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Interview: Carl Sondrol, Music Scorer of Webby Award-Winning Shorts

Carl Sondrol

CHICAGO – Carl Sondrol is on a huge winning streak. The musician, composer and soundtrack scorer for CollegeHumor.com is a vital part of the Webby Award winning shorts “Web Site Story” and “Pixar Intro Parody.” His work has also expanded into television, short films and feature films.

TV Review: ‘True Blood’ Promises Bloody Good Time This Summer

True Blood S3 Premiere

CHICAGO – Vampire and werewolf fans may be counting the days until the release of “The Twilight Saga: Eclipse” at the end of this month but HBO’s spectacular “True Blood” returns this weekend with an excellent start to a third season of one of the most unusual and consistently entertaining shows on television.

Blu-Ray Review: Still-Hilarious ‘Caddyshack’ a Perfect Father’s Day Gift

Caddyshack

CHICAGO – The best comedies are just as funny decades after they were released as the day they come out. Watch “Blazing Saddles” for the perfect example. Or “Young Frankenstein”. Or even “Caddyshack,” a film that’s not in the league of the absolute best but is still hysterically funny three decades after its release, a fact made clear by a fantastic Blu-ray release hitting stores just in time for Father’s Day.

Plan Comes Together For Entertaining Action of ‘The A-Team’

CHICAGO – “Overkill is underrated.” So says Col. Hannibal Smith (Liam Neeson) near the end of Joe Carnahan’s “The A-Team” and it clearly was the operating principle for not just the characters but the entire production.

‘The Little Traitor’ Succumbs to Shameless Manipulation

The Little Traitor
HollywoodChicago.com Oscarman rating: 2.5/5.0
Rating: 2.5/5.0

CHICAGO – Here’s a story so sweet and so well-intentioned that it practically dares you not to like it. It’s mighty tempting to give it a pass purely on the basis of its premise, which is vital, timely and quite moving. If this story were told by a filmmaker less intent on yanking audience’s heartstrings until they snapped, it may have provided the foundation for a great and important film.

‘Twilight’ Sequel ‘The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn’ Will Be Two Films

breakingthumb.jpg

CHICAGO – It’s been rumored for months but Summit Entertainment made it official this week when they announced that the final book in Stephenie Meyer’s “Twilight” series — “Breaking Dawn” — will be released as two separate films with “The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn, Part I” hitting theaters on November 18th, 2011.

Jackie Chan, Jaden Smith Are Kickin’ it in Remake of ‘The Karate Kid’

CHICAGO – Despite any resistance that must have been felt in remaking the quasi-classic 1984 film “The Karate Kid,” veteran Jackie Chan and Jaden Smith put their best kicking feet forward and spin some new cloth out of the old material. In resetting the location and putting in some surreal modern touches, this remake mostly succeeds.

Blu-Ray Review: ‘Shutter Island’ Looks Amazing, But Deserved Better Release

Shutter Island

CHICAGO – I firmly believe that the detractors of Martin Scorsese’s amazing “Shutter Island” will deny they ever criticized this masterful thriller when it was first released. History will be very kind to this dizzying trip through a cinematic funhouse led by arguably our best living filmmaker, but one would never guess it from Paramount’s purely average Blu-ray release.

Inferior Sequel ‘OSS 117: Lost in Rio’ Mostly Falls Flat

OSS 117: Lost in Rio
HollywoodChicago.com Oscarman rating: 2.0/5.0
Rating: 2.0/5.0

CHICAGO – It’s no mystery why the appeal of spy satires transcend the boundaries of time and culture. Clueless detectives with a bloated sense of self-importance are great comic punching bags. Everyone loves seeing a doofus get his head slammed in a door, whether that doofus be Inspector Clouseau or Lt. Frank Drebin or countless other law officers who could easily blend in with the Keystone Kops.

TV Review: It Isn’t Easy Being Green on Showtime’s ‘The Green Room’

The Green Room

CHICAGO – “I don’t even know what to do on this show. We just talk?” asks comic Bobby Slayton in episode four of the new Showtime series “The Green Room with Paul Provenza.” Yes. And therein lies the problem.

Interview: Ellen DeGeneres Takes on Chicago in ‘Just For Laughs’ Festival

Ellen DeGeneres

CHICAGO – Ellen DeGeneres has always been a woman of many hats. Whether taking a seat as host (or featured dancer) on her Emmy Award-winning talk show “The Ellen Degeneres Show”, offering musical insight to hopefuls on “American Idol”, or lending her voice to the LGBT community, DeGeneres has become a trailblazer of the entertainment industry.

Theater Review: Northlight Goes For Zest in Sultry ‘Low Down Dirty Blues’

'Low Down Dirty Blues'

CHICAGO – “I been in the blues all my life. I’m still delivering ‘cause I got a long memory,” Muddy Waters once recounted to a reporter. Although the narrative catharsis once offered by the likes of Charlie Patton and Bo Carter may have given way to the stylized pulse of R&B, its placement in America’s ever-ripening counterculture is worth the recollection. And luckily for Chicago, it is a stronghold that is now making a timely wake-up call on the Northlight stage, with enough sweat and sizzle to heat a bass line.

Vince Vaughn, Jennifer Connelly, Winona Ryder, Kevin James to Ascend on Chicago For Ron Howard Party

CHICAGO – The 46th Chicago International Film Festival announced on Wednesday that several cast members from Universal Pictures’ upcoming comedy by Oscar winner Ron Howard will attend its annual summer gala on June 12, 2010.

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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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