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CHICAGO – Nicholas Sparks is the Michael Bay of touchy-feely weepies. No matter how derivative or cynically calculating his stories prove to be, they never fail to rake in the dough. Several of his books have been turned into blockbusters, the best of which benefit greatly from the strength of their cast, as in “A Walk to Remember” and “The Notebook.”

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Producers Will Packer (left) and Tip T.I. Harris on the set of Screen Gems action thriller Takers.

CHICAGO – This 27-image slideshow contains all of the official press images for the highly anticipated “Takers,” starring Matt Dillon, Paul Walker, Zoe Saldana, Idris Elba, Jay Hernandez, Michael Ealy, Tip ‘T.I.’ Harris, Chris Brown, and Hayden Christensen. The film was written by Peter Allen & Gabriel Casseus and John Luessenhop & Avery Duff and directed by John Luessenhop. It will be released on August 27th, 2010.

CHICAGO – In our latest edition of HollywoodChicago.com Hookup: DVD, we have three DVD sets up for grabs to the complete season seven of “One Tree Hill”!

CHICAGO – A Blu-ray review of the controversial final season of “Lost” is not the place to get into arguments over the quality of the actual finale, so I’ll get my opinion out of the way quickly and then we can discuss the Blu-ray release more than the ending specifically — the final season of “Lost” is arguably the best final season of any program ever and the last episode is the perfect bookend for a show too ambitious to be truly influential.

CHICAGO – “The Event,” which is one of the fall’s most highly anticipated TV shows, last week was named HollywoodChicago.com’s most promising new TV show of fall 2010 beating nine other worthy rivals.

CHICAGO – If you’re like most people, you probably wrote off “Cougar Town” after hearing the overly simplified concept or watching the incredibly sporadic first few months of the ABC series. You should take another look. The Courteney Cox vehicle, now on DVD, changed gears so radically that there’s a special feature about the mid-season shift in tone on the DVD and I have a feeling this series could improve even more in season two, finding a rhythm that it could maintain for years to come.

CHICAGO – I wonder how the movie history books will remember Brittany Murphy, who died suddenly at the end of 2009. When she went, she had a few films in some stage of post-production and one, the thriller “Abandoned,” makes its way to Blu-ray and DVD this week. The film works about as well as your average straight-to-DVD thriller but distinguishes itself a bit due to Murphy’s underrated acting ability, but this actress deserved a more fitting final note.

CHICAGO – “Gossip Girl” isn’t a show, it’s a living fashion spread. Everything in the frame is on sale, though at a price few viewers could afford. I suspect a large portion of the show’s fans are the type of celebrity hounds who devour gossip columns, alternately envious and repulsed by the lives of the rich elite. Any pleasure to be derived from such a column is of an inherently guilty nature.

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Theatrical Key Art.

CHICAGO – This 7-image slideshow contains all of the official press images for the highly anticipated “The Last Exorcism,” starring Patrick Fabian, Ashley Bell, Louis Herthum, and Caleb Landry Jones. The film was written by Huck Botko & Andrew Gurland and directed by Daniel Stamm. It will be released on August 27th, 2010.

CHICAGO – In our latest crime/drama edition of HollywoodChicago.com Hookup: Film, we have 50 admit-two passes up for grabs to the advance Chicago screening of the new film “Mesrine: Killer Instinct”!