Dann Gire
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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.
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Monster mishmash: Godzilla reverts to a less scary, pinker version in hodgepodge action sequel ‘x’Mar 28, 2024 11:00 am - In Adam Wingard’s “Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire,” the beast with fiery halitosis reverts to the quasi-heroic, less fearsome persona from “Godzilla vs. King Kong.” Both movies feature a hodgepodge of sci-fi expository technobabble, strange mysticism, convoluted mythologies and strained replications of human emotions.
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A no-Gozer: New ‘Ghostbusters’ sequel a frosty ghost of its 1984 originalMar 20, 2024 6:18 pm - Once again, the new, nostalgic “Ghostbusters” sequel “Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire” can’t match the wit, breezy fun and fresh imagination of the inspired original, co-written by Chicago’s Harold Ramis and Dan Aykroyd.