The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo

It's a little late I honestly should have posted this one over the Christmas holiday but I'm gonna sound like a broken record again, yeah I was busy with stuff. I flew down to N.C. to see the family for a week got my nog and bourbon on. Got my fill of the Christmas tree and my Mom's eclectic taste in candy. It's the good kind mind you but some of it is pretty odd, like these weirdly packaged chocolates from Belgium. She also got those Harry Potter every flavor beans, and yes they actually have a vomit flavored one, I tried it and it almost made me gag. Anyway saw some family and old friends and finally later in the week I was allowed to sneak off to see this flick with one of my best friends from home. Of course he had seen the original Swedish films and read the books. I having no such information under my belt went in completely blind. Now my friend was a bit of a skeptic to the whole thing because, as I said before, he has read the books and seen the original films. So he was trying desperately to not reveal things to me while at the same time was not so subtlety telling me everything. I was able to tune out most of it before the start of the first reel.

Mikael Blomkvist (Daniel Craig), a Swedish journalist, is in pretty deep shit. He is being hit with a libel suit from a shady businessman and he just got smacked down by the Swedish courts. He's looking at some jail time and some hefty fees. In order to make ends meet he finds himself knee deep into a private investigation for a wealthy baron of industry, Henrik Vanger (Christopher Plummer), who has asked the journalist to help him solve a mystery that has plagued him for over 40 years. Every year on his birthday his Niece, Harriet, would send him pressed flowers in a frame. After her disappearance the flowers kept coming, almost mocking Vanger every year. Blomkvist begins to dig into Vanger's family and finds the lot of them to be despicable, contemptible people with very little saving graces. He hires a mysterious computer hacker, Lisbeth Salander (Rooney Mara) as his assistant researcher in the case. This is a damaged woman, she has almost no social graces, she's been in the system as a orphan she's experienced every setback a child with no parents can endure, not to mention she looks like a Goth girl with the grit of Sarah Connor.

Director David Fincher did an incredible job adapting this story for American audiences. I admit I'm one of those that shudder when we take a movie from overseas that has come out recently and try to adapt it. There are some occasions where it works like Let Me In (re-make of Let the Right One In), but most of the time they end up like the countless mindless shit films like No Reservations, that cooking movie with Catherine Zeta Jones. Thankfully for all of us it's got the heart that Let Me In brought. It's gorgeously filmed and wonderfully acted. I don't know much about Rooney Mara, I only saw her briefly in the Social Network, but damn she is a unique one. Her character is both fragile and strong all at once and she plays that part effortlessly. She's oddly disturbing and sexy at the same time. And I usually am not one to find tattoos and piercings to be in any way attractive, and I still don't. But for some reason she truly pulled it off.

As my friend pointed out to me after the film there were some pretty big changes from the book so a word of warning to those die hard fans, this movie is not word for word with the book so you can either accept that or don't waste your time. If you were to miss it though you would be missing one of the best films of the year. Yes it's disturbing in a way that only David Fincher can. Yes it's a little long and there is quite a lot of character and story but it is superior to many of the films out there now and it's worth every frame. It's a winding mystery with a few twists and turns and quite frankly you'll never listen to Enya the same way again. Trust me that scene was painful to watch, what is it with Daniel Craig (Casino Royale) and torture scenes.  This flick should rack up a few oscar nods and Fincher should be awarded the prize that he was snubbed for last year. I doubt he'll get it this time but damnit if he didn't go right out there and make himself worthy again for a second straight year.

Grade: 4 Buckets

Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy

Finally, it only took, four weeks before this movie went wide enough to hit my local theatre here in East Brunswick. Focus Features started their platform release on the 9th of December and slowly rolled it out to the rest of the country. Given the fact that it's a throwback to the old spy films like the Ipcress File (1965) and Funeral in Berlin (1966), where there is more character, nuance and story rather than action it's a sad fact that American audiences would probably try to avoid it. Which unfortunately seems to be the case as it has only made about 6 million up to this point. So I'm going to say this very carefully, if you are thinking this is going to be some kind of Bourne Identity or James Bond kind of film you are going to be disappointed. There are no slam bang action scenes this isn't a high-octane plot thriller. This is a methodical exploration of British intelligence during the Cold War regarding a deep and devastating Molehunt, and trust me it's Badass in it's own way.

