The Flickcast

Dirk Benedict to Cameo in ‘The A-Team’

Posted on November 26, 2009

When official word came that Dwight Shultz, the original Murdock, would be appearing in the new A-Team movie we were anxious to know if any other actors would be involved. Well, good news A-Team fans, because the original Faceman, Dirk Benedict, will be making an appearance as well. While no details were provided, his official website did state he would be involved:

“Dirk has just announced to this website that he has two projects in the works beginning with a cameo appearance in the new “The A-Team” film, which is currently shooting in Vancouver Canada.”

This is great news and means the only member of the original cast to confirm is Mr. T. Hopefully he’ll come on board and make this the trifecta of casting for a film remake. Sadly, George Peppard will not be returning having passed away in 1994. However, maybe Melinda Culea, Amy Allen on the original series, may return.

Much like Shultz, Benedict brings some extra geek cred to the role having played Starbuck on the original Battlestar Galactica. I’m hesitant to even mention it though considering how angry Benedict seemed about a woman taking over his role. If you haven’t read his “manifesto” about the new BSG series it’s pretty entertaining.

The A-Team comes to theaters June 11, 2010.

Happy Thanksgiving

Posted on November 25, 2009

charlie-brown-thanksgiving

Here in the United States, where our intrepid team work daily to bring you the best in content covering movies, tv, comics, games and all things geek, it is a holiday week. Thanksgiving is just around the corner (in fact, tomorrow) so that means many of The Flickcast team will be joining family to celebrate this event. That also means that due to the holiday we will have a somewhat limited posting schedule.

This is only temporary, of course, and in a few days we will resume our usual frantic posting pace brining you all kinds of new and cool coverage of your favorite movies, tv shows, games, comics and more. Until then, be sure to check out upcoming articles from some of our contributors who don’t live in the States, which we will be bringing you during the rest of the week. Also, take a look at some of our recent articles by clicking in the list on the right of this column.

We will be back to business as usual on Monday, November 30th. Until then, Happy Thanksgiving from all of us here at The Flickcast.

Review: ‘The Road’ – Shannon’s Take

Posted on November 25, 2009

The Road is the film adaptation of the Pulitzer winning novel written by Cormac McCarthy, who also wrote No Country For Old Men and All The Pretty Horses. Our fascination with what a post-apocalyptic world might be like has been fodder for countless books, television shows, and movies. When I was in college, I was required to read George R. Stewart’s novel Earth Abides. Excruciatingly detailed, the book gave me anxiety attacks for months, as it told the story of a grad student looking for other people who may have survived a plague that wipes out the entire population.

As he traverses the land, the minute changes that he observes in the landscape and appearance of the United States are painstakingly recorded. More recently, The History Channel presented Life After People, which depicts what changes would occur to the earth’s ecological systems and the infrastructure we leave in our wake. Quite frankly, this type of topic scares the crap out of me.

Now we have The Road, which is the harrowing story of a father (Viggo Mortensen) and son (Kodi-Smit McPhee) trying to make their way across the country by foot after some unidentified event has wiped out most of mankind. The wife (Charlize Theron) is shown only in flashbacks. The threat of a harsh winter that they most certainly won’t survive serves as the impetus for their journey southward. There is a vague possibility of finding other people, but it is based on faith and hope, rather than concrete knowledge of their existence.

Some New i7 iMacs Reported DOA or With Cracked Screens

Posted on November 25, 2009

apple-i7-imac

Unfortunately, at least according to the buzz over at Apple’s support discussion forums, it seems there’s somewhat of a pattern where brand new Quad Core i7 iMacs are showing up DOA or with a cracked screen, mostly in the lower left corner. As if waiting weeks to receive a custom ordered Core i7 iMac wasn’t bad enough, now you have to deal with these issues as well. It just doesn’t seem fair.

Still, anyone buying a first generation product as advanced as the Quad Core i7 iMac should be aware that these types of cutting edge products can have issues. The first model of anything is usually not the one you want to go out and get. That is, unless you like to be a de facto “Beta Tester’ for the product.

Some around the Internets have speculated that the packaging might be inadequate for the giant 27″ computers and the bumpy journey from China to the USA is what’s causing the screen cracking issue, but one would like to think that Apple wouldn’t make such an amateur mistake, especially given their penchant for innovative and thoroughly reliable packaging. Fortunately, according to reports, Apple is taking care of customers in these situations but it is a bit of a bummer after watiting several weeks or months for a new iMac, only to have it need to go in for service.

With the holiday season upon us, its also not a great time for Apple to be shipping products with problems. Still, given their track record with sales and their ever increasing share of the marketplace, this one little (or two little) issue probably won’t have much of an effect on their bottom line. In short, I think Apple is gonna be just fine.

