Cheech Marin

AUSTIN, TX – The depth and number of films at the SXSW Film & TV Festival portion of the week is nirvana for a film geek’s adventure. Here are three of the films I caught at SXSW … all led by familiar names and have high interest. “Arcadian,” “Gutter” and “Cheech and Chong’s Last Movie” … look for them in 2024.

AUSTIN, TX – One thing that SXSW attracts are movie stars. With the big premieres headquartered at the famous art deco Paramount Theatre in Austin, audiences were treated to appearances by the legendary Susan Sarandon (“Gutter”), a reunited Cheech & Chong, and for the creme de la creme we were in the “Cage.” The great Nicolas Cage appeared on behalf of “Arcadian.”

CHICAGO – “Champions” is a predictable and formulaic, but it’s ultimately a good natured trip into a world of sports comedy clichés. It’s never particularly laugh out loud funny, but its heart is in the right place, which makes it hard to root against the film.

CHICAGO – Patrick McDonald of HollywoodChicago.com appears on “The Morning Mess” with Scott Thompson on WBGR-FM (Monroe, Wisconsin) on October 8th, 2020, reviewing the new live action film “The War with Grandpa,” featuring Robert De Niro.

CHICAGO – “Coco” bears all the visual hallmarks of the Pixar Studio at its best, however its story bears the more recent symptoms of creative exhaustion. In this story, a young boy named Miguel (voice of Anthony Gonzalez) aims to follow his heart and pursue music, but toe tapping tunes have been strictly forbidden in his home.

CHICAGO – Unfortunately you can’t judge “The Book Of Life” by its cover. The movie draws on the fertile imagery of the Mexican “Day Of The Dead” to create its own animated world. The animation is excellent and the wooden characters seem to spring to life – but those performances are as wooden as a board.

CHICAGO – After an absolute train wreck like ABC’s “Work It” and something that comes close to disaster in NBC’s “Are You There, Chelsea,” there’s something nearly-satisfying about a mediocre sitcom like “Rob!”

CHICAGO – While “The Lion King” is one of the best Disney movies of all time, “The Lion King 3D” is a manipulative exploitation to bring paying parents back with their kids merely through the sexiness of today’s 3D fad.

CHICAGO – In our latest comedy/animation/family edition of HollywoodChicago.com Hookup: DVD, we have 10 DVDs up for grabs in advance of the home entertainment release of “Hoodwinked Too! Hood vs. Evil” with Hayden Panettiere!

CHICAGO – Before you spend your hard-earned cash taking the entire family to see “Spy Kids 4: All the Time in the World,” you might as well catch up with the original “trilogy,” the very-popular series of films that most of us assumed were the end of this mediocre franchise. Don’t get me wrong — the first “Spy Kids” is actually a very fun movie and totally worth owning for Blu-ray buyers with kids of the right age but the two sequels are mediocre and annoying, respectively. Still, kids like to have complete collections and all of the films are hitting Blu-ray this week extras-packed HD editions with digital copies. Now you can take these precocious mini-Bonds anywhere.