The Flickcast

AMC Gives ‘The Killing’ a Second Season

Posted on June 13, 2011

AMC’s murder mystery drama series The Killing as somewhat of a frustrating show. It features some very strong characters and good performances from a majority of the cast but it also has often glacial pacing that tries even the patience of this seasoned TV viewer.

I really want to like the show. However, I sometimes find myself fast forwarding through some of it (the parents of the dead girl for example) to get to the murder mystery scenes. That’s just more interesting to me and what the show is supposed to be about: Who killed Rosie Larson?

Anyway, my issues with the show haven’t stopped AMC from renewing it for a second season. So, I guess I’ll get another chance to see if I end up liking it more. This, of course, brings up the question of the season finale which airs this Sunday.

Now that we pretty much know who the killer is, will everything get resolved? My guess is probably not. In fact, I expect a bit of a cliffhanger to entice viewers to come back for Season 2.

I guess we’ll see on Sunday.

War Movie Mondays: ’12 O’Clock High’

Posted on June 13, 2011

This week’s pick salutes the valiant fliers of United States Army Air Corp in the 1949 release of director Henry King’s 12 O’Clock High. The film stars Gregory Peck (Brig. Gen. Frank Savage), Hugh Marlowe (Lt. Col. Ben Gately), Gary Merrill (Col. Keith Davenport), Millard Mitchell ( Maj. Gen. Pritchard), Dean Jagger (Maj. Harvey Stovall), and John Kellogg (Maj. Cobb).

12 O’Clock High was one of the first post World War II studio projects that was made on a grand scale and depicts the hardships of America’s earliest campaigns of daylight precision bombing against German held targets in Europe. The film opens in London in 1949 where Maj. Stovall (Jagger) discovers a toby jug in the window of a London antiques shop. He asks the shop keeper the price and demands that he must have it.

Stovall then proceeds by train and by bicycle to the fictional town of Archbury, England where the 918th Heavy Bombardment Group’s base of operations was. The camera pans off and the scene flashes back to the fall of 1942 when the USAAF first came to England to assist the British in bombing campaigns.

The 918th HBG has suffered major casualties as they begin to meet heavy German opposition over Fortress Europe. The group commander, Col. Keith Davenport (Merrill) has become too emotionally attached to his men and is affected by the losses the group has suffered. Maj. Gen. Patrick Pritchard (Mitchell) believes that Col. Davenport should be relieved of his command and that a new CO take his place and turn the 918th into an effective fighting force. Gen. Pritchard believes that Gen. Savage is the man for the job.

E3 2011 Xtra: Anti-Venom Coming to ‘Spider-Man: Edge of Time”

Posted on June 13, 2011

As expected, Activision made a strong showing at this year’s E3. Of course, they headlined with their premiere franchise Call of Duty with Modern Warfare 3. But they didn’t forget about the rest of their games.

One of the games right now being most closely followed by us is Spider-Man: Edge of Time. The followup from Beenox from Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions, Edge of Time tells a story about time being ravaged by the untimely death of the modern day Peter Parker and the ripples it sends in to the future.

In the latest trailer and screen shots below, one of the game’s first major villains is revealed with Anti-Venom. Anyone reading the current Amazing Spider-Man arc will be familiar with Anti-Venom who fancies himself as a cure on society’s cancers. Much like Eddie Brock’s former lethal protector mentality as Venom, Eddie’s personal delusions get in the way of his motives and inevitably put Spider-Man in the sites as one of his targets.

How this will play out in the game remains to be seen but it is refreshing to see Beenox putting newer characters in to their game instead of just rehashing the most famous of Spider-Man’s rouges over and over again.

Take a peek below at Spider-Man: Edge of Time featuring Anti-Venom, Spider-Man 2099 and of course everyone’s favorite modern day Spidey. Stick to The Flickcast for more on Spider-Man: Edge of Time as it becomes available.

Get Your First Look at Marvel’s ‘The Punisher’ #1

Posted on June 13, 2011

Even if both recent big screen adaptations of Marvel’s Punisher left something to ber desired, that doesn’t mean the comic book version of the classic character has been left in the dust. In fact, Marvel is launching a brand new Punisher series soon and we’ve got a preview for it for you today.

The upcoming comic features writer Greg Rucka and artist Marco Checchetto and “brings Marvel Universe’s deadliest man back out onto the streets. Frank Castle is locked and loaded for his most violent mission yet as he takes aim on New York City’s newest criminal organization, The Exchange.”

