Forest Whitaker

CHICAGO – In person, Oscar winner Forest Whitaker is a man at peace. His talent has created a demeanor of a guru – soft spoken with transcendent thoughts. His latest film is “Lee Daniels’ The Butler,” in which he portrays the title character. As a black man caught between two eras in American history, Forest Whitaker does relate.

CHICAGO – In the latest HollywoodChicago.com Hookup: Film with our unique social giveaway technology, we have 40 pairs of advance-screening movie passes up for grabs to the highly anticipated “Lee Daniels’ The Butler” starring Forest Whitaker and Oprah Winfrey!

CHICAGO – In the latest HollywoodChicago.com Hookup: Film with our unique social giveaway technology, we have 40 pairs of advance-screening movie passes up for grabs to the Sundance Film Festival Grand Jury Prize winner “Fruitvale Station” produced by Academy Award winner Forest Whitaker!

CHICAGO – With enough hair plugs, bronzer and hormone injections to float a rejuvenation clinic, Arnold Schwarzenegger is back from his political meanderings and is an action star once again in the shoot-’em-up “The Last Stand.” Johnny Knoxville lends some comic relief.

CHICAGO – In the latest HollywoodChicago.com Hookup: DVD with our unique social giveaway technology, we have 5 pairs of advance-screening movie tickets up for grabs for “The Last Stand” starring Arnold Schwarzenegger!

CHICAGO – We get a lot of Blu-rays and DVDs in the HollywoodChicago.com office of films that come straight to the format that we don’t think are really worth our time or yours. The less said about them, the better. And yet every once in awhile, something passes through the USPS that seems like it might draw more attention that the typical straight-to-DVD junk. An action movie with two Oscar winners and gritty style? Sounds like a perfect late summer rental? “Freelancers” is very far from perfect.

CHICAGO – Oscar winner Forest Whitaker greeted the HollywoodChicago.com lens on the red carpet on Oct. 9, 2010 for the 2010 Chicago International Film Festival.

CHICAGO – “Paying homage” and “ripping off” are not the same thing. A picture like Christopher Nolan’s “Inception” gathers fragments of our collective cinematic memories, and places them in an entirely fresh dreamscape of the mind. Miguel Sapochnik’s “Repo Men” assembles pieces of other movies and claims them as its own creation. The film opens like “Blade Runner,” ends like “Brazil,” and looks suspiciously like plagiarism.

CHICAGO – Reminiscent of vastly superior work by David Cronenberg and Paul Verhoeven but with none of the directorial skill apparent in the work of those two talented men, “Repo Men” with Jude Law and Forest Whitaker is a total disaster possibly unmatched in the careers of its talented stars.

CHICAGO – Spike Jonze’s “Where the Wild Things Are” is a beautiful, moving, daring, complex, gorgeous piece of filmmaking that was underappreciated during its theatrical release but that I can guarantee you will have a long, beloved life on Blu-ray and DVD. With well over 200 films seen in 2009, “Where the Wild Things Are” rose to the top for this critic. It may not win any Oscars on Sunday, but history will regard it as the best film of last year.