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.
HollywoodChicago.com Movie Reviews
Report Card on ‘Fist Fight’ is a Failing Grade
Submitted by PatrickMcD on February 17, 2017 - 12:10pm Rating: 0.0/5.0 |
CHICAGO – “Fist Fight” is such a thin premise it can’t even sustain its own two minute trailer, much less a feature length film. That premise, what there is of it, is simple – English teacher (Charlie Day) and History Teacher (Ice Cube) get involved in an altercation with a student on the last day of class, at a failing high school known for senior pranks. Teacher Ice Cube gets fired, and blames Charlie Day. So they act like children and settle their differences with a fist fight outside.
‘John Wick: Chapter 2’ Adds Artistry to Mass Murder
Submitted by JonHC on February 16, 2017 - 8:56am Rating: 4.5/5.0 |
CHICAGO – It takes a special kind of film that enthralls the audience so much that they stop caring about the body count and are more concerned with the main character running out of bullets. “John Wick: Chapter 2” offers the same cathartic effect as watching a Nazi get punched but in an infinitely more picturesque package.
Film Review: Rotating Perspectives Converge in ‘Train Station’
Submitted by PatrickMcD on February 15, 2017 - 2:07pm Rating: 4.5/5.0 |
CHICAGO – Taking on the variance of choice in a very unique and compelling way, “Train Station” was interpreted through 40 filmmakers in 25 countries, following a character – The Person in Brown – in a singular story that flexes and changes as the role is exposed. Chicago was one of those filming locations, and “Train Station” will screen here at the Music Box Theatre on Wednesday, February 15, 2017.
Discover the 2017 Oscar Short Film Nominees
Submitted by PatrickMcD on February 14, 2017 - 11:58am- 2017
- Academy Awards
- Animation
- Blind Vaysha
- Borrowed Time
- Danish
- Ennemis Intérieurs
- French
- HollywoodChicago.com Content
- Las Femme et le TGV
- Live Action
- Magnolia Pictures
- Movie Review
- Oscar
- Patrick McDonald
- Pear Cider and Cigarettes
- Pearl
- Piper
- Short Films
- Shorts HD
- Silent Nights
- Sing
- Timecode
- Walt Disney Studios
 Rating: 4.0/5.0 |
CHICAGO – One of the more overlooked set of nominees at Academy Awards time is two categories for Best Short Film – Live Action and Animated. The 2017 nominees are packaged as two presentations that are currently screening in Chicago at the Landmark Century Centre Cinema.
‘The LEGO Batman Movie’ Delivers the Usual Laughs
Submitted by PatrickMcD on February 10, 2017 - 10:51am Rating: 3.5/5.0 |
CHICAGO – “The LEGO Batman Movie” is more of a parody than the laugh-out-loud hijinks of the surprising “The LEGO Movie,” but the legend of The Bats is ripe for a good skewering, and the movie has a lot of fun doing it. Will Arnett reprises the voice as the title character, with Zach Galifianakis taking on the antics of The Joker.
‘Fifty Shades Darker’ is More Silly Than Sexy
Submitted by PatrickMcD on February 10, 2017 - 10:20am Rating: 2.0/5.0 |
CHICAGO – While offering a veritable sex scene smorgasboard, “Fifty Shades Darker” fails to offer much in the way of anything that is actually sexy. As the mousy Anastasia Steele and the billionaire Mr. Grey, Dakota Johnson and Jamie Dornan are slightly more comfortable in their roles than they were the first time around…but they continue to have all the sexual chemistry of a couple on a first date that isn’t going particularly well.
2017 Best Doc Oscar Nominee ‘I Am Not Your Negro’
Submitted by PatrickMcD on February 6, 2017 - 5:15pmRating: 4.5/5.0 |
CHICAGO – The terms that have been used to describe African Americans over the years …black, afro-americans, negro and worse… has always been what others had named them, the others that wanted to marginalize, categorize and group individuals into images of words. The documentary “I Am Not Your Negro” seeks to upend these generalizations and in turn, those words.
It Hurts Trying to Laugh at ‘The Comedian’
Submitted by PatrickMcD on February 3, 2017 - 11:54amRating: 2.0/5.0 |
CHICAGO – Mention this possibility…Robert De Niro portrays an aging stand-up comic who once had a popular sitcom in the 1980s…and 99% of filmgoers are in. Add that he beds a woman 25 years his junior, does community service, roasts Cloris Leachman and becomes a reality show host, and suddenly 80% of that 99 are out. That’s just part of the over-extension and dread in “The Comedian.”
‘The Space Between Us’ Falls Into a Black Hole & Dies
Submitted by PatrickMcD on February 2, 2017 - 10:16pm Rating: 1.0/5.0 |
CHICAGO – You know you’re in trouble when the opening scene of a film inspires forehead slapping levels of incredulity. And that’s just the beginning of what I felt while watching “The Space Between Us,” another entry in the long line of would-be weepies about young lovers torn apart, usually by class or disease. The film desperately wants to be a millennial love story for a generation, and has plenty of faults but precious few stars in its tale of literal star-crossed lovers.
The Book (Finally) Closes on ‘Resident Evil: The Final Chapter’
Submitted by JonHC on February 1, 2017 - 5:38am Rating: 2.5/5.0 |
CHICAGO – Guilty pleasures are the order of the day, especially when we are facing daily signs of a real, impending apocalypse. End of the world by zombies remains one of the most popular cataclysmic cinematic events and “Resident Evil” is proof. “Resident Evil: The Final Chapter” proves that what should be dead can come back to life, but the real question is if it actually should.
Joy of Life Expands When Meeting ‘Toni Erdmann’
Submitted by PatrickMcD on January 30, 2017 - 10:37am Rating: 5.0/5.0 |
CHICAGO – If you need a little cinema therapy, it doesn’t get any better than “Toni Erdmann.” This subtle story builds to generate a joyful feeling, which defines the small-but-important survival guides for this thing called life. Writer/director Maren Ade has delivered the goods, and the film is nominated for Best Foreign Language Film at the upcoming Academy Awards.
HollywoodChicago.com ESP, En Español: ‘xXx,’ ‘Split,’ ‘Paterson’ y ‘20th Century Women’
Submitted by JonHC on January 28, 2017 - 5:15amCHICAGO – Cada semana, HollywoodChicago.com le traerá las criticas de las películas que hemos visto y que están saliendo esa semana, pero en español. HollywoodChicago.com ESP no sólo representa HollywoodChicago.com Espanol, sino también Esta Semana en Peliculas.
Matthew McConaughey is All That Glitters in ‘Gold’
Submitted by PatrickMcD on January 27, 2017 - 12:19pm Rating: 3.0/5.0 |
CHICAGO – The relish that Matthew McConaughey displays in creating his latest character in “Gold,” a Willy Loman-type mining exec who is looking for his biggest score, is most of the reason to experience the film. However, there isn’t exactly a motherlode when it comes to the story.
