The Flickcast – Page 388 of 1030 – Stuff Nerds Love

War Movie Mondays: ‘Flags of Our Fathers’

This week’s pick is Clint Eastwood’s World War II masterpiece Flags of Our Fathers that depicts the famous flag raising on Mt. Suribachi on the Pacific island of Iwo Jima. The film stars Ryan Phillippe (Navy Corpman 2nd class John “Doc” Bradley), Jesse Bradford (Corporal Rene Gagnon), Paul Walker (Sgt. Hank Hansen), and Robert Patrick (Col. Chandler Johnson).

The film is told through a series of flash-forwards and flashbacks, through the three remaining men who were responsible for the flag raising which helped to raise America’s morale as the Pacific war raged on with no foreseeable end in sight. The seven Marines that are the focal point of the film begin their training at Camp Tarawa in Hawaii with mountain climbing and other P.T. drills.

As they set sail towards their destination, it is revealed that the target in question is the Japanese held island of Iwo Jima, which sits just seven hundred miles away from the Japanese mainland.

During a debriefing, the company commander, Captain Severance (McDonough) tells the men that they will meet stiff enemy resistance than ever before because Iwo is Japanese soil and its defenders will fight to the last man in order to prevent the Americans from gaining a closer foothold toward Japan.

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TV RECAP: “Curb Your Enthusiasm: The Hero”

Any episode that begins with Jeff and Susie giving Larry the visual “go ahead” when an attractive woman is seated next to him on the plane gears itself up to be a stellar installment. Add to that Larry trying to chat up the woman by not-so-subtly edging her drink away from his side of the armrest, getting shot down and insisting that he has better game, and then heading to the bathroom to prepare, well, in short, I loved this one.

Need I even mention that Larry unwittingly becomes a hero by tripping over his own shoelaces and into a drunk and disorderly passenger (whom I suspect to be Jerry from Parks and Recreation—IMDB isn’t much of a help, but am I right?), thereby becoming a hero?

Or Larry meeting up with Ricky Gervais (who, aside from sporting a hilarious scarf, is starring in the Broadway play “Mr. Simington,” which he delightfully describes as “One man’s fear of World War I and what’s going to happen”)? Or Larry attending the Greens’ dinner party and getting seated next to a gent who has racial prejudice against Spaniards?

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Google to Acquire Motorola Mobility

Some days news from the tech world is pretty amazing. Today is one of those days. Why? Read on.

Today, Google announced that it will be acquiring Motorola Mobility for $12.5 Billion. Yes, you read that right. Google is buying Moto.

According to reports, this move from Google will hopefully allow it to better compete with Apple’s iPhone, which owned two-thirds of profits among the world’s top-8 smartphone vendors in the second quarter. A Google-owned hardware arm would give the company complete control over the device, software and services, resulting in an end-to-end user experience that is completely under Google’s command.

Much like Apple does with the iPhone. And you know how that turned out. The deal will also give Google control of Motorola’s patents, of which there are quite a few.

“Motorola Mobility’s total commitment to Android has created a natural fit for our two companies,” Google CEO Larry Page said in a statement. “Together, we will create amazing user experiences that supercharge the entire Android ecosystem for the benefit of consumers, partners and developers. I look forward to welcoming Motorolans to our family of Googlers.”

Very nice of him. Check out the full press release after the jump.

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Exclusive Interview: Steven S. DeKnight Talks ‘Spartacus’, Penning a TV Show Based on ‘The Flash’

Writer Steven S. DeKnight has got more than enough geek cred to bring any doubtful idea to a new level of excellence even when most other writers would choke under the pressure.

The man has worked with Joss Whedon in the Buffyverse and Angelverse, taken on young Superman in Smallville, and now he’s getting his blood and iron on with Spartacus.

Season 2 is starting up soon and Steven gives us some insight on how exactly they can pick up after the epic season 1 finale, and how difficult it was switching from Andy Whitfield to new star Liam McIntyre.

Another thing DeKnight touched on was a franchise he has yet to work with The Flash. He once proposed a series to WB in which we follow a young Flash in high school, and now Steven thinks this is a perfect time to get the project off the ground.

See what he had to say and more after the jump.

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Disney May Cancel Production on ‘Lone Ranger’

Thought of as a pretty massive production for years, it seems that Disney is finally getting wind of the potential stack of cash it will cost to make the Gore Verbinski’s Lone Ranger and they aren’t too happy.

