When you have a formula that works, you don’t tinker with it. Kentucky Fried Chicken knows this, Mercedes-Benz knows this and Disney knows this. It would be hard to calculate just how many billions the corporation has earned on its princess movies and the ancillary products it sells because of them. The youngsters these films […]
Chuck Koplinski
Writing for Illinois Times since 1998, Chuck Koplinski is a member of the Critic's Choice Association, the Chicago Film Critics Association and a contributor to Rotten Tomatoes. He appears on WCIA-TV twice a week to review current releases and, no matter what anyone says, thinks Tom Cruise's version of The Mummy is a woefully underrated film.
Posted inArts & Culture
Tepid pace dooms Allied
Robert Zemeckis’ Allied is a film that is concerned about appearances, both in terms of its characters as well as the production itself. Artifice is what drives the film in terms of locale, its two gorgeous leads, and what binds its two protagonists together – although both of them begin as spies, you’re not quite […]
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Beasts a worthy addition to Potter canon
Since the Harry Potter film franchise came to an end, there’s been a gaping hole in Warner Brothers Studios’ ledger sheet. Bringing their stable of DC Comics superheroes to the screen was supposed to fill this void but they’ve continued to underperform in one way or another. However, shareholders will be delighted with the prequel […]
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Awkward “Seventeen” Ultimately Rights Itself
Like many an awkward teenager, Kelly Fremon Craig’s The Edge of Seventeen takes one step forward and two steps back during much of its development, stumbling here, righting itself there before coming to a satisfying, albeit, hard-won conclusion. Like many of its characters, the film has nothing but the best of intentions in telling its […]
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Dr. Strange a worthy addition to the Marvel canon
Having already earned their bona fides in rendering earthbound heroics and taken the first step towards intergalactic adventure, Marvel Studios now introduces another aspect of their shared universe by dipping its toe into the realm of the supernatural. Dr. Strange, the 14th movie in the company’s superhero franchise, follows much the same pattern as the […]
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True heroism at the heart of brutal Hacksaw
On May 1, 1945, the unthinkable occurred. Attempting to take a ridge on the island of Okinawa, the 1st Battalion of the United States Army suffered massive casualties due to heavy enemy fire. Refusing to let his fellow soldiers die on the battlefield, medic Desmond Doss returned again and again, under fire, to where they […]
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Cruise on auto-pilot in Never Go Back
Not since Conrad Veidt played the monstrous somnambulist Cesare in the first horror film, The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, has an actor sleepwalked through a film the way Tom Cruise does in Jack Reacher: Never Go Back, an unnecessary, by-the-book sequel that’s nothing more than a pastiche of every action film cliche you’ve come to […]
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Joneses Never Catches Fire
There’s no shortage of talent where Greg Mottola’s Keeping Up with the Joneses is concerned, a would-be comedy romp that never really generates enough laughs, or rompiness for that matter. This is one of those films that looks great on paper, surely went into production with the highest of expectations and inexplicably lays before the […]
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Ouija II proves fun, frightening
I remember my grandmother had an Ouija board and it was something we kids pulled out at every family and holiday gathering, handling the tattered brown cardboard box with a sense of awe and respect that it ultimately didn’t deserve. Hoping to get in touch with the spirit world, my cousins and I would gently […]
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Girl a bit too clever for its own good
Some movies make their intentions known from the start. Tate Taylor’s The Girl on the Train certainly falls in that category, as it sets out to keep the viewer back on its heels throughout most of its running time. That the film is based on a best-seller only complicates things for the director and screenwriter […]
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Miss Peregrine overcomes a slow start to delight
Creatures who eat eyeballs to regain their humanity; children who are invisible or can turn you to stone with a glance or are lighter than air; and a sense of alienation felt by all. Yep, Ransom Riggs’ novel Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children is right in director Tim Burton’s wheelhouse, as this tale of […]
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“Nation” Proves Problematic, yet Compelling
Incendiary, problematic and arresting, Nate Parker’s The Birth of a Nation is the hot-button film of the moment, an unflinching look at the vagaries of slavery and its echoes through the generations. Focusing on a slave rebellion of 1831 led by the radical slave Nat Turner, the movie employs a slow-burn approach as we see […]
