Daniel Craig

CHICAGO – Jon Favreau’s “Cowboys & Aliens” with Daniel Craig & Harrison Ford is a depressing snooze, a film with so many of the right elements but none of the personality to connect them into something memorable. With so many revisions from a number of writers, it feels like everyone added their own color to the piece until it all faded to gray.

CHICAGO – Brendan Wayne is certainly no stranger to cowboys. As the grandson of one of the greatest western stars ever, John Wayne, Brendan carries on the family tradition in the upcoming Jon Favreau film “Cowboys & Aliens,” featuring Daniel Craig and Harrison Ford.

CHICAGO – It’s Comic-Con week, so you know what that means – a whole lot of sweaty cosplayers questing to hook up with the Sailor Moon of their dreams and a whole lot of new movie trailers. Comic Con is movie trailer nirvana.

CHICAGO – Most of us who are old enough to have spent many of our formative hours playing “Goldeneye 64” often point to the title as one of the most memorable shooting games in history. Personally, I spent much of the time I should have been studying in college massacring my friends on the legendary Nintendo 64 game. Like most people of my age group, I was completely psyched for the 2010 reboot of the timeless game. It just makes my disappointment all the more painful.

CHICAGO – While MGM continues to do everything in their power to delay the development of the James Bond franchise (“Quantum of Solace” came out in 2008 and not a single frame of a new film has been shot, meaning it’s still going to be awhile), Activision has pressed forward and developed an entirely new story in video game form.

CHICAGO – “The Hunger” is one of the more unusual entries in the history of the TV anthology series, a personal favorite sub-genre of this writer raised on “The Twilight Zone,” “The Outer Limits,” “Tales From the Crypt,” and “Amazing Stories”. It has amazing star power, a loose relation to a great ’80s horror movie, and enough thrills to entertain, but has been largely forgotten by TV history.

CHICAGO – There are many things to like about Edward Zwick’s “Defiance,” including Daniel Craig and Liev Schreiber’s excellent performances, a lovely score by James Newton Howard, and, of course, the important subject matter, but the overdone screenplay and Zwick’s typically melodramatic direction just barely sink the film, although a nice Blu-Ray release should help make a few of its flaws easier to overlook.

Blu-Ray Rating: 3.0/5.0

CHICAGO – “Quantum of Solace,” the second Daniel Craig 007 movie after the earthquake to the franchise that was the brilliant “Casino Royale,” didn’t make quite the same waves in the action genre and left a few viewers dissatisfied but it still makes for a better-than-average action movie rental. Sadly, MGM continues to struggle a bit in the HD revolution, releasing a so-so Blu-Ray that won’t help the viewers who felt let down by the film in theaters.

CHICAGO – Ed Zwick’s “Defiance” is a dramatically inert film that misses the mark by allowing its director to play up his notable weaknesses as a filmmaker. Neither satisfying as the action-driven entertainment that Zwick likes to make nor as an emotional historical epic, “Defiance” is flat and dull, only mildly redeemed by two strong lead performances and the inherent power of its subject matter.

CHICAGO – With “Quantum of Solace” opening today starring Daniel Craig, Gemma Arterton, Judi Dench and Olga Kurylenko, Jeff Bayer’s The Scorecard Review (a partner with HollywoodChicago.com) has published its list of the top seven James Bond gadgets.