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.
HollywoodChicago.com Movie Reviews
In Purely Exploiting Gratuitous Violence, Paul W.S. Anderson’s ‘Death Race’ Remake Kills All Comedic Value
Submitted by HollywoodChicago.com on August 22, 2008 - 2:23pmRating: 2.0/5.0 |
CHICAGO – While 2008’s “Death Race” makes no secret about being a remake of 1975’s “Death Race 2000” with David Carradine as the title character Frankenstein and Sylvester Stallone as his archrival Machine Gun Joe Viterbo, what’s perhaps less obvious but still clear is how the film steals from others.
Death-Defying Audacity Walks Between the Twin Towers in New Documentary ‘Man on Wire’
Submitted by HollywoodChicago.com on August 18, 2008 - 10:00pmRating: 4.5/5.0 |
CHICAGO – Where have all the true eccentrics gone? Where are all those people who achieve a Zen purpose just because the challenge is there?
“Man on Wire” is a documentary that tells of such a challenge 34 years ago in another place and time.
Hit-or-Miss Mastermind Woody Allen Recaptures Genius With Eccentric ‘Vicky Cristina Barcelona’
Submitted by HollywoodChicago.com on August 15, 2008 - 12:01amRating: 4.0/5.0 |
CHICAGO – While legendary writer and director Woody Allen can’t always be equated with sheer genius these days and is more accurately described as a hit-or-miss proposition, the sorely undermarketed and film-festival touring “Vicky Cristina Barcelona” serves as unquestionable retribution for his recently questionable work.
‘Star Wars: The Clone Wars’ Boldly Goes Animated With Potent Story, Mediocre Animation, Anemic Acting
Submitted by HollywoodChicago.com on August 15, 2008 - 12:01amRating: 2.5/5.0 |
CHICAGO – “Star Wars: The Clone Wars,” which is the inaugural animated “Star Wars” project from Lucasfilm Animation and “Star Wars” architect George Lucas, feels and looks every bit as introductory as a foundational attempt could be.
God’s Vajoojoo Tastes Like Semi-Glorious ‘Pineapple Express’ in Judd Apatow, Seth Rogen Stoner Film
Submitted by HollywoodChicago.com on August 8, 2008 - 12:01amRating: 3.5/5.0 |
CHICAGO – If god had a vajoojoo, Judd Apatow and company think it’d taste something like smoking “Pineapple Express”. There’s no question “Pineapple Express” is ultimately a stoner film, but is it the ultimate stoner film of our decade?
Always the most difficult proposition in a comedy is maintaining its comedic pacing with consistency.
Despite Jet Li’s Would-Be Resurrection, ‘The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor’ Still Flops
Submitted by HollywoodChicago.com on July 31, 2008 - 11:35pmRating: 2.0/5.0 |
CHICAGO – The threequel that culminates with “The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor” is so hackneyed that even the main star of the previous two films – Brendan Fraser – wasn’t enough to sell audiences on a third return. Universal Studios needed to enlist co-star Jet Li to stand a fighting chance and take the mood the Asian way.
Neil Young’s ‘CSNY Déjà Vu’ a Concert Film That Mixes Message With Music
Submitted by HollywoodChicago.com on July 30, 2008 - 1:15amRating: 2.5/5.0 |
CHICAGO – David Crosby, Stephen Stills, Graham Nash and Neil Young (collectively CSNY) have long established their credibility as a rock/folk group of the highest order.
No Matter How Hard You Believe Otherwise, ‘The X-Files: I Want to Believe’ Most Anemic Story Yet
Submitted by HollywoodChicago.com on July 25, 2008 - 12:01amRating: 2.5/5.0 |
CHICAGO – Following an addictive TV series that spanned from 1992 to 2002, I wanted to believe “The X-Files: I Want to Believe” would more dynamically pay homage to its television success than Chris Carter’s first film attempt in 1998. In take two, though, it didn’t happen.
Emotions of Sexuality, Gender, Social Order Wrestle During 1800s Paris in ‘The Last Mistress’
Submitted by HollywoodChicago.com on July 22, 2008 - 1:39amRating: 4.5/5.0 |
CHICAGO – Difficult as it is now, in 1835 women in Paris never really had many choices for an eventual lifestyle.
They could hope to marry rich and live in relative comfort or they could toil in a working-class marriage while raising children and working themselves to death. If they didn’t marry, they might be a maid or a governess. If they were really bored and bold, though, they could be “The Last Mistress”.
Andy Samberg, Witty Script Lift Animated ‘Space Chimps’ Off Launching Pad
Submitted by HollywoodChicago.com on July 20, 2008 - 6:50pmRating: 4.0/5.0 |
CHICAGO – So far in the 2008 summer animation season we’ve seen cuddly martial artists (“Kung Fu Panda”) and robots in love (“WALL-E”).
But where are the monkeys and how long before the first joke about flinging their poo?
Despite Rollercoaster Energy, ‘Mamma Mia!’ Bellows Beloved ABBA Vocals With Feel-Good Appeal
Submitted by HollywoodChicago.com on July 18, 2008 - 1:47amRating: 3.0/5.0 |
CHICAGO – While it’d be embellishment to say you’d have the time of your life at the new musical film “Mamma Mia!,” any dancing queen or an admirer of seeing Pierce Brosnan croon a tune instead of trigger James Bond destruction can at least have some of the time of your 108 minutes.
‘The Dark Knight’ Bestows Role of a Lifetime For Heath Ledger, Epic Proportions For Itself
Submitted by HollywoodChicago.com on July 17, 2008 - 12:01amRating: 5.0/5.0 (rarely perfect) |
CHICAGO – With only three short words comprising the film’s enigmatic title, “The Dark Knight” also boasts three epic claims to fame: the role of a lifetime for the late Heath Ledger as the hauntingly deranged Joker, one of the best films of 2008 and one of the greatest superhero films of all time.
French Film ‘Tell No One’ a Journey of Mystery Down Road of Twists, Turns
Submitted by HollywoodChicago.com on July 15, 2008 - 12:42amRating: 3.5/5.0 |
CHICAGO – The most perfect description for the new French suspense film “Tell No One” comes from the most unlikely source: a 1957 American film called “Sweet Smell of Success”.
Describing one of the characters in that film, one line observes that he has “more twists than a barrel of pretzels”. Take that barrel and put it through the zigzag of a taffy-pulling machine and those results might be able to straighten out the labyrinth of circumstances in “Tell No One”.