May 2008

Chicago Native, Legendary Comedian Harvey Korman Passes Away at 81

CHICAGO – Legendary comedian and Chicago native Harvey Korman passed away on Thursday. He is best remembered from films such as “Blazing Saddles” and “High Anxiety” as well as a performer on the “The Carol Burnett Show”. Korman was 81.

Despite its Title, ‘The Strangers’ Actually a Familiar Repeat of Horror Film Conventions

Bryan Bertino, The Strangers (1)

CHICAGO – Poor Liv Tyler. She’s stuck in a remote vacation home with nothing but the blank-stare acting of Scott Speedman to “save” her. What’s a rock daughter who becomes an actress to do? First, she shouldn’t sign onto yet another version of the couple-in-terror cliché.

‘Sex and the City: The Movie’ a Frilly University For Understanding the Human Condition

CHICAGO – To its voracious universe of cult-following fans, it feels like a television marathon that spans an entire season. To everyone else who bats an indifferent eye at the religion that is “Sex and the City,” it may surprise you to find that all the glam and glitz has something even for you to learn, too.

‘Sex and the City: The Movie’ a Frilly University For Understanding the Human Condition

HollywoodChicago.com Oscarman rating: 3.5/5CHICAGO – To its voracious universe of cult-following fans, it feels like a television marathon that spans an entire season. To everyone else who bats an indifferent eye at the religion that is “Sex and the City,” it may surprise you to find that all the glam and glitz has something even for you to learn, too.

Despite its Title, ‘The Strangers’ Actually a Familiar Repeat of Horror Film Conventions

HollywoodChicago.com Oscarman rating: 1.5/5CHICAGO – Poor Liv Tyler. She’s stuck in a remote vacation home with nothing but the blank-stare acting of Scott Speedman to “save” her. What’s a rock daughter who becomes an actress to do? First, she shouldn’t sign onto yet another version of the couple-in-terror cliché.

Hookup: 30 Admit-Two Early Passes to ‘The Promotion’ With John C. Reilly, Seann William Scott

CHICAGO – In our latest edition of HollywoodChicago.com Hookup: Film, we’re giving away 30 admit-two passes to the new film “The Promotion” with John C. Reilly and Seann William Scott. The screening will take place on June 2, 2008 at 7 p.m. in Chicago. To win, just submit a comment!

Interview: Joachim Trier’s Debut Explores Young Angst With Exceptional Feeling in ‘Reprise’

CHICAGO – When combined with the responsibilities of making the rent or making your way in the relationship landscape, early adulthood is often more challenging (and in different ways) than adolescence.

‘Avenue Q’ Bases Musical Self on ‘Cheap Laugh is Better Than No Laugh’ Adage

Avenue Q in Chicago
HollywoodChicago.com Comedy/Tragedy Rating: 2.5/5.0
Rating: 2.5/5.0

CHICAGO – In the tradition of recent Broadway productions where touristy and crowd-pleasing scenery reigns over any type of theater substance, along comes the 2004 Tony Award-winning best musical “Avenue Q,” which is now in a touring version at the Cadillac Palace Theatre in Chicago.

Exclusive: HollywoodChicago.com Photographs Biograph Set For John Dillinger Killing in ‘Public Enemies’

CHICAGO – The Biograph Theater on Lincoln Avenue is an iconic and historical Chicago landmark. As has been well documented in our active ““Public Enemies”” discussion thread, the area is currently made over by the production team for the film ““Public Enemies”” to how it looked the night of July 22, 1934. See our exclusive slideshow here.

Exclusive: HollywoodChicago.com Photographs Biograph Set For John Dillinger Killing in ‘Public Enemies’

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CHICAGO – The Biograph Theater on Lincoln Avenue is an iconic and historical Chicago landmark. As has been well documented in our active “Public Enemies” discussion thread, the area is currently made over by the production team for the film “Public Enemies” to how it looked the night of July 22, 1934.

