The Flickcast

AT&T Named ‘Worst Carrier’ in U.S. According to Consumer Reports

Posted on December 6, 2010

Coming as no surprise to the millions of iPhone users whose calls just got dropped, Consumer Reports announced today that AT&T is the lowest-scoring cell-phone carrier in the U.S., according to a satisfaction survey of 58,000 ConsumerReports.org readers.

Of all of the carriers reviewed in the survey, only AT&T suffered a statistically meaningful drop in satisfaction among its customers over the past year. Surprisingly, at least to me, was the fact that U.S. Cellular beat out every major provider, including Verizon Wireless.

The survey covered a total of nine categories, asking respondents to rate their carrier on overall value, voice and data service, phone support, staff knowledge, and resolution of issues, among others. AT&T scored an overall 60 out of a possible 100 points across the various categories; a full 9 points below the nearest competitor, T-Mobile.

Sprint also made an amazing turnaround this year, leaping ahead of T-Mobile and virtually tying Verizon. Consumer Reports claims that Sprint even scored better than Verizon in some aspects of customer service.

War Movie Mondays: ‘Tora! Tora! Tora!’

Posted on December 6, 2010

Greetings War Movie Monday fans. This week’s pick is the 1970 20th Century Fox classic Tora! Tora! Tora! which depicts the attack on Pearl Harbor on Sunday December 7, 1941 as seen through the eyes of both the American and Japanese Forces. The attack on Pearl Harbor was what hurtled a shocked and outraged America into the chaos of World War II.

The film was made at a time in which a lot of the information was becoming available to the general public who were still unaware of the political back story which led up to the attack. The film was primarily casted with B-list talent as to not draw attention away from the story.

The cast includes Martin Balsam (Adm. Husband E. Kimmel, Cmd-in-Chief, U.S. Pacific Fleet), Joseph Cotten (Sec. of War Henry L. Stimson), E.G. Marshall (Col. Rufus Bratton), Soh Yamamura (Adm. Isoroku Yamamoto, Cmd-in-Chief, Imperial Navy), James Whitmore (Vice Adm. William “Bull” Halsey), George Macready (Sec. of State Cordell Hull), and Jason Robards (Lt. Gen. Walter Short, Cmd-in-Chief, U.S. Army Forces Hawaii).

Mac App Store Launching December 13?

Posted on December 6, 2010

We don’t always take rumors very seriously around here. When you’ve been in the news game as long as many of us have you tend to take most rumors with a Gibraltar-sized chuck of salt. So, it is with that caveat that we bring you news of the new Mac App store and its rumored launch date.

According to one of those infamous and anonymous “inside” sources, Apple plans to launch the Mac App Store one week from today, on December 13th. Why then? Well, as the source indicates, Apple CEO Steve Jobs actually wanted to launch the new store today but those pesky “delays” pushed the launch back to next week. I’m sure Jobs took that well.

In case you’re not familiar with the forthcoming App Store for the Mac, it will be OS X’s equivalent to the iTunes App Store for iOS devices. It won’t be the only place to get Apps for the Mac it will just make it more convenient and better for developers. . . hopefully.

FX Cancels ‘Terriers’, Showtime Renews ‘Dexter’

Posted on December 6, 2010

In what could be definitely be considered a bad news/good news situation there’s been some developments among shows that we like here at The Flickcast. First off, FX has decided not to give freshmen series Terriers a second season due to, it would seem, the show’s continued mediocre ratings.

But with every cloud often comes a silver lining. This time that lining comes in the form of Showtime’s announcement that it will be renewing Dexter for a sixth season given that the show remains very popular and series star Michael C. Hall continues to be healthy.

While I’m happy about Dexter, I’m pretty disappointed in FX and their decision about Terriers. The show as very well done and told an interesting story with compelling characters you actually cared about. Obviously, that’s not something FX was interested in. Of course, the low ratings didn’t help either.

When considering the show I have to wonder why it never found and audience. Was the story too much of a downer? Were people not interested in a flawed protagonist who worked at the fringes of the law? Was the name confusing or off-putting in some way? Or do people just not like Donal Logue?

If you watched the show and are disappointed at its cancellation what do you think was the reason? Sound off in the comments.

