The Flickcast

Watch The Original Ending to ‘Paranormal Activity’

Posted on October 28, 2009

There is a lot of speculation on why Paranormal Activity is one of the highest per-screen grossing films of all time. Many people believe that it’s due to the viral marketing campaign that swept the nation overnight, but the fact is, we live in a very superstitious world right now. Some of the most popular books and television series’ are about vampires and hunting ghosts, so why wouldn’t everyone in the country rush out to see an alleged first-hand account of a haunting.

With that in mind, one of the major reasons why people keep going back to the film is it’s haunting ending. It could give a grown man chills, seeing that final shot. That wasn’t the original ending, and was due to Paramount’s prediction of how audiences would react.

The original ending, which you can see in full after the jump, is far less exciting or scary. Granted, it gives the two main characters closure and leaves the audience with an actual ending, but that’s not always what horror fans are in it for. If you haven’t seen the film, I don’t recommend watching the clip. But if you have, see how things were originally supposed to go down after the jump.

Paranormal Activity can still be seen in theaters nationwide.

Dave’s Weekly Comic Book Recommendations

Posted on October 28, 2009

Dark Reign The List Wolverine #1 If last week was light, this week is heavy.

From DC Comics this week, we have the latest in Blackest Night event books with the main book and Green Lantern. Considering Spike TV’s SCREAM AWARDS aired last night (I think) and Geoff Johns did win Best Comic Book Writer, its probably within reason that you ought to pick these books up.

Though some dude from the Twilight “saga” did also win Best Breakthrough Performance over Chris Pine, so maybe those fans shouldn’t be trusted. Blackest Night is some good fun.

Today is MarvelFest in New York City, and this is certainly Marvel’s week for comics. I mean Dark Avengers Ares written by the awesome Kieron Gillen. Jonathan Hickman and Dale Eaglesham’s awesome take on Fantastic Four is back, as well.

If you, like me, were waiting for the trade of Old Man Logan than you want to get the edition that comes out this week, as well as the first trade to the awesome “World’s Most Wanted” arc in the Eisner winning Invincible Iron Man. You want to pick that up. Also Esad Ribic joins Jason Aaron on the Dark Reign The List Wolverine.

As I said, today is MarvelFest, where they are going to suspend the motion comic of Joss Whedon and John Cassaday’s first issue of Astonishing X-Men three stories high on the old Virgin Megastore building. As I write this it is cold, rainy and generally miserable here in NYC, but the good news is there are plenty of umbrellas and rain coats to go around and the show will go on. I’m looking forward to it. Should be quite a sight and a fun time.

As always, we here at The Flickcast care about what you read, so leave us a comment and let us know what you liked/didn’t like from this week’s comics. For a more complete list of what comes out this week, check out the one at Midtown Comics .

‘Smokin’ Aces 2: Assassins’ Ball’ Gets a Trailer

Posted on October 28, 2009

Did you know that there was a sequel in the works for 2006’s Smokin’ Aces, with practically none of the original cast? Neither did we, until this trailer came across The Flickcast desk. It would be an interesting take, if it had any of the same people involved as the original film.

While the film doesn’t look like it will do much justice to Joe Carnahan’s original, the trailer was quite clever. It starts off by making sure we see some of our favorite faces from the original, such as Jeremy Piven, and then it throws a record scratch in to tell us that we won’t see them anymore.

Instead of a well-rounded cast consisting of Piven, Ray Liotta, Ben Affleck, Ryan Reynolds, Alicia Keys, and tons others, we now treated to the all-star cast of Vinnie Jones, Ernie Hudson, Tom Berenger, and the guy who had no lines in the first Smokin’ Aces.

Director P.J. Pesce seems perfect for the job, as his previous titles include other DVD sequels like Lost Boys: The Tribe, and From Dusk Till Dawn 3: The Hangman’s Daughter. Joe Carnahan is listed as writing the story for the film, but so is his assistant, so there’s no real secret there.

Check out the first full trailer after the jump, and be sure to pick it up on DVD, Blu-Ray, digital download, and the bargain bin shortly thereafter on January 19th, 2010.

Horror Review: ‘Dance of The Dead’

Posted on October 28, 2009

dance-of-thed-ead

On the night of the big high school prom, the dead rise to eat the living, and the only people who can stop them are the losers who couldn’t get dates to the dance. Filled with a plethora of high school stereotypes, the group takes on a town for of brain hungry zombies and vow to save what’s left of the town from the adjacent power plant that seems to be the cause of the recent resurrections.

