Club409

Girl with teh (a?) Dragon Tattoo - I haven't read the books so I went in just knowing that Daniel Craig was in it and some emo chick was going to help him solve mysteries. Now that I write that I'm kind of disappointed it wasn't a gritty Scooby Doo reboot. I'm not really into mystery flicks to begin with so I can't really compare this to others of the genre but I would think that during the story the viewer should be seeing clues that point to the whodunnit character. The big aha moment should come with a payoff that validates those clues and makes sense of the whole thing. A real good movie would have all those things make sense at a specific time. When the whodunnit is revealed I was like huh OK whatever. It could have just as easily been any other character or some deus ex whodunnit character they just made up. The bad guy had a mildly interesting monologue as bad guys are wont to do but the movie doesn't really take the topic it raises about our compulsion to not offend anywhere. And then the mystery is solved through a deus ex swedish lady out of a hat trick that could have just as easily been anyone else. That's two deus exes in the same movie Dos deus exes. If they were having beers they would be dos deus exes drinking dos dos equis. The interactions between the Craig character and the emo girl were the most interesting parts of the movie. But overall I found the experience bland. That's probably why they felt the need to be explicit with the rapey scenes because you wouldn't really feel anything during the movie otherwise. 2.5 out of 5 what was that shiny thing and where is it going oh now I get its.

Agreed the movie definitely makes more sense having read the book but I think they did a good job of capturing the essense of the book.  They had to leave out some details to make the story flow and without it being 3:30 hours long. [SPOILER ALERT]  If you plan on reading the book or watching the movie then stop here.

For example the end of the movie seemed a little rushed to me.  They don't do a good job of explaining Anita and Harriet's situation which is handled much better in the book (and moderately more believable).  There was also a whole side story about a Wennestrom mole at Millenium who was sabotaging the magazine which makes the vindication of sticking it to the corrupt CEO even more satisfying in the book.  One thing they did pretty well is make the research a little more interesting.  It seemed more laborious in the book which is how research is I guess but they did a good job of capturing the details from the book without drawing it out.

I get your point though Drew.  There wasn't a montage scene of flashbacks where it's like "Oh yeah if I had picked up on those clues I would've solved the mystery!"  But it's like that in the book too.  The only thing that's a little different is that when Martin confronts Mikael in the book he basically tells Mikael to leave the island or MIllenium might be in trouble (since Vanger falls ill and Martin is the representing partner for the magazine).  Martin uses the family's distaste of Mikael's presense as a pretext for the conversation in the book so it's not so obvious at the time but that's definitely one of those "oh yeah" scenes.  I think the "oh yeah" montage would've been super cliche but I can see your need to connect the villain with context demonstrated in the movie.

Casting was done fairly well.  Rooney Mara played a perfect Lisbeth.  I was opposed to the idea of Daniel Craig because of his 007 fame but they do a good job of toning him down and show some wrinkles from aging so it worked.  In my mind Wennestrom seemed more like Bernie Madoff rather than the younger pretty boy they chose in the movie.  He had white hair but smooth skin. Maybe my mind just falls into standard stereotypes and makes the villains hideous with boils and such. :)

Anyhow I give it a 3.5/5 shit shit the killer's standing right next to you and you know it just stab him with the knife!!

Guilty pleasure anyone?

the raid: redemption.  indonesian movie (although michael and i were able to see it at our regular mall theater not some random indie theater).  kick-ass fights and blood from start to finish.  got good reviews and didn't disappoint.  highly recommend.  

michael's and my rating: 5/5 flourescent light bulbs to the neck