Back in 2008, it was announced and promoted that Johnny Depp was attached to the project as Tonto, and more recently The Social Network’s Armie Hammer was attached to play the lead role. It seems that if the film can’t get to a more reasonable budget, there may not be a Lone Ranger–at least not for a while.

From what Variety has to say, it looks like the film isn’t completely dead, just in a state of adjustment.

Despite reports that Disney has pulled the plug on the bigscreen adaptation, the pic is far from dead at the studio, sources close to the production told Variety.

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Box Office Report: ‘Apes’ Holds Strong & ‘The Help’ Surprises

It’s always nice when a smaller, lesser known film that has the same release date as a comedy, horror, and a Live 3D concert ends up pulling in the most money for the weekend. Things like this need to happen more.

That’s exactly what happened this weekend as The Help beat out its competitors 30 Minutes or Less, Final Desintation 5, and Glee The 3D Concert Movie for the prized 2nd place spot in the domestic box office.

Of course, given the stunning word of mouth, Rise of the Planet of the Apes pulled through to be #1 again for the second week with an estimated $27.5 million here in the states. That rounds the film out at about $180 million worldwide since it first hit theaters last week.

Meanwhile, Buena Vista’s The Help ended up sliding in at #2 with $25 million. That beat out the other films opening this weekend, including Final Destination 5 which came in at #3 with $18.5 million, 30 Minutes or Less, which came in at number 5 with $13 million and Glee 3D which completely flopped at #11 with $5.7 million.

Next weekend, another barn burner as Conan the Barbarian and Fright Night open to 3,000 screens, while Robert Ridriguez makes his return to the family action flick with Spy Kids: All the Time in the World. Should be fun!

Check Out the First Six Minutes of Cinemax’s New Series’ Strike Back’ Before Tonight’s Premiere

As pay cable TV series go, it’s usually HBO that comes through with the quality. Shows such as The Sopranos, True Blood, Game of Thrones and more have consistently delivered the highest standard for your entertainment dollar.

Now HBO’s sister network, Cinemax, is ready to get into the fray with a new show of its very own. That show, a co-production between the network and the UK’s Sky, is called Strike Back and from the looks of it it promises pretty much all-action all the time.

Here’s some scoop on the show’s premise directly from Cinemax: “When a resourceful international terrorist group plots an attack, a charismatic former U.S. Special Forces operative joins forces with a stealth British military unit to stop them.” Okay, I like what you’ve done here. Go on.

The show features Sullivan Stapleton, Philip Winchester, Amanda Mealing, Eva Birthistle, Jimi Mistry, Rhashan Stone and Richard Armitage. Click through to check out the video. We’ve also included a few extra ones like the show’s trailer and a “meet the guys” video for you too. Enjoy.

Strike Back premieres tonight at 10/9C on Cinemax.

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Game Review: ‘Fruit Ninja Kinect’ for XBox Live Arcade

If you own an iPhone, iPod Touch or iPad, you have most likely tried the already classic casual title Fruit Ninja. In its first three months, it sold over a million units and continues to top the App Store charts. Players are tasked with swiping through a fruit cluttered screen while not letting any fall off the bottom and avoiding the dreaded bombs. It is a fun frantic minigame that uses a mobile smart phone’s touch technology in an intelligent and rewarding way.

Now Halfbrick has teamed up with Microsoft for the Summer of Arcade to bring Fruit Ninja Kinect to the XBox 360. Using the Kinect motion technology, players hands act as ninja swords to slice and dice apples, oranges and strawberries in one of the most accurate uses for the Kinect since its release.

Gameplay:

In Fruit Ninja Kinect, players must use their arms to slide through flying fruit while avoiding contact with bombs or allowing fruit to fall off the screen. From what we can tell, the Kinect sensor has near pinpoint accuracy in the game allowing for control that is as accurate as it comes for motion gaming. Players can slowly move their arms into position but only when a player speeds up will it count as a sword swipe which is very important for avoiding bombs. An acrobatic player can even use their legs to kick through a wayward pear if necessary.

There isn’t much difference between Fruit Ninja for the iPhone and the Kinect in terms of gameplay mechanics save the inclusion of the pomegranate. Everyone’s favorite source of antioxidants can be used to end timed stages where players can hack away for a few seconds and build up ridiculous combos.

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