“Can Marvel’s one man war machine mow down the entirety of the Exchange or will they prove to be too much for Frank Castle to take on alone? With every clip the Punisher empties into the guilty he gets further away from being able to find the man he used to be…and he has absolutely no problem with that.”

Look for The Punisher #1 to hit comic store shelves on August 3rd. Check out some preview for the series after the jump.

The Future is Here with ‘Ghost Recon Future Soldier’ & Kinect’s Gunsmith Mode

Posted on June 13, 2011

Last week at E3, tons of new and innovative games and software enhancements were announced that will completely change the face of video gaming and technology in general as we know it. One new announcement was one surrounding UbiSoft’s new Ghost Recon Future Soldier game that will make science fiction look like an everyday toaster.

Tying in with XBox Kinect, the game has an exclusive “Gunsmith Mode” that allows the user to reconstruct and upgrade your gun using Minority Report-like hand and arm gestures.

This is exactly the use that had everyone up in arms when the Kinect was first announced, that basically brings the technology we’ve seen in sci-fi movies for decades to the real world, and at an affordable price!

This is just the start of what we can expect to see with technology and the future of gaming. With the creation of the WiiU, you can also expect to see tons of new and innovative ways that people play everyday games, and we have to say we’ve never been more excited.

Check out exactly what you can look forward to with Ghost Recon Future Soldier on the Xbox 360 after the jump, and grab the game when it hits shelves March of next year.

Film Review: ‘Beautiful Boy’

Posted on June 13, 2011

Beautiful Boy has an undeniably appealing premise—what do the parents of school shooter go through? And it has two very good actors—Michael Sheen and Maria Bello—who fully commit to their roles. Sheen and Bello play Bill and Kate Carroll, the parents of Sam (Kyle Gallner), the freshman who goes on a shooting spree at his college before killing himself.

Director Shawn Ku begins almost in medias res, as it’s only a matter of minutes for the premise to be established before Bill and Kate, and by extension the audience, are confronted with a flurry of television cameras, media pundits, and frustrated parents looking for someone to blame. The couple’s first instinct is to shut themselves up in their house and ignore the rest of the world, but the media hounds are relentless, and the two retreat to the home of Kate’s brother Erik (Alan Tudyk), his wife (Moon Bloodgood), and their small child.

Box Office: ‘Super 8′ Opens to a Weak #1 Spot

Posted on June 13, 2011

While most analysts thought that the famous team-up of JJ Abrams and Steven Spielberg would be box office gold, but it looked like the film failed to draw a massive audience, as Super 8 only opened to an estimated $38 million this weekend.

The film only cost roughly $50 million to make, so the profit margin is larger than it would be on a bigger blockbuster. With critics knocking last week’s X-Men: First Class opening weekend draw of $55 million, this measly $38 million is just that. It turns out mediocre marketing and nameless on-screen talent isn’t all you need to have a big box office weekend.

After it’s big(ger) first weekend, First Class dropped about fifty percent, bringing it to $25 million in the domestic box office and almost $100 million worldwide since last weekend. Coming up in third place this week is the ever popular The Hangover Part 2 with an estimated $18 million.

Next week, we expect big things for the box office as Warner Bros’ Green Lantern opens in over 3,000 screens, and is one fourth of the big superhero blockbusters of 2011.

Review: ‘Super 8’

Posted on June 12, 2011

J.J. Abrams latest film Super 8 is not E.T., to which it doubtless will be compared. Nor is it Close Encounters of the Third Kind, another film in the Steven Spielberg oeuvre to which it also owes a great debt. Heck, it isn’t even The Goonies. It is not any of these films.

Instead, it’s a stark reminder that having all the tricks in the bag doesn’t necessarily mean you can make magic. Being a fan of Abrams and his previous efforts, I went into Super 8 optimistic and enthusiastic that I was in for a great movie.

What I got instead was a shrill effort that accomplishes almost nothing except to demonstrate a filmmaker obviously at the top of his game technically, but seemingly lacking a grasp on what true human interaction, characters and to the greatest extent, story, are supposed to look like. I had a hard time caring about anyone in this movie, especially most of the kids. They all seem to exhist in the film mostly to fill a quota for a particular type of character.

You have the quiet kid who suffered a recent loss, the fat kid who tries to make up for it by being loud and bossy, the awkward kid who’s extremely nervous, the kid with braces who likes to blow stuff up because, as evidenced by the fact that you never see his parents, he’s obviously acting out. You also have the lonely, beautiful girl with the angry, drunk father.

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