May 2010

CHICAGO – Beloved actor and legendary easy rider Dennis Hopper lost his long battle with prostate cancer this morning at age 74. With a career spanning over the last half-century, Hopper is best known for directing, co-writing and co-starring in 1969’s counterculture classic “Easy Rider”.

CHICAGO – Writer Peter Morgan and actor Michael Sheen have collaborated once again to tell another chapter of the political life of former British Prime Minister Tony Blair. In “The Special Relationship,” the award-winning writer focuses on the dynamic between the leader and another of the most notable figures of the last century, President Bill Clinton (Dennis Quaid). Great performances elevate what is a relatively minor piece when compared to “The Queen”.

Rating: 2.0/5.0

CHICAGO – Historically, video game adaptations are recipes for disaster when translated into film. While “Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time” with Jake Gyllenhaal and Gemma Arterton has a blockbuster opportunity to buck the decades-old trend, we’re just subjected to more of the same soul-deadening time drain.

CHICAGO – During the climactic sequence in the new amp-infused, celebrity-verified production “Fuerza Bruta”, hundreds of expectant hands reach toward the transparent Mylar pool descending upon them. Four bathing coryphees, exploring the tank as a child would a slip-n-slide, peer through the translucent water with the same anticipation as their onlookers. In the moments that proceed, hands reach body, giving rise to manifest excitement. The audience has not only viewed the art, it has experienced it.

CHICAGO – The second season of HBO’s wildly addictive “True Blood” may not have been quite as stellar as the first but Alan Ball’s often-mesmerizing creation still stands as one of the best shows on television. There’s nothing quite like it on the air and HBO pulls out all the stops with their best Blu-ray season release to date.

Rating: 2.5/5.0

CHICAGO – “Sex in the City 2” has very little sex and even less city. That is the least of its sins. This bloated, directionless semi-narrative take the familiar foursome – Sarah Jessica Parker, Kim Cattrall, Cynthia Nixon and Kristin Davis – into unfamiliar geographic territory, but with no dramatic arc there is simply nothing there.

CHICAGO – It is a quandary that has plagued the minds of the nations foremost feminists, and even those who would better prefer the perspired mirrors of strippercize classes to the contents of “The Feminine Mystique”. Yet from Betty Friedan to Hillary Clinton, Susan B. Anthony to Katy Perry, the question regarding the often thinly drawn crease between sexual empowerment and objectification still wants for absolution..

CHICAGO – Have you ever wondered what it would be like to play an over-the-top car chase like the centerpiece of a Jerry Bruckheimer production like “Bad Boys II”? Dodging explosions, other vehicles, and your own tendency to swerve left when you should swerve right? Welcome to the world of “Split/Second,” a variation on the “Death Race” concept in that it’s often the last man standing named the winner.

CHICAGO – One of the recent stellar events in Chicago was the More Magazine “Reinvention Convention,” a gathering of the magazine’s readers to meet and hear speakers. The featured speaker was actor Dana Delany [“Desperate Housewives”]. Signing her book at the event was Olympic Swimmer Dara Torres.

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Pre-Party Red Carpet

CHICAGO – On a summer-like night in Chicago on May 25th, a celebration of the release of “Sex in the City 2” – starring Sarah Jessica Parker, Kim Cattrall, Cynthia Nixon and Kristin Davis – took place on the terrace at the Conrad Hotel. Libations, light appetizers and a fashion show entertained fans of the film, opening Thursday, May 27th.

CHICAGO – Just before the Oscar nominations for 2009 were to be announced, a few pundits went out on a limb and predicted that not only would Oren Moverman’s “The Messenger” be nominated for Best Supporting Actor (Woody Harrelson) and Best Original Screenplay but that it would also find its way into several more categories, including even Best Picture.

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Cynthia Nixon, David Eisenberg

CHICAGO – This 39-image slideshow features all the official press images for Warner Bros. Pictures’ “Sex and the City 2” starring Sarah Jessica Parker, Kim Catrall, Cynthia Nixon, Kristin Davis, Willie Garson, John Corbett, Chris Noth, Evan Handler, Jason Lewis, and Mario Cantone. It was written and directed by Michael Patrick King. It will open on May 27th, 2010.

CHICAGO – Clearly conceived as something like an American version of “Love Actually,” Garry Marshall’s “Valentine’s Day” is an unqualified disaster, a film that’s only interesting in that it may hold the record for the most household names sucked into one horrible film.

CHICAGO – With echoes of the literature of Stephen King, “The Twilight Zone,” “Twin Peaks,” and “Lost,” the Xbox-exclusive “Alan Wake” is a daring, ambitious title that demands your attention. Why? Because while it’s an imperfect title on a gameplay level and I wish I could have tweaked the storytelling a bit, games that try to break the mold and present something this unique deserve an audience.