Despite some pretty scathing reviews, the exorcism film The Rite won the weekend box office with $15 M. Although the film won, that is a pretty disappointing total for a weekend box office winner. This is one of those films where there was a wide disconnect between critics and audiences. The people who were polled by Cinemascore after seeing the movie  gave it a satisfactory “B” average rating. Compare that to the 17% on Rotten Tomatoes. Huge disparity.

No Strings Attached held pretty strong in its second weekend.  The romantic comedy starring Natalie Portman and Ashton Kutcher came in at number two. The film only dropped a modest 30%, making about $13.6 M.  It has been a bit of a surprise hit, mostly due to a tight $25 M budget.  The two week total stands at $39 M.

The weekend’s other new release was The Mechanic, and it came in closely behind No Strings Attached with $11.5 M. It had a fairly average per/screen average of about $4,300. According to Sunday’s estimates, this puts The Mechanic in a tie with holdover The Green Hornet, which also made $11.5 M. After three weeks, Hornet has made over $78 M.

The big story this week is The King’s Speech, which upstaged The Social Network at the DGA awards and the SAG awards over the weekend.  The film is getting a serious bounce from all the awards talk, but The Weinstein Company also increased the theater count for the film by over $40% this weekend. Smart.

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I don’t know how many of you remember movies from the early 1970s, or were even alive in the 1970s, but the period from 1969 to 1975 witnessed a wealth of gritty, nihilistic B-movie dramas.  The protagonists were often shady anti-heroes involved in some violent pursuit either above or below the law.

Easy Rider in 1969 probably spawned the genre (or Bonnie and Clyde in 1967), and was shortly followed by Dirty Harry (1971), Badlands (1973), Death Wish (1974), and my personal favorite, Dirty Mary, Crazy Larry (1974), among many others.  The genre died out about the time Smokey and the Bandit arrived in 1977, when a smirking Burt Reynolds and an over-the-top Jackie Gleason turned it into a southern-fried mockery.

This type of film was personified by Charles Bronson, the lead in Death Wish, who typified the craggy, mumbling, speak-little-but-carry-a-big-Magnum character that was often at the center of these movies.  Bronson, like Clint Eastwood, was never very likeable in his films, but he had an air of cold-blooded ruthlessness that made you cheer for him anyway, as the baddies he dispatched were always much more sinister (but much less charismatic) than he was.

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2010 may have been the year of the gun-toting action flick, but that doesn’t mean 2011 doesn’t get a little spillover. Expendables star Jason Statham is doing what he does best: shooting people while looking angry. This time, 3:10 To Yuma‘s Ben Foster joins in the fun as Statham’s would-be replacement. Here’s the synopsis:

Arthur Bishop (Jason Statham) is a ‘mechanic’ – an elite assassin with a strict code and unique talent for cleanly eliminating targets. It’s a job that requires professional perfection and total detachment, and Bishop is the best in the business. But when his mentor and close friend Harry (Donald Sutherland) is murdered, Bishop is anything but detached.

His next assignment is self-imposed – he wants those responsible dead. His mission grows complicated when Harry’s son Steve (Ben Foster) approaches him with the same vengeful goal and a determination to learn Bishop’s trade. Bishop has always acted alone but he can’t turn his back on Harry’s son. A methodical hit man takes an impulsive student deep into his world and a deadly partnership is born. But while in pursuit of their ultimate mark, deceptions threaten to surface and those hired to fix problems become problems themselves.

Enough drama to justify some kick-ass gun fights? We think so as the newest red band trailer shows some of the films less family-friendly scenes. Check it out after the jump, and catch The Mechanic in theaters on January 28th.

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Based on the original film featuring Charles Bronson and Jan Michael Vincent, this new take on The Mechanic features Jason Statham as Arthur Bishop and Ben Foster as Steve — a master assassin and his apprentice. When his mentor and close friend Harry (Donald Sutherland) is murdered, Bishop’s mission is clear: He wants those responsible dead.

His mission is complicated when Harry’s son Steve approaches him with the same vengeful goal and a determination to learn Bishop’s trade. Bishop has always acted alone but he can’t turn his back on Harry’s son. So, the two decide to work together and, of course, stuff starts to blow up.

To get you in the mood for the film we’ve got a new clip from it to share with you today. In it we get a look at the characters and how they are going to deal with on of the people who may, or may not, have had a hand in Harry’s death. Check out the clip after the jump.

The Mechanic, featuring Jason Statham, Ben Foster, Tony Goldwyn and Donald Sutherland, hits theaters on January 28.

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This week on The Flickcast your favorite hosts take on some new and recurring topics to entertain, inform and otherwise keep you interested. . . at least for a little while. Some of the topics covered today include the brand new Green Lantern trailer, more on The Walking Dead, Hulu Plus price drops, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows leaked footage, trailers for The Mechanic,  Red Riding Hood, Teen Wolf, Cowboys Vs. Aliens, Marvel’s Hulk TV series and more.

In addition, the boys also made new picks this week for your viewing, listening or reading pleasure. Matt picked the animated series Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes while Chris picked the first person shooter game Medal of Honor.

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.

Based on the original film featuring Charles Bronson and Jan Michael Vincent, this new take on The Mechanic features Jason Statem and Ben Foster as a master assassin and his apprentice. They come together to avenge the death of Foster’s character’s father and in so doing Statham teaches him the ropes.

To get you in the mood for the remake we’ve got the first trailer for the film to share with you today. In it you get a good look at the two leads and quite a bit about the story. Even though it seems like a simple revenge thriller, I hope it ends up being more than that.

The original was such a cool movie when the apprentice finally turns on his master and they have to fight it out using not just their skills but their brains as well. If you haven’t watched it, go check it out. As for this version, we’ll just have to wait and see if it rises to the level of the original. My guess is it probably won’t.

However, that doesn’t mean it won’t be a fun action film in its own right. We’ll find out when the film hits theaters on January 28, 2011. Meantime, click on through to check out the trailer.

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For a few years now there has been plenty of talk about the possible remake of the 1972 film The Mechanic, which starred Charles Bronson and Jan-Michael Vincent. Many different major action players were considered for the role that Bronson originally played, including Sly Stallone and Vin Diesel, but it wasn’t until recently that pen hit paper and Jason Statham was signed to play hitman Arthur Bishop.

From there, it was a pretty easy decision to cast up-and-coming star Ben Foster as Steve McKenna, a role first made famous by Jan-Michale Vincent. In the film, Bishop is a hit man who is on his way out of the business and takes McKenna under his wing as a protege to pass along his legacy. Things, of course, go awry from there in an action-packed cacophony of violence.

Now, with both Statham and Foster filling in, it almost carries the same the same impact, with Statham coming off of a nearly 10 year run as an action star, and Ben Foster still working his way up the “leading man” ladder. The remake is also directed by action director Simon West, who has brought such films as Con Air and Lara Croft: Tomb Raider to the screen.

Check out the first trailer for the film after the jump, and be sure to catch The Mechanic in theaters on December 15th.

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