Parker starts out strong, spends the next hour doing nothing, then it ends with a good-enough set piece. That’s pretty much the review right there, and it’s going to be a struggle to think of anything more to say.

There’s a lot of things I can expect a Jason Statham action movie to be, but boring is not one of them. When he showed up to the Ohio State Fair dressed as a priest, my hopes soared — Statham unconvincingly costumed: That is funny — and he’s robbing Ohio, the most vile and butt-smelling state! When he scolded one of his teammates for peeping into the fair’s Nudie Tent (these exist? Cool!), I was all but ready to love the movie. When he drove Jennifer Lopez around Palm Beach looking at houses for what seems like eons, I wanted to go home.

Parker’s been portrayed on screen before, in 1967’s Point Blank, where his character’s name was Walker, and he was portrayed by Lee Marvin, and again in 1999’s Payback, where he was Porter and played by Mel Gibson. I gather that the running theme of Donald Westlake’s novels upon which the films are based is that W/Pa/ork/ter is a thief who’s always double-crossed by his gang. You’d think after 50 or so years he’d learn to choose better friends.

Gangster Squad! doesn’t actually include an exclamation point in its title, but it should. It really, really should. When you open your film with a guy being gorily drawn and quartered and then savaged by wolves, you’ve earned some punctuation. And since the rest of the film is as messy as that poor sap’s goify innards why not let that silly excess spill out onto the poster?

Yes, it is a mess, but a pretty fun one that gets more enjoyable with its bouts of seriousness than its more frequent inanities. But I’m getting ahead of myself. Josh Brolin is Sergeant John O’Mara, a good cop in post-WWII Los Angeles. Sean Penn is Mickey Cohen, the bloodthirsty Jewish gangster who controls the LA underworld. Ryan Gosling is Sergeant Jerry Wooters, who flings his Wooters at every dame in sight, and Nick Nolte is a dead ringer for Mark Wahlberg in 30 or so years.

Less importantly, he’s the LAPD police chief who wants Cohen’s empire brought down and recruits O’Mara to do it. O’Mara is a war vet with experience fighting in occupied territory. He has to work undercover and basically has the authority to kill indiscriminately, which I imagine is pretty useful in situations like this.

We haven’t seen too much so far about Gangster Squad, the upcoming Warner Bros movie yet to have a release data. All we know is that the cast is pretty impressive and so is the new trailer.

Speaking of the cast, the movie, which tells the story of the LAPD’s battle with gangster Micky Cohen for control of LA, features Sean Penn (as Cohen), Ryan Gosling, Josh Brolin, Emma Stone, Mireille Enos, Anthony Mackie, Nick Nolte, Michael Pena, Giovanni Ribisi and many more.

The movie is based on the book by Paul Liberman with a screenplay by Will Beall, whose also writing the Justice League movie for the studio. That is, if that ever really gets off the ground.

Check out the trailer after the break.

Something happened in the last ten years or so as exceptional drama TV programming moved away from traditional networks and onto pay cable systems like HBO. With shows like The Sopranos, The Wire, True Blood, Boardwalk Empire and Game of Thrones, HBO has established itself as one of the premiere destinations for those seeking well written, skillfully produced and high quality shows.

A new show on HBO seeks to continue that tradition this weekend with the premiere of its new horse racing drama Luck. On first glance, it seems like Luck should have no problem taking its place with those other great shows. It was created and is being produced by David Milch (NYPD Blue, Deadwood) and Michael Mann (Miami Vice, Heat) and features an impressive cast including Dustin Hoffman, Nick Nolte and Dennis Farina.

All of those elements together should warrant at least a look at the new show and will almost certainly lead to its success with fans. To help you get ready for the premiere, we’ve got a lot of videos to share with you today including some interviews with Milch and Mann as well as a couple trailers.

Check out all the videos after the break. Luck premieres Sunday at 9/8C on HBO.

When you think of quality drama on TV the network that probably comes to mind in HBO. With series like The Sopranos, Treme, Game of Thrones, True Blood and The Wire, HBO has and is the place where you can find some of the best shows anywhere.

