CHICAGO – Excelsior! Comic book legend Stan Lee’s famous exclamation puts a fine point on the third and final play of Mark Pracht’s FOUR COLOR TRILOGY, “The House of Ideas,” presented by and staged at City Lit Theater in Chicago’s Edgewater neighborhood. For tickets/details, click HOUSE OF IDEAS.
Adam Fendelman
Crime Thriller ‘Broken City’ Fictionalizes its Crime Without Most of its Thrill
Submitted by HollywoodChicago.com on January 20, 2013 - 9:58pmRating: 2.5/5.0 |
CHICAGO – Rife with corruption and injustice, the setting for “Broken City” could have been picked from a litter of U.S. metropolitans. Said star Mark Wahlberg in a recent red-carpet interview with HollywoodChicago.com, it’s not Chicago.
Werner Herzog Towers Over Miscast ‘Jack Reacher’ Star Tom Cruise in Five Mere Scenes
Submitted by HollywoodChicago.com on December 21, 2012 - 1:17amRating: 2.5/5.0 |
CHICAGO – While normally I’d never think the date I screened a film was newsworthy, being subjected to “Jack Reacher” on Dec. 13, 2012 turned out to put even a therapist into therapy. The very next day, well, just two words: Sandy Hook.
Oversimplified ‘Paranormal Activity 4’ Insults Your Horror Intelligence Amid Waning Franchise
Submitted by HollywoodChicago.com on October 20, 2012 - 7:27pmRating: 2.0/5.0 |
CHICAGO – Following the first “Paranormal Activity” in 2007, which is most profitable film of all time based on return on investment, filmmakers Jason Blum, Oren Peli and Henry Joost have made a killing for Paramount Pictures.
The Most Scary Film of 2012, ‘Sinister’ is Both a Voyeur’s Heaven & Hell
Submitted by HollywoodChicago.com on October 13, 2012 - 4:16pmRating: 4.5/5.0 |
CHICAGO – We have forgotten what it’s like to be scared by an actually scary movie. “Sinister” – from producer Jason Blum (“Insidious” and all four “Paranormal Activity” films) – is the first film in 2012 to remind us.
Channing Tatum’s ‘10 Years’ Resuscitates High School For 50 Worthwhile Minutes
Submitted by HollywoodChicago.com on September 22, 2012 - 1:38pmRating: 2.5/5.0 |
CHICAGO – “10 Years” unintentionally backfires by proving that a real-life Hollywood couple – Channing Tatum and his actual spouse of three years Jenna Dewan-Tatum – has less on-screen chemistry than two actors who’ve practically never met.
Real-Life Backstory of ‘The Possession’ More Titillating Than Cinematic Dybbuk Dramatization
Submitted by HollywoodChicago.com on September 2, 2012 - 10:33pmRating: 2.0/5.0 |
CHICAGO – A film marketing itself as being “based on a true story” doesn’t hold the same teeth it once did. With truly original stories a financial high risk for Hollywood and many films leaning toward being based on a best-selling novel, the genre that is based on a true story or “inspired by true events” has increasingly taken creative liberties.
Predictable ‘The Campaign’ Hinges on Hilarious Newlyweds Will Ferrell, Zach Galifianakis
Submitted by HollywoodChicago.com on August 10, 2012 - 10:36pmRating: 4.0/5.0 |
CHICAGO – Will Ferrell makes five new proclamations loud and clear: he’s a comic dream-team duo with Zach Galifianakis in “The Campaign,” punching a baby and then a dog are seriously funny, real-life politics should take a lesson from this over-the-top smear campaign, you need one supporting Korean weapon and there’s nearly no such thing as a 100% comedy that delivers on 100% of its comedy.
Adam Fendelman: ‘The Dark Knight Rises’ Realizes Nolan’s Trifecta: One of History’s Greatest Trilogies
Submitted by HollywoodChicago.com on July 20, 2012 - 11:08pmRating: 4.5/5.0 |
CHICAGO (No-Spoiler Promise!) – In a Hollywood test tube, pour one part Michael Bay and his pure “Transformers” eye candy plus another part Quentin Tarantino with his rich writing and masterful characters. The resulting mutation is Christopher Nolan and his near-perfect Batman conclusion – “The Dark Knight Rises” – to one of the greatest trilogies of all time.
‘Snow White and the Huntsman’ Dwarfed By Comatose Kristen Stewart, Melodramatic Charlize Theron
Submitted by HollywoodChicago.com on June 1, 2012 - 1:01amRating: 2.5/5.0 |
CHICAGO – If you can stomach forgiving the film’s uneven acting, inconsistent pacing and a higgledy-piggledy script that feels like it’s still in draft mode, just zero in on the only newsworthy question about “Snow White and the Huntsman”: Who are those “dwarves”?
Despite Rihanna, Peter Berg’s ‘Battleship’ Lands as One of the Best Popcorn Flicks Ever
Submitted by HollywoodChicago.com on May 18, 2012 - 1:01amRating: 4.0/5.0 |
CHICAGO – “Battleship” certainly could simplistically be reduced to a 131-minute propaganda piece of why you might want to enlist in the U.S. Navy – that is, if Earth had to ward off lizard-like creatures from a deep-space solar system we can only reach by slingshotting a highly amplified “What’s up, aliens?” broadcast to them.