After 19 Years, ‘Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull’ Phenomenally Exhumes Venerated Roots

HollywoodChicago.com Oscarman rating: 4.5/5CHICAGO – After such a long respite from the beloved film progression, I was initially just as skittish about seeing Harrison Ford back in the Indy saddle as I was watching Sylvester Stallone back in the ring in “Rocky Balboa” in his 2006 comeback and then again in 2008 in his “Rambo” return.

After 19 Years, ‘Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull’ Exhumes Venerated Roots

CHICAGO – After such a long respite from the beloved film progression, I was initially just as skittish about seeing Harrison Ford back in the Indy saddle as I was watching Sylvester Stallone back in the ring in “Rocky Balboa” in his 2006 comeback and then again in 2008 in his “Rambo” return.

‘The Witnesses’ Bear the AIDS Burden of a Time Less Remembered

Johan Libéreau, The Witnesses (1)

CHICAGO – While Paris, France in 1984 probably wasn’t as romantic as the Paris in several of its other lionized eras, it existed just the same. As portrayed in “The Witnesses,” it was an age that may have been more uncertain than the others based on a melting pot of inhabitants who immigrated to the City of Lights in search for a new life.

‘The Witnesses’ Bear the AIDS Burden of a Time Less Remembered

HollywoodChicago.com Oscarman rating: 3.5/5CHICAGO – While Paris, France in 1984 probably wasn’t as romantic as the Paris in several of its other lionized eras, it existed just the same. As portrayed in “The Witnesses,” it was an age that may have been more uncertain than the others based on a melting pot of inhabitants who immigrated to the City of Lights in search for a new life.

Hookup: 10 Passes to VIP Chicago Party, Screening For ‘The Bill Engvall Show’ on TBS to Meet Tim Meadows

CHICAGO – In the inaugural edition of HollywoodChicago.com Hookup: TV, 10 admit-two VIP passes will be given away to the exclusive Chicago opportunity to meet Tim Meadows (“Saturday Night Live,” “Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story,” “Semi-Pro”) for the return of “The Bill Engvall Show” on TBS.

‘Body of War’ Confronts Grisly Realities of U.S. War Mistakes in Iraq

CHICAGO – They are invisible in the current war, which has lasted longer than World War II. It’s the soldier in Iraq who fights on – in the face of public apathy at home – and who carries out the decisions of an administration that has chosen to hide their caskets in death.

‘Body of War’ Confronts Grisly Realities of U.S. War Mistakes in Iraq

HollywoodChicago.com Oscarman rating: 4/5CHICAGO – They are invisible in the current war, which has lasted longer than World War II. It’s the soldier in Iraq who fights on – in the face of public apathy at home – and who carries out the decisions of an administration that has chosen to hide their caskets in death.

Packed With Picturesque Majesty, ‘The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian’ Fights Nobly For ‘PG’ Rating

CHICAGO – For the life of me, I couldn’t exorcise it from my head. Amid all the splendor of such a picturesque film, this one question was like a gnat I couldn’t swat: “Is this really rated ‘PG’?” Indeed, “The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian” is rated “PG”. But that didn’t come without great scrutiny and much editing.

Packed With Picturesque Majesty, ‘The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian’ Fights Nobly For ‘PG’ Rating

HollywoodChicago.com Oscarman rating: 4.5/5CHICAGO – For the life of me, I couldn’t exorcise it from my head. Amid all the splendor of such a picturesque film, this one question was like a gnat I couldn’t swat: “Is this really rated ‘PG’?” Indeed, “The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian” is rated “PG”. But that didn’t come without great scrutiny and much editing.

‘The Mark of Zorro’ Nails Swordsman, Markedly Complicates Cast, Botches Dialect

The Mark of Zorro at the Lifeline Theatre in Chicago
HollywoodChicago.com Comedy/Tragedy Rating: 2.5/5.0
Rating: 2.5/5.0

CHICAGO – Sometimes less, of course, is more. Live theater often knows that better than anyone. That’s exactly the shrill reminder Chicago’s Lifeline Theatre needed in Katie McLean’s adaptation of the beloved Zorro book by Johnston McCulley.

