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+.
Chris Hemsworth
Film Review: ‘Avengers: Age of Ultron’ More Exhausting Than Exhilarating
Submitted by PatrickMcD on May 1, 2015 - 1:18amCHICAGO – “The Avengers: Age Of Ultron” is another overstuffed, action packed CGI addled slugfest from the Marvel Cinematic Universe. but the effects are exhausting instead of exhilarating. What has set the Avengers apart is the great interplay between the characters – and when the movie stops to take a breath, those relationships shine through.
Film Review: Rousing ‘Avengers: Age of Ultron’ Hits Modern Society’s Central Nervous System
Submitted by HollywoodChicago.com on April 30, 2015 - 11:14pm- Aaron Taylor-Johnson
- Adam Fendelman
- Anthony Mackie
- Avengers: Age of Ultron
- Chris Evans
- Chris Hemsworth
- Cobie Smulders
- Don Cheadle
- Elizabeth Olsen
- HollywoodChicago.com Content
- Jack Kirby
- James Spader
- Jeremy Renner
- Joss Whedon
- Mark Ruffalo
- Marvel Studios
- Movie Review
- Paul Bettany
- Robert Downey Jr.
- Samuel L. Jackson
- Scarlett Johansson
- Stan Lee
- The Avengers
- Walt Disney Studios
CHICAGO – Look. We all know sequels usually suck. And blockbuster films often get panned for overprioritizing special effects at the expense of a well-written story and character development. Even when a story in a big-budget film is redeeming, it’s practically impossible not to shoot holes through it.
Film Review: Mixed Bag of Marvel Tricks in ‘Avengers: Age of Ultron’
Submitted by PatrickMcD on April 30, 2015 - 8:14amCHICAGO – Whew. There is so much going on in “Avengers: Age of Ultron” that you practically need a program to keep up with the players. This mixed bag has overwrought comic book action, head shaking plot points, and the usual Marvel angst that includes some riveting scenes.
Film Feature: Global Hacking of ‘Blackhat’ is the Future of Action Movies
Submitted by NickHC on January 17, 2015 - 11:19amCHICAGO – “Blackhat” is a hacker’s actioner of high-tech and low-tech genre jolts, but its construction provides a thrill of its own - that of witnessing the next era of the action movie.
Film Review: Hacker Thriller ‘Blackhat’ Has a Finger on the Enter Key
Submitted by NickHC on January 16, 2015 - 7:28pmCHICAGO – A speedy film project can take about a year from conception to final cut; director Michael Mann’s wired-in thriller “Blackhat” might as well have been written, shot, and cut last month. Not just because of its epilogue to the rise and defeat of the Guardians of Peace, but for its modernity.
HollywoodChicago.com Hookup: 60 Pairs of Passes to ‘Blackhat’ With Chris Hemsworth
Submitted by HollywoodChicago.com on January 11, 2015 - 3:16pmCHICAGO – In the latest HollywoodChicago.com Hookup: Film, we have 60 pairs of advance-screening movie passes up for grabs to the highly anticipated new thriller “Blackhat” starring Chris Hemsworth from writer and director Michael Mann (“Heat,” “Ali,” “Public Enemies”)!
Blu-ray Review: Dwayne Johnson’s Ferociously Generic Warrior Tale ‘Hercules’
Submitted by NickHC on November 4, 2014 - 6:18pmCHICAGO – Dwayne Johnson slams and jams in the bland “Hercules,” the “Space Jam” he never made when known as a brow-raised wrestler under his birth name “The Rock.” This ferociously generic take on the mythological hero focuses on Hercules with a group of mercenaries (played by Rufus Sewell among others) as they train a group of gee-shucks farmers to become warriors, while they project legends of immortality onto Johnson’s secretly mortal hero.
Film Review: Forced ‘Thor: The Dark World’ Sequel Lacks Passion, Sci-Fi Basis
Submitted by HollywoodChicago.com on November 9, 2013 - 3:52pmCHICAGO – For me and the subculture as a whole, so much of science fiction came from “Star Trek”. If creator Gene Roddenberry were alive today to witness “Thor: The Dark World,” he’d tell it to focus on being a superhero film rather than failing to dabble in science fiction.
Film Review: ‘Thor: The Dark World’ is Little More Than Marketing For ‘The Avengers 2’
Submitted by BrianTT on November 7, 2013 - 10:40am- Alan Taylor
- Anthony Hopkins
- Brian Tallerico
- Chris Hemsworth
- Christopher Eccleston
- Film Review
- HollywoodChicago.com Content
- Idris Elba
- Jaimie Alexander
- Kat Dennings
- Marvel
- Natalie Portman
- Ray Stevenson
- Rene Russo
- Stellan Skarsgard
- Tadanobu Asano
- The Avengers
- The Avengers 2
- Thor: The Dark World
- Tom Hiddleston
- Zachary Levi
CHICAGO – Few major films have felt less creatively inspired and more commercially conceived than Alan Taylor’s dull “Thor: The Dark World,” a wannabe blockbuster with all the personality and ingenuity of a straight-to-DVD sequel.
Film Review: Director Ron Howard Delivers a Meticulous ‘Rush’
Submitted by PatrickMcD on September 27, 2013 - 2:53pmCHICAGO – Defining the glory days of any sport is often centered on personal rivalries. The 1970s – notable for stand-offs like John McEnroe and Björn Borg – had a similarly contentious rivalry between Formula One car racers James Hunt and Niki Lauda, portrayed in Ron Howard’s “Rush.”