“Saddle up, partner!” Join Dann Gire (film critic of Chicago’s suburban newspaper THE DAILY HERALD, as well as the founder and president of the Chicago Film Critics Association, and adjunct instructor at Aurora and Harper Colleges in Illinois) and Raymond Benson (novelist, author of 20 books, former official author of James Bond books, film historian, […]
Author Archives: Dann Gire
DiCaprio stars as a corporate raider in mind-bending ‘Inception’
Arthur (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) fights off an armed enemy “projection” while in a dream-within-a-dream in “Inception.” I love this movie! Christopher Nolan’s insanely imaginative and intelligently trippy “Inception” is “Mission Impossible” led by a corporate Freddy Krueger in a mind-bending adventure that could have been designed by artist M.C. Escher. My brain still hurts from trying […]
‘Sorcerer’s Apprentice’ can’t conjure the magic
Balthazar (executive producer Nicolas Cage) instructs young Dave (Jay Baruchel) on how to be “The Sorcerer’s Apprentice.” Look, if you’re making a feature film based on a classic Walt Disney animated short, the first obligation you have is to make your movie as good as the short. Right? That doesn’t happen in Jon Turteltaub’s “The […]
‘Predators’ falls prey to weak second half
Royce (buffed-up Oscar winner Adrien Brody) faces off with an alien hunter in “Predators.” Fast-paced, taut with tension, stuffed with suspense and mystery, “Predators” is easily the best entry in 20th Century Fox’s science-fiction alien-hunter action franchise. For the first 55 minutes. Then, as if a key mechanism on a soaring rocket malfunctions, “Predators” sputters […]
Villain finds his softer side in comedic ‘Despicable Me’
Orphans Edith, Agnes and Margo talk the villainous Gru into a roller-coaster ride in the 3-D comic, animated “Despicable Me.” Universal Pictures’ “Despicable Me” fills the bill as a mildly diverting, whimsically entertaining 3-D computer-animated feature for kids. But in the wake of Pixar’s multilayered “Toy Story 3,” brimming with sadness, horror, adventure and time-passage […]
Lame dialogue, awkward acting drag down ‘The Last Airbender’
Mystical Aang (Noah Ringer) prepares to stop the Fire Nation in M. Night Shyamalan’s epic fantasy “The Last Airbender.” “The Last Airbender” blows. The main characters in this special-effects stuffed epic don’t just bend air. They bend fire, water, earth, plus logic, humor, acting and storytelling so far they almost reach the breaking point. Two […]
All the parts come together in ‘Eclipse’
Bella (Kristen Stewart) is torn between two inhuman lovers (Taylor Lautner, left, and Robert Pattinson) in “The Twilight Saga: Eclipse.” Her mouth says yes, I will marry the vampire. But her heart says wait, let’s not count the werewolf out. In “Eclipse,” the third film based on the popular supernatural romance books by Stephenie Meyer, […]
‘Grown Ups’ opts for the juvenile instead of the mature
Chris Rock, left, David Spade, Kevin James, Rob Schneider and Adam Sandler star as childhood buddies brought together for a party 30 years later in the comedy “Grown Ups.” “Grown Ups” is a sleazy, hypocritical family comedy that makes fun of fat people for being overweight, ridicules older people for having a libido, makes sport […]
‘Knight and Day’ delivers lots of speed, little substance
June (Cameron Diaz) hangs onto rogue CIA agent Roy Miller (Tom Cruise) in the action thriller “Knight and Day.” If you took all the breathtaking stunts and wild chase sequences in “Knight and Day” and pressed them together so tight that they squeezed everything else out, you’d still have a bloated, cliche-riddled Hollywood action movie. […]
What the ‘Hex’? ‘Jonah’ cursed with being plain awful
Lilah (Megan Fox) and Jonah (Josh Brolin) hang around while figuring out their next move in the western thriller “Jonah Hex.” I know it’s only June, but it’s never too soon to start taking bets on the worst movie of 2010. Which brings us directly to the leading contender so far, Jimmy Hayward’s jaw-droppingly bad, […]