TV RECAP: ‘The Walking Dead: TS-19’

Posted on December 6, 2010

Well, this season of The Walking Dead certainly went out with a bang, didn’t it? Sorry, I never met a bad pun I didn’t like. Once again, we don’t see many zombies, but there was tension running rampant throughout the entire episode as members of the group find themselves in one predicament after another.

I thought it was a stellar episode to cap off the season, and thankfully, the writers took a little mercy on us. They didn’t leave us with a gigantic cliffhanger that we have to wait a whole year to resolve.

Well, except for what the heck did Dr. Jenner whisper in Rick’s ear? Are you going to be obsessed as I am over the answer to that?

The episode, entitled “TS-19,” begins with a flashback of Shane back at the hospital. It is revealed that he actually did make a valiant attempt to save Rick, but became overwhelmed by the military (who were indiscriminately shooting anyone they saw) and Rick’s medical fragility.

Rick was hooked up to lots of equipment, and Shane simply didn’t know what to do. Add to that the walkers lurching about, and Shane did what any sane person would -he left (but not before placing a rudimentary barricade in front of Rick’s door).

‘Battle: Los Angeles’ Gets A Great New Viral Trailer

Posted on December 6, 2010

While Skyline may not have turned too many heads in theaters last month, Sony is hoping that won’t effect the turnout for their big alien invasion film set to hit theaters next year: Battle: Los Angeles.

The last trailer we got gave us a bit more of the titular Battle, but this new trailer to hit the web now gives us history of this world where aliens have been invading for years. Here’s the synopsis.

For years, there have been documented cases of UFO sightings around the world – Buenos Aires, Seoul, France, Germany, China. But in 2011, what were once just sightings will become a terrifying reality when Earth is attacked by unknown forces. As people everywhere watch the world’s great cities fall, Los Angeles becomes the last stand for mankind in a battle no one expected. It’s up to a Marine staff sergeant (Aaron Eckhart) and his new platoon to draw a line in the sand as they take on an enemy unlike any they’ve ever encountered.

Not only does this new spot show us more, but it spills the beans in a possible franchising plan by calling this film World Invasion: Battle Los Angeles. Does this mean we could get more Battles after this one? We’ll have to see how LA fairs against the extra terrestrials on March 11th.

Twisted Pixel Announces ‘Ms. ‘Splosion Man’

Posted on December 6, 2010

Not to toot our own horn but the second internally we heard about a new project being announced from Twisted Pixel that we were told we wouldn’t want to “miss”, we knew Ms. ‘Splosion Man was on her way and we couldn’t be happier.

Twisted Pixel has shown they have what it takes to produce top rate games on the XBLA platform including the original ‘Splosion Man, the Maw and Comic Jumper. Now, it seems fitting that they finally jump into the world of sequels with their highest rated and arguably most successful title.

Taking a page from the classic Pac-Man formula, Ms. ‘Splosion Man adds a bow and some pink to the original star to create an entirely new experience. Actually, the experience isn’t that different but it becomes more polished and hopefully adds more ours of fun to the original formula.

Make sure to check out the full press release below, written in Twisted Pixel’s unique and only slightly disturbed sense of humor detailing the “inadvertent creation” of Ms. ‘Splosion Man and look at the first teaser trailer as well.

Stick to the Flickcast for more on Ms. Splosion Man as details become available.

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Marc Webb’s ‘Spider-Man’ Reboot Adds 4 More, Announces Second Villain

Posted on December 6, 2010

Finally, some more believable casting news for the upcoming Spider-Man reboot. Lately, we’ve been fielding news about names like Sally Field (now playing Aunt May), Martin Sheen (Uncle Ben) and Denis Leary (Capt. Stacey) joining the film, but now we have some more grounded information, as four new names have been added to the film.

Campbell Scott (The Exorcism of Emily Rose), Julianne Nicholson (Kinsey), Irrfan Khan (Slumdog Millionaire), and Annie Parisse (Rubicon) are all now joining the cast. Here’s the scoop from THR.

Scott and Nicholson will be Parker’s parents, who leave their son an orphan. Parker’s parents have rarely been seen in the various Marvel comic book series and have never appeared on-screen. It is unclear if they will appear in flashbacks, in a prologue or during the course of the movie.

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