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2000's Almost Famous was a critically acclaimed and beloved classic on release. It remains on many "Great Films" lists, an iconic picture in many ways for its visuals and narrative twists, and one of the most well-liked '70s rock 'n' roll throwbacks. But what few reviews of the movie talk about is the film's noticeable streak of feminism. While told from a male perspective and set in the highly macho rock 'n' roll environment, Almost Famous is nonetheless a film about a feminist point of view being championed and vindicated through both the female characters and the male ones.

Almost Famous follows William Miller (Patrick Fugit), a teen rock fan who ends up joining the fictional rock band Stillwater on tour to write an article for Rolling Stone about them. He comes from a controlling but well-meaning mother, Elaine (Frances McDormand), who fears for his safety in the world of rock,...

Chicago – In the latest HollywoodChicago.com Hookup: Film with our unique social giveaway technology, we have 40 pairs of movie passes up for grabs to the advance screening of “The Words” with an all-star cast including Bradley Cooper, Zoe Saldana, Olivia Wilde, Dennis Quaid and J.K. Simmons!

“The Words,” which opens nationwide on Sept. 7, 2012, also stars Jeremy Irons, Ben Barnes, John Hannah, Zeljko Ivanek, Michael McKean, Nora Arnezeder, Ron Rifkin, Liz Stauber, Gianpaolo Venuta and Jeanie Hackett from writers and directors Brian Klugman and Lee Sternthal.

To win your free movie passes to “The Words” courtesy of HollywoodChicago.com, just get interactive with our unique Hookup technology directly below. That’s it! This screening is on Tuesday, Sept. 4, 2012 at 7 p.m. in downtown Chicago. The more social actions you complete, the more points you score and the higher yours odds of winning!

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It’s funny; given the premise of “The Words”, I thought this would be a thriller along the lines of, say, a Stephen King novel. But turns out, it’s mostly a drama/romantic movie sans anything really dangerous going on. Go figure. Anyways, put down your books and take a gander at the first trailer for Brian Klugman and Lee Sternthal’s “The Words”. Young writer Rory Jansen finally achieves long sought after literary success after publishing the next great American novel. There’s only one catch – he didn’t write it. As the past comes back to haunt him and his literary star continues to rise, Jansen is forced to confront the steep price that must be paid for stealing another man’s work, and for placing ambition and success above life’s most fundamental three words. Starring Olivia Wilde, Zoe Saldana, Bradley Cooper, Ben Barnes, Jeremy Irons,...

Check out four new images from directors Brian Klugman and Lee Sternthal’s dramatic thriller “The Words”. The film has no release date yet, but look for it sometime in 2012. Given the nice cast, I think it should get some attention (Cooper is still a big name, right?), but you’re probably not looking at a wide release, though I suppose that’s entirely possible. Klugman is an actor turned director, and “The Words” is his feature film debut, while his co-director Sternthal has a writing credit on “Tron: Legacy”. When an aspiring writer claims another man’s long lost work as his own, the price he must pay is more than he could have ever imagined. The cast includes Olivia Wilde, Zoe Saldana, Bradley Cooper, Ben Barnes, Jeremy Irons, Dennis Quaid, John Hannah, J.K. Simmons, Michael McKean, Zeljko Ivanek, Ron Rifkin, Liz Stauber, Gianpaolo Venuta, and Nora Arnezeder...

The log line here could be "The Big Chill" with songs, though this is misleading in two respects. "Sing Now or Forever Hold Your Peace" lacks any of the socio-economic or political concerns of "The Big Chill". Indeed its shallowness is reflected in one character's abiding concern with his receding hairline. And there actually is more music in Lawrence Kasdan's 1983 ensemble comedy-drama as its soundtrack is gloriously rife with 1960s rock and soul standards.

The gimmick in "Sing" is that the reunited buddies all sang a cappella together in college, which leads to several musical segments. In any event, the issues here are light and trite, the humor strained and resolutions as pat as a TV sitcom. Consequently, the film's attraction to the over-30 crowd is limited.

Another major difference is that writer-director-producer Bruce Leddy's concentration is entirely on his male characters. Women figure only in their relationships to men. The seven singing buddies who reunite in Long Island 15 years after their last concert do so to sing at the wedding of fellow singer Greg (Mark Feuerstein). Which necessitates twisting the arm of Hollywood player Steven David Alan Basche), who holds an idiotic grudge against the bridegroom over a stolen girlfriend ages ago.

The movie sets up routine, if not mundane, personal dilemmas among the group: David David Harbour) -- he of the receding hairline -- stresses over his wife Dana's (Rosemarie DeWitt) desire to have children; Ted (Alexander Chaplin) keeps secret his recent firing from his nagging, foul-mouthed wife Trish (Molly Shannon); and Richard (Reg Rogers), fresh off a divorce, has hit the 500-day mark without sex.

