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Film of The Day: The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo (Fincher version)

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I think I remember picking this film as one of the best films of 2011, and I still stand by it. This is really quite the incredible flick. Based upon the famous novel by, Stieg Larsson. The Millenium Trilogy books has been pretty popular for years. Yes, these books were already made into Swedish films with Noomi Rapace, starring as Lisbeth Salander, but Fincher came along and started doing the American versions. I knew Fincher would do a great job directing “Girl With the Dragon Tattoo”, from the very start.

It tells a story about a journalist named, Mikael Blomkvist, who helps a man to find his missing daughter, Harriet. Of course, Mikael couldn’t do the job alone, so he hired a young computer hacker to help him do the research. Mikael thought this young computer hacker, was just an ordinary girl, but he learns that she wasn’t because of her goth-like appearance.

Starring Daniel Craig and Rooney Mara, I thought both of them delivered great performances. The entire cast did great, honestly. Trent Reznor once again gave this film a beautiful score. The story was pretty thrilling and it’ll leave you wanting more and more. This Lisbeth Salander is a pretty like-able character.There are some disturbing and graphic scenes in this film, but without them, then this Lisbeth Salander character wouldn’t have worked. What I was most impressed with the film is that this film stayed very faithful to the novel. It didn’t leave anything out at all, pretty much.

I’m a proud owner of this film on Blu-Ray, and it’s another one of those films, I can re-watch over and over. I hope David Fincher and Trent Reznor will still work together for the next two films, “The Girl Who Played With Fire”, and “Hornets Nest”. If you’re late on Fincher’s, “Dragon Tattoo”, and haven’t seen it. I would recommend it.

Kev

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BREAKING NEWS: Sam Mendes says no to directing Bond 24…

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Despite all the positive reviews of “Skyfall” and the huge box office numbers, Sam Mendes says no to directing Bond 24, due to other commitments. He is scheduled to direct, “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory”, and “King Lear” films, and his focus on those two movies. Shame, I was hoping he would give Bond another shot, ’cause “Skyfall”, was a pretty amazing flick and it is indeed, the best Bond film ever made, in my opinion.

I almost bought “Skyfall” on BluRay yesterday, but ended up getting the new “Tomb Raider” game instead.

I don’t think other directors will make a good Bond film after this one, though. They will go downhill again.

See the director’s statement, here.

Kev

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Film Review: Skyfall

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Starring: Daniel Craig, Ralph Fiennes, Judi Dench, Javier Bardem

Directed by: Sam Mendes

Today, I’ve just seen the newest installment to the 007 franchise, “Skyfall”, and here is my review:

Plot/synopsis: Bond needs to investigate a terrorist attack, in which a large explosion occurred, at SIS Headquarters, where MI6’s (Judi Dench), offices are. Bond discovers that Raoul Silva (Javier Bardem) who was a former MI6 operative was responsible for the attack. Top secret information about NATO agents was stolen from M16’s hard drive, and Silva has a connection to that information.

For the past 10 years or so, the 007 franchise has been making terrible James Bond flicks. The 007 flicks, continuously gets mixed reviews by fans and critics, but did I think this one was good??? I think the 007 franchise finally redeemed themselves, this time. The pacing may have been pretty slow, but keep in mind, not all movies have to focus on the action alone. Everyone expects the James Bond movies to be fun, and action packed, but really, the James Bond movies are about the story. They are about Bond’s life, and survival. Revenge, kind of stuff and hunting down people responsible for doing terrible things. Yes, the action and violence has always been an important part of the Bond franchise, but that has always been secondary. Story, goes first. They just add in the sexy Bond girls, for the entertainment.

Some say the story was weak, but I thought it was pretty intelligent and masterful. It kept me guessing toward the end. The plot had some twists and turns. The pacing may have been kind of slow at first, but it was meant to be. There was a reason that the first half of the movie was nothing but acting and dialogue, and the second half was mostly violent action scenes. When it did come to the violent action scenes, it was a blast to watch, and the violence were pretty gritty too. I thought the visuals of the movie were pretty impressive. It was different than any other Bond film from the past for sure.

