Author Archives: Dann Gire

Two lawn ornaments fall in love despite their severe family differences in “Gnomeo and Juliet.” This is not your garden variety, animated 3-D Shakespearean knock-off. “Gnomeo & Juliet” may sound like a cheesy kids’ movie, but it quickly establishes itself as a delightful, clever, musical reinvention of William Shakespeare’s romantic tragedy as experienced through the […]

Steve (Ben Foster), left, and Arthur (Jason Statham) prepare to blast their way out of trouble in “The Mechanic.” If you took “The Mechanic” — an action-packed but superficial thriller — and combined it with George Clooney’s “The American” — a stylistically nuanced, but boring drama — you might get a near-perfect movie about a […]

Daily Herald Film Critic Dann Gire will be a contributing critic and correspondent on the new nationally syndicated TV show, “Ebert Presents At the Movies,” hosted by Associated Press’ Christy Lemire and Ignatiy Vishnevetsky of Mubi.com. It airs at 8:30 p.m. Fridays on WTTW. Daily Herald Film Critic Dann Gire will be moonlighting on “Ebert […]

Ed Harris, left, leads a cast of refugees escaping from a Siberian gulag in 1940 in Peter Weir’s “The Way Back.” I don’t know about you, but I’m beginning to think that if you’ve seen one torturously dangerous escape-from-a-Siberian-gulag movie, you’ve kinda seen them all. “The Way Back” comes from internationally celebrated Australian filmmaker Peter […]

Barney (Golden Globe winner Paul Giamatti) gets a life lesson from Dad (Dustin Hoffman) in “Barney’s Version.” The moderately engaging “Barney’s Version” works almost like an old-fashioned temperance movie warning against the evils of sinful drink. Not only does the boozer main character, a successful TV producer named Barney Panofsky (Paul Giamatti in excellent form) […]

Gene McClary (Tommy Lee Jones), left, and Bobby Walker (Ben Affleck) contemplate their futures after being laid off. I came out of John Wells’ drama “The Company Men” not particularly bowled over by its conventional, made-for-TV visuals and its finger-pointing at how selfish and greedy America’s top CEOs can be. But “The Company Men” did […]

Ronny Valentine (Vince Vaughn), right, and pal Nick Brannen (Kevin James) celebrate their Hawkishness in Ron Howard’s comedy “The Dilemma.” Ron Howard’s “The Dilemma” is a Chicagoan’s movie. It was shot in the Windy City. It shows lots of Chicago locations. It stars Chicago actor Vince Vaughn, who grew up in Buffalo Grove and Lake […]

Kato (Jay Chou) and Britt Reed (Seth Rogen) spring into action to combat villainy in “The Green Hornet.” On paper, “The Green Hornet” probably looked like an inspired concept. Take the old Green Hornet premise — a smart and rich white newspaper publisher named Britt Reed goes masked vigilante with help from his Asian manservant […]

An ambitionless man (Ryan Gosling) romances an ambitious woman (Michelle Williams) with unhappy results in “Blue Valentine.” Director/co-writer Derek Cianfrance says the aptly titled “Blue Valentine” is all about the death of love, and that pretty much describes the essence of this extraordinary chronicle of a relationship between two people destined for domestic disintegration. This […]

Donated toys, led by cowboy Woody, attempt an escape in “Toy Story 3.” The movies of 2010 thrilled us, chilled us and nearly killed us. From Harry Potter’s half-swan song to “Black Swan,” from deception to “Inception,” the year’s films provided critics with more than enough ammunition to fire off a top 10 list. Here’s […]