Kate Bosworth

CHICAGO – The horror of a post apocalyptic world is ripe for exploration, and the new film “The Domestics” is the latest to take us down that road. Tyler Hoechlin and Kate Bosworth portray a married couple seeking her parents, as they road trip through what is left of Wisconsin after a societal collapse, and a series of murderous gangs have marked their territory. One of the gang leaders is Dean The Nailer, a foreboding presence who is portrayed with a ferocious intensity and precise eeriness by actor Lee Perkins.

CHICAGO – In one of the best film acting performances from 2014, Julianne Moore devastatingly portrays a woman in her fifties who is a victim of early onset Alzheimer’s disease. As the effects of dementia physically deteriorates her life, it is a wonder if she is “Still Alice.”

CHICAGO – Jason Statham has become an amorphous blob in the action genre, but an amorphous blob who is his own archetype, nonetheless. With the “Expendables” movies he began to take the genre torch from Sylvester Stallone, and now working from a script by Stallone in “Homefront”, his Americanization is nearly certified. That being said, watching Jason Statham tattoo a bald eagle on himself might be more enjoyable than his latest addition to a bloated filmography, “Homefront”. That, or staging a debate with Stallone and Statham about gun control.

CHICAGO – Sylvester Stallone is a difficult man to comprehend, unless if doing a thesis on male menopause. The one time screenwriter of gritty soul pictures like “Rocky,” “Paradise Alley” and “First Blood” is spending his later years pumping out undistinguished boom-boom pictures like “Homefront.”

Rating: 2.5/5.0

CHICAGO – I really admire the girl power approach to the thriller genre in Katie Aselton’s surprising genre effort, “Black Rock,” but the admirable effort doesn’t change the fact that the movie just doesn’t feel fully fleshed out nor does it play to the strengths of its filmmaker. The what-if scenario that incites the action of “Black Rock” is captivating but Aselton and co-writer/husband Mark Duplass don’t build on that scenario enough to make the venture successful overall.

CHICAGO – Is it possible to be addled in encroaching middle age? Because “Life Happens,” a film about an ex-party girl turned single mother, starring “it” girl Krysten Ritter, actually is quite funny, and gets those laughs simply by applying some simple truths to a unique situation. Kate Bosworth, Rachel Bilson, Justin Kirk and Kirsten Johnston co-star.

CHICAGO – In our latest “R”-rated, single-motherhood comedy edition of HollywoodChicago.com Hookup: Film, we have 10 admit-two run-of-engagement anytime movie passes up for grabs to the new film “L!fe Happens” starring Kate Bosworth!

CHICAGO – The 2011 remake of Sam Peckinpah’s galvanizing 1971 classic is a film destined to appeal to no one. It’s not poorly made, and the writer/director Rod Lurie is gifted at crafting suspenseful morality tales (such as the under-appreciated “Nothing But the Truth”). But it’s difficult to understand why Lurie would bother putting his personal stamp on a picture that he considers repugnant.

CHICAGO – In our latest thriller edition of HollywoodChicago.com Hookup: Film, we have 35 admit-two passes up for grabs to the advance Chicago screening of the new film “Straw Dogs” starring James Marsden, Kate Bosworth, Alexander Skarsgård and James Woods!

CHICAGO – Singmoo Lee’s “The Warrior’s Way” is by no means a traditionally “good” movie but it does pass one basic test of escapist Blu-ray fare — I was never bored. And I was often entertained by the cheesy merging of styles on display in this hyper-stylized ninja western, a piece of work that could easily find a loyal audience on the home market. It was summarily ignored in theaters, being released at the very wrong time of the year as a particularly-healthy awards season was kicking up at the end of 2010, but it’s just silly enough in the right ways to work as a rental.