Spike Walters

CHICAGO – The John Wick films have always contained body counts that reach well into triple digits. But in “John Wick: Chapter 4” the series indulges in some serious overkill. Everything you liked about the previous three films is on display, with about 20 percent more of the franchise’s growing mythology surrounding the High Table.

CHICAGO – We have arrived. Welcome to the annual Oscar Predictions on HollywoodChicago.com for 2023 (the 95th Academy Awards). The film/entertainment contributors of HC – Patrick McDonald and Spike Walters – are joined by filmmaker treasure Michael Glover Smith (“Relative”) and film critic Jeffrey L. York of “The Establishing Shot.”

CHICAGO – “Champions” is a predictable and formulaic, but it’s ultimately a good natured trip into a world of sports comedy clichés. It’s never particularly laugh out loud funny, but its heart is in the right place, which makes it hard to root against the film.

CHICAGO – Ant-Man gets supersized in this agreeable Marvel Studios movie, which pits our tiny hero against his most formidable foe yet. While the first two Ant-Man movies were largely comic detours where the bug sized superhero carved a small but charming place in the larger universe, the third Ant-Man and the Wasp film puts him squarely at the center of the next phase of Marvel moviemaking.

CHICAGO – “80 for Brady” has an all star lineup, but when it comes to scoring any genuine laughs it has a serious case of fumble-itis. It’s fun to see these talented women together on the screen but there’s not much there. It’s four old friends going to the Super Bowl, and that’s about it.

CHICAGO – Tom Hanks finds himself – as the title character – stranded in a slough of artificiality in this clumsy manipulative attempt at a crowd pleaser. He plays a grump in “A Man Named Otto,” a remake of a 2015 Swedish film. The setting has been transferred to the grey rust belt of Pittsburgh, and Hanks is a widower with a lot of chips on his shoulder about the world today.

CHICAGO – The Shrek franchise, which had been showing signs of creative exhaustion dating all the way back to “Shrek The Third,” gets an unexpected dose of new life with this belated – and better than it has any right to be – sequel “Puss In Boots: The Last Wish,” focusing on the swashbuckling feline (voice of Antonio Banderas).

CHICAGO – David Harbour is part Bad Santa, part John McClane in this yuletide spin on Die Hard which never takes itself the slightest bit seriously. It’s a spiked Christmas cocktail that’s surprisingly light on its feet. So Here comes Santa Claus with a sledge hammer ready to dispatch some North Pole justice to bad guys on his naughty list.

CHICAGO – Once again Dwayne Johnson finds himself in a vehicle unworthy of his considerable charms and talents. Johnson stars as “Black Adam,” a demigod from a mythical middle eastern country who was given power from a counsel of wizards to protect his homeland from injustice. He’s woken from a 5000 year sleep to protect the country again from foreign interlopers...

CHICAGO – Experienced horror fans will recognize this, but anytime a long running franchise has to resort to Telekinesis, you know you’re in for trouble. It didn’t work for Jason, It didn’t work for Freddy, It didn’t work for Michael Myers the first time he tried it in “Halloween 5” … it most certainly does not work here in “Halloween Ends.”