CHICAGO – Excelsior! Comic book legend Stan Lee’s famous exclamation puts a fine point on the third and final play of Mark Pracht’s FOUR COLOR TRILOGY, “The House of Ideas,” presented by and staged at City Lit Theater in Chicago’s Edgewater neighborhood. For tickets/details, click HOUSE OF IDEAS.
Spike Walters
Film Review: Take the Title Advice in ‘Jack Reacher: Never Go Back’
Submitted by PatrickMcD on October 22, 2016 - 4:27pmCHICAGO – The title of Tom Cruise’s second Jack Reacher adventure has almost prophetic ring to it – but we all would have been better off if the writers, and director and star of Jack Reacher: Never Go Back” had heeded the advice. This film seems more like one of those bargain-bin-just-barely-released thrillers than a major studio action movie.
Film Review: ‘The Girl on the Train’ is a Book Club ‘B’ Movie
Submitted by PatrickMcD on October 6, 2016 - 7:31pmCHICAGO – “The Girl On The Train” is a decent enough “Book Club” movie potboiler – it passes the time away, but never quite rises above the pulpiness of its source material. It desperately wants to recreate the suburban upper-class ennui and tone from last year’s “Gone Girl.” But while that film had David Fincher behind the camera, this one has Tate Taylor, the director of “The Help.”
Film Review: ‘Bridget Jones’s Baby’ Offers Labored Attempt at Humor
Submitted by PatrickMcD on September 16, 2016 - 11:10amCHICAGO – “Bridget Jones’s Baby” is the kind of geriatric sequel that makes you retroactively question whether the original film that inspired it was all that good to begin with – it’s less a film than a labored collection of contrived situations involving pregnancy and pratfalls. It’s not painfully unwatchable, but it’s unlikely to inspire anything remotely resembling amusement in its audiences.
Film Review: Tom Hanks is Solid, But ‘Sully’ Never Really Soars
Submitted by PatrickMcD on September 9, 2016 - 2:17pmCHICAGO – “Sully” is a solid effort from Director Clint Eastwood, but it never really soars the way its supposed to. It’s a good story, helped immeasurably by Tom Hanks low key performance, but it feels unnecessary. The problem may be that the story of the pilot who pulled off the so-called “Miracle on the Hudson” is so well known, the movie can’t really add anything to it.
Film Review: ‘War Dogs’ Fires Blanks in a Sorry Attempt at Satire
Submitted by PatrickMcD on August 19, 2016 - 6:44amCHICAGO – “War Dogs” is an insufferable, self important, and heavy handed attempt at satire that can’t stop congratulating itself for all the big truths it’s blowing up, bro. “Old School” and “Hangover” director Todd Phillips fancies himself an auteur, but here it seems like he’s imitating David O Russell imitating Martin Scorsese.
Film Review: ‘Sausage Party’ is a Hard R-Rated Raunchy Good Time
Submitted by PatrickMcD on August 13, 2016 - 7:55am- ariel shaffir
- Bill Hader
- Conrad Vernon
- Craig Robinson
- Danny McBride
- Edward Norton
- Evan Goldberg
- greg tiernan
- HollywoodChicago.com Content
- James Franco
- Jonah Hill
- Kristen Wiig
- Kyle Hunter
- Michael Cera
- Movie Review
- Nick Kroll
- Paul Rudd
- Salma Hayek
- Sausage Party
- Seth Rogen
- Sony Pictures Releasing
- Spike Walters
CHICAGO – First things first. Don’t let the fact this is animated fool you, “Sausage Party” is most definitely, absolutely NOT FOR CHILDREN. This is a hard R-rated Seth Rogen raunch fest that may induce nightmares into more sensitive viewers and contains images of animated debauchery that can not be unseen. But it is inventively profane, with more on its mind than just animated f-bombs.
Film Review: Strong Cast Makes ‘Bad Moms’ Good for Some Laughs
Submitted by PatrickMcD on July 29, 2016 - 8:59amCHICAGO – “Bad Moms” is another raunchy women behaving badly comedy that never met a curse word it didn’t like. But I’ll say this for ‘Bad Moms,’ it’s rebellion comes from a relatable place. What parent hasn’t wondered if they were in some way failing their children in some way by failing to live up to our pinterest levels of perfection?
Film Review: ‘The Secret Life of Pets’ Neuters Promising Cast
Submitted by PatrickMcD on July 8, 2016 - 7:34am- Albert Brooks
- Bobby Moynihan
- Brian Lynch
- Chris Renaud
- Cinco Paul
- Dana Carvey
- Ellie Kemper
- Eric Stonestreet
- Hannibal Buress
- HollywoodChicago.com Content
- Jenny Slate
- Ken Daurio
- Kevin Hart
- Lake Bell
- Louis C.K.
- Movie Review
- Spike Walters
- Steve Coogan
- The Secret Life of Pets
- Universal Pictures
- Yarrow Cheney
CHICAGO – A promising voice cast of comedy greats is effectively neutered in the blasé animated family film “The Secret Life Of Pets.” It doesn’t have the multi-layered story of the best Pixar movies – or even the “Despicable Me” films – to satisfy both kids and grownups. The bigger it tries to be, the more exhausted it seems.
Film Review: ‘Finding Dory’ Essentially Finds Its Sweet Spot
Submitted by PatrickMcD on June 16, 2016 - 3:10pmCHICAGO – Pixar’s sequel to its underwater animated tearjerker “Finding Nemo” isn’t quite in the same league, but “Finding Dory” is satisfying all the same. This time the story focuses on Marlin and Nemo’s forgetful friend Dory, as she searches for the family she can’t quite remember.
Film Review: ‘Warcraft’ Tries, But Eventually Has Got No Game
Submitted by PatrickMcD on June 10, 2016 - 8:16amCHICAGO – The best that can be said for the video game adaptation “Warcraft” is that it’s not the incoherent, CGI heavy and Michael-Bay-type nightmare it could have been. It’s still somewhat incoherent – full of computer generated cannon fodder – but I am surprised and happy to report it did not induce any headaches, even in pointless 3D.