The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo

Ok, this is a short review. Well received novel now filmed twice and this is the American version. A journalist and hacker join forces to solve a decades old murder. The suspects are all on one island and mostly disgustingly rich. Can they solve the mystery? Will they connect with each other as people?

Well, honestly you'll have to watch the movie yourself if you want to know. I did, and I read the book, and I watched the original picture. I didn't like any of them. I kept coming back because I felt I must have been missing something because everyone else seemed to really like it. Finally, though, I have come to the conclusion that I simple don't like no matter how good it was presented.

Make no mistake, this is beautiful film. This is beautifully shot, well acted, well written, and the music is just incredible. This is the type of film that film school students come and see to pick up tips. So then, why did I not like it? Well first off, it is way too rape-y for me. As I said in another review, it's just something that turns off of a film and this film really did it in a way that was just raw hurt on the screen.

The main reason though I didn't connect to this film is that its about people who have made huge walls between themselves and the world. For the most part the walls are still there by the end of the film. It's like watching a film about glaciers doing a waltz. There's a certain fascination, but no connection. It's just hard to sit through two hours when you can't engage beyond a certain appreciation of the technical aspects of the film.

So there you have it. Most every other critic loved the film, loved the book. So take this all with a grain of salt.

Flypaper

"Flypaper" is a fun little action mystery movie.  It's set at a bank that is about to reset its security system.  Why it does so with customers in the bank is a bit of a flaw in my book, but hey maybe they are really tied to office hours.  Anyway, a rather manic person comes in asking for change.  He's charming and he flirts with a bank teller who unfortunately for our manic guy turns out to be in the process of getting married judging from all the gifts she has behind the counter.

Then the bank robbers come in.

Then the bank robbers come in.

That wasn't redundant.  TWO sets of bankrobbers choose this exact time to rob the bank.  One set is smooth as silk and have all the high tech equipment you'd expect to see in a "Mission Impossible" film.  The other set is a pair of Jethros who just want to blow the hell out some ATMs.  There's something of a standoff and a customer gets killed before they decide to split up the bank.  They gather everyone else and put them in a small room of hostages.

There are three things now that will impede the perfect bank robbery.  The first thing is the Jethro gang.  To say they aren't too bright would be an understatement.  Nice boys, but just not all there.  Plus their philosophy that you can't use too much C4 leads to trouble.  The second problem is our manic guy, he's not just charmingly eccentric.  Without his meds he becomes a full scale flake.  But a BRILLIANT flake like sherlock holmes on just a little meth.  He's convinced that there is a third party involved.  He's also convinced they are all going to die if he doesn't figure things out.  His constant breaking out from the rest of the hostages gives our bank robbers a constant headache.

The third problem is there really is a third party.  Of that though I will say no more.

This was a fast, jazzy film.  The actors really seemed to enjoy their roles.  The script was well done, and I really can't think of one bad thing to say about the film.