CHICAGO – Seemingly ripped from the headlines, by way of “Dr. Strangelove,” the new Netflix TV series “Space Force” debuted on May 29th, 2020. Patrick McDonald of HollywoodChicago.com reviewed the series during the Eddie Volkman Show (Star 96.7 FM in Joliet, Illinois) on June 5th, 2020.
Iraq
‘Vice’ Proves It’s Okay to Laugh at Dick Cheney
Submitted by PatrickMcD on December 27, 2018 - 6:46pm Rating: 4.0/5.0 |
CHICAGO – “Vice” is an occasionally very funny attempt to demystify the life and legacy of former Vice President of the United States, Dick Cheney. Using some of the same gimmicks and narrative trickery he employed to great effect in “The Big Short,” writer/director Adam McKay goes deep into the weeds to try to explain how Cheney made it to the second highest office in the land.
‘The Patience Stone’ Reveals Eternal Truths
Submitted by PatrickMcD on September 6, 2013 - 10:36am Rating: 5.0/5.0 |
CHICAGO – Despite any manmade restrictions through governments, religion, commerce or trumped-up morality, the truth has a way of mightily conquering all. “The Patience Stone” is a perfect example of that luxurious truth, and it is an important contemporary fairy tale.
‘The Devil’s Double’ Magnifies the Sorrows of Iraq
Submitted by PatrickMcD on August 7, 2011 - 9:32pm Rating: 3.5/5.0 |
CHICAGO – There is evil all over the world, as long as there are human beings whose lust for power overcomes any semblance of morality. Iraq seems to be ground zero for those consequences, broken from within and invaded from the outside. It is the surreal tale of Saddam Hussein’s oldest son Uday that’s outlined in “The Devil’s Double.”
Sean Penn, Naomi Watts Revive Valerie Plame in ‘Fair Game’
Submitted by PatrickMcD on November 5, 2010 - 10:10amRating: 4.0/5.0 |
CHICAGO – The key line in “Fair Game,” a distillation of Valerie Plame’s outing as a CIA operative in 2003, is intoned by character actor Bruce McGill, in a scene reminiscent of the “Mr. X” moment in the “JFK” movie. Pointing to the White House and the Bush Administration, he simply says, “there are the most powerful men in the history of the world.”
Ryan Reynolds Gets Beneath it in Tense Thriller ‘Buried’
Submitted by PatrickMcD on September 24, 2010 - 7:21amRating: 3.5/5.0 |
CHICAGO – In one of the most unusual settings for a film, actor Ryan Reynolds performs as a one-man tour de force as the only on-screen character in the new film “Buried.” Set in a coffin buried beneath the sands of Iraq, Reynolds conveys the panic, hope and inevitable outcome of a man buried alive and fighting for his very existence.
