The Flickcast – Page 187 of 1030 – Stuff Nerds Love

‘Angry Birds Star Wars’ Coming November 8th

Right about now, it seems like there are a few companies that have been given the license to print money. LucasArts, the men holding the rights to all things Star Wars, and Rovio, the creators of the Angry Birds franchise, are two such companies. You can’t go into a mall in America and not see something Star Wars or Angry Birds in your line of site. Imagine the power if the two were to team up. Well, on November 8th, we will get to see what that’s like with Angry Birds Star Wars.

Below, catch the teaser trailer which shows a shrouded bird holding a very special lightsaber in what is sure to be one of the fastest selling apps on iOS and the Android marketplace as soon as it launches. This will be the second time Angry Birds will tie in with another franchise, after the success of Angry Birds Rio (which was actually a logical fit considering the movie was all about birds). Instead of just adding a new set of levels though, Angry Birds Star Wars will be getting what appears to be a visual makeover like we have seen with Angry Birds Space with some teaser images of a Obi-Wan black bird, Luke Skywalker red bird or the big Chewbacca bird.

Look for the game to arrive on November 8th. Check out a trailer for it after the break.

Continue Reading

Box Office Report: ‘Taken 2’ Dominates The Box Office, While Yet Another Quality Stop-Motion Animated Film Stumbles

The consensus seems to be that Taken 2 is a lesser version of its predecessor, but in this day and age an opening weekend has as much to do with the reception of the last film than anything else. Which ends up being a very good industry trend for the Liam Neeson sequel as the movie racked in one of the biggest October openings ever.

Coming in at a cool $50 million, Taken 2 easily won this weekend’s box office tussle. The reviews and word of mouth have not been kind to the film, so it might have a big drop off next weekend, but at this point in time the movie is a win. If it some how finds some minimal legs amid the poor word of mouth, the movie can still get over $100 million and end up in the hit category.

Hotel Transylvania held very well to come into second place with $26+ million over the weekend. The success of Transylvania should be exciting to any one who claims to be a true fan of animation despite the celebrity-centric casting. The movie was the directorial debut of Genndy Tartakovsky, the mastermind behind Samurai Jack, Dexter’s Laboratory and Star Wars: Clone Wars. With this film a hit hopefully we will be seeing much more from this animation great.

Continue Reading

Monday Picks: ‘Alone in the Dark’ (1982)

This week’s Monday pick is the 1982 horror classic Alone in the Dark which was the debut film from Jack Sholder (A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy’s Revenge (1985), The Hidden (1987), and By Dawn’s Early Light (1990). The film stars Jack Palance, Martin Landau, Dwight Schultz, and Donald Pleasence.

Alone in the Dark is one of the most intelligent and generally frightening horror films that came out in the early 1980s, a time where cinema was oversaturated with slasher films like the Halloween or Friday the 13th franchises. Jack Sholder and fellow writers Robert Shaye and Michael Harrpster created one of the greatest cult horror films that would go on to influence a whole new generation of fans and filmmakers.

Dr. Dan Potter (Dwight Schultz, Murdoch from TVs The A-Team) is hired as a replacement psychiatrist for an institution known as the Haven. The hospital’s owner is Dr. Leo Bain (Pleasence), an unorthodox shrink whose very lenient approaches to the treatment of his patients is met with astonishment by Dr. Potter. Dr. Bain refers to his patients as “voyagers” individuals who are having trouble adapting to an already insane world.

As the two men walk the grounds, Bain shows Dr. Potter the third floor of the hospital where four of the most dangerous “voyagers” are contained with an elaborate electrified security system.  The four men who reside on the third floor are former POW and paranoid schizophrenic Frank Hawkes (Palance), pyromaniac and former preacher Byron Sutcliff (Landau), Obese child molester Ronald Elster (Erland Van Lidth), and Skaggs aka ‘The Bleeder” (Phillip Clark) who hides his face throughout the whole film.

Continue Reading

What Will Happen to Epic Games Without Cliff Bleszinski?

Ever play Gears of War or the Unreal Tournament series? If so, you’ve played one of over 30 games that Cliff Bleszinski has been a part of creating in his twenty year career. Late last week though, the man known to the gaming world as CliffyB announced his retirement from the Epic Games studio. On their website,  Epic announced that Cliff would be departing the company. That day, CliffyB would go on to trend worldwide on Twitter. From the looks of things, it seems to be an amicable departure from both sides. Currently Cliff’s next plans are still a mystery.

