Daniel Sunjata

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 – Just under five years ago, Katherine Heigl became a decently known actress in the film world for her role as Alison in the Judd Apatow film “Knocked Up.” After having been in the show “Grey’s Anatomy” for a few years, Heigl had finally broke into the world of cinema, and seemed to have a decent amount of comedy acting skills.

CHICAGO – I’ll miss Tommy Gavin. FX officially said goodbye this month to the final survivor of their breakthrough slate of dramas as “Rescue Me” joined “The Shield” and “Nip/Tuck” in the great cable show graveyard in the sky. The network has ably moved forward with phase two of their legacy but there was something comforting and reliable about Tommy and the boys on “Rescue Me” still being around. The sixth and final season DVD release serves as a fitting fourth quarter for this talented team.

CHICAGO – It’s hard to believe that we’ve been through six seasons of FX’s beloved “Rescue Me,” a show that never really took off with a very wide audience but has loyal, ardent followers. Being a fan of star Denis Leary for years, I think I can safely say that he’d rather have the small, dedicated following, then one larger but filled with a-holes.

CHICAGO – When the first four episodes of the new season of “Rescue Me” allows the actors to merely live in the shoes of these characters they know so well after five seasons on the air then the show finds some of the magic that it produced more consistently in its superior early seasons. Sadly, the writers know they can’t just shoot a drama about guys hanging out in a firehouse and the scripted drama often doesn’t click.

CHICAGO – “Ghosts of Girlfriends Past” is the cinematic blending of two familiar formulas: the “love, lose and then love again” framework of most romantic comedies with the idea of transforming ghosts from the classic “A Christmas Carol”.

Television Rating: 3.5/5.0

CHICAGO – Denis Leary, Peter Tolan, and Evan Reilly were forced to take a lot of time between “Rescue Me” seasons due to the writer’s strike but they’re back with an amazing 22-episode season planned for FX starting tonight, April 7th, 2009 at 9pm CST. Seamlessly picking up where we left off, “Rescue Me” continues to entertain and maintain its tricky balance between goofy comedy and deadly serious subjects.