Pierce Brosnan

CHICAGO – Creating the lofty name for this film, “Love is All You Need” – from a translation of its original title, “Den skaldede friser” – is intently ambitious considering its source is a lyric from one of The Beatles most famous songs. The film has its moments, but cannot sustain itself in a stew of high drama and mixed emotions.

CHICAGO – “I Don’t Know How She Does It” could have been just another misogynistic (you would never see “I Don’t Know How HE Does It”…the very title implies sexism) alleged comedy but it goes well beyond that partially because it features one of the worst screenplays of 2011 but also because it is easily one of the most miscast movies ever made.

CHICAGO – A&E’s “Bag of Bones” is a mess. There are elements that work but a source material that doesn’t exactly translate to the mini-series form along with a mediocre script by Matt Venne and generic direction by Mick Garris add up to an experience that’s disjointed and inconsistent. There was a time when a Stephen King mini-series was an event – “The Stand,” “It,” even “Storm of the Century” – but what’s so disappointing about “Bag of Bones” is how inconsequential the whole thing feels.

CHICAGO – She produced and starred in one of the great TV-to-film franchises of the last 15 years. She has made millions in endorsements for the fashion industry. She is married to a prominent celebrity who once played Ferris Bueller. Regarding Sarah Jessica Parker, “I Don’t Know How She Does It.”

CHICAGO – Most of us who are old enough to have spent many of our formative hours playing “Goldeneye 64” often point to the title as one of the most memorable shooting games in history. Personally, I spent much of the time I should have been studying in college massacring my friends on the legendary Nintendo 64 game. Like most people of my age group, I was completely psyched for the 2010 reboot of the timeless game. It just makes my disappointment all the more painful.

CHICAGO – Nature films used to be much more common in the days before basic cable. Believe it or not young ones, there was a time before the interwebs and Discover Health when you couldn’t see nature at work outside of museums or a trip to the Antarctic. Rebooting the genre has been a remarkably profitable endeavor for Disney Nature as 2009’s “Earth” made $107 million worldwide and 2010’s “Oceans,” recently released on Blu-ray and DVD followed with $68 million.

CHICAGO – Roman Polanski’s name has drawn a lot of media attention in 2010 due to his continued international legal problems but the controversy regarding his real life has overshadowed the fact that he recently made one of the best films of his career, the tragically underrated and straight-up brilliant “The Ghost Writer,” a must-see now that it’s on Blu-ray and DVD.

CHICAGO – The most notable thing about “Percy Jackson & The Olympians: The Lightning Thief,” now available on Blu-ray and DVD, is that it probably still holds position as the most horribly-titled film of the year. As for the actual movie, it follows in the footsteps of years of films trying to become the next “Harry Potter” franchise and, comparably, makes out much better than disasters like “Eragon” or “The Seeker: The Dark is Rising,” but that’s faint praise indeed.

Rating: 3.5/5.0

CHICAGO – The surprisingly good “The Greatest” opens and closes with two very different car rides — one silent and mournful and one loud and full of laughter; one on the way from death and one on the way to life. They are bookends for a well-performed tearjerker of the kind that mostly transcends its melodramatic set-up to become something genuinely moving.

CHICAGO – In our latest romance edition of HollywoodChicago.com Hookup: Film, we have 35 admit-two passes up for grabs to the advance Chicago screening of “The Greatest” starring Pierce Brosnan, Susan Sarandon and Carey Mulligan (from “An Education”)!