Girl With the Dragon Tattoo

Non-Review Review: Total Recall (2012)

Posted on August 29, 2012 by Darren

Len Wiseman’s Total Recall is a total mess. While the film features some superb production design and some passable action sequences, with an obvious affection for the design of contemporary science-fiction classics, the direction is muddled,the pacing is awkward and the script is constantly tripping over itself. At one point it’s suggested that the lead might have had has memory scrambled during a muddled recall session, the result of procedure started and yet not quite finished. In many ways, that feels a lot like what happens here – a choppy, uneven and unsatisfying movie that is a result of a muddled production and post-production process. “We can remember it for you,” an advertisement for the Rekall service boasts, homaging the classic short story that inspired the film. Unfortunately, they omitted “wholesale”, which is about the only price I could recommend this at.

Where’s your head at?

Continue reading →

Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: Arnold Schwarzenegger, arts, Bryan Cranston, colin farrell, david fincher, Departed, film, Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, jessica biel, kate beckinsale, Len Wiseman, Movie, non-review review, Paul Verhoeven, Post-production, review, science fiction, Sharon Stone, total recall, Wiseman | 4 Comments »

Non-Review Review: Total Recall (2012)

Posted on August 11, 2012 by Darren

Where’s your head at?

Continue reading →

Non-Review: Alien Resurrection (Theatrical Cut)

Posted on June 1, 2012 by Darren

To celebrate the release of Prometheus this week, we’ll be taking a look at the other movies in the Alien franchise.

I always feel a little hint of trepidation when I return to a movie that I know I didn’t like the first time. Part of me is reluctant to watch it again, even for the purposes of examining what exactly went awry during production, while some small part of me holds out hope that the film might be redeemed – that I might somehow magically get it the second time around. So, completing a marathon rewatch of Ridley Scott’s Alien and the sequels it spawned, I left Alien: Resurrection until last.

Unfortunately, it was just as flawed and messy as I remember it.

Reflecting on his behaviour…

Continue reading →

Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: alien, Alien Resurrection, Brad Dourif, business, Ellen Ripley, film, Franchising, Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, james cameron, Jean-Pierre Jeunet, joss whedon, Movie, non-review review, Opportunities, Prometheus, review, ridley scott, Ripley, sigourney weaver, Weyland-Yutani | 2 Comments »

Wallander: One Step Behind (Review)

Posted on March 16, 2012 by Darren

The wonderful folks at the BBC have given me access to their BBC Global iPlayer for a month to give the service a go and trawl through the archives. I’ll have some thoughts on the service at the end of the month, but I thought I’d also take the opportunity to enjoy some of the fantastic content.

And so we reach the end of the first season of the British adaptations of Henning Mankell’s acclaimed Swedish crime novels. Wallander is a series that is probably much stronger than it really should be, offering ninety-minute-long mysteries that are produced the standards of feature films. Director Philip Martin returns after directing the first episode to helm the final in the first trilogy of adaptations. (There would be a second set of three broadcast in 2010 and another set of three to be shown in 2012.) Strangely enough, this final episode actually manages to give a significant amount of depth to the title character, finally suggesting a role worthy of the depth Branagh imbues into it.

We've got a hit on our hands...

Continue reading →

Filed under: Television | Tagged: Arts and Entertainment, bbc, BBC iPlayer, Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, Henning Mankell, kenneth branagh, Kurt Wallander, One Step Behind, Sky Arts, Sweden, tom hiddleston, Wallander, Wallander: One Step Behind | 7 Comments »

Non-Review Review: Jo Nesbø’s Headhunters

Posted on March 2, 2012 by Darren

While Jo Nesbø’s Headhunters might get a little bit too crazy and twisty in its final third, but it’s a brilliantly dark Norwegian thriller/comedy, headlined with considerable style by Aksel Hennie as corporate recruitment expert Roger Brown, a sleazy yuppie living well beyond his means to keep his wife in the style two which she has become accustomed. As the movie puts Brown through a sequence of painful and humiliating encounters, it is consistently entertaining, managing to walk the fine line between making sure we dislike Roger enough to be amused by his misfortune, but invested enough that we want to see the little (“1.68 metres”) bugger manage to escape the movie relatively intact.

Got milk?

