'Harry Potter' closes out the franchise with qualities that brought it this far
It has taken Harry Potter eight full-length films to really have it out with Lord Voldemort, the reptilian prince of darkness with the...
'Holy Terror' is set to blast into conflict
Get set for 'extreme cartooning' as Frank Miller's new hero takes on the terrorists.
Empty lot incubates uncommon film fest
There are more than 175 movies-under-the-stars screenings scheduled for Chicago's parks this summer. Most will feature standard Hollywood...
Gamer ruling a win for violence
A kid who spends multitudes of hours a week with his head behind a rifle, playing first-person shooter games rated T (for teens) or M...
Kelsey Grammer, the Boss of Chicago
"We are not holding up a mirror to Chicago politics," Kelsey Grammer said last week on the set of "Boss," his new television series about...
Shia LaBeouf is a rough-edged action hero
Shia LaBeouf learned how to play with others on action-movie sets, which may help explain why he's often ready for a fight. One scrape last...
Romance takes wing in 'Bride Flight'
It's been a while since one of those sweeping historical dramas wrapped around a tale of star-crossed lovers has come along. The new Dutch...
Best of the year to date: Movies
In a week or two we'll know if "Transformers: Dark of the Moon," opening Wednesday, can bring it!!! -- the promise of director Michael Bay's...
Selena Gomez-led trio make the trip worth it in 'Monte Carlo'
So "Monte Carlo" turns out to be a lot easier to take than both "Transformers: Dark of the Moon" and "Larry Crowne." You never...
Hanks for nothing, Larry Crowne
The best romantic comedies have a blithe, take-it-or-leave-it spirit. "Larry Crowne" has the opposite. It's the neediest movie of 2011,...
'Transformers' grosses $13.5 million on opening night
"Transformers: Dark of the Moon," the third movie in Paramount Pictures' blockbuster robot action series, collected $13.5 million from early...
'Transformers' jumpers up in birdland
"It doesn't feel like you're falling so much as it feels like the buildings are growing." That's J.T. Holmes, describing what it was like...
'Page One': Episodic film about NYT could have used an editor
Watching "Page One: Inside the New York Times" is like talking to a smart person with a severe case of attention-deficit disorder; a lot...
Transformers for dummies
Never seen a "Transformers" movie but want to see Chicago skyscrapers wrecked in 3-D? Here's a quick guide to the oeuvre. -- Leo...
Latest Transformers sequel a 'Moon' to howl at
"Transformers: Dark of the Moon," a work of ineffable soullessness and persistent moral idiocy, concludes with Chicago taking it in the...
There's a bit of 'Bad Teacher' in all of us, says Cameron Diaz
Just the way that Billy Bob Thornton showed us the dark side of department store Santa Clauses in his 2003 irreverent comedy "Bad Santa,"...
'Bad Teacher' gets a C+
An employee of the Chicago Public Schools system, the ha-cha seventh grade educator Elizabeth portrayed by Cameron Diaz in "Bad Teacher"...
Pixar hits the wall with 'Cars' sequel
"Cars 2" had every chance to improve upon the leisurely 2006 animated feature from Pixar Animation Studios and Walt Disney Studios. Yet here...
Close-up of coal country reveals some hard truths
"The Last Mountain" is a damning look at Big Coal and its landscape-decimating practices, a litany of disheartening statistics and...
The complete book on gospel music
Don McGlynn's "Rejoice and Shout" is probably the first documentary ever to look comprehensively at the 200-year musical history of African-...
Giacchino's 'Cars 2' score not a winner
Let's talk about film music. It's one of the reasons we fall in love with movies in the first place. Elmer Bernstein's theme from "To...
Conan doc a 'warts and all' portrait
Maybe this review is more about me than about Conan O'Brien, but I really couldn't get past the odor of self-congratulation emanating from...
When Chicago's main black comedy club was serious business
Throughout the '90s, All Jokes Aside in Chicago's South Loop was one of the most prominent black comedy clubs in the country. Co-owner...
'Green Lantern' star embraces comic fans
— He's one of the few actors who has gone seamlessly from romantic comedies to dramas to his latest, a high-power superhero movie....
Lantern or Hornet: Films about emerald-hued heroes are no gems
Green just isn't the superhero color this year.
Latest TV series shooting in Chicago is 3-D
Despite recent concerns about the long term viability of 3-D as an audience draw (due to lower-than-expected 3-D grosses for "Kung Fu...
Posher 'Penguins' still pleasant
For some reason I was under the impression Jim Carrey already made his penguin movie. Doesn't it seem like it? Am I the only one who had...
It's a short trip from 'Psycho' to 'Happy Father's Day'
My father, whom I admire as much as I admire and appreciate my own son, never was a lascivious man given to comments or behavior of an...
Cameron Diaz feels good about 'Bad'
After 17 years of winning over moviegoers with her mile-long legs, breezy confidence and wide, almost goofy smile, one of Hollywood's...
Coasting on wave of angst and an emo soundtrack
Living in a daze of arch, quippy diffidence, George is a Manhattan private school senior played by Freddie Highmore, best known for "Charlie...
Humor bridges a divide
Egyptian-American comedian Ahmed Ahmed documents his journey across the Middle East performing stand-up for Arab and Muslim laugh-seekers in...
Are Reese Witherspoon's pet donkeys too noisy?
Is there a hee haw hullabaloo developing over the two pet donkeys Reese Witherspoon keeps at her Ojai, Calif., home?
Turns out Godard's worldview includes a llama
In Jean-Luc Godard's elegant, impudent "Film Socialisme," people on board a Mediterranean cruise ship are perpetually photographing their...
Judy Moody's movie isn't a bummer — but it's not great
Megan McDonald's third-grade spitfire Judy Moody makes her leap from the page to the big screen with much of the spit, if not her fire,...
A pair of comic aces pack their wit and take a drive
In its sidewinding, frequently riotous fashion "The Trip" muses on friendship, commitment, narcissism and the onslaught of middle age, but...
Performances save 'Boy' from queasy premise
"We decided to use a campus shooting and yet write nothing about it."
Perspective: A little splice of heaven
If there's an afterlife, here's hoping it turns out to be like the tasty one that writer-director Albert Brooks envisioned in "Defending...
'Super 8' review: J.J. Abrams, phone home
Set in 1979 and the summer of "Alien" and "Breaking Away," "Super 8" evokes a time before smartphones and YouTube, when making movies with...
Filmmaker John Waters gets wicked in Chicago
Does it come as any surprise to find out that John Waters, Mr. Subversive himself, cites "The Wizard of Oz" — one of the most...
2nd-generation 'Centipede' spawns censorship issue
In 1932, offended by Hollywood's gangster pictures and his own city's popular image as Machine Gun Central, Chicago Mayor Anton Cermak...
Yutz's mutterings yield some universal truths
Half the time I was laughing during the bracingly unsentimental coming-of-age comedy "Submarine," I wasn't even sure why. Writer-director...
Thinking inside box nets intimate movie experience
Even on her wedding day, a small-town bride finds she can't quite outshine her dazzling sister, an Angelina Jolie-esque creature played to...