CHICAGO – Excelsior! Comic book legend Stan Lee’s famous exclamation puts a fine point on the third and final play of Mark Pracht’s FOUR COLOR TRILOGY, “The House of Ideas,” presented by and staged at City Lit Theater in Chicago’s Edgewater neighborhood. For tickets/details, click HOUSE OF IDEAS.
JIM reviews = “FIGHTING” -- Combating both opponents and Stereotypes!
Rating: 7 of 10 stars (Per an advance preview:)
CHANNING TATUM (also impressive in the film ‘Stop-Loss’ & in this director’s previous film ‘A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints’) stars as someone who’d been a wrestling celebrity at a college in Alabama who has a hard time making a living in New York City. He chances to meet a street hustler named Harvey (finely played by TERRENCE HOWARD), who urges him to use his FIGHTING skills to make them all money at some ‘private’, NO-HOLDS-BARRED gatherings. Harvey, his assistants & other characters (including Channing’s love interest ZULAY HENAO, opponent hustler LUIS GUZMAN, etc.) are often ‘OFF-KILTER’ from the stereotypes you’re expecting. You anticipate crookedness from Howard & odd actions from Tatum, & you’re often SURPRISED by what you get (which I found refreshing). It was a fascinating little film— until the very end when things just sort of ended in an INCOMPLETE way, as if they’re hoping to do a SEQUEL to cover some major elements which were left “HANGING” in a strange & periodically unsatisfying fashion.