July 2011

CHICAGO – Brian Tallerico guests on Bill Moller’s show on WGN-AM 720 Radio in Chicago on July 16th, 2011 to take calls and discuss 2011 Emmy nominations and snubs with mentions of “Community,” “Fringe,” “The Walking Dead,” “Southland,” “Parks and Recreation,” and more.

CHICAGO – Paris Whitney Hilton has been a celebrity on the scene for over ten years now. Her image and staying power continues to draw interest, as she launched a new TV series recently on the Oxygen Channel, “The World According to Paris.”

CHICAGO – It’s easy to forget just how good of an actor Matthew McConaughey can be with the right vehicle. He delivered what may be his best performance to date in Jill Sprecher’s 2001 multi-character drama “Thirteen Conversations About One Thing,” in which he played a slick lawyer whose unbreakable self-esteem is shattered by a sudden crisis of conscience.

CHICAGO – When one lists the most successful and beloved foreign films ever made, strong consideration must be given to Wolfgang Petersen’s “Das Boot,” a brilliant exercise in controlled claustrophobia that places the viewer in a German submarine as air and sanity becomes in increasingly shorter supply. This timeless film was recently-released in a stellar two-disc set from Sony and it’s a must-own for fans of the hit film.

CHICAGO – Singmoo Lee’s “The Warrior’s Way” is by no means a traditionally “good” movie but it does pass one basic test of escapist Blu-ray fare — I was never bored. And I was often entertained by the cheesy merging of styles on display in this hyper-stylized ninja western, a piece of work that could easily find a loyal audience on the home market. It was summarily ignored in theaters, being released at the very wrong time of the year as a particularly-healthy awards season was kicking up at the end of 2010, but it’s just silly enough in the right ways to work as a rental.

CHICAGO – Late in 2001’s “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone,” Albus Dumbledore reads off the House points earned by four heroic students. Three of them are easy to guess (Harry, Ron and Hermione), but the fourth comes as a shock: Neville Longbottom. The mousy, roly-poly boy had undergone the difficult task of standing up to his friends, not realizing that he would be rewarded for it.

CHICAGO – It might sound like sacrilege (or even sound redundant) to say this, particularly on a day that sees the release of “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part Two,” but I just have to say it - Daniel Radcliffe can’t be Harry Potter forever.

CHICAGO – Fueling his passion for hip-hop, director Michael Rapaport premieres his new documentary, “Beats Rhymes & Life: The Travels of a Tribe Called Quest”. Proving that show biz never changes despite the category, this is a backstage look at the triumphs, misunderstandings, fall and rise again of the rap group “A Tribe Called Quest.”

CHICAGO – We didn’t get the screener in time to give you a heads up about the series premiere of Starz’s “Torchwood: Miracle Day” but we have seen episodes two and three and have some good news to end this long week — if you liked the first episode, don’t worry. It definitely doesn’t drop in quality. And if you worried a bit after that premiere that this wasn’t the same “Torchwood” you knew and loved, fret not, the program starts to really get into gear by the end of the third chapter and there’s little reason to be concerned.

CHICAGO – Brian Tallerico guests on Jimmy & Jen on 102.3 XLC in Chicago on June 30, 2011 for an interview about current television news including the best programs of Summer 2011.

CHICAGO – Walt Disney Pictures goes old school with their latest animated tale, a return to the Hundred Acre Woods and the adventures of “Winnie the Pooh.” Using the style of the classic “2-D” cartoon method, and crafting a story that is decidedly old fashioned, the folks at the Mouse Factory resisted updating the Pooh formula.

CHICAGO – Errol Morris’s “Tabloid” is the sort of documentary so probing and inquisitive that it can’t help questioning its own validity. It’s a story about storytelling, a documentary that deconstructs the artifice of documentary filmmaking and a nonfiction narrative that may very well be comprised entirely of fiction. Such boundless ambition and self-reflexive irony is only typical of Morris, who is surely one of the greatest filmmakers in the history of the medium.

CHICAGO – So this is how it ends – not with a whimper but with a big, magical bang. After a decade of captivating movie audiences worldwide, will “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2” appease the fans who have been eagerly anticipating the end of the saga of the boy who lived? It almost certainly will. It’s hard to imagine fans leaving the final “Potter” film with deep disappointment in this satisfying conclusion. But “satisfying” is not the same as captivating, magical, or spectacular. “Deathly Hallows” is none of those things. It’s a well-executed slice of fantasy entertainment that nonetheless fails to rise to the level of true classic.

CHICAGO – In our latest blockbuster edition of HollywoodChicago.com Hookup: Film, we have 22 admit-two passes up for grabs to the advance Chicagoland screening of the highly anticipated film “Captain America: The First Avenger”!