The Flickcast

Latest ‘Guitar Hero Van Halen’ Trailer

Posted on December 18, 2009

Guitar Hero is arguably one of the most popular and successful video games of all time. Its combination of great music, fun gameplay and rather simple premise has made it, and its spin-offs, extremely popular. Now, Activision is adding even more fun to the mix with the latest addition to the Guitar Hero franchise: Guitar Hero Van Halen.

As in the past, this new add-on provides brand new music from one of the seminal rocking bands of the 80’s and 90’s for you to enjoy and play along with. To commemorate this new release, we’ve got a trailer for one of the band’s most popular songs as well as some cool new screenshots of gamplay.

Click through to check out the video for Van Halen’s “Jamie’s Cryin'” and the screenshots. Guitar Hero Van Halen hits stores on December 22nd for Xbox 360, PS3, PS2 and Wii.

Laurence Fishburne Joins ‘Predators’

Posted on December 18, 2009

TV CSI Fishburne Sci-Fi Wire reports that while visiting the set of the new Nimrod Antal (Armored) directed film, Predators, they discovered another person joining the already amazing cast. Laurence Fishburne (Morpheus in The Matrix films), has joined Adrien Brody, Danny Trejo and Topher Grace in the Robert Rodriguez produced sequel to the classic 1987 film starring Arnold Schwarzenegger, Carl Weathers, Jesse “The Body” Ventura, and half a dozen more.

According to the article, Fishburne will be playing “Noland, a character being compared to Yoda, who has used his Zen-like abilities to survive among the alien Predators on a deadly hunting planet.” Some filming has already taken place in Hawaii and has now moved to the Austin based Troublemaker Studios to finish it’s production.

The basic plot of the new film reads: “A group of elite warriors are hunted by members of a merciless alien race known as Predators.” With Brody playing a character known as “a hunter of men,” Grace is an “accountant type whose calm demeanor hides a serial killer underneath,” and the various other character roles are interesting in that cliche kind of way, yet I still am interested in this film.

Predators is scheduled to be released on July 9, 2010, and despite my opinion on the character descriptions, I’m looking forward to what these fun filmmakers do with the franchise.

Review: ‘Avatar’

Posted on December 18, 2009

Well, it certainly didn’t suck. That’s me, eating a little crow. For months I have snickered about the colossal disaster I was sure Avatar was going to become. Admit it, you thought so too. How on earth could you not be pessimistic after seeing the early trailers?

Alien creatures a hue of blue so intense it would make papa smurf puke, and waxy humans that would beat any of Robert Zemeckis’s early efforts for “most soulless rendition of a human being” did not exactly instill confidence in me. Then came the daunting news that the movie weighed in at almost 3 hours. Add the driving time in and the Avatar screening took up almost half a day. I disliked the movie before I even slipped on the exquisite 3-D nerd-spectacles that I so love.

A funny thing happened when the movie began. I was captivated. I rarely looked at my watch, and the three hours kept me glued to my seat. I became completely immersed in the alternate reality that James Cameron (Titanic) created, and I thoroughly enjoyed myself. Now, I am not jumping aboard the fanboy express like 90% of the critics I know. This is not the end-all, be-all of epic movies. I don’t think that it will “change the way we watch movies forever”, and I hope it doesn’t quite frankly.

As a stand alone experience, I absolutely recommend Avatar, but I won’t be going to the theater for repeated viewings. Avatar is innovative and visually spectacular, but its story and woeful dialogue keep it from being a truly great movie. However, I will give James Cameron props for once again delivering a truly ground-breaking experience.

Fox giving ‘Fringe’ A Big Boost In January

Posted on December 18, 2009

Sure, people complain about Fox for it’s repeated canceling of shows involving Joss Whedon and/or Terminators, but at least the network is now stepping up and offering a boost to the J.J. Abrams co-created show Fringe. The Futon Critic reports Fringe will return from it’s winter hiatus on January 7, but then that following Monday, Fox will air a new episode after a new episode of House.

The duo will be facing off with some heavy competition in the form of NBC’s Chuck and Heroes, ABC’s The Bachelor, and CBS comedies like How I Met Your Mother and The Big Bang Theory. Then in February, the Fringe will take a seven-week break to allow the mid-season drama Past Life, starring Kelli Giddish (All My Children) and Richard Schiff (West Wing) is about “an unlikely pair of past-life detectives who investigate whether what is happening to you today is the result of who you were before.”

Fringe will then return on April 1. According to TV Guide, as of the December 4 episode, “Snakehead”, Fringe had it’s highest ratings since the season premiere, with an audience of 6.9 million viewers. So, it’s good to see not only the show succeeding, but Fox putting their faith into it.

