Amanda Seyfried

CHICAGO – In the latest HollywoodChicago.com Hookup: Film with our unique social giveaway technology, we have 30 family movie 4-packs (a total of 120 tickets!) up for grabs to the advance screening of the highly anticipated new film “Epic”!

CHICAGO – “The Big Wedding” begins with Robert De Niro performing a particular love making maneuver on Susan Sarandon, and is caught in the act by Diane Keaton. What could have happened in a cutting-edge indie feature in 1981 is the basis of a lame bit in 2013, and so it goes for the rest of the film.

CHICAGO – In the latest HollywoodChicago.com Hookup: Combo Pack with our unique social giveaway technology, we have 5 free Blu-ray and DVD combo packs up for grabs for the highly anticipated home entertainment release of the Oscar-winning “Les Misérables”!

CHICAGO – Tom Hooper’s “Les Misérables,” the best movie musical in over a decade, is what a musical like this should be – unabashed, unashamed emotion painted in vibrant, broad colors across a massive screen. It is gloriously bereft of the cynicism that has sapped so many stage-to-film adaptations from achieving the heights of their source material and features some of the most striking performances in the history of the genre.

CHICAGO – Remember when Amanda Seyfried was the next big star? When she was delightful in “Mamma Mia” and dramatically engaging on “Big Love”? When we were excited that she would work with an auteur like Atom Egoyan? Here are we are, not too long after she was the it girl, and she continues to make bad career decision after bad career decision. “In Time” was disappointing but “Gone,” recently released on Blu-ray and DVD, is a different kind of suck, the kind of movie that barely makes a dent and would have been better served as a Lifetime TV Movie of the Week. Heck, most of those are better.

Update: 5:23 p.m. on May 29, 2012: Prizing quantities changed per studio update
CHICAGO – In our latest psychological thriller edition of HollywoodChicago.com Hookup: Film, we have 3 Blu-rays or DVDs up for grabs for the home entertainment release of “Gone”! One grand-prize winner will also score an Amanda Seyfried-signed “Gone” mini poster!

CHICAGO – The premise of “Gone” is a beguiling notion. What if the victim of a traumatic crime can’t get authorities to believe her? The evidence doesn’t add up, there are no physical signs of struggle and no crime scene is found. Amanda Seyfried plays such a victim, and her very sanity is questioned.

CHICAGO – During last year’s groundswell of Occupy protests, several films and television shows attempted to exploit the class divide for the purposes of entertainment. Only ABC’s irresistible soaper, “Revenge,” fared equally well with critics and audiences, who embraced it as a guiltily pleasurable fantasy in which the rich are brought to justice. Too bad that premise is so rarely a reality.

CHICAGO – Musical and film fans that dislike Taylor Swift just dodged a bullet this morning. Universal confirmed earlier today that British actress/singer Samantha Barks would be taking up the role of Eponine in the film adaptation of the award winning musical “Les Miserables,” coming to theaters later this year.

CHICAGO – HBO’s “Big Love” never quite got the attention it deserved. It’s the bridge from the “Sopranos” era of HBO to the “Boardwalk Empire” and “Game of Thrones” one that we live in now and the rollercoaster of quality in terms of seasons never allowed the program to really find a groove. I’m happy it existed. And I’m even happier to own “Big Love: The Complete Series,” a volume of quality drama to which history will be very kind.