Based on the popular book and series by author John Le Carre. In the dark days of the Cold War, George Smiley (Gary Oldman) is forced from semi-retirement to investigate a possible leak within British Intelligence. As he digs deeper he discovers a mole that has possibly been there for years providing sensitive information to the KGB whom the agency calls Karla. He chooses his team of investigators carefully taking only trusted advisors and an inside company man. The first is a retired but loyal agent named Mendel (Roger Lloyd-Pack). His inside man is Peter Guillam (Benedict Cumberbatch), who has the unfortunate task of having to run interference and sneak out sensitive files for Smiley to build his case. Smiley focuses his attention on his old boss and mentor, Control (John Hurt), who along with Smiley was forced out of the service because of Control's obsession with a possible mole in the office, they call the Circus. For Control it had to be one of four people, all section chief's that run the Circus, he gave them all special codenames. The first is the ringleader of the incoming group and the new head of the Circus, Percy Alleline aka Tinker (Toby Jones). The second is the suave class clown Bill Haydon aka Tailor (Colin Firth). The third is the tough Cold Warrior Roy Bland aka Soldier (Ciaran Hinds). The last is Smiley himself, Spy. There is of course a wild card a rogue agent who claims to have a bead on the possible mole, field agent Ricky Tarr (Tom Hardy), but can he be trusted

I know this was a really long explanation but it's necessary especially if you are planning to see it. It's good to know all the players going in cause this movie weaves a tapestry of characters and plot that if you aren't careful you could get a little lost. As I stated above if you have the attention span of a 13 year old then this really isn't the movie for you. There are so many things in every scene that build the story to it's ultimate conclusion that even I had trouble catching them all. This was truly a fantastic film with great performances and some excellent twists and turns that kept me guessing till the end. Gary Oldman, as always, was awesome, you aren't sure what to make of Smiley when you first meet him but as the film builds you can see the wheels turning in his mind without him saying a word, his regrets, the human side to a man who is almost machine like in what he does. It seems like he doesn't emote much or react to almost anything at the same time his mannerisms seem to react to everything. It's really quite an incredible thing to watch. I hope that Gary Oldman gets a nod for the role and even though the box office has been light it truly deserves to have a nomination for Best Picture. It was certainly one of my favorites this year hands down.

Grade: 5 Buckets

Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol in IMAX

Tom Cruise and the IMF team are back for the fourth adventure of the series. As everyone should know it's based on the popular TV show from the 60's. My personal favorites are the first and the third films. The first one was directed by Brian de Palma and was probably one of his best movies to date. The new one follows the formula well it's an pulse-pounding non-stop adventure with twists and turns some gadgets and masks but the thing that makes Mission Impossible an exciting franchise is the death defying stunts, the ones that have you on the edge of your seat even if you feel confident that the guy is going to make it out unscathed. In the first one it was the CIA break-in. The third one it was probably the break-in to the Vatican, the second one was OK with the Pharmaceutical facility but the John Woo helmed flick suffered mightily with a somewhat silly script and those damn birds he has a fetish for. For this fourth one the greatest thrill comes when Hunt is tasked with scaling the tallest building in the world the Burj Khalifa Tower in Dubai. This thing is 160 floors, 828 meters. Yeah, I got a little dizzy watching him wall crawl up that thing, and honestly I think you would too, especially in IMAX.

Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) is back with a new mission. Get back the Nuclear launch codes from a terrorist before he can launch the missiles.  Sounds easy enough but he's got an extra wrinkle. His agency has disavowed him and his team after an explosion at the Kremlin. His team is accused of terrorism and they have to go underground. With him is loyal hacker and friend from the last film Benji (Simon Pegg) who now has field status. He's got two new additions to the team, the vary capable and beautiful Jane (Paula Patton) and the mysterious and troubled analyst Brandt (Jeremy Renner). This one sort of resembles the first film in some respects due to Hunts being disavowed again but that's where the similarities end. This film has some of the best action sequences I've seen this year, perhaps in the last few years. It's true that the characters are lacking in true depth or development but that's pretty much always the case in these films. Director Brad Bird has pumped some new life into this series and given us a film was some pretty entertaining twists and turns and he put together a great group to enjoy this new mission with. I really love the addition of Jeremy Renner here and I think his Brandt character is far more interesting then Ethan Hunt and I wouldn't mind if he did take the reigns of the series going into the future. This was truly a team effort this time, not just a Cruise fest of witty punchlines and daring do. I also kind of liked the fact that their attempts to stop the bad guys was also kind of sloppy. The special gadgets would break at inopportune times, they'd almost always have to rely on plans B or C. You hardly see a flick now a days with spy gadgets that just suddenly don't work. Surely it doesn't happen to James Bond. But I kind of liked the added challenge.

So if you want to get the best viewing experience from this movie then you gotta see it in IMAX it will blow your mind at least a little bit. Especially the tower sequence. Also if you see it in IMAX you'll get a chance to see that pretty awesome 6 minute trailer for the Dark Knight Rises. Nolan doesn't give you too much information but the film looks like it may be the best yet.  I know there are a lot of flicks out there this Holiday season but if you want to stick with the solid then Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol is a good start.

