Movies
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Intermittent quality: Fact-based drama 'Flash' fails to notice its real storyOct 02, 2008 11:00 pm - "Flash of Genius" completely misses the dramatic essence of its own story. The filmmakers - producer-turned-director Marc Abraham and screenwriter Philip Railsback - thi...
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Dark western 'Appaloosa' doesn't horse aroundOct 02, 2008 11:00 pm - "Appaloosa," a new Western from writer-director-star Ed Harris, revives an old genre with high style and simmering tension. Not to be confused with the 1966 Marlon Bran...
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The fans dish on Dann GireOct 02, 2008 11:00 pm - "Please grow up and open your mind a little." - A Schaumburg 15-year-old "I sent (your review) to a group of nuns who are praying for you." - A Barrington woman "Our c...
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The celebs dish on Dann GireOct 02, 2008 11:00 pm - "You're not a major critic." - Filmmaker Mel Brooks "A damned fine writer!" - Novelist/cop Joseph Wambaugh "Thanks for the hot review, homeboy!" - "Your imaginary fr...
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Dann Gire reminisces about three decades spent at the moviesOct 02, 2008 11:00 pm - Wanna know what I miss lately? I miss those late-night phone calls from upset, often inebriated Daily Herald readers who, after seeing a movie, would call up their favor...
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Stoic Moore is less in bleak, belligerent 'Blindness'Oct 02, 2008 11:00 pm - Fernando Meirelles' bleak and belligerent "Blindness" begins as an M. Night Shyamalan mystery, then careens into an apocalyptical "Lord of the Flies" before crashing and...
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Dann's favorite celebrity quotesOct 02, 2008 11:00 pm - Thirty years of interviewing filmmakers yields a lot of great quotes. Here are my favorites: "Greed." Director Robert Altman on the greatest problem facing the motion p...
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Clichés dog silly 'Beverly Hills Chihuahua'Oct 02, 2008 11:00 pm - There's a difference between a dumb Walt Disney movie for kids, and a parody of a dumb Walt Disney movie for kids. Except in the case of "Beverly Hills Chihuahua." With ...
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Pegg and pig funniest part of 'How to Lose Friends'Oct 02, 2008 11:00 pm - Simon Pegg's great gift in "How to Lose Friends and Alienate People" is his ability to take a self-centered, toxically obnoxious main character and breathe just enough w...
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'Nick & Norah' infinitely charmingOct 02, 2008 11:00 pm - "Nick & Norah's Infinite Playlist" is a pungent, nocturnal metropolitan romantic comedy light on plot, but heavy on chemistry between its two appealing main actors. Plus...