Dann Gire
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Cheap scares don't add up to thrills in tepid 'Unspoken'Oct 27, 2016 6:00 am - So far, Mike Flanagan's mediocre demon drama "Ouija: Origin of Evil" leads the weekend pack of mainstream Halloween movies, challenged only by the cheap (really cheap) j...
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Political doc 'Madigan' a compelling hit-pieceOct 26, 2016 6:00 am - A Texas media company produced "Madigan: Power. Privilege. Politics.," a one-hour documentary about Democratic House Speaker Michael Madigan, because no Illinois product...
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Hot visuals, dense plot fuel Ron Howard's 'Inferno'Oct 25, 2016 11:00 pm - Maybe it's called "Inferno" because you can't always figure out what the H. E. Double-Hockey-Sticks is going on. If you thought Ron Howard's first two adventures based o...
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Eric Clapton's concerts designed in this St. Charles man's homeOct 25, 2016 5:00 am - If you've seen an Eric Clapton concert in the past 20 years, then you've seen the work of St. Charles resident Dave Maxwell. The 45-year-old Maxwell, a native of Ireland...
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Dann says enough of the 'waking from a nightmare' clicheOct 20, 2016 6:00 am - A real wake-up call Three times in Mike Flanagan's horror sequel "Ouija: Origin of Evil," characters wake up from bad dreams by bolting upright in bed like spring-l...
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'Romance' deathly dull and just plain ickyOct 20, 2016 6:00 am - The ironically titled "American Romance" belongs to a particularly cruel and nasty subgroup in the home invasion exploitation genre. Seeing it is something akin to watch...
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Well-timed jolts keep 'Ouija' from being just a bored gameOct 18, 2016 11:00 pm - Outside of "Tyler Perry's Boo!," we don't have many Halloween movies on the docket this month, and that puts a premium on the jumps, jolts and shocks effectively finesse...
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A-minus at Loyola Academy fueled 'Westworld' creatorOct 18, 2016 5:00 am - An A-minus on a freshman high school creative writing assignment may not seem like such a big deal, but for future filmmaker Jonathan Nolan, that grade changed his life....
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'Confessions' a gross, dimwitted rom-comOct 14, 2016 6:00 am - The nonromantic comedy "Confessions of a Womanizer" opens with studly young protagonist Ritchie (Andrew Lawrence) stuck in a jail cell with a transgender hooker named Gi...
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Reel life: Two suburban students win honors at 'Say It In 8' film festOct 13, 2016 6:00 am - They 'Say It In 8' Two suburban students won honors in the upcoming "Say It In 8" student film festival sponsored by the After Hours Film Society. Brian Chval of the Col...