August 2010

CHICAGO – Thriller fans should seek out the fascinating “Red Riding Trilogy,” a series of films with largely different casts set in different time periods that attempts to pull back the facade of peace to reveal the dark face of evil underneath. The films are not perfect but they work together to create a memorable portrait of corruption that has infected an entire country and taken more than a few victims in its grip.

CHICAGO – Our film critic Matt Fagerholm may have felt that “The Good, The Bad, The Weird” valued style over substance to a fault (read his review) but this critic still holds it as one of the best films of the year; a joyful cavalcade of modern action and spaghetti western archetypes that’s unlike anything else released in 2010. Don’t miss this excellent movie now that it’s on Blu-ray.

CHICAGO – It must have been rough to be on the NBC drama team in the fall of 2010. The network brass made it crystal clear that they cared little about scripted drama when they handed over five nights a week to Jay Leno, but the producers of the network’s two new medical dramas “Mercy” and “Trauma” had to push forward with their programs despite the diminishing reputation of their home. Both series made it through the first year but neither graduated to a second season. See what you probably missed with “Mercy: The Complete Series” and “Trauma: Season 1.”

CHICAGO – In our latest parody edition of HollywoodChicago.com Hookup: Film, we have 50 admit-two passes up for grabs to the advance Chicago screening of the new film “Vampires Suck”!

Rating: 3.5/5.0

CHICAGO – Working from the graphic novels by Brian Lee O’Malley, Edgar Wright and Michael Cera deliver one of the most unique films of the year in the comeic-book/romance/comedy/video-game/pop-art/action/musical “Scott Pilgrim vs. the World.” You won’t see anything like this again for a long time. It’s an imperfect film that can get downright frustrating but it displays enough flashes of genius to warrant your time and demand your forgiveness of flaws.

Rating: 3.5/5.0

CHICAGO – Despite its flaws, the often-beautiful “Eat Pray Love,” starring Julia Roberts, works because it refuses to talk down to its audience. This is the rare “chick flick” that treats its demographic with respect, never becoming the sentimental or manipulative dreck that so many other filmmakers would have delivered from Elizabeth Gilbert’s bestselling memoirs.

CHICAGO – The beauty of watching creative character actors like Kevin Kline and John C. Reilly is that they seem to revel in the craft of embodying their roles. In “The Extra Man,” they both take a trippy and literate script and apply some additional magic that helps to flesh out a young man’s journey into the heart of Manhattan.

CHICAGO – Seeing them all together was fun. Enduring some macho joshing, even in the form of stiff dialogue, was tolerable. But doing a bad, boring action movie with Sylvester Stallone trying to prop up his “legacy” was sadly too much to bear.

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From left to right: Barney Ross (Sylvester Stallone), Ying Yang (Jet Li), Toll Road (Randy Couture), Hale Caesar (Terry Crews) and Lee Christmas (Jason Statham) in The Expendables.

CHICAGO – This 14-image slideshow contains all of the official press images for the highly anticipated “The Expendables,” starring Sylvester Stallone, Jason Statham, Jet Li, Terry Crews, Randy Couture, Dolph Lundgren, David Zayas, Eric Roberts, Steve Austin, and Mickey Rourke. The film was written by David Callaham and Sylvester Stallone and directed by Stallone. It will be released on August 13th, 2010.

CHICAGO – In this edition of the HollywoodChicago.com Hookup: DVD, one lucky winner will clean up with three DVDs from Magnolia Pictures for the movies “Man on Wire,” “Food, Inc.” and “No End in Sight” plus a full-size poster for “Countdown to Zero” signed by director Lucy Walker, producer Lawrence Bender and narrator Valerie Plame Wilson!

Video Game Rating: 1.0/5.0

CHICAGO – Video games are arguably in their golden age with a landmark new title like “Red Dead Redemption” or “Heavy Rain” released on a consistent basis. Even ignoring the quality at the top of the ladder, the fact is that there are more enjoyable and entertaining games to play than there are hours in the day. The relative success of the form makes something as truly horrible as “Clash of the Titans,” the tie-in for the recently-released-to-DVD film starring Sam Worthington, Liam Neeson, and Gemma Arterton, all the more frustrating.

CHICAGO – With beloved films like “Superbad,” “Hot Fuzz,” and “Shaun of the Dead” (never mind the greatness of TV shows “Arrested Development” and “Spaced”), Edgar Wright and Michael Cera have nothing more to prove to their loyal fans.

CHICAGO – The incredible world of “Red Dead Redemption” gets a bit bigger today with the release of “Legends and Killers Pack,” a downloadable expansion for the multiplayer portion of the game of the year.

CHICAGO – One of the best films of the last several years was recently released on Blu-ray and DVD courtesy of Sony Pictures Classics in the riveting, remarkable, and simply amazing “A Prophet.”