Clive Owen

CHICAGO – “Killer Elite” is an exhausting, nonsensical, illogical, loud collection of action clichés masquerading as a modern action film. It features characters less three-dimensional than most cartoons doing and saying things that are only done and said in movies. Bad movies. Really bad movies.

CHICAGO – In our latest action/thriller edition of HollywoodChicago.com Hookup: Film, we have 40 admit-two movie passes up for grabs to the advance Chicago screening of the new film “Killer Elite” starring Jason Statham, Clive Owen and Robert De Niro!

CHICAGO – David Schwimmer’s ‘Trust’ is one of the best films of the year to date that I’m pretty sure you haven’t seen. After playing at the Chicago International Film Festival last fall (where it was easily one of the best works at the fest), it received a far-too-limited release in April and has made barely over $120k TOTAL domestically. Rent it. Watch it. Now.

CHICAGO – There’s an unsettling potency to relationships that are born online. They take place entirely within the mind, which is capable of producing idealized images never to be equaled by reality. With the right stroke of keys, a savvy writer could potentially seduce a susceptible victim into emotional entrapment. That’s why the Internet is a predator’s playground.

CHICAGO – The Universal release of “The Bourne Trilogy” was not only one of the best Blu-ray titles of 2009 but it’s still one of the best box sets on the HD market twelve months later. The question is how does Universal continue to make a dime on the Matt Damon juggernaut of a franchise while we wait for the latest drama regarding the potential fourth film. Welcome to the Bourne flipper discs.

CHICAGO – Clive Owen is an immensely charismatic actor, though he seems to fare better in a world without children. His best roles either place him an ensemble of fellow adults (as in “Gosford Park” and “Sin City”) or require him to protect a baby too young to be much of a conversationalist (as in “Children of Men” or “Shoot ‘Em Up”).

Rating: 4.5/5.0

ATLANTA – Sometimes human tragedy hits dramatically, but other times it subtly, imperceptibly, alters the intrinsic fibers of everyday life in undetectable ways. That is the premise behind Scott Hicks’ film “The Boys Are Back.” It is the story not of death, but of the strategy human beings devise to cope, to defend and to protect themselves against pain and loss.

CHICAGO – In my role as a film critic, I’m always hearing complaints about the lack of films aimed at adults. It’s true that most of what Hollywood delivers is designed to please teenagers. But can you blame them when a great adult comedy like “Duplicity” comes out and hardly anyone goes to see it? Now on Blu-Ray, the Clive Owen and Julia Roberts film from the man who made “Michael Clayton” deserves to find the audience that missed it in theaters.

CHICAGO – The cover for the Blu-Ray release of Tom Tykwer’s “The International,” starring Clive Owen and Naomi Watts, sells the film as an action-packed thriller for a new era. There’s Clive with a deadly snarl, a gash on his face, and a firing gun. Don’t buy it. “The International” features some lovely settings, but it’s ultimately too dull to deliver.

CHICAGO – Universal Home Video is releasing a wave of titles timed for Father’s Day gifts. Some of their choices - “Field of Dreams,” “Fletch” - seem like logical picks for a better HD daddy day than another striped tie while others seem chosen purely because they have the word “Men” or “Man” in the title - “Children of Men,” “Cinderella Man,” “Inside Man”.