America

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 December 9th, 2021, reviewing the much anticipated remake of “West Side Story,” directed by Steven Spielberg, in theaters on December 10th, 2021.

Rating: 3.5/5.0

CHICAGO – Patrick McDonald of HollywoodChicago.com audio film review on the new film “Holler,” an IFC Films new release about a brother and sister trying to survive in a dying factory town. In select theaters and through Video On Demand beginning June 11th, 2021.

Rating: 4.0/5.0

CHICAGO – Patrick McDonald of HollywoodChicago.com appears on “The Morning Mess” with Scott Thompson on WBGR-FM (Monroe, Wisconsin) on February 16th, 2021, reviewing the new film “Nomadland,” in theaters and streaming on HULU beginning February 19th, 2021.

Rating: 3.5/5.0

CHICAGO – In 2011, there was a notable French film called “The Intouchables,” based on the true story of quadriplegic Phillippe Pozzo di Borgo and the relationship with his caregiver. Leave it to the U.S. film industry to get its sticky fingers on the story, and seven years later Bryan Cranston portrays “Phillip” and his caretaker is portrayed by Kevin Hart. Instead of story, this version relies on its lead actors.

Rating: 3.0/5.0

CHICAGO – From their golden age from the 1950s to the 1970s, the infamous “B” movies – usually the third feature at the drive-in, or playing in the crumbling old theaters – were targeted to teens. In the modern era, these films are now given $150 million dollar budgets and wide releases. Case in point, the shark movie called “The Meg.”

Rating: 4.0/5.0

CHICAGO – When the movie remake of the 1987 charmer “Overboard” was announced last year, immediately my thought was “it will stink.” But the creators of this remake didn’t listen, and produced a charmer of their own, twisting the premise and adding the hope of America. If that ain’t heart, I don’t know what is.

Rating: 3.5/5.0

CHICAGO – “Kingsman: The Golden Circle” is a hard “R”-rated sequel with a thoroughly juvenile soul. It pairs silly wordplay, dirty jokes and a startling amount of bloody and gratuitous violence while its tongue remains thoroughly in cheek. This is a James Bond movie as made by an unusually sadistic 16-year-old under the influence of some not entirely legal substances.

Rating: 3.0/5.0

CHICAGO – Dystopia has been dissed out. Mining the negative vibe future world can’t seem to touch the rich creative vein any more and the reserves seem dry. Writer/director Ana Lily Amirpour may have an element within her interpretation that is hard core, but it’s not enough to understand the overall vision of her tomorrow world, except that we’re all part of “The Bad Batch.”

Rating: 3.0/5.0

CHICAGO – “The Purge: Anarchy” is a cake-and-eat-it film. On one hand there is a monotonous display of firepower, courtesy of a suspension of laws for one night a year, but it also wants to temper this lawlessness with indictments of government, the rich and the law itself.

Rating: 1.0/5.0

CHICAGO – Dear Dinesh D’Souza: Why are you afraid of alternate narratives in American History? History, as we know, is written by the winners, and you seem all sad and angry that one man, Howard Zinn, wrote a History of the United States by defining the desperation of the people left behind in the American dream. Why is that so awful? You define it as “progressive left wing” narrative, but what is your propaganda film – blithely called “America” – but a distillation of your view of history?