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.

2012

2012
(2009) [Trailer]
Director: Roland Emmerich (IMDB)

I went to Mexico last year and I went to party!!! Well...that and to see Chichen Itza. The Mayans were rad people, and to say they were a head of their time would be apropos. They also predicted the world would end this year...we're all fucked. Just kidding...I hope. Leave it to Roland Emmerich, king of disaster flicks, to pick up on their prophecy and turn it into a major motion picture.

The story is as follows. The Earth's center is heating up because of particles, or some shit, that are being released from the sun...I'm not a scientist, I'm a blogger. John Cusack plays a guy who gets lucky, real lucky. The planet is coming to an end and he cheats death a billion times in this movie. He also brings along his family. When the government finds out about the world falling apart they build "arks" to save humanity. Only the rich people can afford tickets for the "arks"....damn 1%, always screwing the common man. Through a series of very unbelievable events, John and Co make it on to the "ark"...but will they survive?

There's so many ridiculous things going on here, and if you're one of those people who love to tear apart plot holes in movies, you'll love this. Or hate it. For a block buster, popcorn movie it's decent. There's some pretty cool special effects, and it was a good time to watch all those people die...that didn't sound right. I did feel like the run time was a bit long and there was a good deal of cheesy parts. To wrap it up I will say this...It was much better than I anticipated, but nothing earth shattering...get it...see what I did there?

Who Can Kill a Child?

Who Can Kill a Child?
(1976) [Full Movie]
Director: Narciso Ibáñez Serrador (IMDB)

I hate children. I would go as far as to say I never want them. I used to think that was a pretty shitty stance to have, but after watching Who Can Kill a Child, my opinion has been reinforced.

Who Can Kill a Child takes place in Spain. These two English tourists head to a small Island for vacation. This island doesn't get much in the way of visitors and when the couple arrive it seems deserted, with the exception of children. Turns out the kids are all possessed and out for blood. They killed all the adults on the island and the newcomers are next in line.

I have mixed feeling about this movie. I wanted to love it when I first heard about it, but it fell flat in a lot of places. First off, the intro is the worst, totally depressing and repetitious. It basically shows stock footage of dead or dying children with statistics of body counts from different wars, spliced with audio of a child singing this creepy ass tune. After about a minute in I was ready to fast forward through it. Plus it adds nothing to the movie, I understood what the film maker was trying to say with it, but it was just really awkward and weird. When the actual movie starts, as a whole, it was pretty cool. It's loaded with lots of cool vintage 70's vibes and the scenes when the kids all gang up together were really successful. It did lack a lot on believability, you absolutely must suspend disbelief, especially when it comes to some of the decisions the couple makes. They are idiots. I would say if you're into horror, give it a run, it was pretty fun.

Sling Blade

Sling Blade
(1996) [Trailer]
Director: Billy Bob Thornton (IMDB)

I haven't seen this movie in over 10 years. I loved it back when I first saw it. I recently picked it up in the 7 dollar blu-ray bin at Bestbuy and figured it was time to revisit it.

Sling Blade centers around Karl (Billy Bob Thornton), who's a retard recently released from the mental ward. I know, I know...I know what you're thinking...retard isn't PC. Okay. He's mentally handicap. I'm sorry. He meets a boy (Frank) and befriends him and his family. Frank's step dad is Dwight Yoakam, and he's a dick. Billy Bob's history catches up with him and find himself falling back into his past transgressions.

Billy Bob starred/directed this puppy and it's one hell of a film. I love so many things about this: Jack Tripper, Jim Jaramusch, Billy Bob's acting, the band, the score, and the cinematography. There's not much to hate here, if anything I would say it could be trimmed down a bit, but it's nothing too detrimental overall. I'm glad I picked this up and would recommend you check it out again, or if you've been living with the Sentinelese in the Andaman Islands for the last 15 years, watch it new for the first time.

Kill the Irishman

Kill the Irishman
(2011) [Trailer]
Director: Jonathan Hensleigh (IMDB)

A friend of mine on facebook recommended I check this film out (Thanks Brett.) I was definitely happy to see it on Netflix instant. I was also definitely happy to see Christopher Walken and Vincent D'Onofrio in it.

Kill the Irishman is a true story about Danny Greene. His was a union boss. He was a thug. He was a player. He was a Irishmen. He was a badass. It's a pretty interesting story and basically he ran shit in Cleveland in the 1970's. The mob gets involved, a shit ton of cars get blown up, and people get whacked. It's wholesome family fun.

This was a pretty entertaining watch. It definitely sucks Goodfellas dick a little bit, but what mob movie doesn't. I felt there were a few things I didn't like, but nothing that ruined it for me. The CG/Special effect explosions, especially the first one, were pretty bad. The voice overs of Madmartigan (he got fat) were kinda annoying and the pacing of the film overall wasn't that steady. I did however really enjoy the story and the performances of the cast were good. For a period piece in the 70's it was spot on and I like how they would throw in real news clips about Greene from that time. It was a pretty fun movie, and if you have Netflix, do it up!

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.

The Ides of March

The Ides of March
(2011) [Trailer]
Director: George Clooney (IMDB)

I really wanted to check this movie out back in October but never got the opportunity too. It stars just about the best line up of actors one could ask for in a movie. You got Clooney, you got Gosling, you got Hoffman, you got Giamatti, and you got Tomei...nice! SOOO, I was happy to see it on VOD tonight, and thought, screw it...why not. Now here's my review.

This movie is about politics....I know...boring right? So I turned it off and watched 'Bring It On'...just playing with you...I finished it....then I watched 'Bring It On'. Ides is a unique look at the behind the scenes of a political campaign. It's set in Ohio and focuses on two democratic candidates competing against each other in the primaries. The basic breakdown is, politicians are slime and we're fucked.

I really enjoyed this piece of work. If 40% of this is accurate, it's pretty sad, the state of US politics that is. Even now as I sit here and watch The Colbert Report and type this up, I think "Jesus all these republican nominees in this random clip are full of crap." Maybe I'm being naive and maybe I'm not, but I'm just thinking out loud here. We're all floating up Shit's Creek without a paddle and this movie beautifully showcases that fact.