HollywoodChicago.com Arts & Entertainment News

‘Twilight’ Sequel ‘The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn’ Will Be Two Films

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CHICAGO – It’s been rumored for months but Summit Entertainment made it official this week when they announced that the final book in Stephenie Meyer’s “Twilight” series — “Breaking Dawn” — will be released as two separate films with “The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn, Part I” hitting theaters on November 18th, 2011.

Jackie Chan, Jaden Smith Are Kickin’ it in Remake of ‘The Karate Kid’

CHICAGO – Despite any resistance that must have been felt in remaking the quasi-classic 1984 film “The Karate Kid,” veteran Jackie Chan and Jaden Smith put their best kicking feet forward and spin some new cloth out of the old material. In resetting the location and putting in some surreal modern touches, this remake mostly succeeds.

Blu-Ray Review: ‘Shutter Island’ Looks Amazing, But Deserved Better Release

Shutter Island

CHICAGO – I firmly believe that the detractors of Martin Scorsese’s amazing “Shutter Island” will deny they ever criticized this masterful thriller when it was first released. History will be very kind to this dizzying trip through a cinematic funhouse led by arguably our best living filmmaker, but one would never guess it from Paramount’s purely average Blu-ray release.

Inferior Sequel ‘OSS 117: Lost in Rio’ Mostly Falls Flat

OSS 117: Lost in Rio
HollywoodChicago.com Oscarman rating: 2.0/5.0
Rating: 2.0/5.0

CHICAGO – It’s no mystery why the appeal of spy satires transcend the boundaries of time and culture. Clueless detectives with a bloated sense of self-importance are great comic punching bags. Everyone loves seeing a doofus get his head slammed in a door, whether that doofus be Inspector Clouseau or Lt. Frank Drebin or countless other law officers who could easily blend in with the Keystone Kops.

TV Review: It Isn’t Easy Being Green on Showtime’s ‘The Green Room’

The Green Room

CHICAGO – “I don’t even know what to do on this show. We just talk?” asks comic Bobby Slayton in episode four of the new Showtime series “The Green Room with Paul Provenza.” Yes. And therein lies the problem.

Interview: Ellen DeGeneres Takes on Chicago in ‘Just For Laughs’ Festival

Ellen DeGeneres

CHICAGO – Ellen DeGeneres has always been a woman of many hats. Whether taking a seat as host (or featured dancer) on her Emmy Award-winning talk show “The Ellen Degeneres Show”, offering musical insight to hopefuls on “American Idol”, or lending her voice to the LGBT community, DeGeneres has become a trailblazer of the entertainment industry.

Theater Review: Northlight Goes For Zest in Sultry ‘Low Down Dirty Blues’

'Low Down Dirty Blues'

CHICAGO – “I been in the blues all my life. I’m still delivering ‘cause I got a long memory,” Muddy Waters once recounted to a reporter. Although the narrative catharsis once offered by the likes of Charlie Patton and Bo Carter may have given way to the stylized pulse of R&B, its placement in America’s ever-ripening counterculture is worth the recollection. And luckily for Chicago, it is a stronghold that is now making a timely wake-up call on the Northlight stage, with enough sweat and sizzle to heat a bass line.

Vince Vaughn, Jennifer Connelly, Winona Ryder, Kevin James to Ascend on Chicago For Ron Howard Party

CHICAGO – The 46th Chicago International Film Festival announced on Wednesday that several cast members from Universal Pictures’ upcoming comedy by Oscar winner Ron Howard will attend its annual summer gala on June 12, 2010.

Interview: Comedian Robert Klein Gets a Leg Up on Latest HBO Special

CHICAGO – “I can’t stop my leg” is the lyric to Robert Klein’s most famous comedy song, and the venerable stand-up comedian still keeps the laughs coming with his brand of observational hilarity. With a career spanning over 45 years, Klein still knocks ‘em dead on his latest HBO Special, “Unfair and Unbalanced.”

Interview: Actress Morgan Fairchild Highlights Her Career, Activism

CHICAGO – Morgan Fairchild was a memorable presence during her early career in various appearances on 1970s and 1980s TV screens. She and also starred in a couple of nighttime soap operas including “Flamingo Road” and “Falcon Crest”.

DVD Review: ‘Collapse’ Paints Unsettling Portrait of Approaching Doom

Collapse DVD

CHICAGO – Doomsday prophecies are a dime a dozen at the movies these days. We’ve become all too complacent in staring at visions of our planet’s fragility, and the preventable threats to our survival. Most apocalyptic thrillers are pitched at the level of B-movie fantasies that make credible issues like global warming seem as frighteningly real as Godzilla.

Blu-Ray Review: ‘The Book of Eli’ Offers Solid B-Movie Entertainment

The Book of Eli Blu-Ray

CHICAGO – If there’s one cinematic trope more tired and overused than the apocalypse, it’s the Bible-quoting badass. Everyone from Jules Winnfield to the Boondock Saints have memorably demonstrated that nothing justifies mass-murder quite like the word of the Lord. Yet Eli, the mysterious hero of the Hughes Brothers’ long-awaited thriller, isn’t just armed with a few scriptural quotes. He’s got the whole book.

Blu-Ray Review: Tim Burton’s ‘Alice in Wonderland’ Paints the Roses Red

Alice in Wonderland

CHICAGO – In so many ways, Tim Burton’s entire career has been building to “Alice in Wonderland”. The mega-hit (it’s still the #1 film of the year at the domestic box office although will likely be passed, just barely, by “Iron Man 2”) contains so many of Burton’s themes of individuality through a fantasy film lens while it also came under criticism for displaying the shallow lack of dramatic weight of his recent output. With a lovely Disney Blu-ray release, it’s easy to see both sides of one of the most critically divisive films of the year to date.

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  • Manhunt

    CHICAGO – Patrick McDonald of HollywoodChicago.com appears on “The Morning Mess” with Dan Baker on WBGR-FM (Monroe, Wisconsin) on March 21st, 2024, reviewing the new streaming series “Manhunt” – based on the bestseller by James L. Swanson – currently streaming on Apple TV+.

  • Topdog/Underdog, Invictus Theatre

    CHICAGO – When two brothers confront the sins of each other and it expands into a psychology of an entire race, it’s at a stage play found in Chicago’s Invictus Theatre Company production of “Topdog/Underdog,” now at their new home at the Windy City Playhouse through March 31st, 2024. Click TD/UD for tickets/info.

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