CHICAGO – In anticipation of the scariest week of the year, HollywoodChicago.com launches its 2024 Movie Gifts series, which will suggest DVDs and collections for holiday giving.
HollywoodChicago.com Movie Reviews
Superhero Film ‘Hancock’ With No Superhero Ancestry Proves Bold But Deadly Decision
Submitted by HollywoodChicago.com on July 2, 2008 - 2:19am Rating: 2.0/5.0 |
CHICAGO – With superhero films as hot in 2008 as psychedelics were in the 1960s, the new blockbuster superhero film “Hancock” fits in with the label but without any of the ancestry.
Director Guy Maddin Contemplates His Canadian Hometown in Dreamlike ‘My Winnipeg’
Submitted by HollywoodChicago.com on July 1, 2008 - 1:50am Rating: 4.5/5.0 |
CHICAGO – The distinct, gauzy style of director Guy Maddin has created unique cinematic prisms to look through including his depression-era meditation in “The Saddest Music in the World”.
In his latest film, which is a documentary of sorts, Maddin explores his own life through his hometown of Winnipeg in western Canada.
1960s-Era James Bond is Skewered in New Spoof ‘OSS 117: Cairo, Nest of Spies’
Submitted by HollywoodChicago.com on June 27, 2008 - 1:32am Rating: 3.0/5.0 |
CHICAGO – The heroic nature of the James Bond series of films begs several questions about his representation of western world power.
For one, just who did he act for and what was he fighting against? The new French film “OSS 117: Cairo, Nest of Spies” attempts to answer this question through a subtle and sporadically funny satire, a skewering of the Bond image and geopolitics in the 1960s.
‘Wanted’ With Angelina Jolie, James McAvoy Concocts Curving Bullet in Gluttonously Entertaining Blockbuster
Submitted by HollywoodChicago.com on June 26, 2008 - 11:01pmRating: 4.5/5.0 |
CHICAGO – With curving, clinking and kissing bullets, “Wanted” indeed does Chicago proud. And Angelina Jolie sells it. And Morgan Freeman is ominous. And in his body of work, James McAvoy – the star of this orgasmic summer blockbuster – becomes a man.
‘WALL-E’ Earns Accolade as 2008’s First Perfect Film, One of Best Pixar Films Ever
Submitted by HollywoodChicago.com on June 25, 2008 - 11:01pm Rating: 5.0/5.0 (rarely perfect) |
CHICAGO – While perfection can be characterized in many ways, there’s only one way to define perfect in the world of film: a picture that has everything you could ask for with nothing you could cut. Though this is a highly unlikely proposition, “WALL-E” has become 2008’s first perfect film and one of the best Pixar projects of all time.
The Poor in China on River Without a Paddle in Documentary ‘Up the Yangtze’
Submitted by HollywoodChicago.com on June 22, 2008 - 9:48pmRating: 3.0/5.0 |
CHICAGO – China is on the world’s mind. The once-mysterious communist “enemy” is now the economic friend of all the essential profiteers.
There’s a defining joke told in the new documentary “Up the Yangtze” about American and Chinese businessmen going traveling on a river. They come to a fork in the journey with the signs “socialist” and “capitalist” illustrating the next turn.
In ‘Get Smart’ Lifeless Retread, Steve Carell Can’t Fill Don Adams’ Shoe
Submitted by HollywoodChicago.com on June 20, 2008 - 11:23amRating: 2.0/5.0 |
CHICAGO – Observing the new “Get Smart” film, which is based on the 1960s TV sitcom of the same name, is to note how much has changed since the Cold War ended.
KAOS and CONTROL – the U.S. and Russian spy agencies that square off in the movie – seem like relics of another era.
Uproarious, Talent-Packed ‘The Love Guru’ a Script of Destiny From Funnyman Mike Myers
Submitted by HollywoodChicago.com on June 20, 2008 - 1:17am Rating: 3.5/5.0 |
CHICAGO – Commendably co-written by Mike Myers (who also wrote characters for 2002’s “Austin Powers in Goldmember” and 1999’s “Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me”), you know lines like “sheket bevakasha” came directly from his bowels.
‘When Did You Last See Your Father?’ a Family Affair Between Colin Firth, Jim Broadbent
Submitted by HollywoodChicago.com on June 19, 2008 - 2:41amRating: 3.0/5.0 |
CHICAGO – With Father’s Day upon us, what better time to take in a film about a dysfunctional relationship between a father and a son?
The tongue-tying title “When Did You Last See Your Father?” is a true story exploring the secrets and lies over a lifetime of dealing with dad and a son’s bitterness when confronting everything during the time of a patriarch’s death.
The Need For Each Other Transcends Politics, Resentment in Absorbing ‘The Edge of Heaven’
Submitted by HollywoodChicago.com on June 18, 2008 - 12:50am Rating: 4.0/5.0 |
CHICAGO – As we sit here in the U.S. embroiled in the presidential elections and summertime, the rest of the world simmers within its own unique problems.
What about Germany and Turkey? Director and writer Fatih Akin answers this question in the film “The Edge of Heaven” through several distinct characters who symbolize relations between the countries.
Julianne Moore Pushes Freudian Implications to Limit in True Story of ‘Savage Grace’
Submitted by HollywoodChicago.com on June 15, 2008 - 9:56amRating: 3.0/5.0 |
CHICAGO – The national acting treasure Julianne Moore never shies away from a performance challenge.
From her memorable exposure in Robert Altman’s “Short Cuts” to her willingness to go all the way in Paul Thomas Anderson’s “Boogie Nights,” Moore has proven that true vulnerability in a role requires the ability to bare – and bear with – all.
M. Night Shyamalan’s ‘The Happening’ a Creepy, Paranoid Ride Through Today’s Environment
Submitted by HollywoodChicago.com on June 13, 2008 - 2:41amRating: 3.5/5.0 |
CHICAGO – Trying to understand the thought process of writer and director M. Night Shyamalan is akin to analyzing Jell-O. What keeps it wiggling and what binds it together?
“The Happening,” which is his latest creepy film, is a modern cautionary tale ripped from the collective sensibilities of life after Sept. 11, 2001 and the status of human beings in their interaction with today’s environment.
‘The Incredible Hulk’ Indeed Jacked Up on CGI Roids, But Medusa’s in His Face
Submitted by HollywoodChicago.com on June 12, 2008 - 11:01pmRating: 4.0/5.0 |
CHICAGO – Technology has done double-edged service and disservice to the legendary Hulk superhero character from Stan Lee’s Marvel Comics.
In peering at the CGI-created ripped body of nothing remotely reminiscent of Edward Norton, the 2008 film iteration of “The Incredible Hulk” has a leg light years up on Lou Ferrigno’s character in the 1978 television series of the “The Incredible Hulk”.