Continue reading →

Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: Aksel Hennie, arts, Brown, film, Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, Harry Hole, jameson dublin international film festival, Jo Nesbø, Morten Tyldum, Movie, Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, non-review review, review, Roger, Roger Brown, Stieg Larsson, United States, Yellow Bird | 4 Comments »

The Virtue of Ambitious Failure…

Posted on January 9, 2012 by Darren

When I was compiling my “top twelve” list for 2011, there were a lot of films contending for a place on that list. I felt bad about having to leave off stuff like We Need to Talk About Kevin and Preludio and The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo. However, I didn’t find myself trying to justify the inclusion of Steven Soderbergh’s Contagion, despite the fact that I found the film completely and utterly compelling. I’ll be the first to concede that Soderbergh’s disease epic had some fairly considerable flaws, too many for me to legitimately rank it “one of the best of the year”, and yet I think it’s one of those movies I couldn’t stop thinking about. What it is it about an ambitious failure that makes it so much more fascinating than a modest success?

Figuring out the formula...

Continue reading →

Filed under: Movies | Tagged: ambition, Contagion, failure, film, films, Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, Horror film, mark strong, Movies, Soderbergh, Steven Soderbergh, We Need to Talk About Kevin | 8 Comments »

Ten Best Movie Moments of 2011…

Posted on December 31, 2011 by Darren

I’ve compile my list of my own favourite films of 2011, but I thought I’d take the opportunity to outline my own favourite movie moments of 2011 – those breathtaking sequences when I was glad to be setting in a darkened room surrounded by strangers. Sometimes it’s easy to forget the raw combination of images and sounds can have such a dramatic effect on you, moving you and bringing you to from the height of joy to the depths of sorrow. I’m very happy with 2011 as a year for cinema, and these are just ten reasons why.

Continue reading →

Filed under: Movies | Tagged: david fincher, Georges Méliès, Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, Horrible Bosses, jameson dublin international film festival, kenneth branagh, steven spielberg | Leave a comment »

Follow Me: The Lost Art of the Sequel Hook…

Posted on December 19, 2011 by Darren

I had the pleasure of seeing David Fincher’s The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo on Friday, and it was a very good film. It smoothed out some of the issues I had with the original adaptation, was beautifully acted and directed, and was just a very nice piece of film. However, I was a bit disappointed with the ending of the film, which served as a twenty-minute trailer for the sequel. This is a sequel that hasn’t been greenlit yet, and hasn’t even been written. I appreciate the enthusiasm, but I do think there is a point where setting up a later instalment undermines the original film.

Leaving the series with snow where to go?

Continue reading →

Filed under: Movies | Tagged: batman begins, bourne ultimatum, dark knight, david fincher, Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, green lantern, hollywood, Italian Job, movie-making, sequel hook, sequels | 3 Comments »

Non-Review Review: The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo (2011)

Posted on December 17, 2011 by Darren

I will confess that I’m not a huge fan of the original Swedish adaptation of The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo. It was just too bleak, with every male character existing as some form of sexual predator, shot against a drab grey backdrop and with nothing but unrelenting cynicism to propel it. I don’t want to describe David Fincher’s version as “softer” – there are still any number of scenes that will have viewers squirming in their seats – so perhaps “smoother” or “rounded” represents a better choice of adjective. While there are still some pacing issues in the last third, Fincher succeeds in adapting the best-selling book in a fashion that makes it just as fascinating as it is grim.

Opening a cold case...

Continue reading →

Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: david fincher, Fincher, Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, Immigrant Song, Larsson, michael mann, Mikael Blomkvist, non-review review, review, Rooney Mara, Stieg Larsson, The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo (2011 film), The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo (film) | 6 Comments »

The Beginning of the End? Is It Too Early To Be Talking About “The Best of the Year”?

Posted on October 27, 2011 by Darren

The New York Critics’ Circle has moved the date of their annual awards forward to 28th November. I don’t know about you, but that sounds like an awfully early date for a festival designed to celebrate the best of the year that has been – especially when you consider that the logistics of posting and counting votes. It’s a full month before the end of the year! How many films are yet to be screened at this point? It got me thinking about the “best of…” polls that we inevitably see as the year draws to a close? When do people start compiling those lists?