CHICAGO – It began with a boy and his dream (nightmare?). John LaFlamboy, to be exact, as he took an idea he had in college and made it his life’s work. He owns and operates the HellsGate Haunted House in Lockport (Illinois), which was designed, built and put together by Haunted House experts expressly for the spookiest month of the year. For info on how to purchase tickets, click HellsGate.
Ty Burrell
Funny, Spontaneous ‘Storks’ Really Delivers
Submitted by PatrickMcD on September 23, 2016 - 12:11pm Rating: 4.0/5.0 |
CHICAGO – I’ve waited all week to write that headline, and I will be joining the 100,000 other similar headlines out there. Hey-ooh! “Storks” is a lot of fun, without the dire need for any “message” or heavy handedness that is too familiar in the current animation environment. It’s just funny.
‘Finding Dory’ Essentially Finds Its Sweet Spot
Submitted by PatrickMcD on June 16, 2016 - 3:06pmRating: 4.0/5.0 |
CHICAGO – Pixar’s sequel to its underwater animated tearjerker “Finding Nemo” isn’t quite in the same league, but “Finding Dory” is satisfying all the same. This time the story focuses on Marlin and Nemo’s forgetful friend Dory, as she searches for the family she can’t quite remember.
Parts Are Better Than the Whole in ‘The Skeleton Twins’
Submitted by PatrickMcD on September 12, 2014 - 9:50pm Rating: 3.5/5.0 |
CHICAGO – Live from the movies, it’s Bill Hader and Kristen Wiig! The two “Saturday Night Live” veterans are “The Skeleton Twins,” and both have more to do than just be funny. There are moments that sink or swim, depending on the “Twins,” and those parts are greater than the narrative sum.
Muppets Still Know How to Entertain in ‘Muppets Most Wanted’
Submitted by PatrickMcD on March 21, 2014 - 8:34amRating: 4.0/5.0 |
CHICAGO – There is a comfort, like a favorite drink in a childhood mug, about Jim Henson’s legendary Muppets and their standard of entertainment and humor. It’s brilliant that Walt Disney Studios continues to understand what makes them work, producing their latest, “Muppets Most Wanted.”
‘Mr. Peabody & Sherman’ Hindered by Extra Sidekick
Submitted by PatrickMcD on March 7, 2014 - 7:49pm Rating: 3.0/5.0 |
CHICAGO – Talking dogs have been around for decades in animated movies and television shows, especially the anthropomorphized kind. From the superhero antics of Underdog to the biting sarcasm from the likes of Brian from “Family Guy” - take your pick and you can find a dog to your liking. I always took a shine to Mr. Peabody, the intelligent and resourceful beagle with a penchant for puns.
Sean Penn, Naomi Watts Revive Valerie Plame in ‘Fair Game’
Submitted by PatrickMcD on November 5, 2010 - 10:10amRating: 4.0/5.0 |
CHICAGO – The key line in “Fair Game,” a distillation of Valerie Plame’s outing as a CIA operative in 2003, is intoned by character actor Bruce McGill, in a scene reminiscent of the “Mr. X” moment in the “JFK” movie. Pointing to the White House and the Bush Administration, he simply says, “there are the most powerful men in the history of the world.”
