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‘The Little Traitor’ Succumbs to Shameless Manipulation

The Little Traitor
HollywoodChicago.com Oscarman rating: 2.5/5.0
Rating: 2.5/5.0

CHICAGO – Here’s a story so sweet and so well-intentioned that it practically dares you not to like it. It’s mighty tempting to give it a pass purely on the basis of its premise, which is vital, timely and quite moving. If this story were told by a filmmaker less intent on yanking audience’s heartstrings until they snapped, it may have provided the foundation for a great and important film.

‘Twilight’ Sequel ‘The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn’ Will Be Two Films

breakingthumb.jpg

CHICAGO – It’s been rumored for months but Summit Entertainment made it official this week when they announced that the final book in Stephenie Meyer’s “Twilight” series — “Breaking Dawn” — will be released as two separate films with “The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn, Part I” hitting theaters on November 18th, 2011.

Jackie Chan, Jaden Smith Are Kickin’ it in Remake of ‘The Karate Kid’

CHICAGO – Despite any resistance that must have been felt in remaking the quasi-classic 1984 film “The Karate Kid,” veteran Jackie Chan and Jaden Smith put their best kicking feet forward and spin some new cloth out of the old material. In resetting the location and putting in some surreal modern touches, this remake mostly succeeds.

Slideshow: 11-Image Gallery From ‘The A-Team’ With Bradley Cooper, Jessica Biel

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Face (Bradley Cooper) remains defiant, despite his imprisonment in stack of tires.

CHICAGO – This 11-image slideshow features the official press images for Twentieth Century Fox’s “The A-Team” starring Liam Neeson, Bradley Cooper, Quinton ‘Rampage’ Jackson, Sharlto Copley, Jessica Biel, Patrick Wilson, and Gerald McRaney. It was directed by Joe Carnahan and will open on June 11th, 2010.

Blu-Ray Review: ‘Shutter Island’ Looks Amazing, But Deserved Better Release

Shutter Island

CHICAGO – I firmly believe that the detractors of Martin Scorsese’s amazing “Shutter Island” will deny they ever criticized this masterful thriller when it was first released. History will be very kind to this dizzying trip through a cinematic funhouse led by arguably our best living filmmaker, but one would never guess it from Paramount’s purely average Blu-ray release.

Inferior Sequel ‘OSS 117: Lost in Rio’ Mostly Falls Flat

OSS 117: Lost in Rio
HollywoodChicago.com Oscarman rating: 2.0/5.0
Rating: 2.0/5.0

CHICAGO – It’s no mystery why the appeal of spy satires transcend the boundaries of time and culture. Clueless detectives with a bloated sense of self-importance are great comic punching bags. Everyone loves seeing a doofus get his head slammed in a door, whether that doofus be Inspector Clouseau or Lt. Frank Drebin or countless other law officers who could easily blend in with the Keystone Kops.

TV Review: It Isn’t Easy Being Green on Showtime’s ‘The Green Room’

The Green Room

CHICAGO – “I don’t even know what to do on this show. We just talk?” asks comic Bobby Slayton in episode four of the new Showtime series “The Green Room with Paul Provenza.” Yes. And therein lies the problem.

Slideshow: 7-Image Gallery of Zooey Deschanel in Chicago With ‘She & Him’

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Zooey Deschanel of ‘She And Him’

CHICAGO – Summer officially opened on Monday, June 7th, when Zooey Deschanel – who played a character named Summer in last year’s “(500) Days of Summer” – kicked off the concert season at Millennium Park in Chicago with her sideman M. Ward, as part of the group “She & Him.”

Interview: Ellen DeGeneres Takes on Chicago in ‘Just For Laughs’ Festival

Ellen DeGeneres

CHICAGO – Ellen DeGeneres has always been a woman of many hats. Whether taking a seat as host (or featured dancer) on her Emmy Award-winning talk show “The Ellen Degeneres Show”, offering musical insight to hopefuls on “American Idol”, or lending her voice to the LGBT community, DeGeneres has become a trailblazer of the entertainment industry.

Theater Review: Northlight Goes For Zest in Sultry ‘Low Down Dirty Blues’

'Low Down Dirty Blues'

CHICAGO – “I been in the blues all my life. I’m still delivering ‘cause I got a long memory,” Muddy Waters once recounted to a reporter. Although the narrative catharsis once offered by the likes of Charlie Patton and Bo Carter may have given way to the stylized pulse of R&B, its placement in America’s ever-ripening counterculture is worth the recollection. And luckily for Chicago, it is a stronghold that is now making a timely wake-up call on the Northlight stage, with enough sweat and sizzle to heat a bass line.

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  • Manhunt

    CHICAGO – Patrick McDonald of HollywoodChicago.com appears on “The Morning Mess” with Dan Baker on WBGR-FM (Monroe, Wisconsin) on March 21st, 2024, reviewing the new streaming series “Manhunt” – based on the bestseller by James L. Swanson – currently streaming on Apple TV+.

  • Topdog/Underdog, Invictus Theatre

    CHICAGO – When two brothers confront the sins of each other and it expands into a psychology of an entire race, it’s at a stage play found in Chicago’s Invictus Theatre Company production of “Topdog/Underdog,” now at their new home at the Windy City Playhouse through March 31st, 2024. Click TD/UD for tickets/info.

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