Michael Ealy

Rating: 3.5/5.0

CHICAGO – Tim Story’s ‘Think Like a Man’ can be a frustrating film but the overall likeability of the cast and the inclusion of some of the often-missing elements from relationship movies (like chemistry and believable friendship dynamics) overcome the movie’s flaws. It’s a movie that could have been better but works on its own terms – it’s funny, clever, and even sweet. It’s not going to change the romantic comedy landscape but so many films in this slumping genre fail spectacularly and no one can say that about “Think Like a Man.”

Rating: 1.5/5.0

CHICAGO – There is a near-great movie opening this weekend that features a bad-ass, gun-toting chick who defeats any obstacle placed in her way. Despite what the advertising may have you believe, that movie is not “Underworld: Awakening” (Hint: It’s “Haywire”).

Rating: 2.5/5.0

CHICAGO – Ntozake Shange’s choreopoem “For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow is Enuf” was a landmark event in 1974, giving voice to a segment of society rarely seen on the stage. It took 34 years for a filmmaker to tackle this remarkable work in film form and Tyler Perry’s “For Colored Girls” retains some of the inherent power of it source and features some strong performances in the process but never finds the narrative cohesion needed to translate it to modern movie audiences.

Rating: 3.0/5.0

CHICAGO – The ensemble cast is decent, the story fits the action/adventure essence of the heist film and one of the hottest music stars of the moment, Tip “T.I.” Harris, has a prominent role. Then why is the new film “Takers” such a seen-it-all-before exercise in action blandness? It feels like a total waste of all those resources.