Desperate dad John Crowley (Brendan Fraser) gives Dr. Stonehill (Harrison Ford) support in “Extraordinary Measures.” Tom Vaughn’s passionless “Extraordinary Measures” comes extraordinarily close to becoming a smart expose on the roles that corporate politics and old-fashioned capitalism play in the creation and manufacturing of lifesaving drugs for children living under a death sentence called Pompe […]
Author Archives: Dann Gire
If only ‘Tooth Fairy’ hurt less than a root canal
A disgruntled professional hockey player (Dwayne Johnson) becomes a tooth fairy for twerpy Tracy (Stephen Merchant) and his boss (Julie Andrews) in the fantasy “The Tooth Fairy.” Look, I’d be willing to pull out all of my teeth and place them under my pillow if I could only, instead of a few measly dollars, retrieve […]
Haunting, beautiful ‘The Lovely Bones’ needs more heart
Stanley Tucci’s performance as a neighborly serial killer of young girls is a haunting highlight of Peter Jackson’s imaginative film “The Lovely Bones.” Peter Jackson’s beautiful and scary fantasy “The Lovely Bones” resonated with me on a personal level that most people won’t quite understand. It’s narrated by a 14-year-old girl who has been presumably […]
‘Spy Next Door’ another disappointing kiddie comedy
Mild-mannered Bob (Jackie Chan), right, teaches a Russian spy manners in the broad, insufferably condescending comedy “The Spy Next Door.” Brian Levant’s “The Spy Next Door” is being marketed as a family comedy, but for action movie fans, it’s truly a tragedy. Jackie Chan, one of the greatest and most popular Hong Kong action movie […]
‘The Book of Eli’ a little too arty, a little too trite
A murderous thug confronts the religious warrior Eli (Denzel Washington) in the apocalyptic science fiction thriller “The Book of Eli.” On paper, or on a computer screen, “The Book of Eli” must have looked like an irresistible synthesis of popular Hollywood genres. It’s a science-fiction thriller, a samurai epic, a spaghetti western, an apocalyptic religious […]
‘Daybreakers’ a back-to-basics horror classic
Lionel “Elvis” Cormac (Willem Dafoe) and vampire Edward Dalton (Ethan Hawke) get rudely interrupted in the blackly comic thriller “Daybreakers.” Finally, someone has created a bloody, blackly comic horror film that deserves to be in the company of Stuart Gordon’s Grand Guignol masterpiece “The Re-Animator” and Sam Raimi’s goo-pumped demonic frightfest “Evil Dead 2: Dead […]
Even Adams can’t salvage Irish road romance
Anna (Amy Adams) is torn between two lovers (Matthew Goode, left, and Adam Scott) in an Irish romance “Leap Year.” “Leap Year” is another one of those plot-by-number, formula romantic comedies that doesn’t trust a woman to choose between two lovers, so the movie does it for her. You know what I’m talking about. A […]
Ledger’s last film an imaginative journey
The late Heath Ledger appears in his last film role as Tony in Terry Gilliam’s stylish “The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus.” Only in a Terry Gilliam movie could a major actor die during production and be replaced by three other actors all playing the same role, and still have the story make sense. As sense […]
Holmes goes action hero in Ritchie’s energized political thriller
Dr. Watson (Jude Law), left, Sherlock (Robert Downey Jr.) and Irene (Rachel McAdams) contemplate their next move in “Sherlock Holmes,” based on Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s hero. How much you will appreciate Guy Ritchie’s reinterpretation of famous London detective Sherlock Holmes depends entirely on how willing you are to accept Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s eccentric […]