Carl Weathers

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Lana Parrilla of TV’s ‘Once Upon a Time’ and ‘Why Woman Kill.’

CHICAGO – The fan gathering conventions are coming back, and a new one has emerged. The 2022 Fan Expo is the new name for the former Wizard World, which had met in pre-pandemic Chicago for years. The Fan Expo offers the same celebrity meet-and-greets, including Joel McHale (“Star Girl”), Carl Weathers (“Rocky”), Ron Perlman (“Hellboy”), Anthony Daniels (“Star Wars”), Jonathan Frakes (“Star Trek; TNG”) and director Kevin Smith (“Clerks”).

CHICAGO – Was “Toy Story 3” the last great Pixar production? With the modest critical reaction to “Cars 2,” “Brave,” and “Monsters University,” it seems an entirely defensible position to take. In fact, one could easily argue that “Small Fry,” the “Toy Story” short that premiered with “The Muppets,” and “Partysaurus Rex,” which played with “Finding Nemo 3D,” should be considered higher on the Pixar hierarchy than “Cars 2” and maybe even “Brave.”

CHICAGO – Watching John McTiernan’s “Predator” again to prepare for the upcoming Adrien Brody vehicle “Predators,” I was struck with surprise that this relatively generic action B-movie has spawned such an enormous franchise that includes one sequel, two “Alien vs. Predator” movies, the new reboot, comic books, action figures, and video games. It’s an inarguably decent action flick but who would have guessed what it would lead to?

CHICAGO – There are very few characters as iconic as Rocky Balboa. A few images, sound bites, or even just a few notes of a song and audiences of the right age are transported back to the first time they saw the Best Picture-winning “Rocky,” the film that made Sylvester Stallone a star over three decades ago. That beloved sports film and the five sequels that followed have been collected on Blu-Ray for the first time in “Rocky: The Undisputed Collection”.