But the question is, what happens now to Epic Games? And the answer may surprise people. Probably not a lot is going to change with the company. While CliffyB is unarguably the most public face of Epic Games, he is one man amongst a gigantic team of programmers and designers. While Cliff has no doubt been a part of Epic’s most recent string of successes, he is not the sole force behind them. Unreal will go on. Gears of War will continue. The groundwork has been laid and Cliff leaving the company just gives the opportunity for someone new to step up… and hopefully cut their way through a wall with a chainsaw at E3.

Continue Reading

Katee Sackhoff Joins Gina Carano In Female ‘Expendables’

In another brilliant bit of casting, Battlestar Galactica alumni and current Longmire Co-Star Katee Sackhoff is joining Gina Carano in the female version of The Expendables being produced by Adi Shankar.

“If you spend five minutes with Katee it becomes blatantly obvious that she would pwn (sic) most male action stars,” said Shankar. We tend to agree. Although, to be honest, we really didn’t see this coming.

But whatever. It works and it will be nice to see Katee get back to kicking ass as she did as Starbuck on BSG. This movie is already starting to shape up quite nicely.

Who’s next to be cast in this movie? Let’s hear your guesses. Ours are right here.

A Couple Of Fancy Pants Cast Photos For The Upcoming Netflix Exclusive Season Of ‘Arrested Development’

There is new Arrested Development coming, it is safe to say the world has moved past jubilant bewilderment and now are fully engaged in eager anticipation. With the new season debuting on Netflix in the spring we are starting to enter the advanced promotion corridor that gives us gems like this.

Entertainment Weekly has a couple of cast photos to promote the upcoming season and they are at least two-thirds as funny as the show itself, which is a complement if you know the hilarity the show reaches. The publicity pics are of the family Bluth decked out in some very dapper duds. With the popularity of shows like The Tudors and The Borgias, maybe they producers are hedging their bets and leaving open the possibility of resurrecting the show back in time should the next season under perform*.

The cast looks great, and it is great to see them all together again in a context that is not lamenting its premature cancellation. You can take a look at the full images after the jump.

Continue Reading

Movie Review: ‘The Oranges’

I should be a millionaire right now. Thirty-five minutes into this purported suburban romantic comedy, I muttered to my companion, “I’ll bet you a million dollars this movie was written by a couple of middle-aged guys.”

Fifty-five long minutes later the movie was finally over and there were the writer credits: Ian Helfer and Jay Reiss. I don’t know anything about them but I do know this: they don’t think much of women (mother issues, big time) and they aren’t too clear about the definitions of either “romantic” or “comedy.” Anyway, I called it and I want my money. At least the million dollars would make me feel better about 91 minutes of my life wasted on The Oranges.

So here’s the deal: there are these two families who live across the street from one another in identical white Colonial houses in a pleasant tree-lined neighborhood in West Orange, NJ. The couples (Allison Janney and Oliver Platt are the Ostroffs, Katherine Keener and Hugh Laurie are the Wallings) are best friends who do everything together, including jogging, weekends and holidays. They have children close in age. They live the perfect lives.

You’ve seen enough of these suburban take-downs to know that everything—yes, EVERYTHING—is a lie. A fucking lie. American Beauty has nothing on this movie.

Continue Reading

Adele’s Title Track To James Bond’s 23rd Adventure, ‘Skyfall’, Is Unleashed

Perhaps more than the Aston Martin, the Walther PPK or the martini’s, the signature Bond title tune is among the most important aspects of any 007 film. There have been some classic songs, some alright diddys and some downright duds over the years, so does Adele have what it take to deliver on Skyfall‘s titular ballad?

Well thankfully that is a question we do not have to wait for the release of Skyfall next month to answer. The song has been officially unleashed to the internet and it is with great relief we can report that it is actually pretty damn good. The last film, Quantum of Solace, had a title song that most people were not a big fan of, so the bounce back in quality for Skyfall is especially noticeable.

Unlike previous major pop star attempts at Bond themes, Adele manages to find the classic groove of the series roots without making the song all about her. As opposed to Madonna’s Die Another Day or the aforementioned Another Way To Die, which just seemed like advertisements for the artists and not a viable addition to the tapestry that was those particular films.

You can checkout Adele’s Skyfall after the jump.

Continue Reading