Game Review: ‘Diner Dash’ for XBox Live Arcade

Posted on November 25, 2009

Score: 6.5 – XBox Live Arcade – 800 Microsoft Points ($10.00)

The name Diner Dash is nothing new to casual game players as this downloadable Flash game has been floating around for some time. Unfortunately this game has been stuck in the purchase to play sector of the casual games market, not letting players try before they buy. But now, coming to XBox Live Arcade, Diner Dash has been given a second chance to capture a new market of players.

Gameplay:

The basic premise behind Diner Dash is something any food server must deal with on a regular workday. Keep the customers happy. The longer they wait, the less happy they will be. As Flo, the player must seat customers, take orders, deliver food, bring bills and bus tables as quickly as possible to keep everyone happy.

In the early stages, the game quickly adds new elements such as changing party size so that certain parties can only fit at certain tables (much like real life). By placing customers in special seating arrangements by color, players earn bonuses. They can also earn further bonus points by doing multiple table actions at once, like picking up one tables order while busing another at the same time.

Players are also given the option to bring coffee to tables that have been waiting a long time for food or to be seated for a quick boost in their happiness factor. All of these add extra dimension and actual strategy to what could have been a simple button masher and take it to the next level.

‘The Crow’ Starts to Take Flight Again

Posted on November 25, 2009

One film that clearly doesn’t need a remake in my opinion is The Crow. The original is simply timeless in its execution and I feel remaking it will undermine that brilliance. However, sometimes you just can’t stop Hollywood from making a buck (or millions as the case may be).

io9 spoke with producer Ryan Kavanaugh about the upcoming remake film, which according to him is “definitely going to happen.” Such a definitive statement makes me cringe a little. That said, I’ll reserve judgment until I’ve seen the film.

While no actors have been attached to the project as of ye,t Kavanaugh did state:

“We’re looking. We’re in discussions….I think it’s something cool, we’re approaching it differently. It’s really a whole relaunch of the franchise, much more of a dark superhero type.”

In addition, there was one comment Kavanaugh made that didn’t make much sense to me. That is his poignant statement, “It’s not a remake it’s literally a relaunch of the franchise.” Is anyone else getting a little tired of Hollywood executives trying to avoid the dreaded “r” word? Reboot. Remake. Relaunch. Sorry guys, it’s all the same thing no matter how you try and spin it.

That aside, The Crow story in of itself is a good one. I hope this new film will do the original justice. My only concern is that there were a lot of sequels after the first movie and a TV show, all of which flopped. Here’s hoping the new Crow will return in much better form.

Exclusive: Alex Winter Talks ‘Bill & Ted’, Directing ‘Ben 10: Alien Swarm’

Posted on November 25, 2009

As we all, know, there were plenty of 80’s and 90’s film heroes. From Indiana Jones to Marty McFly to Howard the Duck, there was definitely no shortage of strong protagonists for that decade. Which is why it was nice to get two reluctant heroes that really had no idea what was going on, in the forms of Theodore “Ted” Logan and William S. ‘Bill” Preston Esquire.

The two Bill & Ted films not only spoke to a generation, but were also pretty coherent time travel stories. Since 1991’s Bogus Journey, the dynamic duo made a split, Keanu going off to star in a few small films about a computer program, and Alex Winter switching roles to behind the camera, directing such projects as 1993’s Freaked and becoming the go-to director for the Ben 10 live action films.

We got the chance to chat with Winter about directing the Ben 10 films including the newest, Alien Swarm. We spoke about his recent passion for directing kid’s projects, and even where Bill & Ted could be headed in the future. Check out our interview after the jump. Be sure to catch the TV premiere of Ben 10: Alien Swarm on Cartoon Network tonight at 7PM E/P.

The Flickcast – Episode 33: The Kingdom of the Crystal Skull

Posted on November 25, 2009

indiana-jones-and-the-kingdom-of-the-crystal-skull This week on The Flickcast, Chris and Matt welcome special guest Shannon Hood and launch into a whole slew of new topics including the rise of fangirl power, the huge success of The Twilight Saga: New Moon, the relative merits of Sandra Bullock and her film The Blind Side, some more interesting Thor casting news, what holiday movies they are looking forward to seeing, how the entertainment business is changing, and needs to change more, to stay competitive and a whole lot more.

Chris, Matt and Shannon also made some cool picks this week including Shannon’s pick of The Road, Matt’s pick of the new British series Misfits and Chris’ pick of the recent Blu-ray release of J.J. Abrams Star Trek.

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

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