This week on The Flickcast, Chris and Joe are once again talking all things geek. That, of course, means movies, TV, comics and even a little tech thrown in, just for fun.

This week’s episode includes a whole bunch of geekly topics that we don’t feel like telling you about right now. In fact, you’ll just have to listen to see (or, really, hear) all the good stuff.

Trust us, it’s worth it. No, really.

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 via email.

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The Fast and Furious franchise is among the most curious in cinema history. Over a decade ago, when the first film came out, no one could have foreseen half a dozen films and hundreds of millions in total box office. Yet here we stand looking back at yet another weekend where the number 1 film is both speedy and a little irate.

The film brought in an estimated $34.5 Million in its second weekend, which was just good enough to take first place. The film followed suit with its predecessors and took a nasty dip in weekend number 2, but the lack of a big film releasing during the slow, post Memorial Day weekend left enough room for Vin Diesel to have another weekend with the penthouse view.

The big winner of the weekend, however, is second place finisher Now You See Me. The magician/heist film boasted a way-above-expectation $28 Million, which proves once again that putting Morgan Freeman in you trailers is a fast track to box office windfall. The film has a loaded cast, and provided enough of a change of pace to carve out a really nice audience in the middle of blockbuster season.

So Dominic Toretto (Vin Diesel) and his crew are back. Luke Hobbs (Dwayne Johnson) and his crew are back. And some new faces, Hobbs’ partner Riley (Gina Carano) and villain Owen Shaw (Luke Evans) dd to the franchise’s ever-growing roster.

I thought the vast number of characters would be too much of a distraction in the last installment, and, to an extent, it was. But I liked Fast 5, and I’m happy to say that 6 is even better.

The premise is all but unnecessary. Hobbs recruits Toretto to take down Shaw, a gangster/terrorist/arms dealer whose goal is not particularly clear, but then it doesn’t need to be, does it? Shaw’s latest plan is to steal a military whatsit that can cause blackouts, and his gang of thugs, the minute you meet them, seem like the evil twins of Toretto’s — and it’s a credit to the movie’s cleverness that they actually address the parallels and get some great character beats in from Roman (Tyrese Gibson) and Tej (Chris Parker), two fellows whose roles in the previous films were to stand around and wait for something to do.

Say what you will about the relative merits of a franchise like Fast and the Furious (we have), but one thing it does have going for it is cool car chases and other vehicle-related action. It also features Paul Walker.

There’s also another movie hitting theaters soon featuring Walker and cars, but it isn’t part of the Fast and Furious franchise. It’s called Vehicle 19.

In it Walker plays a recent parolee who picks up the wrong rental car after a long flight. He soon realizes he’s the target of an entire police force after discovering the tied-up female “passenger” in the trunk.

In addition to Walker, the movie stars Naima McLean, Gys de Villiers, Leyla Haidarian, and Tshepo Maseko. And no, Vin Diesel is nowhere in sight.

Check out the trailer for Vehicle 19 after the break. Look for it to arrive later this year.

Brett Ratner has already signed on to direct Hercules and has his heart set on Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson to fill the titular role of the film.  The film will be an adaptation of the Steve Moore graphic novel Hercules: The Thracian War. The screen play is adapted by scribe Ryan Condol.

The Thracian Wars is a pretty dark take on the character, as it paints Hercules as a mercenary who turned his back on the gods following the loss of his family, “finding solace only in battle.” He joins up with six other men who are similarly bloodthirsty, and the band of warriors are hired by the King of Thrace to train his men into warriors.

Johnson would be a great choice to play Hercules as this type of warrior. He can do badass better than anyone else on the market and his charm gives his characters wide appeal.The real question would be whether Ratner would keep the story’s tone as dark as the original graphic novel.

Johnson, who will next be seen as Roadblock in the upcoming G.I. Joe: Retaliation, will next star in Michael Bay’s crime comedy Pain and Gain with Mark Wahlberg, followed by another Fast and Furious film, and has been tied to the role of Goliath in the aptly named Goliath. With Johnson in such demand, his availability for the role is in question.

No timetable has currently been  given for Hercules.

Read a full synopsis for Hercules: The Thracian Wars after the jump.

Thor had a mighty weekend, but not quite as spectacular as some of the other Marvel properties. It nabbed the number one spot at the box office with $66M.  Audiences were fairly pleased with the film, and bestowed a “B+” upon it, according to CinemaScore. The film earned about 60% of its total from 3D screens and had an impressive per screen average of $16, 688.

