Lasse Hallstrom

Podtalk: Lena Olin & Tora Hallström Appearance to Open Chicago EU Film Fest on March 1, 2023

CHICAGO – The European Union Film Festival is an annual happening at Chicago’s Gene Siskel Film Center, and will take place in 2023 from March 1st-31st. Kicking off the Fest will be an appearance from actors Lena Olin and Tora Hallström.

Film Review: ‘The Hundred-Foot Journey’ Not Worth the Trip

CHICAGO – “The Hundred-Foot Journey” is as manufactured and flavorless as a frostbitten Lean Cuisine. However, as the impresario of a Michelin-starred Restaurant in the south of France, Helen Mirren implores her staff that food is not an old tired marriage, it is a passionate affair.

Blu-ray Review: Even Nicholas Sparks Fans Will Be Annoyed by ‘Safe Haven’

Safe Haven

CHICAGO – At its best, Lasse Hallstrom’s “Safe Haven,” based on the book by the insanely popular Nicholas Sparks, is merely safe, Lifetime Channel TV Movie junk. At its worst, it’s pretty offensive and exploitative of women actually stuck in abusive situations and men forced into single parenthood after losing a spouse. As he has done before, Sparks takes real-world issues and turns them into manipulative devices. Hallstrom (“Chocolat”) has enough filmmaking skill to keep it from getting too boring despite the attempts on the part of the two remarkably dull leads to put you to sleep.

Film Review: Hey Lovers, ‘Safe Haven’ is a Decent Date Movie

Safe Haven

CHICAGO – It’s Valentine’s Day, and along with the impossible to get dinner reservations, the decision of which movie to see has probably spoiled this holiday as much as Walgreen roses. But the romantic drama ‘Safe Haven’ is a well performed, well paced narrative that won’t make you gag, and that includes you wishing-to-see-Die-Hard dudes.

HollywoodChicago.com Hookup: 25 Pairs of Passes to ‘Safe Haven’ With Julianne Hough, Josh Duhamel

CHICAGO – In the latest HollywoodChicago.com Hookup: Film with our unique social giveaway technology, we have 25 pairs of movie passes up for grabs to the advance screening of the highly anticipated “Safe Haven” starring Julianne Hough and Josh Duhamel!

Blu-ray Review: ‘Salmon Fishing in the Yemen’ Follows Feel-Good Formula

Salmon Fishing in the Yemen Blu-ray

CHICAGO – “Salmon Fishing in the Yemen” is a romantic comedy so lightweight that it threatens to float off into the ether. It has perhaps the least gripping title since Ingmar Bergman’s “Sawdust and Tinsel,” which is strange since the rest of the production reeks of commercial calculation. Yet the film is based on Paul Torday’s book of the same name, so the studio must have considered the title marketable.

HollywoodChicago.com Hookup: 40 Pairs of Chicago Passes to ‘Salmon Fishing in the Yemen’

CHICAGO – In the second HollywoodChicago.com Hookup: Film with our new social giveaway technology, we have 40 admit-two movie passes up for grabs to the advance screening of the highly anticipated new comedy/romance film “Salmon Fishing in the Yemen”!

Blu-Ray Review: Lasse Hallström’s Marvelous, Bittersweet ‘My Life as a Dog’

My Life as a Dog Blu-Ray

CHICAGO – Neither flat-out depressing nor mawkishly sentimentalized, Lasse Hallström’s 1985 Swedish classic, “My Life as a Dog,” avoids all the mistakes routinely committed by filmmakers working within the coming-of-age genre. It doesn’t view events through a treacly nostalgic haze and doesn’t condescend to its characters as if they were all quirky eccentrics ripe for satirizing.

Blu-Ray Review: Stars Click, But ‘Dear John’ Doesn’t Deliver

Dear John

CHICAGO – A romantic drama like “Dear John” relies SO much on the chemistry between the two leads that if it’s not there, the whole thing falls apart. No one wants to watch an ill-fated romance if they don’t believe the love story that drives it. Luckily, Channing Tatum and Amanda Seyfried have instant, palpable chemistry and that mostly carries the relatively generic and extremely cliched “Dear John” over some serious rough spots.

Channing Tatum, Amanda Seyfried Can’t Quite Deliver ‘Dear John’

CHICAGO – Love stories are as common at the movies as popcorn and sticky floors. Despite this, rising stars Channing Tatum and Amanda Seyfried add their own spin to the timeworn plot theme in “Dear John.”

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  • Manhunt

    CHICAGO – Patrick McDonald of HollywoodChicago.com appears on “The Morning Mess” with Dan Baker on WBGR-FM (Monroe, Wisconsin) on March 21st, 2024, reviewing the new streaming series “Manhunt” – based on the bestseller by James L. Swanson – currently streaming on Apple TV+.

  • Topdog/Underdog, Invictus Theatre

    CHICAGO – When two brothers confront the sins of each other and it expands into a psychology of an entire race, it’s at a stage play found in Chicago’s Invictus Theatre Company production of “Topdog/Underdog,” now at their new home at the Windy City Playhouse through March 31st, 2024. Click TD/UD for tickets/info.

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