That’s right, it’s time for a brand new episode of The Flickcast. The new year just keeps on giving (pretty much).

On this week’s episode Chris and Joe discuss the movie Arrival, Ben Affleck dropping out of directing Batman, M. Night Shyamalan’s career, the curious case of Jeremy Renner, the pleasures of mindless entertainment, the start of the new Han Solo solo movie, who should be the next Doctor and more. Plus, the usual even more. But don’t worry, no politics (mostly).

Beer selections this week include Mosaic IPA from Community Beer Co. for Chris and Gnomegeddon Blonde Ale from Brewery Ommergang for Joe. Picks this week include Chris’ pick of the film Unbreakable and Joe’s pick of the movie The Accountant.

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, Google+ or shoot us an email.

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Even though we don’t really care all that much who or what wins an Academy Award, the rest of Hollywood does. It’s also likley many of you care as well.

So, in that spirit, here’s a list of the nominations that were announced this morning. There’s a lot of them and, to put it bluntly, not that many surprises. The movies and performances that seem “Oscar-worthy” were nominated. It was kinda a no-brainier year.

Of course, there’s also a few regulars who made the cut, like Meryl Streep, you would expect to see on the list. One notable exception is Tom Hanks, who seemed to be a shoe-in for a nomination for his role as Captain Phillips. He got nothing.

I guess every Oscar nominations list needs at least one surprise, just to try and keep it interesting and prove the Oscar voters don’t just vote for whomever or whatever wins a Golden Globe. Of course, Hanks didn’t win the Golden Globe either, but I’m sure it was just a pleasure to be nominated.

Anyway, here’s the nominations list (stolen from the folks at Deadline):

Whatever happened to The Man of Tomorrow? In the late ’70s, when Richard Donner and Mario Puzo were making their Superman movie, they realized that the lead character, when in costume, lacked a personality. He’s tough, he’s fast, he can fly, and those abilities define him. It may be impressive as spectacle, but it’s a hard lead for an audience to connect with, and so they chose to focus on Clark Kent — in short and in a bad pun, theirs was a classic because it was more Man than Super. Now, with Man of Steel, Snyder, and his writers David S. Goyer and Christopher Nolan, do precisely the opposite.

The film opens with the usual prologue, though seeming far more extended here, on Krypton. Jor-El (Russell Crowe) is arguing with the planet’s elders about mining the core of their world — he warns them that the planet has only weeks left before it implodes, and as soon as he’s dismissed, General Zod (Michael Shannon) appears and starts blowing the elder’s palace up. Jor-El escapes to his wife Lara (Ayelet Zurer), who has just given birth to their son, Kal-El, Knowing the planet is doomed, they place him in a shuttle and shoot him off to earth, but not before Jor implants a whatsit codex into the ship.

Zod attempts to intercept the shuttle, killing Jor-El in the process, but is overpowered, tried, and sentenced to the Phantom Zone, a kind of black-hole prison. Krypton implodes, and Kal makes his way to earth, specifically to the Kansas farm of Jonathan and Martha Kent (Kevin Costner and Diane Lane), who adopt the boy and impart to him the lessons of compassion and anonymity. I will say that it’s clever of Goyer and Nolan to handle Kal-El’s childhood in flashback, lest we sit through another hour or so of an origin story whose end we already know.

Summer is a great time for movies, especially if you’re a geek. With Iron Man 3 and Star Trek: Into Darkness already in theaters, we can next look forward to Man of Steel.

Another new trailer for the Superman reboot has arrived. In this one General Zod issues an ominous message to the people of the Earth: “Your world has sheltered one of my citizens. … To those of you who know his location, the fate of your planet rests in your hands.”

Uh, oh. Does Superman end up kneeling before Zod? What do you think?

Check out the trailer after the break. Man of Steel arrives in theaters on June 14.

This week on The Flickcast, Chris and Matt discuss a bunch of new topics and revisit a few old ones. Some of these include the upcoming Superman reboot, Star Trek: Into Darkness, the relative merits of Scary Movie 5, 3D versus non-3D box office, boardgames, Injustice: Gods Among Us, Patton Oswalt’s Star Wars dream and a whole lot more.

