Bruce Willis

CHICAGO – The 55th Chicago International Film Festival Opening Night presents one of the most anticipated films of the Fall awards season. “Motherless Brooklyn” is adapted for the screen (from a novel), directed by and features actor Edward Norton. The rest of the powerhouse cast includes Bruce Willis, Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Willem Dafoe, Alec Baldwin, Bobby Cannavale and Leslie Mann.

CHICAGO – What is it like to usually play the villain?

CHICAGO – Maybe inside filmmaker M. Night Shyamalan’s head, his latest film “Glass” works… all the elements of what we need to know about this sequel to MNS’s previous films “Split” and “Unbreakable” are within. However, what works inside the director’s head may not work for the audience, especially in the first half of the film.

CHICAGO – Man, talk about bad timing. With the Stoneman Douglas shootings still making news, America will now entertain itself with a vigilante doctor shooting anything he sees? Yeesh. Bruce Willis is game in the watchable-but-ultra-violent “Death Wish.”

CHICAGO – What’s up with this movie? Everything in it is so wrong headed, despite movie star casting and a attempt toward “current events.” Setting itself in a modern and complex country – Afghanistan – but creating a perspective on that country that is straight ugly American, “Rock the Kasbah” is a total downer.

CHICAGO – Sex sells, sure, but the film-noir sequel “Sin City: A Dame to Kill For” makes you feel dirty if you’re left thinking that’s enough.

CHICAGO – When the first “Sin City” (2005) was released – based on the graphic novels by Frank Miller – the conversion of a film to a noir-like comic book atmosphere was pioneering. The sequel “Sin City: A Dame to Kill For” has heightened that look, but this time has much less to say.

CHICAGO – In the latest HollywoodChicago.com Hookup: Film, we have 30 pairs of advance-screening movie passes up for grabs to the highly anticipated Frank Miller and Robert Rodriguez sequel “Sin City: A Dame to Kill For”!

CHICAGO – “G.I. Joe: Retaliation” may have been overly slammed by critics but audiences definitely liked the film, pushing it to over $370 million worldwide, more than 20% more than its predecessor (even if the domestic total for the sequel was less than the first film). Paramount has put together a solid release for the film, including over an hour of behind-the-scenes featurettes, deleted scenes, a commentary track, and a great transfer. It’s what one wants from a major theatrical Blu-ray.

CHICAGO – If you didn’t see the DC Entertainment splash screen when this “Red 2” sequel kicks off with the fake death of one of its usual suspects, you wouldn’t mind that the rest of the film feels nothing like a comic book movie except for its animated transitions between scenes.