Author Archives: Dann Gire

Alan (Zack Galifianakis) gains a baby, Stu (Ed Helms), right, loses a tooth, and Phil (Bradley Cooper) misplaces a groom in the subversively naughty comedy “The Hangover.” Before we get to “The Hangover,” we should ask the first and most important question of comedy: Did you laugh? Yes, I did. And my derriere is still […]

A dissatisfied bank customer (Lorna Raver) finally gets the ear of a loan officer (Alison Lohman) in Sam Raimi’s “Drag Me to Hell.” The aptly titled “Drag Me to Hell” celebrates Sam Raimi’s triumphant return to frightful and cheesy horror films that elicit as many nervous laughs as cringing shudders. We get all sorts of […]

If there is such a thing as cheap sentiment, Tojiro Takita’s “Departures” must be the expensive kind. This pensive, eloquent drama centers around Daigo (Masahiro Motoki), a laid-off cellist. (Read more…) Now playing at the Century Centre in Chicago.

Award winning filmmakers will discuss their craft during “An Evening with the Filmmakers”. The event on May 18th, 2009 from 7 to 10 p.m. at the Wildwood Restaurant, 477 S. Third St., Geneva is a fund-raiser for the Geneva Film Festival. The evening will showcase writers, directors, producers and actors connected with the upcoming Film […]

Carl Fredricksen (voiced by Ed Asner) decides to stay at home and travel at the same time in Disney/Pixar’s animated “Up.” The first 10 minutes of Pixar’s fantastical 3-D animated adventure “Up” are a sublime testimonial to the purity and magic of the cinema. I know because I was a sobbing basket case by Minute […]

Charity (Essence Atkins), left, stores her baby before going off to class with Megan (Shoshana Bush) in the comic spoof “Dance Flick.” Hardly a filmgoer on the planet will go into see the latest Wayans brothers spoof, “Dance Flick,” and not know what to expect: A threadbare plot stuffed with pop movie references, tasteless gross-outs, […]

Kirby Dick (“This Movie is Not Yet Rated”) goes on a rampage against hypocrisy in this blistering expose’ of closeted politicians who hide their homosexuality behind voting records that target gays for second-class citizenship. (Read more…) Now playing at the Music Box Theater in Chicago.

Atom Egoyan serves up a heavy-handed dose of intellectually stimulating ideas in a drama that succumbs to theatrically stilted scenes and soap operatic excess. (Read more…) Now playing at Pipers Alley in Chicago.

Olivier Assayas’ impeccably measured domestic drama is a loving, bittersweet poem to growing up, growing old, and being replaced by the next generation. (Read more…) Now playing at the Renaissance Place in Highland Park and Century Centre in Chicago.

Night guard Larry Daley (Ben Stiller) befriends Amelia Earhart (Amy Adams) in “Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian.” Had this unpretentious, goofy comedy been directed by a Robert Zemeckis or a Steven Spielberg, and been written by a Seth Rogen or a John Hamburg, it would have been smart as well as mildly […]