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
New Director Finds Teeth in ‘The Twilight Saga: Eclipse’
Submitted by BrianTT on June 30, 2010 - 1:21pm Rating: 3.0/5.0 |
CHICAGO – Easily the best entry in the franchise, “The Twilight Saga: Eclipse,” finally allows those of us unfamiliar with the books by Stephenie Meyer to understand why the saga of the vampire, the wolf, and the sullen girl in the middle has become an international phenomenon.
‘The Killer Inside Me’ a Study in Sociopathic Blandness
Submitted by BrianTT on June 27, 2010 - 9:06am Rating: 3.5/5.0 |
CHICAGO – Michael Winterbottom’s ’50s-era neo-noir “The Killer Inside Me” creeps up on you in the creepiest possible way. Just as I was ready to write it off, I ended up caving in to its charms, or lack thereof. This film often seems as utterly cuckoo as its central antihero, and that’s what makes it so darn mesmerizing. Sure, it’s sort of a mess, but boy is it engrossing, with a strong emphasis on the gross.
‘I Am Love’ Offers Scintillating Showcase For Tilda Swinton
Submitted by BrianTT on June 25, 2010 - 10:18am Rating: 4.0/5.0 |
CHICAGO – “I Am Love” is the type of visceral tone poem that requires its audience to feel more than think. As the end credits roll, viewers may find themselves going over the plot in their heads, and discovering its inherent shallowness. It’s only after we wake up from a dream that we discover just how silly or inexplicable it all was.
Adam Sandler, Kevin James Act Like Children in ‘Grown Ups’
Submitted by BrianTT on June 25, 2010 - 9:56am Rating: 2.5/5.0 |
CHICAGO – It may be called “Grown Ups,” but too much of the new Adam Sandler ensemble comedy feels like it was written by an eight-year-old boy. The believable friendship chemistry that Sandler has with co-stars Kevin James, Chris Rock, David Spade, and Rob Schneider significantly ups the entertainment value, but “Grown Ups” could have and should have been much better.
Tom Cruise, Cameron Diaz Meet Cute in High-Octane ‘Knight and Day’
Submitted by PatrickMcD on June 23, 2010 - 9:25amRating: 3.5/5.0 |
CHICAGO – Whenever there is a audacious and entertaining action thriller like “Knight and Day,” how do the characters stay so calm? Cameron Diaz and Tom Cruise are shot at, nearly blown up, asked to drive and leap around like lunatics, yet remain perfectly white-toothed calm. A normal human reaction would be ‘Oh my gaaaaaaaaaawd!”
‘Toy Story 3’ is a Perfect Play Date For the Entire Family
Submitted by BrianTT on June 18, 2010 - 1:35pm Rating: 5.0/5.0 |
CHICAGO – Very few recent films are as purely entertaining or thematically satisfying as Pixar’s “Toy Story 3,” not only one of the best movies of the year but one of the best in the history of animation. Brilliantly tying up the two films that came before in a way that so many sequels fail to do, the geniuses at Pixar have done it again. It’s another masterpiece.
‘Joan Rivers: A Piece of Work’ Reveals the Woman Behind the Face
Submitted by BrianTT on June 18, 2010 - 10:28am Rating: 4.5/5.0 |
CHICAGO – One of the most revealing insights to be gleaned from “Joan Rivers: A Piece of Work” is the lifelong desire of its titular comedienne to be a serious actress. The sad irony is that Rivers has rendered her most vital acting tool (her face) utterly immobile, thus making her ineligible for any dramatic screen role, save for the Elephant Man.
Josh Brolin, Megan Fox Dash Between the Explosions in ‘Jonah Hex’
Submitted by PatrickMcD on June 18, 2010 - 8:13amRating: 3.0/5.0 |
CHICAGO – Delving deep into the comic book lexicon, the latest page-to-film adaptation is “Jonah Hex,” featuring Josh Brolin, Megan Fox and John Malkovich. Hex is a scarred bounty hunter whose primary job seems to be saving America, when he isn’t in the midst of or causing things to blow up real good.
Plan Comes Together For Entertaining Action of ‘The A-Team’
Submitted by BrianTT on June 11, 2010 - 9:31amRating: 3.5/5.0 |
CHICAGO – “Overkill is underrated.” So says Col. Hannibal Smith (Liam Neeson) near the end of Joe Carnahan’s “The A-Team” and it clearly was the operating principle for not just the characters but the entire production. With its tongue firmly in its steroid-induced cheek, “The A-Team” is not designed to break any rules or change the action world, merely to offer summer entertainment for two hours and it does precisely that.
‘The Little Traitor’ Succumbs to Shameless Manipulation
Submitted by BrianTT on June 11, 2010 - 8:41amRating: 2.5/5.0 |
CHICAGO – “The Little Traitor” is a story so sweet and so well-intentioned that it practically dares you not to like it. It’s mighty tempting to give it a pass purely on the basis of its premise, which is vital, timely and quite moving. If this story were told by a filmmaker less intent on yanking audience’s heartstrings until they snapped, it may have provided the foundation for a great and important film.
Jackie Chan, Jaden Smith Are Kickin’ it in Remake of ‘The Karate Kid’
Submitted by PatrickMcD on June 11, 2010 - 6:12amRating: 3.5/5.0 |
CHICAGO – Despite any resistance that must have been felt in remaking the quasi-classic 1984 film “The Karate Kid,” veteran Jackie Chan and Jaden Smith put their best kicking feet forward and spin some new cloth out of the old material. In resetting the location and putting in some surreal modern touches, this remake mostly succeeds.
Inferior Sequel ‘OSS 117: Lost in Rio’ Mostly Falls Flat
Submitted by BrianTT on June 10, 2010 - 11:58am Rating: 2.0/5.0 |
CHICAGO – It’s no mystery why the appeal of spy satires transcend the boundaries of time and culture. Clueless detectives with a bloated sense of self-importance are great comic punching bags. Everyone loves seeing a doofus get his head slammed in a door, whether that doofus be Inspector Clouseau or Lt. Frank Drebin or countless other law officers who could easily blend in with the Keystone Kops.
Russell Brand, Jonah Hill Rock in Very Funny ‘Get Him to the Greek’
Submitted by BrianTT on June 4, 2010 - 9:31amRating: 3.5/5.0 |
CHICAGO – Taking a character who was created as an obnoxious supporting one and giving him his own spin-off movie sounds like a recipe for disaster. Despite generally liking its stars and enjoying “Forgetting Sarah Marshall,” I was dreading the quasi-sequel “Get Him to the Greek”. There were just too many screenwriting pitfalls in which the film could have and should have fallen in.
