CHICAGO – Excelsior! Comic book legend Stan Lee’s famous exclamation puts a fine point on the third and final play of Mark Pracht’s FOUR COLOR TRILOGY, “The House of Ideas,” presented by and staged at City Lit Theater in Chicago’s Edgewater neighborhood. For tickets/details, click HOUSE OF IDEAS.
Nick Allen
Film Review: Dull Story of Extraordinary Survival in ‘Unbroken’
Submitted by NickHC on December 24, 2014 - 4:04pmCHICAGO – Olympic runner, plane crash survivor, and WWII POW Louis Zamperini had an extraordinary life of defeating even more profound conditions from cruel nature and fellow man. His is a tale of grandiose cinematic potential, especially considering our desire for beat-down underdogs and their gauntlets of adversity, but such gets a surface-level treatment from director Angelina Jolie’s underwhelming tribute “Unbroken.”
Blu-ray Review: Slices of Solid Action in Surprising ‘Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles’
Submitted by NickHC on December 16, 2014 - 11:37pmCHICAGO - Look past the cheesy carbs and b-boy poses, this shiny mo-cap reboot of cartoon juggernaut “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles” offers slick entertainment that makes for a welcome surprise for middle school fare. Proving that executive producer Michael Bay has both grown up but it still frightfully in tune with what jazzes teens, this surprise box office hit is indeed a nice slice of a blockbuster spectacle, whether or not a viewer cares about the turtles or not.
Film Review: A Lost WWII Hero Remembered in Slick Thriller ‘The Imitation Game’
Submitted by NickHC on December 13, 2014 - 2:39pmCHICAGO – The heroism of World War II codebreaker Alan Turing has been lost in time. Partly due to the secrecy of his mission within the British military in World War II, but also because of the intolerance that erased him soon after his incredible accomplishments.
DVD Review: Comedy Central’s ‘Broad City: Season 1,’ ‘Kroll Show: Seasons 1 & 2’
Submitted by NickHC on December 9, 2014 - 2:34pmCHICAGO – December has seen the release of two different Comedy Central shows finally arriving to DVD, “Broad City” and “Kroll Show.” Expressing their comedy in different formats, these shows from rising comedians Abbi Jacobson & Ilana Glazer (“Broad City”) and Nick Kroll (“Kroll Show”) introduce a cable channel’s audience to new talent, while nonetheless presenting a distinct contrast in creativity.
Film Review: Incredible Personal Tour in ‘Antarctica: A Year on Ice’
Submitted by NickHC on December 5, 2014 - 6:23pmCHICAGO – Along with your local library’s DVD section and equality, Antarctica remains one of the general world’s greatest oversights, even though it’s the size of a continent (because it is one). Around this time of year, the North Pole gets a huge shoutout for its mass production of brand items, but it’s the South Pole that forever remains in the shadow of everything else in the world, only mentioned in films like Werner Herzog’s 2007 documentary “Encounters at the End of the World,” or that 2009 Kate Beckinsale snow thriller “Whiteout.”
DVD Review: Historical Figures Cheersed in Brilliant ‘Drunk History: Seasons 1 & 2’
Submitted by NickHC on November 25, 2014 - 7:11pm- Adam Scott
- Alfred Molina
- Alia Shawkat
- Aubrey Plaza
- Bob Odenkirk
- Busy Phillips
- Casey Wilson
- Comedy Central
- Courtney Cox
- Drunk HIstory
- DVD Review
- Emily Deschanel
- HollywoodChicago.com Content
- Ike Barinholtz
- Jack Black
- Jack McBrayer
- Jayma Mays
- Jen Kirkman
- Joe Lo Truglio
- Juno Temple
- Ken Marino
- Kristen Wiig
- Laura Dern
- Lisa Bonet
- Luke Wilson
- Martin Starr
- Michael Cera
- Nathan Fielder
- Nick Allen
- Owen Wilson
- Rich Fulcher
- Ryan Gosling
- Terry Crews
- Tony Hale
- Will Forte
- Winona Ryder
- Theater, TV, DVD & Blu-Ray
CHICAGO – The awesomeness of history loses any of its stuffiness with the incredibly fun, indeed educational show “Drunk History” from Comedy Central, its two seasons now released on DVD. Hosted by its creator Derek Waters, the show is a celebration of various historic figures and their under-appreciated true tales, as expressed by funny people narrating in the universal language of inebriation; their recounts are then reenacted by famous actors working with their given dialogue, dressed with the comic cheapness of a bloated biopic.
Film Review: Feminism Humbles Tommy Lee Jones in Heartfelt Western ‘The Homesman’
Submitted by NickHC on November 22, 2014 - 7:54pmCHICAGO – In Tommy Lee Jones’ passion project “The Homesman,” the wild west provides a vivid setting for a battle in man’s endless war against women, as the film firmly occupying a genre strictly known for cowboys and pioneer machismo. It’s a sorrowful western from actor/writer/director Jones that often shines in its twilight, hoping to slightly reconcile the maltreatment unleashed on half of the world’s most powerful species.
Film Review: Heartfelt Tale of Human Needs in ‘The Theory of Everything’
Submitted by NickHC on November 14, 2014 - 6:36pmCHICAGO – The life story of iconic physicist Stephen Hawking is given a well-deserved cinematic treatment this weekend with “The Theory of Everything,” an earnest presentation of an existence that defies the usual.
Film Review: No Supernatural Slam Dunks in Teen Horror ‘Wolves’
Submitted by NickHC on November 13, 2014 - 2:47pmCHICAGO – For the pack of horror fans who mourn the “PG-13” toothlessness of the teen wolf, the limited-release film “Wolves” tries to reclaim the character with slow-mo, WWE-with-claws fight scenes and some sprinkles of brief softcore wolf porn. If that’s all one could ask for from a werewolf movie, you probably can’t be blocked from giving this one a curious look; however if you’re trepidatious of a plainly junky, R-rated reaction to “The Twilight Saga,” perhaps you can be stopped.
DVD Review: Lo-Fi Anna Kendrick Dramedy ‘Happy Christmas’ Comes to DVD
Submitted by NickHC on November 11, 2014 - 10:50amCHICAGO – “Drinking Buddies” director Joe Swanberg’s latest release of the same star wattage is “Happy Christmas,” an even lower-fi story than the Olivia Wilde beer comedy, steered even more by the casting that it was able to assemble. However, with this movie Swanberg doesn’t so much worry about having a story that could be confused with a more mainstream romantic comedy if it were to have a bigger budget.