Original News, Features & Opinion on Chicago, Illinois and America
Last Blockbuster Store & Last Blockbuster Mansion Time to say goodbye to all that was Blockbuster except the one last holdout store in Bend, Oregon – now relegated as an iconic classic with the closing of the last Australia store. Time to also say goodbye to the Fort Lauderdale mansion long enjoyed by Blockbuster’s co-founder…
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Ray Hanania Podcast: Smollett, Chicago Mayoral Election, Israeli war crimes #RayHananiaPodcast #JussieSmollett #ChicagoMayoralElection #IsraeliWarCrimes This week’s Ray Hanania Podcast reviews the past week’s events, issues and my recent columns in the Regional News newspaper, The Reporter and Southwest News-Herald on Jussie Smollett; my columns in the @ArabNews on the Oscar win by #RamiMalek, and at…
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Milwaukee Film raises $10 million for Oriental Theatre restoration Milwaukee Film announces the organization’s success in surpassing a $10 million capital campaign goal to restore the historic Oriental Theatre and provide the non-profit with its first-ever operating reserve. In total, the campaign has raised $10,030,229. The campaign was initiated in 2017, lending support to the…
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Submission being accepted for 2019 Milwaukee Film Festival MILWAUKEE – Tuesday, January 15, 2019 – The 2019 Milwaukee Film Festival, presented by Associated Bank, will run Thursday, October 17 – Thursday, October 31, 2019. Milwaukee Film’s annual 15-day festival will include feature films, shorts programs, education screenings, post-film conversations, panels, and parties. The event screened…
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Downers Grove man pleads guilty to drug-induced homicide in death of 15-year-old exchange student DuPage County State’s Attorney Robert B. Berlin announced today that a Downers Grove man has entered a plea of guilty to supplying a fatal dose of methadone to a fifteen-year-old foreign exchange student from Spain. Francis Emanuele, 38 (d.o.b. 3/20/1980) of…
Getting bored by the empty void of streaming TV With so many streaming cable options all competing for the public’s attention, there are some great choices and some terrible ones. And there are things that each system can do to improve their services, besides adding quality original programming to their offerings. When the monthly subscription…
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How did Netflix manage to ruin “Lost in Space?” I grew up pining for science fiction on TV in an age when science fiction was both scary and exciting. One of the best TV series was “Lost in Space” which aired from 1965 until 1968, three seasons, projecting into a future called “1997.” In 1998,…
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A good movie should be about entertainment These days, movie reviewers judge films not by what the audience wants but rather by what they want. Oftentimes, those judgments are driven by issues that pander to social minorities and left-wing liberal preferences. Why can’t we judge films based solely on their entertainment value, rather than on…
Should have dropped Acid before watching Annihilation Movie review: The movie theater was packed with people for the premiere of Annihilation, the Science Fiction story about an alien life form that slams into Earth and expands into what scientists call a “shimmer”. The movie not only had some great stars like Natalie Portman and Jennifer…
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Cloverfield “franchise” destroys a great original theme Some one should explain to J.J. Abrams that it isn’t enough to just put a word in a movie title to create a franchise that will excite the public. I loved the 2008 movie “Cloverfield.” But the two films int he so-called “Cloverfield franchise” don’t even come close…
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Holidays today are not like holidays of the past It was so much better in the “old days.” Movie theaters were more enjoyable and traveling on airlines and even cruises were simpler. We knew what we were getting upfront for the single cost we paid. Today, traveling is a gamble, and going to the movie…
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Netflix increases fees as programming drops Netflix raised fees, again. But if they want to keep me as a loyal subscriber, they need to be loyal to me and produce some kickass programing. Dropping Kevin Spacey from “House of Cards” is a major blow, and the garbage they are offering the wake of another favorite,…
Why did Blade Runner 2049 do so bad at theaters? Movie Review: Blade Runner is a science fiction film based on the 1968 novel “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?” by SciFi author Philip K. Dick. The lead character is Rick Deckard whose job as a “Blade Runner” is to terminate (retire) old replicants (bio-robotic…
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