Dann Gire
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Local director brings a bit of 'The Force' homeMar 21, 2013 6:00 am - The force is with us! "The Force Within Us" comes from writer/director Cris Macht, a Westmont native and graduate of Westmont High School. He now lives in Gilberts. His...
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Charm, creativity combine in caveman comedy 'Croods'Mar 21, 2013 6:00 am - Grug the caveman believes that curiosity killed the saber-toothed tiger. So he keeps his wife Ugga, rebellious teen cavedaughter Eep, his caveson Thunk (past-tense of T...
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Patriotism, brute force and realistic detail create effective but flawed thrillerMar 21, 2013 6:00 am - Two fleeting thoughts occurred to me during Antoine Fuqua's flag-waving (literally) America-under-attack action yarn "Olympus Has Fallen." First, forget about education...
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Mitzi Gaynor: Superstar, one-time Elgin girlMar 19, 2013 11:00 am - "Oh, honey," Mitzi Gaynor told us, "it's hard to be Mitzi Gaynor. I drive myself crazy worrying and hoping all the time, and I never want to disappoint anyone." Count u...
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Women-in-jeopardy thriller 'The Call' gets extra scary treatmentMar 14, 2013 6:00 am - I know what you're thinking. Three stars for this piece of manipulative, sensationalistic female survival claptrap? Sure. Because "The Call" is taut and suspenseful hi...
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Inventive imagery can't right tepid 'Upside Down'Mar 14, 2013 6:00 am - Reel Life mini-review: 'Upside Down' No, it's not about mortgages. In his soppy, passionless science-fiction romance "Upside Down," director/writer Juan Diego Solanas ...
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Hoffman Estates native hits right notes in HollywoodMar 12, 2013 5:00 am - The way Emerson Swinford sees it, he had no choice. He had to work with music. Or die trying. "This is what I've dreamed of since I was a kid," Swinford said. "I had ...
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'Oz' prequel a banal beginning to beloved fantasyMar 07, 2013 5:00 am - Sam Raimi's "Oz the Great and Powerful" achieves neither greatness nor power and, for a long time, barely qualifies being "Oz the Mediocre and Adequate." The first hour...
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'No' up to the challenge of Chilean revolutionMar 07, 2013 5:00 am - Reel Life mini-review: "No" Pablo Larrain's astute, insightful political drama "No" details Chile's 1988 revolution to topple military dictator Augusto Pinochet, only t...
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Fact-challenged WWII epic drops bomb of its ownMar 07, 2013 5:00 am - "I don't need a history lesson!" General Bonner Fellers tells a Japanese official. Well, he gets one anyway, and so do we with Peter Webber's dry and airless not-so-fac...