CityVida

January 27, 2012, 8:26am CST (“The Grey”: Face to Face with Death) Liam Neeson’s slow transformation into a thinking man’s action hero started a long time ago in a galaxy not so far away. In fact, it started with his very first film, John Boorman’s “Excalibur” (1981) where he played Sir Gawain, one of King Arthur’s Knights of the Round Table. He later played the scientist turned into a disfigured avenging angel in Sam Raimi’s “Darkman” (1990) and the dashing Scottish rebel Rob Roy in the 1995 film of the same name. But it was as Jedi Knight Qui Gon-Jin in the god-awful “Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace” (1999) that finally turned him into a dependable, charismatic action star. So this whole notion that Neeson has unpredictably become one of today’s top action movie stars after the box-office success of “Taken” is, quite frankly, poppycock. He’s always been a dependable, versatile actor regardless of genre. It’s just that nobody was honestly paying any attention.

January 24, 2012, 7:06pm CST (Dulce Maria visits the Windy City) Recently, I was invited to attend a meet and greet with Dulce Maria, former member of RBD (Rebelde). She was in town promoting the 2nd part of her solo album, Extranjera. Let me tell you, see is easy on the eyes ...

January 23, 2012, 4:20pm CST (Puff Puff Give Rihanna, Eva Longoria, Splitsville for Heidi and Seal, Gossip Tidbits and Hottie of the Week) Buenos Tardes, beautiful people, Happy Monday! I bet you’re all thrilled to be back at work on this wonderfully dreary day. At least it’s not freezing outside. I don’t know about you, but I stayed up late watching some football and now I’m depending on this coffee to get me through the day. And of course, some chisme. So let’s begin.

January 20, 2012, 9:00am CST (“Red Tails”: a Story that Needs To Be Told…Just Not This Way) I somehow missed the announcement that December and January had been declared “melodramatically over-the-top war movies” season. Let’s see. Last month saw the release of Steven Spielberg’s World War I-set film about a boy and his horse, “War Horse.” That was followed by the limited release of Zhang Yimou’s “The Flowers of War,” the “Rape of Nanking” set tale of a gold-hearted American and the equally sweet group of Chinese prostitutes who save a group of young Catholic Chinese girls from the evil hands of depraved Japanese soldiers (released this week in Chicago). And now, we have the cliché-ridden story of the legendary Tuskegee Airmen in the George Lucas-produced “Red Tails.”

January 19, 2012, 9:00pm CST (“Haywire” or Jason Bourne Has Met His Match) Like Clint Eastwood during most of the 90s and the first half of this past decade, Steven Soderbergh (“Traffic,” “Ché,” the “Ocean’s Eleven” movies, among many others) has equally divided his time between his most personal and most commercial work. He crosses with ease that line that separates Hollywood from independent cinema and sometimes even finds a way to unite both worlds while turning its most basic rules upside-down.

January 16, 2012, 12:20pm CST (Chisme Roundup includes 69th Annual Golden Globes, Lohan vs. Uncle Sam, Blue Ivy on Billboard and Hottie of the Week) Happy Martin Luther King Day, CityVida readers! For those of you who are working and for those who are off, relaxing at home before the work week officially starts, we have some chisme for you. Nothing crazy this week, an ex-couple reunites and acts civil towards each other, the Golden Globes’ Latino presence, and more. So let’s get started ...