As far as Javier Bardem’s, Silva character goes, he was the most menacing Bond villain as well. While there was some humor in this guy, you also want to hate him at the same time. He can be a pretty likeable villain at first but as the film goes along, you’ll realize how evil this guy can be, and you would be scared to meet him. Javier Bardem played a lot of villains in movies over the years, and he does a good job as usual. I think he has Oscar nomination potential for this role. “Skyfall” isn’t an Oscar worthy film, just Javier’s performance alone, deserves a nod.

There were surprising return characters of Q, and Eve Moneypenny (A famous Bond girl, who appeared in many Bond films, played by different actresses).

Some complained that there were less gadgets in this film, than the previous Bond films. Did they see the same film, I did? There were plenty of gadgets in “Skyfall”. Maybe not futuristic looking electronic gadgets, but old fashioned gadgets when Bond and M hid in that old home toward the end of the movie (not trying to give spoilers).

I thought the movie was very intense. It was the perfect 50th Anniversary, Bond film. This is definitely not the best Bond film ever made, but is the best Bond movie made since the past 10 years or a little more. I would say this is the best Bond film since, “The Living Daylights”. This is also one of the best films of 2012. Whether you’re a Bond fan or not, you should check this one out. It’s a perfect introduction to the character, if you’ve never seen the earlier films. You don’t need to watch the first two Daniel Craig, Bond films, ’cause “Skyfall” is a standalone movie. Not a sequel to “Quantum of Solace”.

Score for “Skyfall” = **** (4 stars as in “Excellent”)

Kev

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Looking forward to seeing “Skyfall” Friday afternoon…

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I love James Bond movies. I’ve been watching 007 flicks for years, and of course, Sean Connery, will always be the best, Bond. Roger Moore was pretty good too. I loved Timothy Dalton for Bond, but he was Bond for only two films. The only Bond I didn’t like was, Pierce Brosnan, but I did like the movie, “Golden Eye”. “Golden Eye” was the only good Pierce Brosnan, 007 flick. Daniel Craig, makes a really good Bond, but they need to improve his films. “Casino Royale” was a great flick but “Quantum of Solace” sucked hard. Hopefully, “Skyfall” won’t disappoint. I’m looking forward to seeing “Skyfall”, this coming Friday. I’ll review the film for this site, of course. Hope it’s a good film. Probably will be.

Kev

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Cool Photo: Adele confirms she’s singing the title theme for “Skyfall” by tweeting this photo…

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Adele tweeted this photo of herself in the studio, recording the opening title theme song for the next 007 flick, “Skyfall”. The pic doesn’t actually show her, but all it shows is just her fingers and what it looks like sheet music/lyrics for the theme song? See the pic, here.

Anyway, I’m looking forward to seeing, “Skyfall”. Hopefully it’ll be a good movie ’cause the last two 007 Daniel Craig flicks haven’t been that great to be honest with you. I hope the next one will be an improvement.

Kev

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Cool Video: The “Skyfall” trailer gave me goosebumps, and I’m ready to see it, I think…

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The full domestic trailer for the next 007 flick, “Skyfall”, is finally here. The film looks really good too. Of course, all James Bond trailers try to make themselves really good. Hopefully “Skyfall” won’t disappoint, and it’ll be better than “Casino Royale”/”Quantum of Solace”. I did love “Casino Royale”, but I hated “Quantum of Solace”. I’m hoping “Skyfall” will be good. I’ll be seeing this one.

Kev

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Cool Video: The new 007 trailer, “Skyfall” is finally here!!!

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I thought “Casino Royale”, was a great movie, but I thought, “Quantum of Solace” sucked hard. Now I see why they are re-booting the series again. “Skyfall” doesn’t continue the story of “Royale” and “Solace”, “Skyfall” is a standalone movie, I believe. Still looks very good so far, and I’m impressed with the trailer. The film looks action packed, of course, all movie trailers want to make it look that way with James Bond films, but when you go see the actual film, it turns out to be a piece of crap. Lets just hope and pray, “Skyfall”, will be a really good one. Javier Bardem is the main villain in this film, they do show him in this trailer but his face is darkened out so you can’t see him. It’s just a teaser for now. I’m sure they’ll reveal a lot more in the second trailer.

Enjoy it, here.

