This week I'm doing a 2 part review, and the first movie is
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
The movie tells the fictional story of a journalist, Mikael Blomkvist played by Michael Nyqvist, who's damn good at his job. He's at a rocky patch in his career and in his life. He is tried in court for libel and found guilty, but before he serves his sentence he's asked to solve a 40 year old "disappearing" case. While trying to solve the case he runs into a computer hacker, Lisbeth Salander played by Noomi Rapace (due to play in the Sherlock Holmes sequel and the Aliens prequel) who is a computer hacker and is a bit socially strange. The unlikely team uncover something way more then just a disappearing child case, they find out about 5-6 murders all linked starting from the 1940's to the present. Sex, Drugs and Rock n Roll ensue.
The first thing that was very refreshing was that it was a step outside of the realm I'm used to...The United States. The picture was filmed throughout a few of the Scandanavian countries and Germany. Beautiful. To see different architecture and cities (that aren't Boston, New York, Los Angeles, Chicago) was refreshing. The environments were beautiful fillers in between the craziness of the story. The story is based on Stieg Larsson's Millenium Trilogy, which he wrote, then died without having seen them become popular. The story is sort of your run of the mill, who done it, follow the clues to the next clue type of movie, very Sevenish. Regardless of that fact you still want to find the connections to the clues and figure out who done it along with the characters.
The characters, namely Lisbeth, are very intriguing. Lisbeth is the girl refereed to in all three of the tittles The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, The Girl who Played with Fire, The Girl who Kicked the Hornet's Nest and she isn't entirely the main character but the one you want to see the most of. As soon as you see her on the screen you just want to know about her, but you don't get much. Just her attitude, and her social ostracism. You can tell she's been through a lot, through the way she interacts with people, how she dresses and how she reacts to the "bad" guys and the "good" guys. There's a great dynamic between Lisbeth and the dominant male character, where he's the soft, sensitive, caring one and she's the cold hearted, don't take no shit, tough one.
Violent, twisted, demented...Lisbeth still comes out alive. Oh did I mention its in Swedish, with English subtitles?
This film played off the first one great. The story however starts to get a little bit convoluted. We start learning about these Secret Agencies and government officials in cahoots within this sexual trafficking ring and how they all tie in together with Lisbeth.
I feel like this movie and the last movie don't translate into films as well as the last one. Either that or whoever translated them (not language to language but medium to medium) didn't do a very good job. The story keeps the same twisted type feel and action but started to loose me at parts in the middle. Still a great follow up to the first flick.
The third installment and end of the story tells the conclusion of Lisbeth Sander and her involvement with a twisted government who is locked up in conspiracy and sexual perversion. Now, don't get me wrong the movie is good, but it's definitely not great. The movie is a huge exhibition and detective case which sets up the court case to finally put these sick perverts in their rightful place. Blomkvsit sets out to take down these sick government leaders who think they can do whatever they want. The exhibition might be to involved which, as i said before, may not have translated that great into a movie. The first 2 movies had the right amount of violence and action mixed in with a sick and twisted story line. I think the third movie relies on this idea of the first two, to take it to the last 20 mins of the story/conclusion. I wasn't bored by the detective talk and investigating and the rehab, but I was expecting something different.
I really liked the first one, enjoyed the second one and watched and liked the third one because it was the conclusion. The first one seems to be a separate story from the last two. The third movie uses some elements from the first but it didn't do it for me.
All in all I enjoyed the Millennium trilogy, but I really liked The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, enjoyed the The Girl who Played with Fire, and watched The Girl who Kicked the Hornets Nest to see the conclusion.
The first thing that was very refreshing was that it was a step outside of the realm I'm used to...The United States. The picture was filmed throughout a few of the Scandanavian countries and Germany. Beautiful. To see different architecture and cities (that aren't Boston, New York, Los Angeles, Chicago) was refreshing. The environments were beautiful fillers in between the craziness of the story. The story is based on Stieg Larsson's Millenium Trilogy, which he wrote, then died without having seen them become popular. The story is sort of your run of the mill, who done it, follow the clues to the next clue type of movie, very Sevenish. Regardless of that fact you still want to find the connections to the clues and figure out who done it along with the characters.
The characters, namely Lisbeth, are very intriguing. Lisbeth is the girl refereed to in all three of the tittles The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, The Girl who Played with Fire, The Girl who Kicked the Hornet's Nest and she isn't entirely the main character but the one you want to see the most of. As soon as you see her on the screen you just want to know about her, but you don't get much. Just her attitude, and her social ostracism. You can tell she's been through a lot, through the way she interacts with people, how she dresses and how she reacts to the "bad" guys and the "good" guys. There's a great dynamic between Lisbeth and the dominant male character, where he's the soft, sensitive, caring one and she's the cold hearted, don't take no shit, tough one.