Will (Samrat Chakrabarti), whom everyone assumes to be gay, defies expectations by showing up with a sharp-witted beauty with the arresting name of Julep (Elizabeth Reaser). To jump-start all the male libidos, Steven and his overly proper wife Michelle (Liz Stauber) arrive with their baby's young Swedish nanny (Camilla Thorsson), which triggers all those Swedish jokes that left the lexicon of stand-up comics years ago.

Spooner (Chris Bowers) is cheerfully single as his wealth, Zen-like nature and large sex organ assures him a steady supply of females. His family's beach house lodges the group, and his member is the source of much of Trish's commentary.

Too bad these guys weren't in a rock group, though. Their barbershop-quartet songs are pretty old and corny, as are the movie's jokes. At times the jokes feel like a middle-age guy's idea of adolescent humor -- gags that cause you to wince rather than laugh.

Leddy overplays his hand with virtually every character. Trish's foul mouth, Richard's sad-sack routine and the men drooling over the Swedish babe become tiresome very quickly. And the incidents Leddy dreams up to occupy his characters are mostly dull.

The film unfolds in a succession of master shots, one-shots and two-shots with no visual flow and the camera almost always too close to actors. The only striking visual moments come in wide-angle exteriors of the Long Island house. It sure is a beaut.

SING NOW OR FOREVER HOLD YOUR PEACE

Strand Releasing

Blip Inc.

Credits:

Screenwriter-director-producer: Bruce Leddy

Executive producers: Lisa Marco Messing, Elliott Messing, Erlend Olson, Rick Carlson

Director of photography: Clyde Smith

Production designer: Timothy Whidbee

Music: Jeff Cardoni

Co-producer: Eliza Steel

Costume designer: Erika Munro

Editor: Bill Deronde

Cast:

Steven: David Alan Basche

Spooner: Chris Bowers

Will: Samrat Chakrabarti

Ted: Alexander Chaplin

Dana: Rosemarie DeWitt

Greg: Mark Feuerstein

David: David Harbour

Julep: Elizabeth Reaser

Richard: Reg Rogers

Trish: Molly Shannon

Michelle: Liz Stauber

Elsa: Camilla Thorsson

Running time -- 96 minutes

No MPAA rating...

The makers of this new 3-D Imax release obviously determined that a coherent script was less important to their project than state-of-the-art dinosaur special effects, with the result that "T- Rex: Back to the Cretaceous" is a surprisingly dull and jumbled effort that will bore all but the most indiscriminant moppets.

No matter: With the timeless craze for all things dinosaur, the title alone guarantees that the film will clean up at Imax theaters around the country. It opened Friday in Southern California and New York.

Directed by Brett Leonard ("Virtuosity", "Lawnmower Man"), the slow-paced film doesn't come to life until the final minutes, when the photo-realistic dinos finally make their appearance. Before that, we must endure a sudsy melodrama about teenager Ally's (Liz Stauber) conflicts with her paleontologist father, Dr. Donald Hayden (Peter Horton), who refuses to let her accompany him on his far-flung digs. Hurting her feelings even further is Dad's close relationship with his young, clinging assistant (Kari Coleman).

When Hayden brings what may be a dinosaur egg back to the museum that serves as his laboratory, Ally accidentally knocks it over when left alone with it. A strange gas is released that propels her back into the Cretaceous Era, natch, where she has a series of close scrapes with various dinosaurs, including a strangely cuddly T-Rex trying to protect her eggs. Meanwhile, Ally's concerned dad wanders the museum, vainly calling her name.

Imax films are never known for their depth or subtlety, but "T-Rex" is even dopier than it needs to be, and the few minutes of excitement that occur toward the end don't fully compensate for the tedium that precedes it.

Still, the film has a splendid visual sheen and the excitement that only Imax 3-D can provide, and the splendidly rendered computer-animated dinosaurs are quite impressive. Another plus is the beautifully photographed outdoor locations at Dinosaur National Park in Alberta, Canada.

T-REX: BACK TO THE CRETACEOUS

Imax Film Distribution

Director: Brett Leonard

Screenplay: Andrew Gellis, Jeanne Rosenberg

Story: Andrew Gellis, David Young

Producers: Antoine Compin, Charis Horton

Co-producer: Michael Lewis

Director of photography: Andrew Kitzanuk

Editor: Jonathan Shaw

Music: William Ross

Color/stereo

Cast:

Dr. Donald Hayden: Peter Horton

Ally Hayden: Liz Stauber

Elizabeth Sample: Kari Coleman

Barnum Brown: Laurie Murdoch

Charles Knight: Tuck Milligan

Running time -- 45 minutes

No MPAA rating...