Author Archives: Dann Gire

Power-hungry Cao Cao (Zhang Fengyi) gathers his troops to invade Southern China in John Woo’s historical “Red Cliff.” At a cost of $80 million, John Woo’s historical China war epic “Red Cliff” ranks as the most expensive Chinese-language movie ever made, and Woo puts every penny of it on the screen and in the sound. […]

A father (Viggo Mortensen) defends his son (Kodi Smit-McPhee) from marauding cannibals in “The Road.” A bleak and barren tale of a post-Apocalyptical world where bands of cannibals hunt down, kill and digest their own kind, “The Road” leads to a hollow and laughable ending that so desperately wants to be sweet, it’s sickening. I […]

Account executive Ralph White (Seth Green) serenades an amorous gorilla in Walt Becker’s comedy “Old Dogs.” There’s one sure way you can tell that Walt Becker’s new comedy “Old Dogs” is better than his 2007 hit “Wild Hogs.” “Old Dogs” is 12 minutes shorter. No doubt, the same crowds of fun-starved filmgoers who made “Wild […]

Leigh Anne Tuohy (Sandra Bullock) gives Michael Oher (Quinton Aaron) a pep talk in “The Blind Side.” I dreaded the press screening of “The Blind Side,” because all the TV commercials and theatrical trailers made it look like just another fact-based white savior movie like “Glory,” “Men of Honor” and “Glory Road.” You know the […]

For three months, Chicago’s Kamelya Alexan worked on the set of “The Dark Knight” in the Windy City. She funneled all of her earnings into making a 21-minute film called “One Simple Life,” a drama about a man afflicted with schizophrenia. Her movie’s premiere at 7 p.m. Sunday at the Skokie Theater, 7924 Lincoln Ave., […]

Werner Herzog’s loose and loony remake of Abel Ferrara’s NC-17-rated, 1992 crime drama “Bad Lieutenant” doesn’t just star Nicolas Cage. It unleashes him in the kind of over-the-top, no-holds-barred performance that has become his hallmark. His lieutenant, Terence McDonagh, is so bad, he constantly shoves drugs in his nose, racks up humongous gambling debts, claims […]

Three horror tales – “The Evil of Frankenstein,” “The House That Dripped Blood” and “Dr. Cyclops” – will be shown for one $10.00 admission, starting at 6:00 p.m. Saturday at the Portage Theater. Call (773) 875-7582 for details. Cost: $10.00 Saturday, November 21, 6:00pm Portage Theater 4050 N. Milwaukee Ave. Chicago

The dark Irish comedy “Turning Green” never quite finds its proper comic tone as it gleefully immerses us in a raucously nasty, noirish tale of a sexually self-abusing teenager who becomes a successful pornography distributor and eventual killer. “Turning Green,” originally one of the runners-up in the “Project Greenlight” contest from a few years back, […]

The After Hours Film Society presents “The Beaches of Agnes,” by 81-year-old French filmmaker Agnes Varda. It’s an autobiographical portrait of a self-described forager, searching the world for images that capture her fancy. See After Hours Film Society for more details. Cost: $9.00 (Members $5.00) Monday, November 23, 7:30pm Tivoli Theater 5021 Highland Ave. Downers […]

Casualty-notification officer Will Montgomery (Ben Foster) delivers devastating news to families of fallen soldiers in “The Messenger.” They’re called casualty-notification officers. Their mission is to go to the homes of fallen soldiers to notify their NOK (next-of-kin) of their deaths in the line of duty. It’s a terrible job, and in Oren Moverman’s painfully intimate, […]