Olivier Assayas’ impeccably measured domestic drama is a loving, bittersweet poem to growing up, growing old, and being replaced by the next generation. (Read more…)
Now playing at the Renaissance Place in Highland Park and Century Centre in Chicago.
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Night guard Larry Daley (Ben Stiller) befriends Amelia Earhart (Amy Adams) in “Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian.” |
Had this unpretentious, goofy comedy been directed by a Robert Zemeckis or a Steven Spielberg, and been written by a Seth Rogen or a John Hamburg, it would have been smart as well as mildly entertaining.
But “Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian” was directed by Shawn Levy, who gave us the vapid remakes of the classics “Cheaper By the Dozen” and “The Pink Panther.” It was written by Robert Ben Garant and Thomas Lennon, the team behind the sophomoric “Reno 911: Miami” and the lowbrow improv TV series it’s based on. (Read more…)
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One of many Terminator units sets out to kill humans for the evil Skynet machines in the sequel “Terminator Salvation.” |
The apocalyptic “Terminator Salvation,” the first entry in the popular “Terminator” science-fiction series not to be rated R, envisions 2018 Earth as a desolate, color-bled world under constant assault by explosive violence, a place where paper-thin characters speak in action-film clichés and predatory death machines demonstrate even lousier marksmanship than their human targets. (Read more…)
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Sue (Jennifer Aniston) takes a joy ride with Mike (Steve Zahn) in the opposites-attract romantic comedy “Management.” |
“Management” is a whimsical, quietly comical romance about two people who you would never, ever think could fall in love with each other. Not seriously, anyway.
But they do. (Read more…)
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Harvard symbologist Robert Langdon (Tom Hanks), third from left, makes a disturbing discovery in “Angels & Demons.” |
What a pretentious pile of populist pablum.
“Angels & Demons,” Ron Howard’s frantic and superficial follow-up to his talky 2006 hit “The Da Vinci Code,” races from one formula Hollywood cliché to the next, hoping that blinding narrative speed will compensate for drab, sketchy characters and a plot that could easily be mistaken for a chunk of Swiss cheese. (Read more…)
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Leo (“Scrubs” star Donald Faison) accidentally screws up a big drug delivery in the action comedy “Next Day Air.” |
Let’s consider Benny Boom’s “Next Day Air” one more piece of hard evidence against ever letting rock video directors handle narrative features. (Read more…)
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Palatine theater and film director Jeff Greene chats with an actor at the Lake County Film Festival. His new indie film “Off-Loop” premieres Saturday. |
It began as an ambitious, nine-part television miniseries starring all Northwest suburban talent.
Then, as key actors defected to paying jobs in Los Angeles and other places, director Jeff Greene realized that it made better sense to condense the nine TV episodes into a single feature film. (Read more…)
THURSDAY, MAY 14, 7:30pm
Arlington Heights Memorial Library
“DIRECTOR’S SHOWCASE–Steven Spielberg”
Join Dann Gire (film critic of Chicago’s suburban newspaper THE DAILY HERALD, as well as the founder and president of the Chicago Film Critics Association, and adjunct instructor at Aurora and Harper Colleges in Illinois) and Raymond Benson (novelist, author of 20 books, former official author of James Bond books, film historian, and Film History instructor at the College of DuPage in Glen Ellyn, Illinois).
THURSDAY, MAY 7, 7:30pm
Schaumburg Township District Library
“GOING THE DISTANCE–The Greatest Sports Movies”
Join Dann Gire (film critic of Chicago’s suburban newspaper THE DAILY HERALD, as well as the founder and president of the Chicago Film Critics Association, and adjunct instructor at Aurora and Harper Colleges in Illinois) and Raymond Benson (novelist, author of 20 books, former official author of James Bond books, film historian, and Film History instructor at the College of DuPage in Glen Ellyn, Illinois).
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Dr. “Bones” McCoy (Karl Urban) and Captain James Kirk (Chris Pine) behold the newly constructed USS Enterprise in “Star Trek” the reboot. |
J.J. Abrams’ “Star Trek” reboot beams a fresh set of dilithium crystals into a science-fiction film franchise that has been eking by on cinematic life support since 1991’s “The Undiscovered Country.” (Read more…)