Grade: 4 Buckets

The Descendants

It's nice to finally be able to get back into a groove of seeing movies regularly. If you've noticed I've been MIA from the reviews for a few weeks. This is my second week in a row of seeing something at the theatre and I'm going to try my best to keep the streak alive. This week I decided that I've been neglecting the Indie films lately so I skipped New Year's Eve and the Sitter to go and check out the Descendants. I had my doubts going in to be honest. Director Alexander Payne is a bit of a mixed bag for me. I loved Election from 1999 with Reese Witherspoon but I disliked About Schmidt. Sideways was entertaining but overall it felt pretty forgettable. I didn't understand all of the accolades people were throwing at it at the time and it feels like that's what people are doing with the Descendants. But I have to say it's justified in this case. It's a really excellent film. Probably one of Payne's best.

Matt King (George Clooney), a local Land Baron and lawyer, has a lot on his plate. His wife has slipped into a coma after a boating accident and he has discovered that she was having an affair. He struggles to raise his two daughters, Scottie (Amara Miller) and Alexandra (Shailene Woodley) after the accident as they each struggle to cope with the situation. And just to make his life a little more frustrating he is tasked to oversee a land deal for his entire family. His family consists of what seem to be lazy folk who have squandered their inheritance and are now looking for the responsible Matt to make them all filthy rich by selling off their Family land that spans back to King Kamehameha.

The film is gorgeous and it's great to see the beautiful islands on the big screen. Especially when they go to Kauai, I remembered instantly why I loved the place. The film is well paced and the script is solid from beginning to end. Clooney is certainly deserving of an Oscar nod and I think he should have a good chance to win the big one this time. It's definitely one of his best performances to date. I also really enjoyed the two girls playing his daughters they were authentic and funny and the cast melded great together. It's also a great travelogue for Hawaii, they show some really great spots. It'll keep you warm through the winter months, a little mind fuck always does the trick. But I highly recommend this little film, so after the kids drag you to see crap like Alvin and the Chipmunks and New Year's Eve, treat yourself to one of the better films of the year and take a trip to Hawaii with the Descendants, you won't be disappointed.

Grade: 4 Buckets

The Muppets

I knew I was forgetting something - I completely and utterly dropped the ball on posting my Muppets post.  The teaser trailers and spoofs were really fun and it truly re-ignited my joy of the Muppets. Which is why I was a little taken aback that some of the former puppeteers, like Frank Oz, came out against the film. Supposedly Frank saw the script and bolted saying that he thought it was disrespectful to the characters. He didn't seem to go much further than that, he then said he didn't want to take anything away from the film. Call me crazy, but he didn't really have to say much more to damage the film in my mind. Especially when you say that the filmmakers were disrespectful to the characters. I admit that when I read that quote I started to have some second thoughts about going to see it and especially taking my son Nathan. I wouldn't want his first Muppet Movie experience to suck just cause Disney whored out a great franchise for the greenbacks. Thankfully I saw another interview with Jason Segal, the writer and actor in the new movie. He truly loves the Muppets and this was his love letter to them. So I decided to see for myself, and I discovered that it was silly a little schmaltzy but most of all it was the Muppets and it was damn fun.

The movie begins with two brothers Gary (Jason Segal); a human and Walter (voice: Peter Linz); a muppet. Walter eats, drinks breathes everything Muppets and apparently he doesn't realize he is one. Gary decides to take a romantic vacation with his girlfriend Mary (Amy Adams); also a human, to L.A. Gary decides to bring Walter along so he can accomplish his childhood dream of going to the Muppet's studio. When they get there they find that the place is a mess and that the Muppets have all been dislocated. Kermit is moping in his haunted mansion, Fonzie is telling bad jokes in Reno,  Ms. Piggy is the editor of Vogue in Paris,  Gonzo is a plumbing magnate. So once they get the gang back together they have to win the studio back from the evil clutches of Tex Richman (Chris Cooper) who wants to own the Muppets Studio in order to drill for oil. So apparently Fox Business channel had some kind of issue with the Muppets and this oil plot line. Apparently some idiot host on that show made some kind of implication that the Muppets were Communists and they are subverting our children with one would call hate speech towards, apparently, defenseless Oil Execs. Really, Fox Business, the Muppets are Communists? Did you watch the movie? Apparently you missed the plotline where like any good Socialist the Muppets put on a show to raise capital to buy back the studio. They also do it through a corporate TV studio. Sounds like Commie swine to me.

This was truly the Muppets I remembered as a kid, obviously modernized to some degree but the characters all seemed the same. So I guess I'm not sure what Frank Oz was talking about. This is truly a fun kids flick there are plenty of sight gags and silliness for the children and there are some subtle jokes in there for the eldest of us. Wasn't too fond of any of the new songs and Amy Adams needs to learn to turn down the cheeze factor a few notches. But otherwise if you have to choose between the massive glut of kids flicks, be it Arthur Christmas (lame), Hugo (boring and possibly depressing), Happy Feet 2 (Annoying) and Alvin and the Chipmunks: Chipwrecked (Obnoxious, stupid and mind numbingly bad) then the answer is clear. Have a Muppets Christmas, or Muppet Hanukkah, and take the little ones to see something non-3D, barely any CGI, just good old fashioned puppets.

Grade: 3 Buckets