Violent, twisted, demented...Lisbeth still comes out alive. Oh did I mention its in Swedish, with English subtitles?
The Girl Who Played with Fire
I feel like this movie and the last movie don't translate into films as well as the last one. Either that or whoever translated them (not language to language but medium to medium) didn't do a very good job. The story keeps the same twisted type feel and action but started to loose me at parts in the middle. Still a great follow up to the first flick.
The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest
The third installment and end of the story tells the conclusion of Lisbeth Sander and her involvement with a twisted government who is locked up in conspiracy and sexual perversion. Now, don't get me wrong the movie is good, but it's definitely not great. The movie is a huge exhibition and detective case which sets up the court case to finally put these sick perverts in their rightful place. Blomkvsit sets out to take down these sick government leaders who think they can do whatever they want. The exhibition might be to involved which, as i said before, may not have translated that great into a movie. The first 2 movies had the right amount of violence and action mixed in with a sick and twisted story line. I think the third movie relies on this idea of the first two, to take it to the last 20 mins of the story/conclusion. I wasn't bored by the detective talk and investigating and the rehab, but I was expecting something different.
I really liked the first one, enjoyed the second one and watched and liked the third one because it was the conclusion. The first one seems to be a separate story from the last two. The third movie uses some elements from the first but it didn't do it for me.
All in all I enjoyed the Millennium trilogy, but I really liked The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, enjoyed the The Girl who Played with Fire, and watched The Girl who Kicked the Hornets Nest to see the conclusion.
I thought of a random movie quote, see if you can guess where they're from...
1) "SUCK BRICK KID!"
2) "Lotta sap in here! Mmmm... Looks great! Little full, lotta sap."
3) "I think so but I'd have to get pretty high" "I bet you would Panama Red"
4) "You're what the French call les incompetents."
5) "Buddy the Elf whats your favorite color"
6) "Of all the gin joints, in all the towns, in all the world, she walks into mine."
Netflix Instant Watch of the Week: Almost Heroes. This has to be on of Farley's most underrated films that most people haven't seen. Everyone's seen and Tommy Boy and Black Sheep but most people haven't seen this. Trying to beat Lewis and Clarke across the young U.S. the antics they he and Matthew Perry get into are hysterical. So many "I'm crying cause I'm laughing" moments and very easily quoted.
Netflix DVD of the week: Doubt. A very thought provoking movie with some STUNNING acting via Meryl Streep, Phillip Seymour Hoffman and Amy Adams (who was a slightly a new comer). At the end you will be amazed by the acting and you'll be scratching your head asking what really happened.
a little bit of movie news...
The AFI's top 10 Movies of 2010
http://www.slashfilm.com/afis-top-10-films-tv-shows-2010/#more-94017
The AV Club.com's top 15 Movies of 2010
http://www.avclub.com/articles/the-best-films-of-2010,49101/
2) "Lotta sap in here! Mmmm... Looks great! Little full, lotta sap."
3) "I think so but I'd have to get pretty high" "I bet you would Panama Red"
4) "You're what the French call les incompetents."
5) "Buddy the Elf whats your favorite color"
6) "Of all the gin joints, in all the towns, in all the world, she walks into mine."
Netflix Instant Watch of the Week: Almost Heroes. This has to be on of Farley's most underrated films that most people haven't seen. Everyone's seen and Tommy Boy and Black Sheep but most people haven't seen this. Trying to beat Lewis and Clarke across the young U.S. the antics they he and Matthew Perry get into are hysterical. So many "I'm crying cause I'm laughing" moments and very easily quoted.
Netflix DVD of the week: Doubt. A very thought provoking movie with some STUNNING acting via Meryl Streep, Phillip Seymour Hoffman and Amy Adams (who was a slightly a new comer). At the end you will be amazed by the acting and you'll be scratching your head asking what really happened.
a little bit of movie news...
The AFI's top 10 Movies of 2010
http://www.slashfilm.com/afis-top-10-films-tv-shows-2010/#more-94017
The AV Club.com's top 15 Movies of 2010
http://www.avclub.com/articles/the-best-films-of-2010,49101/
Happy Holidays folks!
since The Happening wasn't an option, I had to go with the Rocky movies
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