Another week, another new episode of The Flickcast. Exciting, right? We hope so as Chris and Joe are back to discuss all the major (and minor) geek news of the week.

Topics this week include the new Dawn of the Planet of the Apes trailer, Ant Man casting news, Joseph Gordon-Levitt’s Sandman, the rise of Netflix and the problems with Amazon, the “greatness” of the movie Running Man, the actual greatness of the movie Brick, holiday movie choices, what movies Chris should watch on his birthday, how to get free porn and a whole lot more!

Did we mention all the more! Well, there’s a lot of it. More, in fact.

This week’s picks include Chris’ pick of the movie Prisoners and Joe’s pick of the actor Matt Smith, who will portray Doctor Who for the last time on the Christmas special next week.

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.

Happy Holidays!

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If you’re a fan of sci-fi stories set in a dystopian, Dickensian future of rampant immorality and violence, or have simply been wondering why M. Night Shamalayan doesn’t meld Twelve Monkeys with Rambo and bring back Bruce Willis to help him do it, you’re in luck. Looper stars an intense Joseph Gordon-Levitt, nearly unrecognizable in prosthetics, contacts and distractingly heavy makeup that renders his face nearly 2D, as young Joe, a 25-year-old looper in the year 2042, and Willis himself as Joe 30 years into the future, in the year 2072.

If it weren’t futile, I’d try to give a summary of Looper‘s extremely intricate, convoluted and possibly hole-ridden plot. Suffice it to say that it involves fate, paid killers, Chinese mafia, secret bunkers, telekinesis, good-hearted prostitutes and the toddler tantrums to end all toddler tantrums. And that after the screening I attended, critics stood around in heated discussion for quite a while, trying to work it all out.

This is what its come to folks. Now, instead of trailers and teasers we have sneak peeks at teasers and trailers. Of course, as we are wont to do, we bring you what we can.

In this case it’s a preview of the first trailer for Steven Spielberg’s upcoming film Abraham Lincoln. As you most likely know, the film stars Daniel Day Lewis as Lincoln and Joseph Gordon-Levitt as Robert Todd Lincoln.

In addition, Tommy Lee Jones, James Spader, Jared Harris, John Hawkes, Sally Field and David Strathairn also star. It was written by Tony Kushner, based on the novel Push by Safire. No, not really. That’s a little joke.

It’s actually based on the book book Team Of Rivals by Doris Kerns Goodwin. The actual trailer is set to drop on September 13. The film is set to open on November 9.

For now, check out what we’ve got after the break.

This weekend sees the release of The Dark Knight Rises, Christopher Nolan’s final piece of his Dark Knight trilogy. There are two ways you can look at this film and the series as a whole, as films or as Batman adaptations.

The differentiation between those perspectives is something that I have been struggling with since the classic The Dark Knight hit theaters in 2008. Nolan is a master cinema craftsman, his Dark Knight movies are some of the most well made blockbusters in the history film.

The problem I encounter, is that these films have become increasingly less ‘Batman’. It is not that I think Nolan doesn’t ‘get’ the character, I think he just doesn’t really care.

So at the end of the day I am stuck with two opposing sides to my opinion, one that respects the cinematic merits of the Nolan’s trilogy, and one that is increasingly frustrated with its seeming disrespect shown to some key aspects of the source material.

From this point on my review will weave in and out of spoiler territory, so proceed at your own risk. If you are on the fence about seeing the film this weekend and want a non spoiler recommendation, I can say to you see the film. For all the qualms I have, it is still a well made piece of cinema that should be seen on the big screen with an eager crowd.

The final installment of Christopher Nolan’s Batman trilogy comes out next week. It’s a bittersweet time to be a Batman movie fan because although we’re looking forward to the movie, its the last one Nolan is going to do. So yeah, we have mixed feelings.

Anyway, there’s a new clip from The Dark Knight Rises that’s been released featuring Gary Oldman and Joseph Gordon-Levitt. The clip is called About That Night and features some good info to help you get ready for the big debut.

Check out the clip after the break. The Dark Knight Rises arrives on

Normally I like to leave the opinion stuff for the end of the article, but it is important to lead with it here. This is the new Looper trailer, and I wont watch it. Trailers tend to give away too much stuff, but most of the time we don’t realize it does, and there is still some level of surprise while watching the film.

This new trailer doesn’t spoil the upcoming film, but it does give away a few plot points that would be better discovered during the course of the movie. I am not making any assumptions here, these are actually the opinions of Rian Johnson, the film’s director:

If you’re already set on seeing Looper, I’d avoid any trailers from here on out. They don’t ruin the movie, but they tip a few little things that are fun to discover in the context of the movie.

And:

Just to clarify – I approved all the trailers, they’re great an they won’t ruin anything big. But the small things they tip are fun to discover in the movie.

Those tweets are direct from the director himself, and they are keeping me from watching the trailer. However, I posted it because I realize not everyone is already sold on this film, and apparently the trailer is very good.

You can catch the new trailer after the jump, and if you are new to Looper, but want to catch a more kosher trailer, you can do so here.

There are few stories that have a more interesting life span than Little Shop of Horrors. Beginning it’s life as a low-level B horror film in the 60’s it has managed to gain increasing popularity by bouncing back and forth between screen adaptations and broadway musicals ever since.

