CHICAGO – Society, or at least certain elements of society, are always looking for scapegoats to hide the sins of themselves and authority. In the so-called “great America” of the 1950s, the scapegoat target was comic books … specifically through a sociological study called “The Seduction of the Innocent.” City Lit Theater Company, in part two of a trilogy on comic culture by Mark Pracht, presents “The Innocence of Seduction … now through October 8th, 2023. For details and tickets, click COMIC BOOK.
Chloe Grace Moretz
Knights of Animated Realm! On-Air Review of ‘Nimona’
Submitted by PatrickMcD on June 30, 2023 - 4:39pm 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 June 29th, reviewing “Nimona,” a new Netflix animated film featuring the voices of Grace Chloe Moretz and Riz Ahmed. Streaming beginning June 30th.
‘The Addams Family 2’ is Pure Torture for Old & Young
Submitted by PatrickMcD on October 1, 2021 - 12:01pm Rating: 1.0/5.0 |
CHICAGO – Sometimes sequels serve as a cinematic do-over, a second chance to fix what they got wrong the first time. Other times, they offer a chance to build on the bones of a good story and make it better. But all too often, they’re lazy cash grabs to half forgotten films where no one seems to have learned any lessons from the first outing …
Familiar Scares of ‘Greta’ Has Too Many Plot Holes
Submitted by PatrickMcD on March 1, 2019 - 5:49pm Rating: 2.5/5.0 |
CHICAGO – Admittedly, horror films are not my thing. I find them redundant, pandering and more reliant on gore rather than story. “Greta” is somewhat of a thriller horror film, about an older lady stalker preying on a younger New York City woman, but it had both a seen-it-before and unreliable plot.
Pointless Trip Back to ‘Neighbors 2: Sorority Rising’
Submitted by PatrickMcD on May 19, 2016 - 11:20pm- andrew j. cohen
- beanie feldstein
- brendan o'brien
- Chloe Grace Moretz
- Christopher Mintz-Plasse
- Dave Franco
- Evan Goldberg
- Hannibal Buress
- HollywoodChicago.com Content
- ike barinholtz
- jerrod carmichael
- Kiersey Clemons
- Movie Review
- Neighbors 2: Sorority Rising
- Nicholas Stoller
- Rose Byrne
- Selena Gomez
- Seth Rogen
- Spike Walters
- Universal Pictures
- Zac Efron
Rating: 2.5/5.0 |
CHICAGO – The original “Neighbors” was a funny enough movie, that still boasted at least a couple of big laughs. “Neighbors 2: Sorority Rising” only manages the occasional chuckle here and there. As far as big budget studio comedy sequels go, it’s not as bad as “The Hangover 2.” It’s more in line with “Ghostbusters 2”.
‘The 5th Wave’ Crashes, Then Slowly Dissipates
Submitted by PatrickMcD on January 22, 2016 - 7:51pmRating: 2.5/5.0 |
CHICAGO – Is there ever an end to the Young Adult Dystopia genre (“Hunger Games,” “Maze Runner,” etc.)? Or are we cursed with the end of the world every year, if it weren’t for those meddling kids? “The 5th Wave” is the latest adaptation, and if you haven’t read the source novel, good luck following it.
‘Laggies’ Lags Behind With Connect-the-Dots Story
Submitted by PatrickMcD on November 7, 2014 - 12:27pmRating: 2.5/5.0 |
CHICAGO – Apparently “Laggies” is a term which does mean one is “lagging behind” in the growing-up-to-be-an-adult requirement. The term is the title of a new comedy, which places the main character in a high concept situation, which only resides in the parallel universe of movieland.
Overall Story of ‘The Equalizer’ Doesn’t Add Up
Submitted by PatrickMcD on September 26, 2014 - 12:25pmRating: 2.5/5.0 |
CHICAGO – You could call “The Equalizer” a bit of an underachiever. It re-teams Oscar winner Denzel Washington with his “Training Day” director Antoine Fuqua for a movie remake of a 1980’s TV show with a cult following, but the film as a whole adds up to less than the sum of its parts.
‘If I Stay’ Can’t Rinse its Too-Sudsy Soap Opera
Submitted by PatrickMcD on August 22, 2014 - 8:55amRating: 2.5/5.0 |
CHICAGO – We hate it when they grow up. Chloë Grace Moretz, a former child actor, takes on a first-teen-love role, and the results are decidedly mixed. The extreme emotions, the circumstances and Ms. Moretz’s performance undermine the soapy “If I Stay.”
Performances Carry Update of Horror Classic ‘Carrie’
Submitted by BrianTT on October 17, 2013 - 12:52pm Rating: 3.5/5.0 |
CHICAGO – Director Kimberly Peirce (“Boys Don’t Cry”) doesn’t convey the dread or atmosphere of Stephen King’s “Carrie” to a degree that elevates it to the source material’s true potential but she does handle performance in a way that’s rare in the genre, making this remake one of the best horror films of the season.
Disappointing ‘Kick-Ass 2’ Replaces Style with Vulgarity
Submitted by BrianTT on August 15, 2013 - 11:46am Rating: 1.5/5.0 |
CHICAGO – More vulgar, violent, and generally vile than the first film, “Kick-Ass 2” is one of those incredibly annoying films that actually will mar the legacy of its predecessor by association. Writer/director Jeff Wadlow entirely misplaces the priorities of the first film, thinking that the sequel needs to be more extreme, even if that’s at the expense of style and intelligence.
