November 2010

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Rachel McAdams

CHICAGO – This 24-image slideshow contains all of the official press images for the highly-anticipated “Morning Glory,” starring Rachel McAdams, Harrison Ford, Diane Keaton, Patrick Wilson, and Jeff Goldblum. The film was directed by Roger Michell. It will be released on November 10th, 2010.

CHICAGO – “Star Wars: The Force Unleashed” was universally embraced, a winner of multiple awards and an addition to the George Lucas canon that met with approval from nearly every corner of the fan base. With that kind of support, we all assumed that “Star Wars: The Force Unleashed II” would build on what worked in the first game and be the “Empire Strikes Back” to the first game’s “A New Hope.” Sadly, the more apt comparison is “The Phantom Menace.”

CHICAGO – “He’s totally cute…like James Dean,” sighs a swooning cashier as tween heartthrob Zac Efron enters her shop. Efron may be many things, but Dean he is not. This line has been wisely axed from the final cut of “Charlie St. Cloud,” after inspiring a great deal of derisive laughter during the trailer’s theatrical run.

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Danny Boyle and James Franco

CHICAGO – This 14-image slideshow contains all of the official press images for the highly-anticipated “127 Hours,” starring James Franco, Kate Mara, and Amber Tamblyn. The film was directed by Danny Boyle. It will be released in Chicago on November 12th, 2010.

CHICAGO – There is an entire generation out there that LOVES “The Goonies.” It is one of those ’80s films that is spoken about in hushed tones in certain circles as if it is the product of a time when they just made better movies. People adore the Richard Donner film that turned Sloth and Chunk into annual Halloween costumes. A 25th Anniversary Edition Blu-ray and DVD of “The Goonies” has been issued with those diehard fans in mind.

CHICAGO – I’ve reviewed hundreds of DVDs and Blu-ray box sets and I can’t think of any that top the HD release of “Alien Anthology,” an amazing release that should stand alone at the top of all holiday season wish lists and be one of the first purchases that happen after you buy a Blu-ray player.

CHICAGO – Irving Berlin’s “White Christmas” with Bing Crosby and Danny Kaye was the #1 film of 1954 and has become an annual favorite for millions of families all the way back to the days before VHS. Paramount has released the musical charmer on Blu-ray with new special features along with a snowy 2-disc holiday DVD edition for those still waiting for Santa to bring them a Blu-ray player. Dream of a “White Christmas” in HD.

CHICAGO – The music genre has never been more crowded with “Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock,” “Def Jam Rapstar,” “Rock Band 3,” and more hitting stores in just the last few weeks. There’s a lot of competition for genre fans but it hasn’t fazed Activision, as they’ve thrown the highly-anticipated “DJ Hero 2” right into the fray and the title emerges as one of the better offerings of the month.

CHICAGO – Being a super-villain is apparently going out of style as “Megamind” follows relatively quickly on the heels of “Despicable Me” and both tell the story of a bad guy realizing that it’s more fun to be good. The title character of “Megamind” (Will Ferrell) is a nefarious super-powered fellow who has just barely lost every fight he’s had with the beloved Metroman (Brad Pitt). It seems appropriate that the film about them is also a marginal affair in which the good just barely outweighs the bad.

CHICAGO – In our latest sci-fi/thriller edition of HollywoodChicago.com Hookup: Film, we have 50 admit-two passes up for grabs to the advance Chicago screening of “Skyline,” which is co-directed by the Chicago visual effects masters Colin Strause and Greg Strause!

Rating: 4.0/5.0

CHICAGO – The key line in “Fair Game,” a distillation of Valerie Plame’s outing as a CIA operative in 2003, is intoned by character actor Bruce McGill, in a scene reminiscent of the “Mr. X” moment in the “JFK” movie. Pointing to the White House and the Bush Administration, he simply says, “there are the most powerful men in the history of the world.”

Rating: 2.5/5.0

CHICAGO – Ntozake Shange’s choreopoem “For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow is Enuf” was a landmark event in 1974, giving voice to a segment of society rarely seen on the stage. It took 34 years for a filmmaker to tackle this remarkable work in film form and Tyler Perry’s “For Colored Girls” retains some of the inherent power of it source and features some strong performances in the process but never finds the narrative cohesion needed to translate it to modern movie audiences.

CHICAGO – There is a strong temptation to lead this review with “Hey, ‘Due Date,’ ‘Planes, Trains and Automobiles’ just called, they want their plot back,” but this Robert Downey Jr. and Zach Galifianakis star vehicle drives on its own strange vibe, part road trip and part comedy that depends on suspension of all reality. Yet it mostly works.

CHICAGO – With “Contagion” from director Steven Soderbergh and star Matt Damon continuing to film all around Chicago, HollywoodChicago.com founder and publisher Adam Fendelman discussed the new film on Thursday with CBS Chicago.