Star-Crossed Lovers Create Road to Ruin in ‘Before the Rains’

CHICAGO – By its very nature, colonialism is bad karma waiting to happen. You are a sovereign nation with weaponry and a desire for treasure. While you invade and take over a country with that treasure, it also comes with a society you don’t understand.

Star-Crossed Lovers Create Road to Ruin in ‘Before the Rains’

HollywoodChicago.com Oscarman rating: 4.5/5CHICAGO – By its very nature, colonialism is bad karma waiting to happen.

You are a sovereign nation with weaponry and a desire for treasure. While you invade and take over a country with that treasure, it also comes with a society you don’t understand. You stir in religious dogma, native slavery and the defiling of lands and create an evil stew that’s ripe to boil over.

Interview: Chiwetel Ejiofor on American Samurai Journey ‘Redbelt’ From Mind of David Mamet

CHICAGO – Chiwetel Ejiofor (pronounced choo-ih-tell edge-o-for) has been a stalwart film actor ever since his dramatic debut in Steven Spielberg’s “Amistad”. Since then, he has been a go-to character actor for directors as diverse as Spike Lee, Woody Allen and Stephen Frears.

Chicago’s ‘Shout! The Mod Musical’ an Infectiously Groovilicious, Estrogen-Only Stew

Shout! The Mod Musical

CHICAGO – Meg Ryan, eat your heart out. Since “When Harry Met Sally,” the salacious Danielle Plisz as Green Girl in “Shout! The Mod Musical” takes Ryan’s infamous restaurant eruption to a whole new level on stage.

Interview: ‘Son of Rambow’ Director Garth Jennings Unleashes Power of Childhood Imagination

CHICAGO – A preacher delivering a sidewalk sermon followed by a boy’s inventive doodles and drawings are the opening images that launch “Son of Rambow”. This sets the tone for the unyielding power of childhood imagination that the filmmakers unleash upon moviegoers.

‘Speed Racer’ Condemns Franchise Dignity, Delivers Sensorial Explosion

CHICAGO – While Hollywood slapped “PG” on the hotly anticipated “Speed Racer” to line its pocketbooks with the widest hodgepodge of people (ahem: kids) everywhere, those same kids will leave the theater with that lollipop nearly sucked to the stick but then yanked away with confusion.

‘Speed Racer’ Condemns Franchise Dignity, But Delivers Sensorial Explosion

HollywoodChicago.com Oscarman rating: 2.5/5CHICAGO – While Hollywood slapped “PG” on the hotly anticipated “Speed Racer” to line its pocketbooks with the widest hodgepodge of people (ahem: kids) everywhere, those same kids will leave the theater with that lollipop nearly sucked to the stick but then yanked away with confusion.

Interview: ‘Standard Operating Procedure’ Director Errol Morris Discusses Evil From Iraqi Prison

CHICAGO – Here is the legendary documentarian Errol Morris on the infamous 2003 photographs taken at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq, which are the subject of his new film entitled “Standard Operating Procedure”:

‘Iron Man’ Sits Indisputably in Club of Highest-Rated Superhero Movies Ever

CHICAGO – Move over, Superman. This lush, high-octane playboy never tasted so good.

Robert Downey Jr. fittingly opens “Iron Man” with a cocktail in hand and all the arrogance in the world. As the story goes, his conceit is indeed respected as Earth is his oyster both for the playing and for the taking. With the American marketing machine in full effect for 2008’s first summer blockbuster, the inaugural one lives up to the buildup.

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  • Manhunt

    CHICAGO – Patrick McDonald of HollywoodChicago.com appears on “The Morning Mess” with Dan Baker on WBGR-FM (Monroe, Wisconsin) on March 21st, 2024, reviewing the new streaming series “Manhunt” – based on the bestseller by James L. Swanson – currently streaming on Apple TV+.

  • Topdog/Underdog, Invictus Theatre

    CHICAGO – When two brothers confront the sins of each other and it expands into a psychology of an entire race, it’s at a stage play found in Chicago’s Invictus Theatre Company production of “Topdog/Underdog,” now at their new home at the Windy City Playhouse through March 31st, 2024. Click TD/UD for tickets/info.

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