Barbara Hershey

Rating: 2.0/5.0

CHICAGO – Writer Leigh Whannell and director James Wan reunite for “Insidious: Chapter 2,” a repetitive, cluttered, just silly variation on the first movie that will feel like a step back for anyone who admired Wan’s notable advancement as a filmmaker in this summer’s stellar “The Conjuring.”

CHICAGO – In the latest HollywoodChicago.com Hookup: Film with our unique social giveaway technology, we have 40 pairs of advance-screening movie passes up for grabs to the highly anticipated horror sequel “Insidious: Chapter 2” starring Rose Byrne and Patrick Wilson!

CHICAGO – As audiences still catch up with the five-time Oscar-winning “Hugo” from master Martin Scorsese (released on Blu-ray last month), it might provoke a few young people to explore the filmmaker’s history. They will likely start with the widely-recognized classics like “Raging Bull,” “Taxi Driver,” and “GoodFellas,” but they will eventually get to “The Last Temptation of Christ,” recently released in an upgraded Criterion edition and re-released on DVD. The MASSIVE controversy that greeted this film on its release has somewhat clouded its prominence in movie history. This is a great film, a better one than you remember and one of Scorsese’s best.

CHICAGO – There is such a unique array of DVD titles this week that we couldn’t just let them get buried on our desk like so many minor titles do over the year. At least one of these has to be of interest to you. Maybe even the Dane Cook movie.

CHICAGO – Ensemble films, with their multiple stories and characters, can be a challenging delicate balance. Emphasize one story over another and an audience starts to wonder why the neglected subplot is even in the film. “Answers to Nothing” generates this reaction with all their narrative threads, in a movie that lacks any kind of cohesion.

CHICAGO – Darren Aronofsky’s Oscar-winning “Black Swan” was one of the most ambitious films of 2010, a piece of psychological drama that, despite an incredibly stupid recent backlash of the kind that always comes eventually with a project this highly-acclaimed, will absolutely stand the test of time.

CHICAGO – There just wasn’t enough room at this year’s Oscar party for several of the most-deserving candidates. There never is. Like every year, most of the key categories had at least one (and often more) deserving nominee not getting the happy call on Tuesday morning. Who should have? Who should have been left out instead? Here are the big ten.

CHICAGO – In our latest ballet edition of HollywoodChicago.com Hookup: Film, we have 15 admit-two run-of-engagement movie passes up for grabs to the highly buzzed new film “Black Swan” with Natalie Portman and Mila Kunis from acclaimed director Darren Aronofsky!

CHICAGO – Darren Aronofsky’s “Black Swan” pulses with the kind of energy and life that we only see from cinema a few times a year.