The Flickcast – Page 749 of 1030 – Stuff Nerds Love

TV RECAP: ‘Justified: Long in the Tooth’

Well, after watching the first three episodes of this new FX drama, I decided to start recapping the show. How befitting that last night’s episode ‘Long in the Tooth’ revolved around a fugitive dentist.  I worked as a dental hygienist for seven years, so I got an extra kick out of the subject matter.  (Hate to break it to you, though, there is no way in hell those two tri-furcated molars could have been extracted so easily, they practically leaped out of the victim’s mandible.  Just saying.)

If you are not familiar with Justified, Timothy Olyphant (Deadwood, Damages)  plays Raylen Givens, a U.S. Marshal who is disciplined after a “justified” killing of a criminal by being relocated from Miami to eastern Kentucky, his childhood stomping grounds. Givens was a character created by novelist Elmore Leonard, and the pilot of the series “Fire in the Hole” was based on a short story featuring the character. Each week Raylen tracks down some sort of fugitive, and so far each episode has been self-contained, which is a nice change of pace from serial dramas like Lost, Breaking Bad, or Fringe.

There is no way you can pick a random episode on any of those shows and really understand what is going on. Justified has recurring characters, but you are not going to be completely lost if you just now start watching it, so go ahead and set your DVRs. The show is a breezy, fun hour of television that won’t make your head hurt with theories, conspiracies, and convoluted storylines. I enjoy all those  show components, but sometimes I am in the mood for something a little less complicated.

Olyphant is enormously likable in the lead role. It is about time he have a starring vehicle, and his affable demeanor is perfect for the smarmy, sexy Raylen. He sports  a confidant swagger and he never  goes anywhere without his trusty hat (of the cowboy variety.)

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DVD Review: ‘The Blind Side’ Blu-ray

The Blind Side is one of those movies that kinda sneaks up on you. When I first went into it I was ready to resist what I felt was going to be pretty blatant manipulation of my emotions. After all, the film deals with the uplifting story of a woman who takes in a virtually homeless giant of a man and helps turn him into a productive member of society and an NFL star to boot. That’s what I call a happy ending.

For a more in-depth review of the movie itself, Shannon Hood’s take is pretty much the same as mine. That said, I do like Sandra Bullock and find her appealing in almost any role. Also, Quinton Aaron as the young man she takes under her wing and turns into an NFL superstar does a great job without much previous experience. Sure, the film is, at times, blatantly manipulative, but that’s okay.

When you go into a film like this you expect to be pushed and pulled and unless you’re not human, you will feel emotion. I know I did. It’s a great story that reminds us all of the possibilities that life has to offer. And that’s something we should all try to remember, especially when things look bad.

The film is a times touching, poignant and also tends to hammer it’s points home a bit too hard once in awhile. Maybe the filmmakers thought the audience wouldn’t get the message? I hope not because the message seems right there on the surface for all to see. The film isn’t subtle and isn’t trying to hind anything, it just is.

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Marvel Reveals First Two ‘Secret Avengers’

As many of you will remember, Marvel celebrated February with announcements for the Heroic Age where they revealed not one, not two, not even three but four teams of Avengers… well sort of.

In addition to the Avengers, the New Avengers and Avengers Academy rosters, Marvel put out a teaser campaign for the Secret Avengers as well. These teaser posters had a quote describing their respective member but only a blacked out silhouette for artwork.

These outlines have lead to massive speculation with names like Venom, the Black Panther, Doctor Voodoo and the Hood all being listed as possibilities. It looks like Marvel threw a little curve ball at everyone by leaving out certain details in the outlines of these silhouettes as well as you can see with the reveals of both Beast and War Machine as the first two Secret Avengers.

Things which could have helped narrow down the possibilities drastically for who these two were just “happened” to be left out such as Beast’s fur or the arsenal attached to War Machine’s shoulders. Still, kudos to Marvel for letting there still be some surprises in comic books today in a world full of online spoilers.

Take a peek below at the final reveal posters of Beast and War Machine and stick to The Flickcast for more reveals for the Secret Avengers as they happen.

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Anton Yelchin Will Fight Vampires In ‘Fright Night’ Reboot

With Zoe Saldana making an appearance in the upcoming The Losers, another Star Trek alumi is jumping into a feature film role away from the franchise. According to THR, Anton Yelchin, best known as Ensign Checkov in J.J. Abrams Start Trek, will take on a lead role in another iconic reboot, Dreamworks’s upcoming Fright Night.