Kev

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Film Review: The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo

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Starring: Rooney Mara, Daniel Craig, Christopher Plummer

Directed by: David Fincher

Even though I picked this film as my No. 1 film of the year for 2011, I thought I would give this film a more detailed review to explain why. Here it is…

Plot/synopsis: A disgraced journalist, Mikael Blomkvist, teams up with a young computer hacker, named Lisbeth Salander, to search for a missing woman named Harriet, who has been gone for 40 years. 

A lot of people liked the Swedish version with Noomi Rapace as Lisbeth, I didn’t. The Swedish version had way too many problems. In the Swedish version, they made Mikael Blomkist, a kind, caring, good guy type of character when he wasn’t like that in the book. In the book, he had a don’t give a fuck, tough guy kind of attitude and wouldn’t give up until this missing woman is found. Plus, the Swedish version left too much out of the book and changed the story around.

This novel had a large following in Sweden and then slowly became more popular in the US. Finally, David Fincher, who is one of my favorite directors, did his take on the story. Honestly, I never was going to get into the Millennium series because all the internet buzz about the novel, got me into it. Like everyone else, I became addicted to the Lisbeth Salander character. This story deserves to get known in the US and David Fincher was the perfect director to do that job. I could see no other director doing this movie.

Noomi Rapace as Lisbeth in the Swedish version, was okay, but that wasn’t how the character was in this book. Noomi’s version, she wasn’t shy, and she was a little more evil and aggressive in this one. Rooney Mara’s version of the character stayed true to the novel. In the book, Lisbeth was described as very emotional and tough, but she also had heart and she can love people when she wanted it. Rooney Mara did a great job staying true to the character. I never liked Rooney Mara as an actress too much, but she showed her acting talent as Lisbeth in this one, that I gave her a little more respect.

Fincher’s version is more stylish and different. It’s a very dark movie and the pacing maybe a little slow, but you’ll become addicted to the story as soon as it starts and will keep you watching ’til the very end.

I was also impressed with Trent Reznor’s score for this film. His scores in movies are getting better and better. I didn’t want Trent to retire from Nine Inch Nails, but when he announced he was quitting Nine Inch Nails to start a career scoring movies, I’m beginning to think that what he did was a good thing. At first I didn’t think Trent had enough talent to score movies, but I thought wrong. He already won an Oscar for “The Social Network”, and here’s another great score for, “Dragon Tattoo”. He is very talented at composing music for movies.

I was most impressed on how faithful and true the movie was to the book. The movie matched every scene from the book perfectly. Didn’t really leave anything out at all. Movie adaptations from novels always had a problem with leaving stuff out and changing the story around, but that didn’t happen with this film. Even the rape scene and all the sex is in there as well.

Lisbeth Salander is one of the best movie characters in a long time. Could she easily line up with all the other great movie characters like the Terminator, Rambo, Clark Griswold, ET, Bill the Butcher, Heath Ledger’s Joker, and Indiana Jones? Yes, absolutely!!! This movie maybe dark, graphic and disturbing, but the Lisbeth Salander character wouldn’t matter if the controversial stuff wasn’t part of the story.

Stieg Larrson inspired this story, from the Pippi Longstocking children’s book, that’s where it all came from. Fincher’s version was pretty masterful and this is why I had chosen this film to be the best movie of the year. I think the story was made as a way to bring awareness to sexual violence against women and that stuff still happens to this day. Fincher did a phenomenal job, and I hope he directs the other two sequels to this movie, “Girl Who Played with Fire” and “Kicked the Hornet’s Nest”. I haven’t read “Hornet’s Nest” yet, the third book, I plan on buying that book for my Ipad soon.

I don’t think “Girl with the Dragon Tattoo” by Fincher will be Oscar worthy for “Best Picture” but it be cool if it actually got the nomination.

Score for “The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo” = **** (4 stars as in excellent”)

Kev

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Cool Video: I’m now totally psyched to see the “Dragon Tattoo” film after this seeing this 8 minute trailer…

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After seeing the 8 minute trailer to “Dragon Tattoo”, makes me psyched to see the film. I’m sold. I really can’t wait to see it now and hope to see it opening day. Love the book so much and I’m sure the movie will be amazing as well. I’m already predicting this could be the best film of 2011.

Kev