Those in the mood for a great zombie flick should pick this one up. Other critics have been quoted saying this film “makes Carrie look like Pretty in Pink,” though if you were to truly classify it, it’s much more like Shaun of the Dead meets Breakfast Club. Any fan of film who has seen dozens upon dozens of zombie movies knows the feeling of “how much ass they would kick if zombies were real.” Well, this movie does it for you, bringing out the Sci-Fi nerd in all of us as a group of high school freaks and geeks take on a town full of zombies.

The group is filled with just about everybody you would need in a zombie uprising: the Jackass-style bad boy, the heroic yet sassy wise-ass, the ditsy cheerleader, the know-it-all class president, the stoner rock band, the militant gym teacher, and of course the pack of nerds. Each member has their fifteen minutes as a hero, and then dies off or becomes second banana to the main love story between the wise-ass and the class president. That’s right: the zombie comedy has a romantic twist, and you’ll enjoy it.

The Flickcast – Episode 29: Oblivion

Posted on October 28, 2009

This week on The Flickcast, Chris and Matt jump in after a week off with a whole bunch of new topics including the new Doc Savage movie, written and directed by Shane Black, the performance of Paranormal Activity and Saw VI, the reboot of Short Circuit, horror films in general and much more.

The guys also make some great picks this week including Matt’s pick of teen horror zombiefest Dance of the Dead and Chris’ pick of the 1979 horror classic Phantasm, featuring Angus Scrimm as “The Tall Man.”

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.

Thanks for listening.

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New Trailer For Clint Eastwood’s ‘Invictus’

Posted on October 28, 2009

Late yesterday, Warner Bros. released the first trailer for Clint Eastwood’s next Oscar contender, Invictus. In case you’re not familiar, it tells the true story of Nelson Mandela (Morgan Freeman) who joins forces with Francois Pienaar (Matt Damon), the captain of South Africa’s rugby team, to help unite their country.

At the time of his election, Mandela knows his nation remains divided racially and economically after the end of apartheid. He hopes to bring his people together by rallying them behind their rugby team as they make a longshot attempt to win the 1995 World Cup match.

You really can’t go wrong having Morgan Freeman and Matt Damon in your film and this one looks very interesting to me. Being a big fan of Eastwood as both actor and director, I’m sure I’ll see this when it comes out. Until then, we can be entertained by this new trailer, which you can watch courtesy of Apple after the jump, or at Apple’s website in HD.

Marvel Debuts ‘Astonishing X-Men’ Music Video

Posted on October 27, 2009

astonishing-x-men-rise-up-video Like many things in life these days, a music video about a rather famous group of mutants and the comic chronicling their adventures is probably something that’s inevitable. So, its with almost no surprise at all, really, that we bring you this brand new music video about the Astonishing X-Men.

To be honest, the video is actually kinda cool but I’m not sure if that means it really is or if it just means I’ve given up. I like to think its the former. Anyway, as with videos of this sort provided by our friends at Marvel, we’ve got to include the following bit to explain the video and satisfy the legal department. So, here you go and enjoy the video after the jump.

Marvel is proud to unveil the official Astonishing X-Men music video, “Rise Up”, David Ari Leon, Guy Erez, Bronx Style Bob, Christian Altman and the Marvel Music Group. Featuring previously unseen footage from the hotly anticipated Astonishing X-Men motion comic, based on the acclaimed story by superstars Joss Whedon (Buffy The Vampire Slayer) and John Cassaday (Captain America), “Rise Up” will have you cheering for more!

Marvel is also proud to present MarvelFest NYC 2009, an all-new interactive outdoor experience in New York City to celebrate the iTunes release of the groundbreaking Astonishing X-Men Motion Comic on October 28th. Join celebrities and the biggest names in Marvel history to commemorate the Astonishing X-Men premiere, projected three stories high in Union Square at MarvelFest!

For complete details and official rules regarding MarvelFest NYC 2009 please visit www.marvel.com/fest.

New On DVD This Week

Posted on October 27, 2009

prisoner02

Here’s a list of some of the new movie and TV shows coming to DVD and Blu-ray this week that we’re looking forward to seeing. Also, there’s some classic, and not-so-classic, movies hitting Blu-ray for the first time this week as well.

Of all the new releases, we’re particularly interested in the Blu-ray versions of movies and TV shows such as Battlestar Galactica: The Plan, Night of the Creeps, the original Stargate, The Sam Fuller Collection, Orphan and the complete The Prisoner series starring and created by Patrick McGoohan (pictured above).

Check them out.

Movies

Battlestar Galactica: The Plan ~ Edward James Olmos, Tricia Helfer (DVD and Blu-ray)

42nd Street Forever 5: Alamo Drafthouse Edition ~ Charlton Heston, Robert Englund (DVD)

Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs ~ Ray Romano (DVD and Blu-ray)

Into Temptation ~ Kristin Chenoweth, Jeremy Sisto (DVD and Blu-ray)

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