April 2010

Rating: 1.0/5.0

CHICAGO – Samuel Bayer’s remake of Wes Craven’s “A Nightmare on Elm Street” may be about repressed memories coming back in horrific ways, but it ironically ends up one of the least memorable films of 2010 to date. Not as abrasive as the “Texas Chainsaw Massacre” remakes and not as dumb as “The Amityville Horror,” “A Nightmare on Elm Street” is merely forgettable; something never said about the influential original.

CHICAGO – The Oscar-winning “Crazy Heart,” recently released on Blu-ray and DVD, is miraculous proof that sometimes a veteran actor need merely wait for the right young director to write them the part that will finally get them the credit they deserve. Jeff Bridges has long been Hollywood’s most underrated leading man and it took debut writer/director Scott Cooper to get him long-deserved praise.

Rating: 4.0/5.0

CHICAGO – A spectacular alternative to the glut of blockbusters about to dominate the marketplace, Nash Edgerton’s “The Square” heralds the arrival of a major new talent on the international movie scene. A riveting tale of a small group of people doing very bad (and pretty dumb) things, “The Square” works from beginning to end and stands as one of the best feature debuts of the year to date.

Rating: 3.5/5.0

CHICAGO – Who needs the Dark Knight when there is Michael Caine, not as Alfred the Butler, but as the Vigilante Retiree and title character in “Harry Brown.” And he does it all without a rubber suit, just tons of firepower.

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Katie Cassidy as Kris

CHICAGO – This 26-image slideshow contains all of the official press images for Samuel Bayer’s “A Nightmare on Elm Street” with Jackie Earle Haley, Rooney Mara, Kyle Gallner, Katie Cassidy, Thomas Dekker, Kellan Lutz, Clancy Brown, Connie Britton, and Lia D. Mortensen. It was written by Wesley Strick and Eric Heisserer. The film opens on April 30th, 2010.

CHICAGO – Never before seen on HollywoodChicago.com, we are excited to feature 10 Days of “Iron Man 2” giveaways leading up to opening day of the highly anticipated film!

CHICAGO – The dance and percussion show, “STOMP,” part of popular culture for close to 20 years, performs again in Chicago at the Bank of America Theater from April 28th through May 2nd. Donisha Brown, a “co-rehearsal Director” and performance artist in the show for over 11 years, is a crucial part of STOMP’s endurance.

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Sylvester Stallone and Robert Downey, Jr.

HOLLYWOOD – Monday night was the night for the cool exec with the heart of steel, as the highly anticipated “Iron Man 2” premiered at the El Capitan Theater in Hollywood with a gala red carpet. In attendance were stars Robert Downey, Jr., Gwyneth Paltrow, Mickey Rourke and Scarlett Johansson.

CHICAGO – Why does every successful horror film need a sequel? If they’re big enough, they usually come out theatrically, but there’s a whole sub-genre of straight-to-video follow-ups to horror hits, the latest being the truly bad “The Descent: Part 2,” a film that merely serves to enhance the reputation of the original by comparison.

CHICAGO – The great “Southland” has been officially renewed for a third season, the first produced by TNT, that will air in January of 2011. The John Wells police drama started at NBC, where production began on a second season, but it was then canceled. TNT picked up the episodes already produced and aired them early this year but will now produce episodes of their own.

CHICAGO – “Five Minutes of Heaven” is a good film with the potential to be a great one. Though it garnered prizes for its writing and direction at Sundance, it’s precisely the work of screenwriter Guy Hibbert and director Oliver Hirschbiegel that makes the film occasionally falter. This material may have worked better as a two-man play featuring the same two stars, whose brilliant performances help the picture succeed in spite of itself.

CHICAGO – The crowd-pleasing comedy “It’s Complicated” is an excellent fit with Blu-ray in that we often have lower expectations when we’re sitting on our couch than when we’re paying the rising costs of seeing a film in the theaters. It may not be quite worth a purchase, but this star-powered semi-romance should definitely satisfy as a quality rental.

CHICAGO – There are no epitaphs to be written if life is still coursing through the veins. In the film “That Evening Sun,” Hal Holbrook expresses the life coursing through him, as both a great actor and innate human being.

CHICAGO – In our latest horror edition of HollywoodChicago.com Hookup: Film, we have 25 admit-two passes up for grabs to the advance Chicago screening of the new “A Nightmare on Elm Street”.