CHICAGO – Patrick McDonald of HollywoodChicago.com audio review for the doc series “Charlie Hustle & the Matter of Pete Rose,” about the rise and bitter fall of the major league legend, the MLB’s all-time hits leader, only to be banned from the sport because of gambling. Streaming on MAX and on HBO since July 24th.
Sam Riley
'Free Fire' Knows That Happiness is a Warm Gun
Submitted by PatrickMcD on April 26, 2017 - 2:21pm Rating: 4.5/5.0 |
CHICAGO – In a film that had a sassy, arbitrary perspective on its own flipped-out story, “Free Fire” sought to out-Quentin Tarantino in freaky funny characters and ammo-splurging gun battles. Director Ben Wheatley (“High-Rise”) took an ensemble cast to rarified heights of insult comedy, revenge dynamics and bullets that hit the bone.
Hard to Find a Point to ‘Pride and Prejudice and Zombies’
Submitted by PatrickMcD on February 5, 2016 - 11:33pm Rating: 2.5/5.0 |
CHICAGO – Having not read this best-selling source novel, I had a hard time understanding the point of “Pride and Prejudice and Zombies.’ Amazingly, it falls short as both a zombie movie and a satire of the original Jane Austin “Pride and Prejudice” story, which was its only achievement as a final result.
Neil Jordan’s ‘Byzantium’ Feels Drained of Passion
Submitted by BrianTT on June 27, 2013 - 5:21pm Rating: 2.0/5.0 |
CHICAGO – I’ve rarely said this about Neil Jordan movie – in fact, maybe never – but I was bored during his latest, the vampire drama “Byzantium,” a movie with an intriguing cast and interesting story but little in the way of passion, emotion, dread, or the other intangibles needed to make a horror film like this effective.
Visceral ‘On the Road’ Honors a Great American Novel
Submitted by PatrickMcD on March 23, 2013 - 7:01am Rating: 4.0/5.0 |
CHICAGO – The 1957 novel “On the Road” by Jack Kerouac, was a missile across the bow of American social conventions, and a precursor to the radical 1960s. For over fifty years, it has eluded a film adaptation, until director Walter Salles (“The Motorcycle Diaries”) found the way to capture it.
‘Brighton Rock’ Remake Fails to Justify its Existence
Submitted by BrianTT on August 26, 2011 - 3:56pmRating: 2.5/5.0 |
CHICAGO – Rowan Joffe’s long-gestating remake of “Brighton Rock” (the 1947 noir classic was based on the beloved book by Graham Greene) raises the question least-desired in one of these situations – why bother? Sure, the story is a nifty little tale of a rising criminal undone by his own avarice and the love of a girl and the cast assembled for the remake is an undeniably talented ensemble.
