CHICAGO – The funny meter of Netflix went off the scale last week, as the animated series “Chicago Party Aunt” made its debut on September 17th. What began as a Twitter account by comic actor Chris Witaske (who also provides his voice talent) has morphed into the cartoon adventures of Aunt Diane Dumbowski, her nephew Daniel, and an array of familiar Chicago-isms and characters.
Shailene Woodley
On-Air Review of ‘The Last Letter From Your Lover’
Submitted by PatrickMcD on July 24, 2021 - 11:42am Rating: 3.5/5.0 |
CHICAGO – Patrick McDonald of HollywoodChicago.com appears on “The Morning Mess” with Scott Thompson on WBGR-FM (Monroe, Wisconsin) on July 22th, 2021, reviewing the new film “The Last Letter From Your Lover,” streaming on Netfilx beginning July 23rd.
Prisoner of Politics! On-Air Review of ‘The Mauritanian’
Submitted by PatrickMcD on February 20, 2021 - 1:32pmRating: 3.5/5.0 |
CHICAGO – Patrick McDonald of HollywoodChicago.com appears on “The Morning Mess” with Scott Thompson on WBGR-FM (Monroe, Wisconsin) on February 18th, 2021, reviewing the new film “Mauritanian,” in theaters now and available through Video-On-Demand on March 2nd.
Oliver Stone’s ‘Snowden’ a Lesson for Our Times
Submitted by PatrickMcD on September 18, 2016 - 7:28pm Rating: 4.0/5.0 |
CHICAGO – The experience of director Oliver Stone, to look underneath the slimy rocks of government secrecy and bureaucracy, produces an excellent history lesson in “Snowden,” an overview of Edward Snowden, a whistleblower against the government who is still in exile.
Shortage of Spark Makes ‘The Divergent Series: Insurgent’ a Second-String Effort
Submitted by PatrickMcD on March 20, 2015 - 6:47am Rating: 2.5/5.0 |
CHICAGO – “The Divergent Series: Insurgent” does nothing to change the “Divergent” series status as an off brand Young Adult epic. As we’ve seen with “The Hunger Games,” these Young Adult franchises can be lots of fun and be faithful to their source material. But “Insurgent” has the same problem as the first two “Harry Potter” films – it’s too faithful, coupled with a dearth of inspiration behind the camera.
Tearjerking ‘The Fault in Our Stars’ is ‘The Notebook’ of This Decade
Submitted by HollywoodChicago.com on June 6, 2014 - 9:52amRating: 4.0/5.0 |
CHICAGO – Sure, I’ll admit it. With so many new films to screen and review, I’ll choose the sci-fi action/thriller from the man behind the Bourne flicks over a movie that’s being called “the greatest romance story of this decade”.
‘Divergent’ Wastes Talented Cast on Joyless Adaptation
Submitted by BrianTT on March 20, 2014 - 9:12am Rating: 1.5/5.0 |
CHICAGO – Despite the best efforts of a game Shailene Woodley and likely future star Theo James, Neil Burger’s “Divergent,” based on the hit book by Veronica Roth, is a joyless, soulless, humorless dud. It is repetitious to the point of parody, never feels like it exists in anything approximating reality, and, like so many “Hunger Games” wannabes, forgets that it’s the characters of that franchise that matter and not the goofy machinations of the plot.
Riveting ‘The Spectacular Now’ Finds Rare Truth in Young Characters
Submitted by BrianTT on August 8, 2013 - 10:34am Rating: 4.5/5.0 |
CHICAGO – Sundance hit (and Chicago Critics Film Festival Closing Night film) “The Spectacular Now” finally opens in Chicago tomorrow, August 9, 2013 and the film’s already-impressive legion of fans is only going to grow as this stunning achievement hits more markets around the country.
George Clooney Stars in Stunning ‘The Descendants’
Submitted by BrianTT on November 17, 2011 - 10:21am Rating: 5.0/5.0 |
CHICAGO – If one looks solely at the central male characters, it can seem remarkably easy to classify Alexander Payne’s movies under the subgenre heading of “mid-life crisis comedies”: Jim McAllister (“Election”), Warren Schmidt (“About Schmidt”), Miles (“Sideways”), and now the memorable protagonist of his stellar new dramedy “The Descendants,” Matt King.
