Dann Gire
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Action, Tom Cruise enliven thrilling 'Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning'Aug 03, 2023 7:49 am - “Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part 1” - ★ ★ ★ In his seventh impossible mission on the silver screen, Tom Cruise saves Hollywood (again), saves the world (again,...
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Fun-challenged, bloated 'Destiny' can't keep up with the earlier JonesesJul 06, 2023 9:42 am - “Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny” - ★ ★ Dr. Henry Jones Sr. would have a stroke, if he weren't already deceased. He'd be incensed that his son Junior (Harrison Fo...
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Bold, bawdy 'No Hard Feelings' blends laughs with lessons in forgivenessJun 24, 2023 8:55 am - “No Hard Feelings” - ★ ★ ½ I went into a press screening of “No Hard Feelings” expecting something crass and bawdy. After all, the story concerns a young woman who acce...
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Wes Anderson's stylized, star-stuffed comedy 'Asteroid City' big on both spectacle and dramatic inertiaJun 29, 2023 11:06 am - “Asteroid City” - ★ ★ ½ “Asteroid City”? A fun, nostalgically retro place to visit, but I wouldn't want to live there for a full 104 minutes. By now, the dazzling visua...
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Timing is key to mastering animated characters, 'Elemental' star Wendi McLendon-Covey saysJun 23, 2023 1:32 pm - Actress Wendi McLendon-Covey burst on to the media scene with a breakout performance in the 2011 comedy film “Bridesmaids” before landing a dream job playing family matr...
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Pixar scores a modest marvel in romantic, opposites-attract comical fantasy 'Elemental'Jun 23, 2023 12:49 pm - “Elemental” - ★ ★ ★ Charming. Delightful. Spectacularly stunning. “Elemental” clearly belongs on Pixar's periodic table of animated features, right down to the bubbling ...
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'Boogeyman' an atmospherically overwrought, suspense-challenged collection of easy scares, moldy clichesJun 03, 2023 7:35 am - “The Boogeyman” - ★ ★ “The Exorcist” director William Friedkin famously observed that the scariest thing in a horror film is a closed door. The scariest thing in Rob Sa...
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Overly long 'Little Mermaid' remake is far less fun than its 1989 animated originalMay 27, 2023 8:31 am - “The Little Mermaid” - ★ ★ Just wondering: Why do all the superbly detailed underwater scenes with CGI production designs look like outtakes from “Avatar: The Way of Wa...
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Improvise! That's how 'Are You There God?' director elicited natural performances from film's young actorsMay 05, 2023 11:09 am - For almost half a century, novelist Judy Blume had a single word for filmmakers interested in creating a movie from her iconic 1970 book "Are You There God? It's Me, Mar...
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Rachel McAdams blossoms in Blume's controversial story of pre-adolescent angst, struggleMay 05, 2023 11:09 am - “Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret.” - ★ ★ ★ ½ One scene in this movie caused me to shed a tear or two, and it happened when Rachel McAdams, playing Barbara Simon, t...