October 2009

CHICAGO – Film and TV icon Martin Landau accepted his Lifetime Achievement Award at the 2009 Chicago International Film Festival in the same hotel he stayed at while filming Alfred Hitchcock’s “North by Northwest” in 1959.

CHICAGO – Just weeks before the opening weekend of Jim Carrey’s new “A Christmas Carol,” Universal has released a Blu-Ray + DVD combo pack of the nearly decade-old “Grinch” remake, featuring Carrey as the infamous Seussian Scrooge. The combination of Carrey’s star power and Theodor Geisel’s beloved source material assured the film’s massive box office success.

CHICAGO – Takashi Miike’s controversial and terrifying “Audition,” recently released in a ten year anniversary Blu-Ray edition, feels even richer and more dramatically interesting than it did ten years ago as the dating world has become so much more reliant on technology.

CHICAGO – Over the course of dozens of editions of HollywoodChicago.com’s DVD Round-Up column, we have brought our readers more than a few collections that possessed a remarkable variety of genres in one piece, but few match this week’s column, a quartet of titles that include supernatural drama, reality television, foreign animation, and classic fantasy.

CHICAGO – Since the totality of what I know about Italian politics could fit inside a fortune cookie, I’d normally be inclined to demand that films on the subject keep it simple by not utilizing too many characters and not bothering with a complicated plot that spans roughly fifteen years. But the slick “Il Divo” didn’t have me pleading with writer director Paolo Sorrentino to slow down so that I could catch up with its history.

CHICAGO – “Mississippi Damned,” the feature film winner of the Gold Hugo, the top prize at the Chicago International Film Festival, was a labor of passion for producer Morgan R. Stiff and director/writer Tina Mabry.

CHICAGO – Last Saturday at the Chicago International Film Festival was a very important debut for the new film “Chicago Overcoat,” directed by newcomer Brian Caunter. The hometown audience gave big thumbs up to the gritty mobster film.

CHICAGO – Even the most diehard fans of “The Simpsons,” a group of which I would proudly call myself a member, would admit that the last few seasons of the show have been disappointing at best and, at times, downright bad (especially the current season we’re in, which has produced fewer laughs than anything on FOX Sunday nights).

CHICAGO – In our latest edition of HollywoodChicago.com Hookup: DVD, we have 10 DVDs up for grabs to the new “Katt Williams: Pimpadelic” DVD with comic sensation Katt Williams!

CHICAGO – Justice is the theme of “Law Abiding Citizen,” a new film starring Jamie Foxx as a district attorney in Philadelphia who is targeted for revenge by a former client (Gerald Butler). Directing the film is veteran F. Gary Gray (”Friday,” “The Italian Job”).

Video Game Rating: 3.5/5.0

CHICAGO – Can a game be clever and beautiful to look at but not be fun? EA’s highly anticipated “Brutal Legend” tests this theory with some amazing design, a unique concept, and very funny storytelling, but with actual gameplay that can be remarkably frustrating. To paraphrase something a friend recently said about something else that seems appropriate here, I liked everything about “Brutal Legend” except actually playing it.

CHICAGO – I could be wrong, but my love for the 1986 original and the lack of critic screenings for the remake opening today leads me to feel confident in saying that the DVD of the original “The Stepfather,” available on the format for the first time this week, is the way to go this weekend if you’re looking for a nasty slice of domestic terror.

CHICAGO – Steven Soderbergh’s “The Girlfriend Experience” is a captivating, fascinating examination of the way we have turned every element of our lives into a business transaction. With “Che,” “The Informant!,” and this fantastic drama, Soderbergh is continuing to make the case that he is one of the most important American filmmakers working today.

CHICAGO – Discovering young filmmaker talent is one of the most exciting elements of the Chicago International Film Festival. Writer/director Ti West is one of those discoveries, with his horror film premiere, “The House of the Devil.”