CHICAGO – In anticipation of the scariest week of the year, HollywoodChicago.com launches its 2024 Movie Gifts series, which will suggest DVDs and collections for holiday giving.
Joel McHale
‘The Happytime Murders’ Shoots Its Wad Too Early
Submitted by PatrickMcD on August 24, 2018 - 2:46pm Rating: 2.0/5.0 |
CHICAGO – The most noteworthy feature of the puppet-noir comedy “The Happytime Murders” is its use of felt and fluff for nefarious ends, and while that’s not exactly new, there’s no reason it shouldn’t work. But the movie shoots its wad early, and doesn’t have much imagination after that beyond turning silly string into a bodily fluid.
‘Deliver Us From Evil’ Goes Straight for the Jugular
Submitted by PatrickMcD on July 2, 2014 - 6:21pm Rating: 4.0/5.0 |
CHICAGO – “Deliver Us from Evil” is director Scott Derrickson’s second foray into possession horror. His first, the excellent “The Exorcism of Emily Rose,” was taut, thoughtful and offered some truly unsettling demon scares…it still ranks as one of the most important and best of the new crop of possession/devil films it helped kick start into being with their box office numbers.
‘Blended’ is Lazy, Laugh-Free Catastrophe
Submitted by PatrickMcD on May 25, 2014 - 7:15am Rating: 1.0/5.0 |
CHICAGO – Two things save “Blended” from getting a zero star review. Number one is the still-palpable chemistry between Drew Barrymore and Adam Sandler. Number two is the occasional chuckle courtesy of Wendi McClendon-Covey as Barrymore’s business partner. Otherwise this is a barren laugh-free safari through Africa that doesn’t even have the benefit of Al Pacino trampling on his prestigious career for our amusement.
Adam Sandler Exploits the Family, More in ‘Blended’
Submitted by PatrickMcD on May 23, 2014 - 8:02am Rating: 1.5/5.0 |
CHICAGO – Trying to understand the psychology and philosophy of manchild Adam Sandler, when it comes to his “middle-age” movies, will perplex film scholars and therapists for generations to come. His latest excuse for a “family comedy” is the insipid and exploitative “Blended.”
Fearless Comedy of Seth MacFarlane’s Original ‘Ted’
Submitted by BrianTT on June 28, 2012 - 4:38pm Rating: 3.5/5.0 |
CHICAGO – “Ted” is one of the most inventive and surprising films of the year. It has a sense of humor that will be very familiar to fans of writer/director Seth MacFarlane’s “Family Guy” but is refreshingly unique in a film genre that is too often stale. In fact, most of the Summer 2012 movies have been incredibly predictable and there’s NOTHING predictable about “Ted.”
Owen Wilson, Steve Martin, Jack Black Flock Up in ‘The Big Year’
Submitted by PatrickMcD on October 15, 2011 - 1:01amRating: 2.0/5.0 |
CHICAGO – “The Big Year” is advertised as a comedy. The subject is bird watching, or as the new film likes to express the proper term, “birding.” It stars comic legend Steve Martin, and funnymen Jack Black and Owen Wilson. It is both not funny and is ACTUALLY, seriously about birding. Time to fly away.
Anna Faris Falls Flat in Awful ‘What’s Your Number?’
Submitted by BrianTT on September 30, 2011 - 9:14amRating: 1.5/5.0 |
CHICAGO – Why can’t anyone figure out how to use Anna Faris effectively? She’s got some of the best comic timing of any actress working today but she can’t find a good script in which to display it. Take her latest venture, the misogynistic, creepy, and just BAD “What’s Your Number?,” a pale excuse for a chick flick that should look even more ghostly in light of the similarly-themed and far-superior “Bridesmaids” earlier this year.
Steven Soderbergh’s ‘The Informant!’ Puts Matt Damon on a Wire
Submitted by PatrickMcD on September 18, 2009 - 6:09amRating: 3.5/5.0 |
CHICAGO – Behind every great fortune lies a great crime, as the saying goes. In director Steven Soderbergh’s “The Informant!,” he and Matt Damon carve out a satire where the “crime” becomes entangled with the larger issues of “justice.”
