Dann Gire
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Blown away: Combative storm chasers face Mother Nature’s wrath in spectacular disaster film ‘Twisters’Jul 17, 2024 3:09 pm - By the time the Godzilla of tornadoes arrives during the film’s spectacular climax, “Twisters” seems to be less a sequel to Jan de Bont’s fun-filled 1996 thriller “Twister” and more of a classic 1970s disaster movie – minus the all-star cast.
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Extremely Gothic: Mia Goth kills it as a porn star heroine in meta slasher trilogy finale ‘MaXXXine’Jul 03, 2024 9:04 am - The final chapter in Ti West’s exuberantly meta slasher trilogy — along with “X” and “Pearl” — “MaXXXine” cements Mia Goth’s reputation as the Jennifer Jason Leigh of the 21st century. That’s no small compliment.
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‘Tuesday’ flips the bird to Death in boldly visual work of magical surrealismJun 11, 2024 2:24 pm - This insanely quirky, deliciously dark venture into magical surrealism doesn’t exactly celebrate death, but testifies to its necessary and purposeful existence. “Tuesday” accomplishes this by focusing on a terminally ill teenager named Tuesday (Lola Petticrew) and the extreme measures her mother Zora (Julia Louis-Dreyfus) takes to clip Death’s wings.
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It’s gore vs. bore in a ‘Nature’ movie all about splatter matterMay 28, 2024 3:41 pm - I am guessing that when Chris Nash’s “In a Violent Nature” goes to streaming on Shudder, its target audience might jump straight to the 42-minute mark, the movie’s ultra-graphic piece-de-resistance.
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Mad to the Max: Furiously fueled ‘Furiosa’ a sensational but flawed prequel of pure cinemaMay 22, 2024 1:01 pm - Could George Miller’s furiously fueled “Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga” be the epic dystopian action movie to end all epic dystopian action movies? Close enough, film critic Dann Gire says.
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‘Strangers’ dangers blunted by horror cliches, dumbnessMay 16, 2024 11:00 am - Renny Harlin’s generic, jump-scary horror tale “The Strangers: Chapter 1” can be viewed two ways. One, as a stylish, technically proficient horror story. Two, as a nihilistic and manipulative formula slasher movie pushing the envelope of dumbness to near comic extremes.
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Civil bore: Political ambiguity muddles hollow, violent cautionary dramaApr 10, 2024 4:48 pm - Armed with a timely premise, a high-caliber cast and forceful visuals, Alex Garland’s dystopian horror war road movie “Civil War” blunts its potential impact by posing unanswered questions and by disregarding pesky, relevant details.
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Bug-a BOO! Fun, frights and feelings figure into a Charlotte’s web of terror in ‘Sting’Apr 09, 2024 12:13 pm - Kiah Roache-Turner’s low-budget Australian creature feature “Sting” merges fun and thrills with a ton of kills in a breezy, cheesy salute to classic 1950s “it came from outer space” tales.
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Better than ‘Nun’: ‘Omen’ a watchable, sometimes silly political allegoryApr 04, 2024 11:28 am - Aside from an adequate supply of gross commercial elements, the Catholic horror tale “The First Omen” issues an allegorical warning about our current political climate.
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‘Wicked Little Letters’ achieves an all-time high of Low ComedyApr 03, 2024 10:56 am - Thea Sharrock’s bawdy “Wicked Little Letters,” starring Olivia Colman and Jessie Buckley, brilliantly tells the fact-based story of a friendship gone sour and an epidemic of poison-pen letters that became a public scandal in a quiet English village during the 1920s.