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.
Michael Bay
Siren Song of the Bay! On-Air Film Review of ‘Ambulance’
Submitted by PatrickMcD on April 8, 2022 - 11:53amRating: 3.0/5.0 |
CHICAGO – Patrick McDonald of HollywoodChicago.com appears on “The Morning Mess” with Scott Thompson on WBGR-FM (Monroe, Wisconsin) on April 7th, reviewing “Ambulance,” the latest film from director Michael Bay, in theaters beginning April 8th.
‘Transformers: The Last Knight’ is Bizarrely Enjoyable
Submitted by PatrickMcD on June 21, 2017 - 1:25pmRating: 3.5/5.0 |
CHICAGO – Knock me over with a feather kids, but I enjoyed “Transformers: The Last Knight.” Maybe it was in comparison to the others or maybe director Michael Bay has beaten me into submission, but this one had the right story elements and casting to make it work, with exceptions of course.
‘Transformers: Age of Extinction’ Most Tolerable of Series
Submitted by PatrickMcD on June 26, 2014 - 10:28pmRating: 3.0/5.0 |
CHICAGO – I’ll say this for “Transformers: Age Of Extinction,” it’s the most tolerable Transformers movie Michael Bay has ever made. The substitution of Mark Wahlberg for Shia LaBeouf is a big part of that – and for its first two hours at least, Bay realizes less is more.
Clever Cast Can’t Quite Save Crazy ‘Pain & Gain’
Submitted by BrianTT on April 25, 2013 - 9:43amRating: 3.0/5.0 |
CHICAGO – Michael Bay’s “Pain & Gain” tells such a ridiculous story that it has to be true. Based on the infamous case of the Sun Gym Gang, a trio of bodybuilders who committed some unspeakable, bizarre crimes, “Pain & Gain” nearly works through the sheer charisma and talent of its A-list cast.
‘Transformers: Dark of the Moon’ Gets Adrenalin Pumping
Submitted by BrianTT on June 28, 2011 - 9:27amRating: 2.5/5.0 |
CHICAGO – The final 45 minutes of “Transformers: Dark of the Moon” are such an orgy of CGI insanity, falling skyscrapers, and battling robots that the film approaches some sort of summer movie nirvana, or at least it will for the right audience. There’s little debate that the Chicago-set climax of Michael Bay’s third film based on Hasbro’s line of toys delivers what it promises.
MIchael Bay-Produced ‘I Am Number Four’ a Solid Block of Superhero Gouda
Submitted by HollywoodChicago.com on February 18, 2011 - 1:01amRating: 2.5/5.0 |
CHICAGO – While the new sci-fi/superhero film “I Am Number Four” can be easily dismissed as yet another “Twilight” knockoff, the power of two mega-producers arms the film with nearly as much right as it does wrong. Thankfully for Chicagoans the film doesn’t star Brett Favre because of his numerical jersey affiliation, but with a story this weak, that stretch wouldn’t be too far.
Lack of Originality, Actual Scares Render Marcus Nispel’s ‘Friday the 13th’ Ineffective
Submitted by BrianTT on February 12, 2009 - 11:49pmRating: 2.0/5.0 |
CHICAGO – Your reaction to Marcus Nispel’s “Friday the 13th” is likely to depend on how nostalgically you remember the original and how you reacted to producer Michael Bay’s “remakes” of “The Amityville Horror,” “The Hitcher,” and “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre”.