The Flickcast

Monday Picks: ‘Blue Thunder’

Posted on November 7, 2011

This week’s Monday pick is the action thriller Blue Thunder (1983) directed by John Badham (Dracula, War Games). The film stars Roy Scheider (Frank Murphy), Malcolm McDowell (Colonel Cochrane), Daniel Stern (Richard Lymangood), Candy Clark (Kate), and in his final film performance, Warren Oates (Captain Jack Braddock).

“Blue Thunder” is the codename given to an advanced new helicopter that is chosen to be deployed over Los Angeles in an attempt to quell public disorder in preparation of the upcoming Olympic games and general crowd control from the air.

Scheider stars as officer Frank Murphy, a former U.S. Army helicopter pilot who suffers from PTSD due to his combat experiences in Vietnam. Scheider is chosen to fly the five million dollar prototype that he observes at an army proving ground in the California desert. Murphy is impressed with the chopper’s capabilities such as the ability to record a whisper from two thousand feet, search targets by infrared heat signatures, travel by silent “whisper mode”, and level a city block with a six barrel 20 mm electric cannon.

Writing App Scrivener Now Available for Windows

Posted on November 7, 2011

One of the most useful applications I use every day on the Mac has now arrived for Windows. That’s right Windows-using writers Scrivener is now available to you.

No matter if you’re writing the next great American novel (something for National Novel Writing Month perhaps?), research paper, script or any long-form text document that involves more than hammering away at the keys until you’re done, Scrivener, made by the fine folks at Literature & Latte, can help you get your work done. The multi-featured program excels at helping you collect research, bring order to fragmented ideas and avoid shuffling index cards in search of that elusive structure.

Scrivener can help you from the moment an idea comes into your imagination until the final finished pages are output. In short, it pretty much does everything for you except the actual writing.

Unfortunately, that will still be up to you. The rest you can leave to Scrivener.

As someone who uses this app daily (the Mac version) I can safely say it really helps me get my work done. Without it, I would be back to posting index cards to cork boards and trying to make things work that way. I like the 21st Century’s technological advancements and I like Scrivener.

Scrivener requires Windows XP, Vista, or 7 (32 or 64 bit). 1GB RAM; 1ghz Processor; 100mb disk space; 1064 x 786 screen.

Exclusive Interview: Cast of NBC’s ‘Chuck’ Talks Final Season

Posted on November 7, 2011

Well, here we are, a couple of episodes into the final season of Chuck. I predict this season there will be a lot of Subway sandwiches eaten, a choice Jeffster performance, and a plethora of geeky references. The training wheels are off, as Chuck has lost the intersect and Morgan is the new ace in the hole. The spy in tennis shoes and his team of rogue spies aren’t out for the count yet, though.

Read on, as the cast gives some parting words on their super secret missions on the mean streets of Burbank.

The Flickast: Chuck’s brother-in-law, Devon, has the nickname “Captain Awesome”. On a scale of 1 to 10, how awesome are you?

Ryan McPartlin: 10 being the most awesome? We have to clarify. (TF: Yes, 10 being the most awesome). It depends on what we’re talking about, like I feel I’m a really awesome dad and husband, so I’m a 10 at that area. But, there’s a lot of things that I can’t dedicate my time to that I think I could be really awesome at, like for instance, golf.

TF: What does Casey think of teaching the spy tricks of the trade all over again, this time to Morgan?

Barnes & Noble Announces New Nook Tablet

Posted on November 7, 2011

I don’t know about you but it seemed like I used to have several Barnes & Noble stores in my neighborhood and now I need to drive quite far to find one. Not that that really means anything. Amazon doesn’t have any stores at all and they’re doing pretty well.

The above only goes to illustrate that you don’t necessarily need a solid business model to launch a tablet these days. Heck, look at Motorola and RIM, they did it. So, if follows that Barnes & Noble, a company that already has eReaders and such like Amazon does, would try their hand at a full tablet as well.

