Movie Reviews

"A good movie is like a good chocolate bar; they both are visually stimulating and taste like chocolate."

I watch movies here and there.  I'm in the process of watching more.

This will be where I will talk about them...




March 11, 2012


This week Barbara and I finally got our hands on David Fincher's The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo.  It turned out to be very much as I expected; raw, dark, violent, gripping.  Um, what else?  Oh, right, awesome.  Fincher has made some pretty intense movies in his time, and this one if just adding to the collection.



Being the story of a mysterious girl and a shamed Journalist joining forces to solve a 40 year old mystery, you'd never no where it's headed or how they'll get there.  I had read the book a while ago, so I knew where it was going, but still, it was surprising to see it all on the screen the way it turned out.

The film runs well over 2 hours, but the pacing is so good that things are always happening, and often times everything his happening all at once.  The book was full of so many details that a movie could never capture all of them, but this film was very satisfying from where this reader stands.

Rooney Mara, as Lisbeth Salander, is almost unrecognizable from her small role in The Social Network.  There is not much to be said about her portrayal of Lisbeth, it just needs to be viewed.  Also,  many people were going to be critical of her performance since they loved the Swedish version so much.  I don't think that too many people could argue that Mara's performance wasn't surprisingly satisfying.

Daniel Craig is about as far from James Bond as he will ever be able to get without it being laughable.  I think that casting him for this role was right on.  I really liked him in this movie.

This film touches many intense subjects, and with Fincher in charge (Seven, Fight Club) you know it's going to be gruesome.   Just a little warning for you.

The other thing to mention is that Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross team up yet again to deliver a beautiful, pacing, and intense soundtrack.  I really liked all of the tracks on this one, particularly during Mikael and Martin's meeting near the end of the film.

I strongly recommend this movie.  I strongly recommend reading the books.  I think that I'll go out and get a dragon tattoo right now.




January 8th, 2012


In a perfect world, I would not have spent two hours of my life watching Clint Eastwood's A Perfect World.


January 7th, 2012


Lars Von Trier's Melancholia





I've had a few good experiences with Von Trier films, and seemingly, a lot of bad ones.  There is no doubt that this man is creative cat.  He's got a lot of films that I have never seen, and truthfully, never really want to see.

I really loved Dancer in the Dark, as it pushed me into a celebrity crush on Bjork which had lasted until only recently.  The music in the film was fun and beautiful, the story was sad, and for some reason I like sad stories.

I could not get through Dogville.  I liked the idea of the film, but I just could not get through it.  I will admit that there might come a day when I sit down and watch the whole thing.  That day is not today and that day is not tomorrow.

I watched a bit of The 5 Obstructions, and I liked what I saw.

His movies are, more than anything, very interesting to watch; very visual.  I really like that about them.

After watching Melancholia last night, I can safely say that it is my favorite.  The opening of the movie is amazing, colourful and very shocking.  It is confusing, but makes sense as the story moves on.

Basically, it follows 2 sisters.  They have a troubled relationship, one of them is manic depressive and the other seems to be scared of anything that could harm her family and the life that her husband has built for her.  Well, the film also has a giant planet called Melancholia that seems to be headed towards Earth.  That, my friends, is a great mix for tension and excitement.

It is a depressing movie in a lot of ways, but it is so beautiful that it makes you want to keep watching.  I would compare it to Tree of Life but I would also say that I liked Melancholia a lot more than that one.  It is a sad movie, but it keeps moving.  All of the visuals are understandable and add a lot to the overall story.

The thing about Tree of Life that sucked was that all of the extra visuals took away from the story because there was about an hour's worth of them.  I mean, I could pretend that I understood Tree of Life like everyone else seems to be doing, but truthfully, it was too full of symbolism and metaphors that I was overwhelmed by it all.  Somewhere in that mess was a beautiful movie, it's just that I'm still looking for it.

Melancholia moves along well, and though it is over 2 hours, it has a good story that brings you into a place of understanding and sympathy for the characters.

Kirsten Dunst and Charlotte Gainsbourg are very good in this movie.  The secondary characters are well represented and their time on the screen is the perfect amount.  It is through the other family members that you are able to understand the situation that the sisters are in.  It all rolls together to a climax involving the sisters and the fate of the world.  I like the strangeness of the plot; very unique and interesting.

There are language and nudity warnings for this one.  Keep that in mind.  Though, I think that it would be an interesting film to talk about sometime.  For now, I have Barbara to discuss it with.

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