Now an upcoming series is hoping to take its place among those great shows. That series is Luck, which is a horse racing drama from producers Michael Mann and David Milch which features Dustin Hoffman and Nick Nolte.

Over the weekend the network released a teaser trailer for the series and we, of course, have it for you right here. In it you’ll get a better idea of the show and how its all gonna go down.

Gotta say, it looks pretty interesting. Plus, with the cast and creative team involved, it wil definitely be worth checking out.

Luck is slated to premiere in January. Check out the preview after the break.

Even though the premise of the upcoming film Warrior is a bit hard to believe (the two people fighting in the “big fight” at the end of the movie are actually brothers) that doesn’t mean we’re not interested. Especially because we happen to be big fans of actor Tom Hardy around The Flickcast offices.

His previous work in films like Bronson and Inception have proven his ability and mark him as an actor to watch. Plus, he’s playing a signifcant role in Christopher Nolan’s upcoming third Batman film so naturally, we’re going to be keeping track of him.

Next up for Hardy is Warrior, an action drama from director Gavin O’Connor, whose previous film Miracle shows he knows his way around sports action movies. Here’s some info on the film as well as a brand new poster for it after the jump.

Haunted by a tragic past, former Marine Tommy Conlon (Hardy) returns home for the first time in fourteen years to enlist the help of his father (Nick Nolte) to train for SPARTA, the biggest winner-takes-all event in mixed martial arts history. A former wrestling prodigy, Tommy blazes a path toward the championship while his brother, Brendan (Joel Edgerton), an ex-fighter-turned teacher, returns to the ring in a desperate bid to save his family from financial ruin.

But when Brendan’s unlikely, underdog rise sets him on a collision course with the unstoppable Tommy, the two brothers must finally confront each other and the forces that pulled them apart, facing off in the most soaring, soul stirring, and unforgettable climax that must be seen to be believed.

Warrior hits theaters on September 9th. Judging from the poster they seem to be going for the female audience just a bit. I guess that’s a good way to get them to see this kind of movie.

The Thin Red Line (1998) marks the triumphant return of American film maker Terrence Malick’s return after a twenty year hiatus from the studio system. Anyone who was anyone in Hollywood circles jumped on the production of the film, even if it was just a brief walk on role. In fact, many A -list talents like Robert De Niro, Robert Duvall, Bill Pullman, Leonardo Dicaprio, Brad Pitt, Peter Berg, Dermot Mulroney, Edward Burns, William Baldwin, Edward Norton, Matthew McConaughey, Nicolas Cage, and Johnny Depp were very interested in joining the cast or were either cut from the film due to editing and budget constraints.

Malick was best known for two films in the 1970s which were Badlands (1973) and Days of Heaven (1978) which were renowned for their breathtaking cinematography and for Malick’s ability to capture magnificent exterior shots much like John Ford’s sweeping westerns Stagecoach (1939), and The Searchers (1956). The beautiful cinematography of the film is credited to John Toll who is an absolute genius.

Malick wrote the screenplay based on author James Jones 1962 novel which chronicles his experiences during the campaign. Pvt. Fife (Brody) is actually Jones who serves as the main character in the book, yet in the film is reduced to a minor character.

The film stars some of Hollywood’s most celebrated actors such as Sean Penn (1st Sgt. Edward Welsh), Adrien Brody (Pvt. Geoffrey Fife), Jim Caviezel (Pvt. Robert Witt), Ben Chaplin (Pvt. John Bell), George Clooney (Capt. Charles Bosche), John Cusack (Capt. John Graff), John Savage (Sgt. McCron), John Travolta (Brig. Gen. Quintard), Arie Vereen (Pfc. Charlie Dale), Kirk Acevedo (Pvt. Tella), Mark Boone Junior (Pvt. Peale), Woody Harrelson (Sgt. Keck), Elias Koteas (Capt. James Staros), Tim Blake Nelson (Pvt. Tills), John C. Reilly (Sgt. Storm), and Nick Nolte (Lt. Col. Gordon Tall).