CHICAGO – In anticipation of the scariest week of the year, HollywoodChicago.com launches its 2024 Movie Gifts series, which will suggest DVDs and collections for holiday giving.
Jonah Hill
Martin Scorsese’s ‘The Wolf of Wall Street’ is Cinematic Adrenalin
Submitted by BrianTT on December 23, 2013 - 10:01am Rating: 5.0/5.0 |
Jordan Belfort (Leonardo DiCaprio) lives completely, entirely in the moment. It’s not that there’s no tomorrow, there’s not even “later that same day” in his world. People who make their living on the minute-to-minute fluctuations of the stock market are inherently going to be inclined to live in the small spaces between those quick deviations but Belfort was even more so given the fact that his first day as a legit money maker was on the day the entire economy collapsed in 1987 known as “Black Monday.”
‘This is the End’ Turns Stoner Fantasy Into Comedy
Submitted by BrianTT on June 11, 2013 - 11:59am Rating: 3.5/5.0 |
CHICAGO – When David Gordon Green’s “Your Highness” hit fans of its writer/director and talented stars like a really bad pot hangover, its creators admitted that the project began life as a stoned what-if scenario. “Hey, let’s make a pot-laced fantasy movie, dude.” Seth Rogen & Evan Goldberg’s “This is the End” clearly had similar origins.
Ben Stiller in ‘The Watch’ Needs a Better Mechanism
Submitted by PatrickMcD on July 27, 2012 - 8:42am Rating: 3.0/5.0 |
CHICAGO – Star studded, special effects ladened “comedies” featuring aliens should have been put to rest after last year’s “Paul.” But “The Watch” is here, and it features Ben Stiller, Vince Vaughn, Jonah Hill and an odd Richard Ayoade as four suburban neighborhood watch volunteers who end up hunting space men. Yep, right after “Paul.”
Jonah Hill, Channing Tatum Have Fun on ‘21 Jump Street’
Submitted by PatrickMcD on March 16, 2012 - 5:58amRating: 3.5/5.0 |
CHICAGO – There are various opinions about TV-to-movie remakes, mostly negative. That is why “21 Jump Street,” based on a 1980s TV show, manages some grudging respect. Jonah Hill, Channing Tatum, Ice Cube, Rob Riggle, Nick Offerman and Ellie Kemper create some goofy laughs in this farce.
Jonah Hill Gets Lost in Mediocre ‘The Sitter’
Submitted by BrianTT on December 9, 2011 - 1:07pm Rating: 2.5/5.0 |
CHICAGO – David Gordon Green’s “Your Highness” was like a punch to the gut – an unqualified train wreck from someone who had been correctly dubbed one of the best working filmmakers. His same-year follow-up, “The Sitter,” opening this weekend, is far less disastrous but similarly disappointing in that it displays flaws that the talented director never showed even hints of previous to 2011.
Brad Pitt, Baseball Evolve in Magnificent ‘Moneyball’
Submitted by PatrickMcD on September 22, 2011 - 4:43pmRating: 5.0/5.0 |
CHICAGO – Using sports, especially baseball, as a metaphor for life can get dicey – sometimes the symbolic pieces don’t fit universally for everything. But “Moneyball, ” starring Brad Pitt, hits a grand slam with this old allegory, and educates regarding the true nature of modern large dollar sports.
‘Megamind’ With Will Ferrell, Brad Pitt Barely Wins Animated Fight
Submitted by BrianTT on November 5, 2010 - 4:25pmRating: 3.0/5.0 |
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).
Russell Brand, Jonah Hill Rock in Very Funny ‘Get Him to the Greek’
Submitted by BrianTT on June 4, 2010 - 9:31amRating: 3.5/5.0 |
CHICAGO – Taking a character who was created as an obnoxious supporting one and giving him his own spin-off movie sounds like a recipe for disaster. Despite generally liking its stars and enjoying “Forgetting Sarah Marshall,” I was dreading the quasi-sequel “Get Him to the Greek”. There were just too many screenwriting pitfalls in which the film could have and should have fallen in.
Adam Sandler, Seth Rogen Star in Ambitious But Flawed ‘Funny People’
Submitted by BrianTT on July 31, 2009 - 9:55amRating: 3.0/5.0 |
CHICAGO – Judd Apatow’s “Funny People,” starring Adam Sandler, Seth Rogen, and Leslie Mann, is like watching a friend try out a new stand-up routine. As with a lot of attempts at trying something untested, it doesn’t quite work out, but you have to admire the effort, if not the execution.
‘Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian’ is Predictable, Clustered Drivel
Submitted by Ebeth on May 22, 2009 - 12:30pm Rating: 2.0/5.0 |
CHICAGO – The sequel “Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian” is, presumably, an effort by director Shawn Levy (“Night at the Museum” in 2006 and “The Pink Panther”) and writers Robert Ben Garant and Thomas Lennon (who both wrote the first film) to weave together an exciting and educational film.
