crazy trying to work it all out.

Be sure to check back at The Flickcast for all of our coming Comic-Con coverage. We will be there in force to bring you all the sights, sounds, events, news and smells from Sand Diego. Now to go get in line at Hall H for the J.J. Abrams/Joss Whedon panel.

See you in San Diego! Click through for the complete Thursday schedule as of today.

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To all who have survived the month of June by successfully traversing lines of blood-sucking twihards, I congratulate you. You can relax now because the steaming month of July is less about men of iron and teenagers who use SPF 60 and more about whiz kids, dreamers, and spies.

Movie studios may appear to be throwing grenades into your trench, but don’t let the eye-catching blue and orange of the movie posters fool you. These grenades are merely filled with smoke and a good amount of marketing slickness. They will explode in your face only when you yank the pin by paying $12. Then, they will have truly won the battle. Instead of succumbing to the propaganda, arm yourselves wisely with the reviews below.

Those in the know will hold their breath until August when the golden generation of action heroes team up to save the world, kick some ass before kicking the bucket, and get sweaty enough to take off their shirts- giving both men and women some very good reasons for sitting in an air-conditioned multiplex.

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Vin Diesel is making me feel like I’m going back in time (kind of like these guys).  It all started with a return to The Fast and the Furious franchise, then came word of a new Pitch Black sequel, now Diesel is heading back down the xXx road.  The third film will be in…wait for it…3D!  Maybe they’ll call it “Triple X, Triple D.” If not, back off adult entertainment company, Vivid…that’s my title now.

Anyway, Diesel will reunite with director Rob Cohen and co-star Samuel L. Jackson for xXx: The Return of Xander Cage.  When asked about the new film Cohen said, “I feel what we did in the beginning of the decade was bring a different attitude to the action movie and a different kind of hero”.  I won’t disagree with that.  Originally, xXx was meant to introduce a new kind of spy-like character to the big screen.  In fact, the opening sequence of the movie showed a James Bond type agent getting killed off; a not so subtle transition point to introduce the new, hip xXx character.

Unfortunately, while that premise worked in 2002 a lot has changed since then. With upcoming films like The Expendables, The A-Team, and The Losers anti-heroes are becoming a dime-a-dozen.  For xXx to even compete it will have to bring something really new to the equation.  Based on the high level story description so far that doesn’t sound like it’s going to happen:

“In the script, written by Michael Ferris and John Brancato, Xander Cage (Diesel) is left for dead, but returns to execute a very difficult assignment that only he can pull off”.

How many times have we seen this story played out now? While Cohen plans on shooting the film entirely with 3D cameras, the technology can’t save a bad script.  xXx: The Return of Xander Cage has serious competition these days. As such, Diesel runs the risk of becoming the mediocre, brand X of vigilante anti-heroes. Mind you, if you’ve seen the original xXx, he may have been that already.

Back when we heard that Stallone called upon his old Planet Hollywood buddies Arnold Schwarzenegger and Bruce Willis to make a cameo in his upcoming tough guy extravaganza The Expendables, we were all taken back a bit. This would be the first time that all three actors, who basically set the bar for action films in the 80s and 90s, would be on screen at the same time.

While we were a tad skeptical how they would pull it off, we figured they would find a way around the scene by potentially having one or both actors shoot their scenes in a different location, and later splicing them together. Well, with the newest trailer hitting the web yesterday, we got our answer, and it looks awesome.

The film is about a group of renegade military operatives (not to be confused with The Losers or The A-Team) who face the biggest threat they’ve ever encountered. Written and Directed by Sylvester Stallone, the film also stars Jason Statham, Mickey Rourke, Dolph Lundgren, Terry Crews, Jet Li, Steve Austin, and Eric Roberts.

Check out the newest trailer after the jump, and catch The Expendables in theaters on August 20th.

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