As we told you previously, former Buffy writer Marti Noxon has written the script for the reboot and Craig Gillespie, recently of Lars and the Real Girl, will be handling the directing duties. The new version will reportedly stick closely to the original concept of a teen, Charlie Brewster (Yelchin) being convinced that his new neighbor is a vampire, although no one will believe him. It’s not until he enlists the aid of a late night horror show host that things start to get very real in a hurry.

Yelchin seems to like to stick to genre movies having been in Star Trek and Terminator: Salvation as Kyle Reese. With what he showed in both films, he’s a pretty talented guy and if a reboot of Fright Night has to be made, he’ll most likely do justice to the role originally made famous by William Ragsdale.

The Flickcast – Episode 50: A Star Is Born?

This week on The Flickcast Chris and Matt are back and celebrate a little milestone: the 50th episode. This week sees a slew of new topics including Clash of the Titans, the iPad, The Walking Dead casting, Smallville and Superman rumors, what it means to be a movie star and the inexplicable success of Sam Worthington.

Chris and Matt also made some picks this week, as they usually do, including Matt’s pick of  The Lord of the Rings Trilogy on Blu-ray and Chris’ pick of the ABC show Castle starring Nathan Fillion and Stana Katic.

Finally, in this episode Chris and Matt introduced a new feature, The Flickcast Mailbag. If you have questions for our team about pretty much anything, shoot an email to mailbag [at] the flickcast dot com and if we answer your question on the air, you can win a great prize. This week it’s a code to download the COD Modern Warfare 2 Stimulus Pack for free. Cool right?

As always, if you have comments, questions, critiques, offers of sponsorship or whatever, feel free to hit us up in the comments, on Twitter, at Facebook and MySpace or via email.

A Remake Of ‘Real Genius’? Sure. Why Not?

Because it’s just not good enough to make films about the E*Trade Baby or Battleship, Columbia Pictures is now taking it back to the 1980s with a remake of the Val Kilmer sci-fi comedy Real Genius.

That’s right. Not many people remember it, but before he was Batman, Jim Morrison, Dieter Von Cunth, Iceman, and the voice of K.I.T.T., Kilmer got his start in a little teen sci-fi comedy from 1985. In it, Kilmer plays Chris Knight, an incredibly bright university student that has to use his intellect to get back at a nefarious professor who steals his newest project for military purposes.

The super producer team of Brian Grazer and Ron Howard, who were the driving force behind such projects as The Davinci Code, 24, Angels & Demons, Arrested Development and many more, will be taking the lead on this one, so expect to see a few big names to drop by.

No word on a production schedule just yet, but since Columbia and the two producers are already on board, expect to see movement on this remake in the next few months.

The only thing now is to propose a remake of other great science fiction comedies of the 1980s such as Zapped! and Mac and Me.

Disney Already Readying ‘Tron Legacy’ Sequel

Holy high expectations, Batman! With most studios planning sequels to their major releases on the weekend of the film’s release, it shouldn’t come as much of a surprise that Disney is already planning the sequel to Tron: Legacy, a whopping 8 months before the film hits theaters.

With Avatar bringing in more money than practically any movie ever made, Disney seems to think that fans will flock to their upcoming film as well. From Heat Vision:

Edward Kitsis and Adam Horowitz, the “Lost” writers/executive producers who worked on “Legacy,” have begun writing a sequel to the studio’s sci-fi tentpole.

No details have been released because it is so early in the process. Notwithstanding the question of whether the movie will be a hit, other topics to ponder are whether the sequel will focus on spinoff characters or center on a new adventure set in the “Tron” world. Insiders have suggested that Kitsis and Horowitz are working on a way to round the story into a trilogy.

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New Trailer For ‘Dinner For Schmucks’ Starring Paul Rudd & Steve Carell

While Steve Carell is doing his tour of major talk shows and appearances in preparation for this weekend’s release of Date Night, the first trailer for his next big comedy has just hit the web: Dinner For Schmucks.

The film also stars Paul Rudd, who’s been on a hot streak with comedies as well such as I Love You, Man, Forgetting Sarah Marshall, and Role Models. The screenplay comes from about a dozen different writers, including the creator of Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, Andy Borowitz. Here’s the official synopsis.

Tim (Rudd) is a guy on the verge of having it all. The only thing standing between him and total career success is finding the perfect guest to bring to his boss’ annual Dinner for Extraordinary People, an event where the winner of the evening brings the most eccentric character as his guest. Enter Barry (Carell), a guy with a passion for dressing mice up in tiny outfits to recreate great works of art.

Jay Roach is stepping in as director, who we know as the director for all of the Austin Powers and Meet The Parents films. Check out the trailer after the jump, and be sure to catch Dinner For Schmucks in theaters July 23rd.

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