‘Deal’ is No Big Deal as Career of Burt Reynolds Fades Away

HollywoodChicago.com — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 22:22:36 -0700

CHICAGO – Poor Burt Reynolds. As the No. 1 box-office star from 1978 to 1982, he revived his film career in 1997 with “Boogie Nights”. Since then, he has had the long, slow decline of “B” movies and bad remakes. Reynolds even tainted his own legacy by participating in the horrible 2005 redo of “The Longest Yard”.

Will he ever get the one last script that will return him to glory? The film “Deal” isn’t it. Reynolds plays Tommy Vinton: a mysterious stranger who begins observing young poker hotshot Alex (Bret Harrison).

Read Patrick McDonald’s full review of “Deal” in our reviews section.

View our full, high-resolution “Deal” image gallery.

Alex is from the Internet age and won an online contest to get to the World Series of Poker. Tommy is an old-school, professional poker player from the 1970s whose luck ran out shortly thereafter.

He hasn’t played in 20 years on a promise to his wife. Tommy sees something in the Internet hotshot, though, and on the sly begins to coach him and bankroll his run through the poker tournament circuit.

As it happens in old mentor/young hotshot films, the two must angrily part. When you throw in the subplot of Reynolds’ wife leaving him, it sets up the inevitable showdown between old professional Tommy and his former protégé. It has to be at the World Series of Poker, too.

Shannon Elizabeth in “Deal”.
Photo credit: MGM

Burt Reynolds in “Deal”.
Photo credit: MGM

Read Patrick McDonald’s full “Deal” review.

Hookup: Pristine DVD Sets of Classic Films Up For Grabs For United Artists Film Festival in Chicago

HollywoodChicago.com — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 23:13:54 -0700

CHICAGO – As our giveaways continue to grow in popularity, what we give away continues to sweeten, too. In this HollywoodChicago.com Hookup: Film, three lucky winners will be hooked up with our sweetest giveaway yet: a complete DVD set of 20 of the greatest classic films in recent memory.

These DVDs encapsulate some of the most uncontested and cherished films of the last several decades. Titles include “West Side Story,” “Raging Bull,” “Rain Man,” “Rocky,” “Chitty Chitty Bang Bang,” “Carrie,” “Some Like it Hot,” “Fiddler on the Roof,” “Die Another Day,” “In the Heat of the Night” and many more.

So why these now? On March 11, 2008, we announced a classic film celebration coming to Chicago called the United Artists 90th Anniversary Film Festival, which will take place at the historic Music Box Theatre at 3733 N. Southport Ave. from April 4 to 10, 2008 and then again from May 9 to 15, 2008.

Several of the films above and others of similar caliber are being brought back into the theater for this limited engagement on the occasion of 90 years of film for MGM and United Artists. United Artists says the Chicago festival, which will comprise the largest catalog event in video history, is leading up to the public release of many of these titles on DVD.

We have partnered with the festival to offer three lucky winners their own classic DVD package of all 20 films. They are all collector, special, decade or anniversary edition DVDs. The full list of these titles follows:

“Battle of Britain” (collector’s edition)
“The Apartment” (collector’s edition)
“A Bridge Too Far” (collector’s edition, two discs)
“Carrie” (25th anniversary edition)
“Chitty Chitty Bang Bang” (special edition, two discs)
“Die Another Day” (special edition)
“Fiddler on the Roof” (decade’s collection)
“Fistful of Dollars” (collector’s edition)
“For A Few Dollars More” (collector’s edition)
“Get Shorty” (collector’s edition, two discs)
“The Great Escape” (special edition, two discs)
“In the Heat of the Night” (40th anniversary edition)
“Invasion of the Body Snatchers” (collector’s edition)
“Judgment at Nuremberg” (special edition)
“New York, New York” (30th anniversary edition)
“Raging Bull” (collector’s edition, two discs)
“Rain Man” (special edition)
“Rocky” (collector’s edition)
“Some Like it Hot” (collector’s edition)
“West Side Story” (special edition, two discs)

All you have to do for a chance to win is click “Add new comment” at the bottom of this article and respond with your favorite film among that list of 20 and a compelling reason why. That’s it! We’ll then randomly select a winner. To be eligible, you must be a registered HollywoodChicago.com user. If you don’t already have an account, create one quickly and easily here.

Also to be eligible, we must have your e-mail address. We have e-mail addresses on file once you’re an active user. When we randomly select the three winners for this HollywoodChicago.com Hookup: Film, we will e-mail you to request your mailing address. We will then mail you your brand-spanking new classic DVD sets. This giveaway closes on April 7, 2008. Good luck!

The dates and films playing as part of the United Artists 90th Anniversary Film Festival at the Music Box follow.

United Artists 90th Anniversary Film Festival (part one): April 4 to 10, 2008
“Raging Bull”: April 4, 2008 (new print)
“Bananas”: April 4, 2008
“The Good, the Bad and the Ugly”: April 5, 2008
“West Side Story”: April 6, 2008
“Kiss Me Deadly”: April 7, 2008
“Some Like it Hot”: April 7, 2008 (new print)
“The Killing”: April 8, 2008
“The Manchurian Candidate”: April 8, 2008
“The Night of the Hunter”: April 9, 2008
“Midnight Cowboy”: April 10, 2008
“Network”: April 10, 2008

“James Bond” series (part two): May 9 to 15, 2008
“Dr. No”
“Goldfinger” (new print)
“From Russia With Love”
“Thunderball”

By ADAM FENDELMAN
Editor-in-Chief
HollywoodChicago.com
adam@hollywoodchicago.com