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
Lebanese Film ‘Caramel’ Coats Women’s Relationships With Warmth, Truth
Submitted by HollywoodChicago.com on February 1, 2008 - 12:05pm
CHICAGO – In the social palette that makes up relationships for adult women, the main brushstrokes involve trust, unity and a passion for friendships. Of course, it doesn’t hurt if they can meet in their favorite beauty parlor. The film “Caramel” follows the lives of five women in Beirut, Lebanon as they experience aging, commitment, lifestyle choices and bikini waxing.
Despite Flawed Plot Clichés, Dancing Takes Center Stage in ‘How She Move’
Submitted by HollywoodChicago.com on January 25, 2008 - 4:54pm
CHICAGO – Kids, it’s an old-fashioned dance off, and despite being about the contemporary and very urban stepdance craze, it has all the hope, dreams, choreography and clichés of a golden-age Hollywood musical revue.
Stallone Sports Aggrandized Violence, Weak Storyline in ‘Rambo’ Revival
Submitted by HollywoodChicago.com on January 25, 2008 - 12:12pm
CHICAGO – The best quality about the fourth “Rambo” is its “Rambo” authenticity. The worst quality about the fourth “Rambo” is its “Rambo” authenticity.
Diane Lane’s ‘Untraceable’ Plagued With Predictable, Connect-the-Dots Plotline
Submitted by HollywoodChicago.com on January 25, 2008 - 1:01am
CHICAGO – Gregory Hoblit’s “Untraceable” is a predictable thriller that takes us into the masterminds of cybercrime in Portland. Diane Lane plays FBI agent Jennifer Marsh and heads up a cybercrime department that’s chasing an Internet killer.
History-Making ‘U2 3D’ Feature-Length Film Redefines Concert Experience
Submitted by HollywoodChicago.com on January 22, 2008 - 4:33pm
CHICAGO – Shot with more digital 3D cameras than any other film project, the feature-length “U2 3D” film production revolutionizes the concert experience on the big screen.
Star Power Can’t Save ‘Mad Money’ From ‘Thelma & Louise’ Writer Callie Khouri
Submitted by HollywoodChicago.com on January 18, 2008 - 2:56pmCHICAGO – Whenever there’s stunt-movie casting with divergent generations of Hollywood “stars,” there’s bound to be trouble at the multiplex.
Akin to ‘Match Point,’ Woody Allen’s ‘Cassandra’s Dream’ Expressly Hitchcockian
Submitted by HollywoodChicago.com on January 18, 2008 - 1:35pmCHICAGO – Woody Allen – the most prolific American writer/director of the last quarter century – has a desire for a particular expression in this last part of his epic career.
Attempted J-Horror ‘One Missed Call’ Instead Grudgingly Makes Us Laugh
Submitted by HollywoodChicago.com on January 5, 2008 - 6:06pm
CHICAGO – Hello, J-Horror. Please hang up and dial again. In fact, the message “please hang up and dial again” should have been given to director Eric Valette before accepting Takashi Miike’s remake “One Missed Call” as his American directorial debut.
‘Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story’ Taps Best of Must-See TV Kings of Comedy
Submitted by HollywoodChicago.com on December 21, 2007 - 12:41pmCHICAGO – The makers of “Scary Movie,” “Date Movie” and “Epic Movie” should be kicking themselves right now for never thinking to make “Musical Bio-Pic Movie”.
On ‘Alvin and the Chipmunks’: Alviiiiiiiiiiiiiiin? More Like Ouuuuuuuuuuuuuuuch!
Submitted by HollywoodChicago.com on December 14, 2007 - 5:38pm
CHICAGO – Thanks to live action and computer-generated animation, we’ve brought to life “Underdog,” “Transformers,” “The Adventures of Rocky & Bullwinkle” and both “Scooby-Doo” and “Garfield” twice.
‘The Mist’ Stars Scribe Stephen King, Marcia Gay Harden in Supporting Role
Submitted by HollywoodChicago.com on November 21, 2007 - 1:38pmCHICAGO – It’s just a twist of fate, of course. I know the CGI wizards at The Weinstein Co. can’t command the weather in the real word, too. But – wow – what providence.
With Music its Star, Whole of ‘August Rush’ Greater Than Sum of Parts
Submitted by HollywoodChicago.com on November 21, 2007 - 11:23amCHICAGO – When you look at films critically, you sometimes spend too much time examining the pieces of the whole without stepping back from the picture and taking it as a complete work.
‘Southland Tales’ Starts With Bang, Ends With Sensory-Overloading Whimper
Submitted by HollywoodChicago.com on November 17, 2007 - 5:50pmCHICAGO – Unlike the world, “Southland Tales” starts with a bang but ends with a whimper. Richard Kelly’s opus of a film is little more than sensory overload meant to look like a political statement on the state of privacy, the war, news, entertainment and celebrities.
