The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
(2011) [Trailer]
Director: David Fincher (IMDB)

David Fincher gets the job done in my book. I've really enjoyed most of his films and was definitely happy to find out he was behind the American remake of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. Why you ask? Because I can't stand watching movies with subtitles and I don't read good. I kid. I kid. I actually saw all the original Swedish films in the series, which were good. My one complaint was I felt they could have looked a little better. I haven't read the books...but apparently everyone else in NYC has based off the amount of people I've seen with a copies of them.

The story centers around a Journalist (Daniel Craig) who gets hired by a wealthy man (Christopher Plummer) to help uncover the mystery behind the death of his Niece, which happened over 40 years ago. Craig is left to fill in the pieces with very little info and only the help of Plummer's crazy ass family. He eventually starts to unravel the secrets of the disappearance, and soon is aided by an assistant...some chick with a sweet lizard tat. Lisbeth (Rooney Mara) is one goth you don't wanna cross. She's got tattoos, piercings and a bad attitude...but she also has a photographic memory and mad computer skills. Lisbeth and Daniel Craig eventually figure shit out and that's where I'll leave you. Go see for yourself.

This movie is great. Great source material, great acting and now great direction. Just great great great. Is that enough greats for you? Where as the Swedish film seemed a little lifeless, Fincher's rendition takes all that worked with those films and elevated it. The intro made my arm hairs stand up. The score was fantastic (NIN...totally!) The cinematography was beautiful, and really captivating. Rooney Mara was fantastic, and when compared to the original Lisbeth (who was the best of the original cast), held her own. I really have to say...this would have made my top ten, had I seen it last year. Definitely a pleaser.

Alien Trilogy

Recently in the last month I watched the first two Alien movies, then tonight I just finished Alien 3. I figured a nice little trilogy review would be appropriate. I'm not counting Alien: Resurrection or the Alien Vs Predator. I may get to those in a follow up thread.

Alien
(1979) [Trailer]
Director: Ridley Scott (IMDB)

This is a sci-fi classic and for good reason. The run down (in case you've been living in a monastery in the foothills of Spain for the last 30 years and haven't seen this) is as follows: a crew of space miners land on a remote planet after they get a distress call that wakes them up from hyperspace. Man, the future sounds cool. They soon realize the distress call was a warning and they're stuck there with a not friendly Alien. Actually I take that back, the future does not sound cool.

This is the best Ridley Scott movie IMO, and set the bar pretty high for all the other installments for this franchise. It's crazy to think it was released two years after I was born and still looks so good, plus the transfer to blu-ray does it justice.

I would place this in second out of the three movies...Which
ranking will the others fall into? Read on and find out.




Aliens
(1986) [Trailer]
Director: James Cameron (IMDB)

What's not to love about this film? If you're into sci-fi and grew up in the 80's, you like this movie. If you don't, you're just trying to be cool. You're not. Idiot.

Sigourney Weaver is the only returning cast member (I wonder why?) This time around she's a bad ass. But also, this time around she's surrounded by people who are even more badass than her, space marines! Way tougher, then space miners. So after she escapes in the first one, the planet is settled and terraformed. Then earth loses contact with the planet and Sigourney and the marines are sent in to find out what's up. They find out what's up. Aliens. Lots of em.

This movie has so much action and suspense, I love it. As my co-worker Doug would say "it's fucking brilliant!" It's a thrill ride and James Cameron rules it with an iron fist. His direction is flawless, and the art design and score are next level. This is absolutely one of my favorite sci-fi movies ever and definitely my favorite in the series. It's very close but it nudges out Alien for number 1, I don't know if it's nostalgia or what, but I could watch this over and over.



Alien3
(1992) [Trailer]
Director: David Fincher (IMDB)

I like David Fincher a lot. I had seen all his movies except this one. I'm not sure why I never saw the third act, but I was really amped to sit down and dig in.

After Aliens ends Sigourney escapes, well turns out she escaped with a little buddy on board as well, no not the Newt girl a fucking alien. They crash land on another remote planet (what's with all these remote planets?) This planet is full of bald headed English prisoners and Roc. The alien starts taking no prisoners...well actually....he starts taking all the prisoners...and fucking them up. Except Sigourney. Turns out she was impregnated with a space baby. An alien space baby. No fun there. Well you'll just have to watch to see what happens next.

She dies.

This movie is good, but not amazing. I definitely see a little Fincher in there but I think this was his warm up before the big race. There's definitely so special effects in there, that don't look so special on blu-ray and the story is a bit weak. I would still check it out if you're into the other two films.