Fast and Furious was a bit of a surprise. It dropped 62%, despite very positive reviews and word of mouth. That’s a drop we typically see in horror movies and other front loaded films. It still managed to make $32.5M, and has made over $139M in just two weeks.

Jumping the Broom came in at number three, an impressive task considering the fact that there was minimal advertising and promotion for the movie. There were also no big name stars, yet the film made $13.7M on fewer screens than the number four film, Something Borrowed.

Something Borrowed pulled in about $13.1M.  Okay, but not great, especially since it should have had a built in audience from Emily Giffin’s book. Rio took the five spot, making $8.2M. In four weeks, the film has taken in $114.9M.

The Beaver, directed by Jodie Foster and starring Mel Gibson,  played on limited screens (22) and made about $4,700 per screen. That is roughly on par with what Something Borrowed pulled in per screen.

Guess who just passed the $50M mark?  A little horror film called Insidious, which only had a budget of about $1.5M. Source Code also joined the $50M club this week.

Next week Bridesmaids will square off against Priest.

We all remember the scoffs Universal got when news hit that they were doing a fourth sequel to the Fast and the Furious franchise, but when the film opened to an astounding $70 million in the first weekend, the only people laughing were at the studio. So why wouldn’t they continue that trend with another film?

So here it is, the fifth film in the series, titled simply Fast Five. Worry not, fans won’t get another Tokyo Drift, as Paul Walker, Vin Diesel, and a bunch of the originals are all returning. Here’s the breakdown of the film.

Since Brian (Walker) and Mia Toretto (Jordana Brewster) broke Dom out of custody, they’ve blown across many borders to elude authorities. Now backed into a corner in Rio de Janeiro, they must pull one last job in order to gain their freedom. As they assemble their elite team of top racers, the unlikely allies know their only shot of getting out for good means confronting the corrupt businessman who wants them dead. But he’s not the only one on their tail. Hard-nosed federal agent Luke Hobbs (Johnson) never misses his target. When he is assigned to track down Dom (Diesel) and Brian, he and his strike team launch an all-out assault to capture them. But as his men tear through Brazil, Hobbs learns he can’t separate the good guys from the bad. Now, he must rely on his instincts to corner his prey…before someone else runs them down first.

The flick is set to hit on April 29th, and you can check out the full trailer after the jump.

Fans of Pitch Black and The Chronicles of Riddick have wondered for awhile now if a third film was ever going to happen. Rumors about a new installment have been circulating for years, most of which never panned out. Well, at long last, a new film is in development.

Variety is reporting that Vin Diesel will reprise the title role of Riddick in a new film simply entitled Riddick:

“Plot details are being kept under wraps. But insiders say the third outing will hew closer in tone to the cult hit “Pitch Black” and will focus on the character of Riddick as opposed to the universe he inhabits…”

While the second film suffered from bad reviews it did  go onto make $116 million at the box office. Personally, I enjoyed the movie and while it was not as unique as its predecessor, Pitch Black, Chronicles of Riddick was a really enjoyable action/sci-fi flick. So good in fact, I wish they would continue that story, but I’ll take whatever they give me at this point.

Riddick will be written by David Twohy who also directed the previous films. Shooting is said to be happening this year and will not impede Diesel’s other franchise, “Fast and Furious.” No release date has been set but we’ll keep you posted.

Here’s a list of some of the new DVD and Blu-ray releases this week we’re particularly interested in. Plus, some old favorites (and not so favorites) coming out this week for the first time on Blu-ray.

Movies

Fast & Furious ~ Vin Diesel, Paul Walker, Michelle Rodriguez, and Jordana Brewster (DVD and Blu-ray)

Repulsion – Criterion Collection  ~ Catherine Deneuve (Blu-ray)

12 Monkeys ~ Brad Pitt, Bruce Willis, and Madeline Stowe (Blu-ray)

Dragonball: Evolution ~ Justin Chatwin, James Marsters, Yun-Fat Chow, and Emmy Rossum (DVD)

This Is Spinal Tap ~ Rob Reiner, Michael McKean, Christopher Guest, and Harry Shearer (Blu-ray)

Fast & Furious 4 – Movie Collection ~ Vin Diesel, Paul Walker, Michelle Rodriguez, and Jordana Brewster (DVD)

Bart Got a Room ~ William H. Macy (DVD)