Considering the last popular version of the tale was a Broadway revival, it seems like it is time to bring it back to the big screen, and according to the LA Times, some people agree:

Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Warner Bros. are in talks for a movie remake of “Little Shop of Horrors”  — with the help of some Broadway heavyweights behind the scenes. In addition to developing the film, Gordon-Levitt could star as Seymour, the lonely, lovable florist’s assistant who raises a giant alien plant motivated by sarcasm, song and human blood.

Now most of you probably hold the 80’s film starting Rick Moranis and Steve Martin in high regard, and think that this is just another in a long line of needless re-makes. For this particular tale I have to disagree, a new telling with an actor as talented as Joseph Gorodn-Levitt is exactly the next logical step for this story.

Of course that said, we all should pray we get a mostly practical Audrey 2.

Though we know you aren’t dragging your heels to see Marvel’s The Avengers this weekend, one thing you don’t have to wait till then to enjoy is the brand new trailer for Christopher Nolan’s “final” film in his Batman trilogy, Dark Knight Rises.

The trailer is set to hit at the beginning of Marvel’s superhero mashup flick this weekend, but the marketing gurus at WB thought it wouldn’t hurt much if the trailer was released a few days early.

Up until now, we haven’t gotten much of the film’s plot, outside of the fact that we know Bane, Catwoman, and Joseph Gordon-Levitt were all in the film. Now, we’re getting a bit more of the substance, as to what happens to Bale’s Bruce Wayne, what Catwoman’s role is like, and why Gordon-Levitt is always looking so surprised.

Check out the trailer right after the jump, and be sure to catch Dark Knight Rises in theaters just after Comic-Con, on July 20th.

Right off the bat let me say Rian Johnson’s Brick was one of my top movies of 2006. With this first film, a hard-boiled detective thriller set at a High School and made for $500,000, Johnson proved to be a director to reckon with presenting a familiar tale in new and very interesting ways.

Now, he’s back with his third film, Looper, and there’s finally a real teaser trailer for it to take a look at. In it, we see Joseph Gordon-Levitt confront his older self, personified by Bruce Willis, and get introduced to the time-travelling story of hit men who kill people from their own future.

In the film with Gordon-Levitt and Willis are Jeff Daniels, Paul Dano, Garret Dillahunt, and Emily Blunt. So, in addition to Johnson’s writing and direction, you’ve also got quite a cast as well.

Add all of that up and Looper looks to be quite a movie indeed. Can’t wait to see more.

Check out the trailer after the break. Looper hits theaters on September 28.

With the release of Christoper Nolan’s The Dark Knight Rises inching ever closer we can expect to see more and more information about the film start to come out. This time around we’ve got new images from the film which appeared in Entertainment Weekly and were generously scanned by the folks at Batman News.

In them we get a look at our major players including a very good opportunity to see just what Anne Hathawy’s Catwoman outfit is all about. Like we’ve heard from others around the Interwebs (and around The Flickcast’s water cooler), we’re not completely in love with the look.

That said, we’re more than willing to give Nolan the benefit of the doubt here. He’s proven time and again that he’s a guy who knows exactly what he’s doing.

Plus, Tom Hardy’s Bane looks pretty badass and so does, not surprisingly, Joseph Gordon-Levitt’s character. He looks pretty at home with that firearm. Wonder how he’d look in the Batsuit?

Anyway, check out some more pics after the break. Look for The Dark Knight Rises in theaters and IMAX on July 20.

Joseph Gordon-Levitt is fast becoming one of the most exciting actors of his generation. He generally makes smart choices, and even in the cash-grab roles, like Cobra Commander in the last GI Joe film, he brings a watchable angle to his character.

So when word got out that he was re-teaming with Rian Johnson for a hard boiled Sci-Fi tale about time travel and hit men, it piqued our interest. Then we found out that he was playing a young Bruce Willis, all of our hearts went aflutter.

So consider The Flickcast at maximum anticipation levels in the wake of these first images of Gordon-Levitt in subtle make-up to look like an young Willis. Word from early screenings and script reviews is that the movie might be stellar, and these early shots do nothing to change that idea. The first trailer premiered last weekend at Wondercon, so expect it to hit the internet soon enough.

Not terribly noticeable from these two shots is that the bulk of the subtle make-up was applied to give Gordon-Levitt a young Willis silhouette. This means the he isn’t meant to look exactly like Willis, as he doesn’t, but to give the impressions that he one day ‘could’ be Willis.

Check out the full new pictures after the jump.

Presented without much in the way of comment (well, just a little) is the first trailer for Christopher Nolan’s third, and presumably final, installment in the Batman franchise. This time around the new film is called The Dark Knight Rises and based on this new trailer it looks, in a word, awesome.

We know people use that word often and sometimes it tends to lose its meaning. However, in this case, it fits completely.

The movie looks awesome and like any good trailer you get a lot of info about the movie but don’t really know what’s going to happen in it. If only other trailers could do this, and be as good as this, and not give everything away.

Of course, you can be sure the folks responsible for this film know what they’ve got and know, with absolute certainty, the movie will do huge box office and people will flock to see it over and over again. So, they don’t really have to do that much to promote it. The movie pretty much sells itself.

July 20, 2012 can’t get here fast enough. Check out the trailer after the break.