Dann Gire
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Post-apocalyptic drama 'How I Live Now' slogs alongNov 07, 2013 5:00 am - “There's going to be World War III!” pipes up a little girl named Piper in Kevin Macdonald's cinematic adaptation of Meg Rosoff's novel about teen angst and yearning ami...
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Newell's 'Expectations' actually turns out 'Great'Nov 07, 2013 5:00 am - When Mike Newell set out to direct yet another movie based on Charles Dickens' classic novel "Great Expectations," he did something very clever to insure market appeal f...
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'Thor' sequel's effects spectacular but short on character connectionsNov 07, 2013 4:30 am - If all you demand from a Marvel Comics superhero movie are spectacular action sequences pushed to the brink of tedium, a dullingly impersonal cast of characters, some we...
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McConaughey's performance hits gold standard in 'Buyers Club'Nov 07, 2013 4:30 am - Before playing a desperado in "Mud" earlier this year, Matthew McConaughey hit a trifecta of dangerous roles that could have killed his career had they not been spot-on....
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After being a Highland Park black kid, 'comedy was survival'Nov 04, 2013 11:00 am - Marina Franklin was the only black girl in her Highland Park elementary school. “There also was a black boy. They expected us to date,” joked Franklin, a rising sta...
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Speaker calls Illinois 'most crooked, most broke' at political summitNov 02, 2013 6:00 pm - The guest roster read like a Who's Who of local and national Republican and conservative figures. Among them were U.S. Rep. Peter Roskam, former congressman and now broa...
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Stop defacing screeners for the press to reviewOct 31, 2013 6:00 am - Excuse my tirade I sat down at my computer screen to watch a press digital download for the movie "Broadway Idiot" opening this weekend at the Music Box Theatre in Chic...
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It's 'About Time' a romantic fantasy like this came alongOct 31, 2013 6:00 am - @X BTO Byline attribution italic:dgire@dailyherald.com I have one major misgiving about Richard Curtis' romantic fantasy "About Time," and that involves the innocently ...
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Visually stunning 'Ender's Game' really an ethics lesson in da-skiesOct 31, 2013 6:00 am - The idea that humanity banks its entire future on some spunky junior high kids to win a potential intergalactic war with buglike aliens borders on the ludicrous. Yet, G...
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Steenburgen trumps quartet of aging stars in Sin City comedyOct 31, 2013 6:00 am - "Have any drugs, man?" a sexy young woman asks aging senior citizen Archie. "Does Lipitor count?" Archie replies. Cue the Viagra jokes and comic references to replaced...