It’s time for brand new episode of The Flickcast podcast. We promise it’s not quite as lengthy as last week, so don’t worry.

We realize some of you may have short attention spans. But when we’ve got something to say, we say it. Even if it takes an hour and a half to do it. That’s just how the world works sometimes. 

This week’s episode of the podcast, however, is shorter, but still manages to pack in all kids of stuff. Some of the stuff include the recent Joss Whedon and Gina Carano controversies, more WandaVision including Chris’ new theory on what it’s all about, continuing discussion of how show business works, how most plots of TV series are derived from OG Star Trek episodes and the career of Nicholas Cage. 

Speaking of Mr. Cage, Chris’s pick this week is a recent movie, starring the man himself, called Willy’s Wonderland. In it Cage players a drifter who must survive the night by doing battle with animatronic creatures at a Chuck-e-Cheese-like establishment. It’s pretty crazy.

Joe didn’t make a pick this week, but feel free to listen to a Marillion album in his honor. Thanks for listening. 

As always, if you have comments, questions, critiques, offers of sponsorship or whatever, feel free to hit us up in the comments, on Twitter, Instagram or, yes, even Facebook. Or shoot us an email. We don’t mind.

Opening and end music by Kevin MacLeod under Creative Commons License

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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.

Yep, it’s almost time for The Fast and the Furious 6. To be honest, we’re kinda looking forward to it. Shocking, right?

Anyway, here’s the synopsis for you to take a look at as well as an extended look at the movie itself. Enjoy.

Vin Diesel, Paul Walker and Dwayne Johnson lead the returning cast of all-stars as the global blockbuster franchise built on speed races to its next continent in Fast & Furious 6. Reuniting for their most high-stakes adventure yet, fan favorites Jordana Brewster, Michelle Rodriguez, Tyrese Gibson, Sung Kang, Gal Gadot, Chris “Ludacris” Bridges and Elsa Pataky are joined by badass series newcomers Luke Evans and Gina Carano.

Since Dom (Diesel) and Brian’s (Walker) Rio heist toppled a kingpin’s empire and left their crew with $100 million, our heroes have scattered across the globe. But their inability to return home and living forever on the lam have left their lives incomplete.

In another brilliant bit of casting, Battlestar Galactica alumni and current Longmire Co-Star Katee Sackhoff is joining Gina Carano in the female version of The Expendables being produced by Adi Shankar.

“If you spend five minutes with Katee it becomes blatantly obvious that she would pwn (sic) most male action stars,” said Shankar. We tend to agree. Although, to be honest, we really didn’t see this coming.

But whatever. It works and it will be nice to see Katee get back to kicking ass as she did as Starbuck on BSG. This movie is already starting to shape up quite nicely.

Who’s next to be cast in this movie? Let’s hear your guesses. Ours are right here.

If we must have a female version of The Expendables, there’s no better female action star to topline such a film than Gina Carano. As she so capably proved in Haywaire, she kicks ass, takes names and looks great doing both.

So, knowing this, it should come as no surprise that Carano will indeed star in the upcoming Adi Shankar production, which Dutch Southern is currently writing. In fact, Shankar can’t imagine doing a female version of The Expendables without Carano.

Said the producer: “I don’t know how I’m supposed to make a movie that is supposed to be the female version of ‘The Expendables’ without Gina Carano in it. It would be like making Twix without caramel or Jamba Juice without jamba.”

Obviously, we feel Carano is an excellent choice too. Let’s hope Shankar’s other casting is as inspired. There’s a lot of 80s and 90s (and current) female action stars who are still alive and, well, kicking. We would be happy to put together a list Adi, just ask and it’s yours.

Ok, we won’t wait for you to ask. Here’s some names to consider: Linda Hamilton, Sigourney Weaver, Uma Thurman, Michele Rodriguez, Carrie Anne Moss, Zoe Bell, Lucy Lawless, Cynthia Rothrock, Michelle Yeoh.

What do you think of those names? Anyone we missed? Sound off in the comments.

Before I can go forward with a review of director Steven Soderbergh’s latest film Haywire, I need to make a confession: I’m a big fan of almost all of his films. Sure, he’s managed to make one or two that don’t exactly work (The Girlfriend Experience comes to mind), but he’s never boring and always tries to push filmmaking and creativity in new and different directions.

Given this, I went into Haywire with somewhat raised expectations due to my fondness for his previous works. As the film unfolded I was struck by several things. First, lead actress and MMA superstar Gina Carano is not only beautiful, I would not want to ever make her angry. She’s that tough.

The film also moves quickly and at a running time of 93 minutes, almost seems a bit short. I think that’s a good thing because at the end, I wanted more.

I was also struck by how similar Haywire is to one of Soderbergh’s earlier films, The Limey (which is also my favorite of his films). I guess one reason could be that screenwriter Lem Dobbs wrote both films.

I’m not saying Haywire‘s similarity to The Limey is a bad thing, it was just interesting. More on that a bit later.

When it comes to action movies, the name Steven Soderbergh may not come to mind first. He’s not really known as an “action director” but after watching his latest film Haywire, that title may just end up being his.

If you’re not familiar with Haywire, here’s some info about it:

Mallory Kane is a highly trained operative who works for a government security contractor in the dirtiest, most dangerous corners of the world. After successfully freeing a Chinese journalist held hostage, she is double crossed and left for dead by someone close to her in her own agency. Suddenly the target of skilled assassins who know her every move, Mallory must find the truth in order to stay alive.

Using her black-ops military training, she devises an ingenious—and dangerous—trap. But when things go haywire, Mallory realizes she’ll be killed in the blink of an eye unless she finds a way to turn the tables on her ruthless adversary.

The film opens tomorrow but to get you ready, we’ve got two new clips from it to share with you today. Both of these clips are scenes from the film and help demonstrate just what we’re talking about where Soderberg’s new title is concerned.

Haywire features MMA superstar Gina Carano, Michael Fassbender, Michael Douglas, Ewan McGregor and Channing Tatum. Check out both of the scenes after the jump.