CHICAGO – It began with a boy and his dream (nightmare?). John LaFlamboy, to be exact, as he took an idea he had in college and made it his life’s work. He owns and operates the HellsGate Haunted House in Lockport (Illinois), which was designed, built and put together by Haunted House experts expressly for the spookiest month of the year. For info on how to purchase tickets, click HellsGate.
Bill Murray
Shrink Wrapped ‘Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania’
Submitted by PatrickMcD on February 17, 2023 - 7:11am Rating: 4.0/5.0 |
CHICAGO – Ant-Man gets supersized in this agreeable Marvel Studios movie, which pits our tiny hero against his most formidable foe yet. While the first two Ant-Man movies were largely comic detours where the bug sized superhero carved a small but charming place in the larger universe, the third Ant-Man and The Wasp film puts him squarely at the center of the next phase of Marvel moviemaking.
Who Ya Gonna Call in ‘Ghostbusters: Afterlife’
Submitted by PatrickMcD on November 19, 2021 - 10:19am Rating: 3.0/5.0 |
CHICAGO – This latest attempt to revive the beloved 1980’s franchise is a curious rumination on nostalgia. It’s so heavily indebted to the original, references are treated as holy relics to be revered and worshiped. But it also makes the compelling case – to begin with – for the futility of trying to turn the film into a franchise.
Place in France! On-Air Review of ‘The French Dispatch’
Submitted by PatrickMcD on October 22, 2021 - 10:59am- Adrien Brody
- Benecio Del Toro
- Bill Murray
- Elisabeth Moss
- Ennui
- France
- Frances McDormand
- Henry Winkler
- HollywoodChicago.com Content
- James Baldwin
- Jeffrey Wright
- Monroe
- Movie Review
- New Yorker
- Owen Wilson
- Pat Über TV
- Patrick McDonald
- Scott Thompson
- Searchlight Pictures
- The French Dispatch
- The Morning Mess
- Tilda Swinton
- Timothée Chalamet
- WBGR-FM
- Wes Anderson
- Wisconsin
 Rating: 4.5/5.0 |
CHICAGO – Patrick McDonald of HollywoodChicago.com appears on “The Morning Mess” with Scott Thompson on WBGR-FM (Monroe, Wisconsin) on October 21st, 2021, reviewing the new Wes Anderson film, “The French Dispatch” in theaters beginning October 22nd.
On-Air Reviews of ‘On the Rocks’ & ‘A Call to Spy’
Submitted by PatrickMcD on October 2, 2020 - 9:24amRating: 4.0/5.0 |
CHICAGO – Patrick McDonald of HollywoodChicago.com appears on “The Morning Mess” with Scott Thompson on WBGR-FM (Monroe, Wisconsin) on October 1st, 2020, reviewing the new films On the Rocks” (In select theaters October 2nd and on AppleTV+ starting October 23rd.) and “A Call to Spy” (In theaters & Video-On-Demand).
'The Dead Don't Die' Offers Full-On Horror Homage But Little Else
Submitted by JonHC on June 18, 2019 - 6:44pmRating: 3.0/5.0 |
CHICAGO – Before Jordan Peele, before Mike Flanagan, before James Wan, and especially before all of Blumhouse, there were other masters of horror who paved the way for the filmmakers we know today. The Carpenters, the Cravens, and the Argentos of the world helped turn horror into the thriving genre it is today. Jim Jarmusch’s “The Dead Don’t Die” openly acknowledges this with their love letter approach to the genre itself.
Gilda Radner Becomes Live Again in ‘Love, Gilda’
Submitted by PatrickMcD on September 29, 2018 - 12:46pm- 1975
- Bill Murray
- Chevy Chase
- Dan Aykroyd
- Detroit
- Gilda Radner
- HollywoodChicago.com Content
- Jane Curtin
- John Belushi
- Lorne Michaels
- Lorraine Newman
- Love Gilda
- Movie Review
- National Lampoon Radio Hour
- Original Cast
- Patrick McDonald
- Roseanne Roseannadanna
- Saturday Night Live
- SNL
- The Second City
- Toronto
Rating: 4.5/5.0 |
CHICAGO – It’s always something, as the great Gilda Radner often said (through her character Roseanne Roseannadanna), and the documentary “Love, Gilda” is about all her somethings… her childhood, the early comedy days, the rise through “Saturday Night Live” and her succumbing to the dread disease of cancer. She had it all, did it all, but as always “it” could not save her, and eventually us.
Wes Anderson’s ‘Isle of Dogs’ is Inventive Delight
Submitted by PatrickMcD on March 28, 2018 - 1:09pm- akira takayama
- Bill Murray
- Bob Balaban
- Bryan Cranston
- Edward Norton
- F. Murray Abraham
- Fantastic Mr. Fox
- Fisher Stevens
- Fox Searchlight Pictures
- Frances McDormand
- Greta Gerwig
- Harvey Keitel
- HollywoodChicago.com Content
- Isle of Dogs
- Jeff Goldblum
- Ken Watanabe
- koyu rankin
- kunichi nomura
- Liev Schreiber
- Movie Review
- Scarlett Johansson
- Spike Walters
- Tilda Swinton
- Wes Anderson
- Yoko Ono
Rating: 4.5/5.0 |
CHICAGO – Fans of director Wes Anderson will find plenty to love in his second stop motion animated feature (after “Fantastic Mr. Fox”), entitled “Isle Of Dogs.” It’s an immersive and intricately detailed story set in Japan, and features a dizzying array of visual gags, along with Anderson’s trademark whimsy.
‘Ghostbusters’ Entertains, But Lacks the Paul Feig Edge
Submitted by PatrickMcD on July 15, 2016 - 10:18amRating: 3.0/5.0 |
CHICAGO –Throughout the reboot of “Ghostbusters,” it becomes obvious that co-writer/director Paul Feig (“Bridesmaids,” “The Heat”) is just going to do a straight re-do of the 1984 film, because the film lacks his sardonic touch, even though it does entertain and has the requisite big special effects.
‘The Jungle Book’ is a Technical Marvel Missing Some Magic
Submitted by PatrickMcD on April 15, 2016 - 7:57am Rating: 3.5/5.0 |
CHICAGO – While Disney Studios’ new live action version of “The Jungle Book” is an improvement over the 1967 animated version, it’s more of a technical marvel than magical fable. And it’s unable to completely transcend the earlier version’s limitations.
Bill Murray Rolls Downhill in ‘Rock the Kasbah’
Submitted by PatrickMcD on October 25, 2015 - 11:09am Rating: 1.5/5.0 |
CHICAGO – What’s up with this movie? Everything in it is so wrong headed, despite movie star casting and a attempt toward “current events.” Setting itself in a modern and complex country – Afghanistan – but creating a perspective on that country that is straight ugly American, “Rock the Kasbah” is a total downer.