Final ‘Kick-Ass’ Character Poster Revealed

Posted on December 18, 2009

Well, now we have character posters for what are the four main characters of the upcoming film Kick-Ass, which is based, of course, on the Mark Millar and John Romita, Jr. comic book. Chloe Moretz plays ten year old Hit Girl, child who is trained to be a professional and merciless vigilante by her father, Big Daddy (played by Nicolas Cage).

In the new poster, we see Hit Girl on a rooftop, with the tagline, “I can’t see through walls. But I can kick your ass.” We’ve previously shown you the posters for Big Daddy, Red Mist (played by Christopher Mintz-Plasse), and Kick-Ass himself, played by Aaron Johnson. The posters, I have to say, are pretty blase’, considering the extreme nature that the comic, and seemingly the movie, has.

I guess you can’t really have an 11 year-old on a poster swearing and killing people, but I can’t help but wonder if this isn’t quite the correct way to promote the movie. Cick through to see all four character posters, for your viewing pleasure, starting with Hit Girl.

New ‘Alice in Wonderland’ Trailer Online

Posted on December 17, 2009

AIW_1ST_Triptych_Right-202x300 Sure, all the news and focus of the internet, right now, is on the new Iron Man 2 trailer which, in my opinion deserves the amount of excitement that it’s inspired. But, that’s not what we’re talking about now. The new trailer for Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland, is online and gives us a pretty thorough, and spectacular glimpse into Burton’s creation of Wonderland.

We see the White Rabbit, the Red Queen and her main man, The Knave of Hearts, and yes, the Mad Hatter. It looks fantastical, and certainly Burton inspired, if still in that candy-coated look that he’s had on previous film Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.

The film’s synopsis reads as, “19 year-old Alice, returns to the whimsical world she first encountered as a young girl, embarks on a fantastical journey to find her true destiny and end the Red Queen’s reign of terror.” And the trailer gives us glimpses of the Jabberwock, the Mad Hatter’s companions the Dormouse and the March Hare; as well as the Cheshire Cat, and Tweedledee and Tweedledum.

The film features Johnny Depp, Anne Hathaway, Helena Bonham Carter, Stephen Fry, Alan Rickman, and Mia Wasikowska as Alice, along with a multitude of others. It’s scheduled for release March 10, 2010, in 3-D and IMAX.

First Arrest Made For Online Leak Of ‘X-Men Origins: Wolverine’

Posted on December 17, 2009

C-Net News recently reported that the FBI has made an arrest in the case of the work-print of X-Men Origins: Wolverine, that was leaked and available for download a month before the movie was to be released theatrically. There apparently was nothing saying whether Gilberto Sanchez, 47, the man arrested, was responsible for the initial upload of the film, or how he might have acquired a copy to upload.

FBI Spokesperson Linda Eimiller said that the Bureau has not ruled out the possibility of more arrests, but didn’t comment further. If convicted, Sanchez could face up to three years in prison and/or a $250,000 fine.

The workprint that was released, as most will remember, was an unfinished version of the movie with wires still shown on performers and unfinished, or not-yet inserted effects. By the time Wolverine was released in theaters, it had been estimated that the pirated version had been downloaded over 4 million times. This didn’t seem to hurt the box office too badly, as it still opened to a nice $85 Million domestically and has earned nearly $375 Million since it’s release in May.

The Pull List Comic Reviews: ‘X-Factor’, ‘Amazing Spider-Man’, ‘Green Lantern Corps’ and More!

Posted on December 17, 2009

Welcome to another edition of The Pull List Comic Reviews! The latest mutant milestone issue gets top billing, Spidey winds up in the wrong sandbox and Guy Gardner sees a whole lot more than just red. As always, WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD.

PULL OF THE WEEK:

xfactor-200-cover X-Factor #200
Marvel Comics – $4.99 US
Writer: Peter David
Artists: Bing Cansino, Marco Santucci, Karl Moline
Score: 9.5/10

X-Factor Investigations makes the move from Detroit to New York in hopes of wrangling some new clients of the super-hero variety, but when their first client winds up being Franklin and Valeria Richards – the children to Reed and Sue Richards of the Fantastic Four – the team realizes that all is not what it seems.

Long-time X-Factor scribe Peter David continues to mix jaw-dropping plot bombs with great characterizations and intelligent humor in this over-sized anniversary special. The mystery of the missing Invisible Woman, on it’s own, is a great story, but throw in Monet’s father being abducted by terrorists, Siryn’s shocking rendezvous with an old flame (hint: he’s nuts) and Layla Miller’s surprising allegiance to Latveria, and you’ve got one hell of a jump-on issue.

The art team of Bing Cansino and Marco Santucci do a great job of pacing this mammoth story, and their takes on the characters are both familiar and fresh. With a title that relies heavily on many speaking scenes, which should come as no surprise to current readers, their art is right on the money, but they also flex their proverbial muscle in the action scenes, especially where the Thing is involved.

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