Ryan Phillippe

CHICAGO – “Damages” is back for its fifth and final season and there’s every reason to believe the award-winning show is going to end on a high note given the strength of the first two episodes of this impressive final arc. We’re finally going to get what we’ve been dying to see since the amazing first season — Patty vs. Ellen in a court of law.

CHICAGO – Blu-ray allows for an interesting reassessment of perceived failures as titles that haven’t been available on the next-gen format hit HD for the first time and one can see if perhaps history has been kinder to a near-miss than critics were upon its release. When I heard that “54” and the director’s cut of “Reindeer Games” were hitting Blu-ray (one can only assume the latter is tied to the collector’s edition of Ben Affleck’s “The Town” that hit last week), I wondered if their reputations as disasters were unearned and looked forward to reappreciations. They’re both still a mess.

CHICAGO – It’s easy to forget just how good of an actor Matthew McConaughey can be with the right vehicle. He delivered what may be his best performance to date in Jill Sprecher’s 2001 multi-character drama “Thirteen Conversations About One Thing,” in which he played a slick lawyer whose unbreakable self-esteem is shattered by a sudden crisis of conscience.

CHICAGO – Proving yet again that he can deliver when he avoids horrendous romantic comedy cliches, Matthew McConaughey does his best work in years in “The Lincoln Lawyer,” but the film doesn’t quite come together like one wishes that it would due to the common traps that befall big screen adaptations of best-selling thrillers.

CHICAGO – Michael Connelly is one of the most successful thriller writers alive, winning nearly every major award possible for his genre.

CHICAGO – In our latest drama edition of HollywoodChicago.com Hookup: Film, we have 35 admit-two passes up for grabs to the advance Chicago screening of the new film “The Lincoln Lawyer”!

CHICAGO – Is anyone surprised that a 20-second sketch from “Saturday Night Live” literally comes apart at the seams when it’s stretched into a feature film? Wouldn’t you have been more surprised if “MacGruber,” recently released on DVD and Blu-ray, had actually worked?

CHICAGO – In a parallel universe, perhaps a version of “MacGruber” exists that actually understands that comedy should be funny…oh what a beautiful world that would be.

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Dieter Von Cunth (Val Kilmer) is surrounded by his thugs.

CHICAGO – This 22-image slideshow features all the official press images for Rogue Pictures’ “MacGruber” starring Will Forte, Kristen Wiig, Ryan Phillippe, Powers Boothe, Maya Rudolph, and Val Kilmer. It was written by Forte & John Solomon & Jorma Taccone and directed by Taccone. It will open on May 21st, 2010.

CHICAGO – Paramount Pictures on Monday released a flood of new production stills for the war film “Stop-Loss,” which stars Ryan Phillippe. Directed by relatively new director Kimberly Peirce (“Boys Don’t Cry”), “Stop-Loss” opens on March 28, 2008. While we feature a few new production stills below, continue on to our huge “Stop-Loss” image gallery!