Sony Pictures Releasing

Rating: 2.5/5.0

CHICAGO –“Bad Boys: Ride Or Die,” the fourth in this series, is a big budget clunker that’s clearing coasting on fumes. A wheezy Martin Lawrence, and a post-slap Will Smith, are trying to recapture some of their former box office glory by trying to milk their still considerable chemistry for all its worth. The best that can be said is that it’s less of an interminable slog than I thought it would be.

Rating: 3.5/5.0

CHICAGO – Patrick McDonald of HollywoodChicago.com audio film review for “The Garfield Movie,” an animated film based on the popular comic strip by Jim Davis, and featuring the Monday-hating, lasagna-loving Orange Tabby cat (voice of Chris Pratt) and his friends. In theaters on May 24th.

Rating: 2.5/5.0

CHICAGO – Patrick McDonald of HollywoodChicago.com audio film review for “Madame Web,” a spin-off (grin) of Spider-Man, who first appeared in Marvel Comics back in 1980. This origin story also features a three-woman team (teenagers in the film) that also eventually spin their webs. In theaters on February 14th.

Rating: 3.5/5.0

CHICAGO – Patrick McDonald of HollywoodChicago.com appears on “The Morning Mess” with Ben Thompson on WBGR-FM (Monroe, Wisconsin) on November 9th, 2023, reviewing “Journey to Bethlehem,” a re-telling of the Baby Jesus story as a musical! In theaters on November 10th, 2023.

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 September 21st, 2023, reviewing “Dumb Money,” featuring Paul Dano as Keith Gill, a rogue stock trader. Opening in theaters everywhere September 29th.

Rating: 2.0/5.0

CHICAGO – “Gran Turismo” uses the life story of a gamer named Jann Mardenborough to get its message across … he was a college dropout in the UK who used the hours spent behind the steering wheel in his bedroom to become a real race car driver. While the racing scenes deliver the goods, this poorly conceived piece of product placement never gets its narrative out of first gear.

Rating: 2.5/5.0

CHICAGO – Jennifer Lawrence doesn’t hold back and gives it her all in the “Hard R” rated sex comedy “No Hard Feelings.” But despite her herculean efforts, the film only manages the occasional tee-hee when it should be scoring guffaws. You’ve got to hand it to Lawrence for going all in, I just wish the script rewarded her efforts.

Rating: 5.0/5.0

CHICAGO – Patrick McDonald of HollywoodChicago.com appears on “The Morning Mess” with Dan Baker on WBGR-FM (Monroe, Wisconsin) on June 1st, reviewing “Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse,” another animated adventure for the web slinger in the multi-verse. In theaters on June 2nd.

Rating: 2.0/5.0

CHICAGO – Tom Hanks finds himself – as the title character – stranded in a slough of artificiality in this clumsy manipulative attempt at a crowd pleaser. He plays a grump in “A Man Named Otto,” a remake of a 2015 Swedish film. The setting has been transferred to the grey rust belt of Pittsburgh, and Hanks is a widower with a lot of chips on his shoulder about the world today.

Rating: 3.0/5.0

CHICAGO – Patrick McDonald of HollywoodChicago.com appears on The Eddie Volkman Show with Hannah B on WSSR-FM (Star 96.7 Joliet, Illinois) on December 23rd, reviewing the new Whitney Houston movie bio “I Wanna Dance with Somebody,” in theaters beginning December 23rd.