Jeremy Piven

CHICAGO – “The Pirates! Band of Misfits” has that incredible Aardman energy and elegance of works like “Wallace & Gromit” and “Chicken Run” along with some of the best voice work you’ll hear in an animated film all year.

CHICAGO – Six years after her sentimental debut feature, “On a Clear Day,” filmmaker Gaby Dellal has gotten mired in the wintry sludge of her sophomore effort, “Angels Crest.”

CHICAGO – Mark Pellington’s “I Melt with You” is one of the worst movies of 2011, but has the benefit of also being among the weirdest. Students of rotten cinema will surely flock to this disaster simply to watch it in morbid, mouth-gaping awe. Yet without a scenery chewing wild card like Nicolas Cage in the ensemble, this mournful mess is far from an enjoyable guilty pleasure.

CHICAGO – If this fourth “Spy Kids” installment proves anything at all, it’s that time has clearly run out on the franchise. While the original film was playfully inventive and preached resonant messages about family unity and the importance of teamwork, the series has followed the usual pattern of diminishing returns. After an eight-year hiatus, filmmaker Robert Rodriguez tried and failed to reboot the franchise with this soulless retread.

CHICAGO – It’s fun espionage time at the movies this week, as “Spy Kids: All the Time in the World in 4D” introduces some new young adventurers to the popular series, Mason Cook and Rowan Blanchard. Former kid Alexa Vega also appears in the film.

CHICAGO – I remember when “Entourage” first took off back in 2004 wondering how Doug Ellin and his talented cast could possibly keep this concept fresh for the length of a series. Wouldn’t we get tired of watching Vinnie Chase (Adrian Grenier) try to make it big? Or worse, would these guys turn into the preening celebrities that the show at least somewhat skewered at the start?

CHICAGO – How does one of the trendiest shows on television stay hot in its seventh season? It’s a question that the writers of “Entourage” must answer as cable’s beloved bad boys return tonight for another season of celebrity cameos and insider drama.

CHICAGO – The wave of TV on DVD sets that always comes crashing down upon us after the end of a traditional September-to-May season is still a few months off, but a few interesting releases have popped up recently and we thought they each deserved a mini-review for potential fans out there looking for something new now that their DVRs have gotten pretty empty. Take notes, there might be a test at the end.

CHICAGO – Does anyone else remember when crappy straight-to-DVD sequels were pretty much reserved for horror movies and kid’s flicks? Sure, we expected a new “Leprechaun” or “Air Bud” movie every now and then, but the action market has really gotten into this game recently and produced their share of junk. Take for example the awful “Smokin’ Aces 2,” a shoot-em-up that makes Joe Carnahan’s original look like a genre classic by comparison.

CHICAGO – In the midst of a new season of ‘Entourage’ on HBO, actor Jeremy Piven walked the red carpet during the Chicago premiere of ‘The Goods: Live Hard, Sell Hard,’ the newly released comedy in which he plays a lead role.