Steve Martin

CHICAGO – Given the wacky nature of Owen Wilson, Jack Black, and Steve Martin in their family comedies and the tendency of all three talented actors to over-act, people will probably be surprised at how generally-subdued their collaboration on “The Big Year” ended up. In fact, while the movie is genial and good-natured, it’s also surprisingly dull. The characters never resonate beyond their descriptions - rookie, veteran, and the jerk in between. So, while the filmmakers deserve credit for not injecting the proceedings with gross-out humor, they needed to inject it with something to bring it to life.

CHICAGO – “The Big Year” is advertised as a comedy. The subject is bird watching, or as the new film likes to express the proper term, “birding.” It stars comic legend Steve Martin, and funnymen Jack Black and Owen Wilson. It is both not funny and is ACTUALLY, seriously about birding. Time to fly away.

CHICAGO – In our latest comedy edition of HollywoodChicago.com Hookup: Film, we have 40 admit-two movie passes up for grabs to the advance Chicago screening of “The Big Year” with Jack Black, Steve Martin and Owen Wilson from “The Devil Wears Prada” director!

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Steve Martin begins his very stupid conversation with Martin Short.

CHICAGO – Last week, June 14-19, Chicago felt the roar of hilarity as it hosted the 2011 “Just for Laughs” festival, sponsored by the TBS Network. For five rollicking days, the Windy City entertained audiences at venues all around town, with both name comic celebrities, local stand-up and the Chicago school of improvisation.

CHICAGO – Hilarity is back in the Windy City as the annual “Just for Laughs” festival comes to town to kick off summer. Over the next five days, Chicago venues will be rocking with comedy legends like Steve Martin, and the smaller clubs around town will also be featuring up-and-coming acts.

CHICAGO – The crowd-pleasing comedy “It’s Complicated” is an excellent fit with Blu-ray in that we often have lower expectations when we’re sitting on our couch than when we’re paying the rising costs of seeing a film in the theaters. It may not be quite worth a purchase, but this star-powered semi-romance should definitely satisfy as a quality rental.

CHICAGO – Referring to her new film, “It’s Complicated,” Meryl Steep recently said, “It’s incredible, I’m playing the romantic lead in romantic comedies. Bette Davis is rolling over in her grave.” Tell Kate Hepburn the news.

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Dustin Lance Black

CHICAGO – This 20-image slideshow contains a selection of the award-winners and presenters back backstage at “The 81st Annual Academy Awards,” which aired on ABC on Sunday, February 22nd, 2009.

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Steve Martin stars in MGM Pictures and Columbia Pictures comedy The Pink Panther 2.

CHICAGO – This 26-image slideshow contains the official press images for “Pink Panther 2,” which was directed by Harald Zwart and features Steve Martin, Jean Reno, Alfred Molina, Emily Mortimer, Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, Andy Garcia, Lily Tomlin, and John Cleese. The Sony Pictures release opens on Friday, February 6th, 2009.

CHICAGO – This week’s edition of the Round-Up - HollywoodChicago’s recurring feature of titles that might fall through the cracks if we don’t shine a spotlight on them, however briefly - includes proof that while not all remakes fail some certainly do, Chris Rock is still the most talented stand-up comedian alive, and the Brits usually do TV better than Americans.