In fact, they just announced one today. And, judging from the specs and the early word on the street, they seem to have done a pretty good job. The company took the wraps off of said Nook Tablet during a press event in New York City this morning. Here’s the major specs:

• Screen: 1024 x 600 “laminated, no-air” 7-inch IPS LCD
• Weight: 14.1 ounces
• Processor: 1GHz dual-core TI Omap 4
• Platform: Customized version of Android 2.3 (Gingerbread)
• Internal memory: 16GB
• microSD card expansion slot: up to 32GB cards
• Integrated microphone
• Battery life: 11 hours reading, 8-9 hours video (with wireless off)
• Price: $249
• Availability: Pre-order now, ships November 17

Behind the Scenes of ‘Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3’ Elite Integration

Posted on November 7, 2011

With Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 , hitting this week the anticipation is almost palpabile. People across the internet are clamoring for just about any information available to the game. We know we at The Flickcast are anxiously looking forward to tonight at midnight to get our hands on it. But, until then, we are going to share this behind the scenes video from our friends at Activision that explains both the Facebook and Elite integration in to the game.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 will tie directly in to player’s Facebook friends list. This is the first triple A title to allow for this level of social networking communication that will allow players to look directly at their friends list from the game browser and hop in to games using their Facebook friends. This is going to be a great resource as not a lot of people post their gamer tag to Facebook but almost certainly everyone on Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 multiplayer is going to link their game to their Facebook so they can partied up that much easier with all their friends.

We also get to take a look further into the three pillars of Elite with Connect, Compete and Improve. One of the most drastic improvements looks to be the 100 person clan structure which has been added to the game. Clans can take on Clan Operations and level up the entire clan as a whole. Competition looks to heat up as well with the inclusion of both real and digital prizes in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3.

Keep your eyes peeled for any last minute news before Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3’s midnight release tonight and check out the full behind the scenes video below.

Box Office: Eddie Murphy’s Got Nothing on ‘Puss In Boots’

Posted on November 7, 2011

Even Eddie Murphy and his band of not-so-ready for Ocean’s 11 players couldn’t knock Antonio Banderas and his animated counterpart “Puss” from their place on the box office mountain top this week. Whether that’s a good thing, or a bad thing, we’re not entirely sure.

That’s right, Dreamworks’ Puss in Boots managed to steal another weekend with an estimate of $33 Million and a total of $75 Million overall. Universal’s Tower Heist was able to come in second, however, with $25 Million. Not very good, considering the film cost upward of $75 Million to make.

Also hitting theaters this weekend, Warner’s A Very Harold & Kumar 3D Christmas opened to a small $13 Million, which makes sense, seeing as how Halloween was less than a week ago!

Film Review: ‘A Very Harold & Kumar 3D Christmas’

Posted on November 5, 2011

Great balls of tinsel, this third installment in the Harold & Kumar franchise starts off with a bang. The primary objective seems to be justifying its 3D incarnation, which it gets down to immediately, mostly by floating billows of marijuana cumulus and cirrus into the audience, as well as candy canes, Christmas ornaments, feces and other effluvia.

This being Harold & Kumar, the racial and religious slurs and gross-out humor come just as thick and fast. It’s enough to offend nearly every affinity group on the planet, and disgust anyone who’s left. If you thought that scene in A Christmas Story with the tongue stuck on the pole was horrible, this movie has got a frozen treat for you.

Seven years have elapsed since Harold and Kumar’s misadventures in Guantanamo Bay, during which the two once-BFFs have gone their separate ways. Harold has returned to his former rule-following, high-achieving ways, while Kumar has been expelled from his medical studies for failing a drug test and descended into a slovenly life of perpetual stonerdom.

Film Score Friday: ‘War Horse’ by John Williams

Posted on November 4, 2011

Often times a filmmaker and a composer find a shared voice, a common approach that allows both to make the project they share truly remarkable. One of the highest profile partnerships is that of Steven Spielberg and John Williams, arguably the two greatest artist in their chosen fields. This winter brings us not one, but two brand new collaborations between these two heavyweights, and today we are going to dig into the first of the two, War Horse.

I was extremely excited when I began listening to this music, every time Williams composes music for a Spielberg film there is a good chance he is crafting something remarkable. The first 25 seconds of the War Horse score immediately let me know this music would be no exception. The score is classic Williams, with a somberness that is just subtle enough to be noticed, but not get in the way of the idealistic sheen that Williams uses so well.

The main theme of War Horse is beautiful, Williams is the greatest theme writer in the history of ever and some how he manages to still do it to this day. The theme is simple, but evocative of early 20th century hopes and dreams as well as the nobility of the soliders fighting in the first two world wars. Which makes sense due to the fact that the film is about the incredible journey of a boy, too young to enlist going to the war torn trenches in France to save his friend, the titular horse.

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