Courtney B. Vance

CHICAGO – Universal Studio’s “Dark Universe,” which is centered around its stable of classic movie monsters, isn’t a bad idea. But in the darkly inauspicious debut feature called “The Mummy,” everything unravels. This is a mixed, muddled, marvel of a mess that contains an assembly of special effects, but precious little life.

CHICAGO – “Office Christmas Party” summons up a few jolly ho-ho-ho’s, but can’t quite deliver even one decent belly laugh you’d expect, considering the talented cast chock full of funny folks. It’s halfway decent premise is drowned in a sea of unfulfilled potential and weak material that the ensemble can only do so much to save.

CHICAGO – The raucous party movie has become a reliable staple in movieland, and now a production tackles the holiday soiré, and all that can go wrong. “Office Christmas Party” is co-directed by Josh Gordon and Will Speck, who also gave us “Blades of Glory” and “The Switch.”

CHICAGO – It gives us tremendous pride to offer you this Hookup, but not just because it’s a killer giveaway. It’s not just because we’ve arranged for 75 pairs of you to hopscotch to the front of the line for the advance screening of one of the summer’s most-anticipated blockbuster films. It’s not just because our winners will be seeing “Terminator Genisys” in IMAX.

CHICAGO – “Joyful Noise” is a weird movie in that it absolutely comes alive in its full musical numbers, of which there are several, but the plot that connects those gospel and pop songs is so thin that it’s impossible to care about the characters or what’s happening to them. The people in “Joyful Noise” are all likable and the story is harmless but the movie is slowly paced and oddly inert, showing none of the life that real gospel music brings to the people. It’s not full of enough joy or noise.

CHICAGO – It is a story as old as show business itself. Plucky understudy replaces a Broadway musical lead on the same night a movie director decides to take in the play, which results in the understudy getting his first movie role. It happened exactly like that to stage – and now screen – performer Jeremy Jordan, who made his debut over the weekend in the film “Joyful Noise.”

CHICAGO – The old fashioned musical has gotten a boost from the recent popularity of “Glee” and other singing shows. It was inevitably that the marriage of the gospel choir and the movie musical would take place, and writer/director Todd Graff (”Camp”) is the matchmaker in “Joyful Noise.”

CHICAGO – In our latest music edition of HollywoodChicago.com Hookup: Film, we have 50 admit-two movie passes up for grabs to the new film “Joyful Noise” starring Dolly Parton and Queen Latifah!

CHICAGO – In this edition of HollywoodChicago.com Hookup: TV, we have two VIP TV prize packs up for grabs to USA Network’s “Law & Order: Criminal Intent”!

CHICAGO – Watching commercial-free episodes back-to-back on DVD illuminates a show’s strengths and weaknesses (while also making drinking games easier to spot from a show’s repetitive moments). “Lost” and “24” were helped amply by their season sets, as their breakneck pace worked even better without a need to push fast forward on a DVR remote.