They also made some picks his week, as usual, with Matt’s being the ABC TV series Once Upon a Time and Chris’ being the 1980 mini-series Shogun.

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 or via email.

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There’s only one word to use when describing this Lego trailer for Zack Snyder’s upcoming Man of Steel: Awesome. We love it and can’t wait to share it with you.

After having seen the original trailer several times, this is an extremely clever way to make the trailer work with Lego. The man responsible, Antonio Toscano, deserves all the accolades he’s sure to get once this things blows up.

Yep, it’s that good. Check it out after the break. Sadly, we won’t get to see the movie with the title that comes up at the end of this trailer. At least ww don’t think so. Although, that would be pretty damn cool.

Instead, look for the live-action Man of Steel to arrive in theaters on June 14th.

My first reaction to Paul Thomas Anderson’s films is generally mild — I thought Boogie Nights, Magnolia, and Punch-Drunk Love were all okay, but they didn’t blow my skirt up until I rewatched them. I haven’t seen Hard 8, and I really liked There Will Be Blood the first time I saw it. The Master, despite having more in common with There Will Be Blood, nevertheless left me with a “meh” feeling. I wouldn’t recommend it, but if someone had already seen it, I’d tell them to rewatch it, as I plan to. Rating-wise I’m not sure where that places it.

Still, after mulling it over for the 45 minutes it’s been since I left the theater, I’m starting to like it more, and any film that makes me think has done some sort of job.

The story follows Freddie Quell (Joaquin Phoenix), a WWII vet whose wants teeter between drinking and screwing, and once one has been satisfied, he rigorously pursues the next. This doesn’t do much for his career as a photographer and later as a field hand, but he does end up as a stowaway on a ship captained by self-described “writer, doctor, nuclear physicist, theoretical philosopher, and, above all, human being” Lancaster Dodd (Philip Seymour Hoffman).

Clint Eastwood has had a rather impressive career, to say the least. Numerous classic films as both actor and director as well as the coveted Academy Award.

And even though he’s getting up there at an age when most would consider retirement, he keeps right on going . . . just like America. Sorry, couldn’t resist.

There’s a new trailer out today at Yahoo Movies for his latest film called Trouble With The Curve. In it Eastwood plays a veteran baseball scout whose daughter, Amy Adams, accompanies him on a trip to check out a hot prospect.

Also starring are John Goodman, Justin Timberlake and Matthew Lillard. The film is not actually directed by Eastwood this time and instead by Robert Lorenz. It opens on September 21.

Check out the trailer after the break.

The Master is one of those major releases that is looming. The way the mains stream audience clamors with anticipation for a super hero movie, the more art-centric film community clamors for the next Paul Thomas Anderson film.

We showed you the excellent new poster for the movie yesterday, now we have a full theatrical trailer to sink our teeth into. For those of you not in the know about The Master, here is its synopsis:

A charismatic intellectual (Hoffman) launches a religious organization following World War II. A drifter (Phoenix) becomes his right-hand man but as the faith begins to gain a fervent following, the drifter finds himself questioning the belief system and his mentor.

We have seen a couple of teaser glimpses at the film, but this new trailer offers the first real jist of the story and the overall characters in the film. Especially Amy Adams, who has not really been a significant part of any market before the new one-sheet and this trailer.

It is also exciting to see Joaquin Phoenix embrace a serious role again, he is one of the better working actors in Hollywood, so hopefully his pit-stop in insanity is past him.

You can check out the full trailer after the jump.

I am not a PTA fan, so much so that I feel the need to state that at the top of this news item about the new one-sheet for his latest movie, The Master. I feel it is important for you to understand that context when I tell you how much I really love this poster.

The modern movie poster is a very specific beast. There is a pattern that these designers seem to fall into that can come across as lazy or uninspired. So when some one breaks the mold and delivers a legitimately interesting one sheet, you take notice.

This is not the first time PTA has inspired a rather brilliant poster, There Will Be Blood also had a pretty stellar one sheet design that was both classic and fresh all at once. And again, this is coming from the guy grumpy dude he thinks PTA is just a poor man’s Robert Altman, so I hope you can sense the real appreciation I am heaping on over here.

You can check out the full poster after the jump, and The Master when it hits cinema’s this fall.