This is The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo

Last year I purchased the novel, The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo but didn’t get around to reading it. By strange coincidence I started to read it a last week, then whist at the cinema a few days later I saw a trailer for the movie, I had no idea the movie had even been made.  I am only halfway through reading the book so can not be certain where it is going but the two hundred and something pages I have read so far are totally brilliant. The novel is the first part of the “Millennium” trilogy by Stieg Larsson (The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, The Girl Who Played with Fire and The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets’ Nest). The trilogy are Larsson’s only novels, a journalist by trade, the novels were originally written for his own pleasure and enjoyment, he died of a heart attach before they were published. Together the original Swedish version and the English translation of the trilogy have sold over 20 million copies worldwide.  All three movies where released in Scandinavia last year, the first one is due to be released here in the UK on the 12th March this year and in the USA a week later.  There are no dates for the other two as yet.

Without giving away too much plot (I don’t know it all myself yet): Mikael Blomkvist (Michael Nyqvist) is a middle aged journalist who is sentenced to three months in prison following a conviction for libel. Before beginning his sentence he agrees to investigate a disappearance and possible murder on behalf of a wealthy retired industrialist Henrik Vanger (Sven-Bertil Taube). Blomkvist is helped by Lisbeth Salander (Noomi Rapace) an investigator, researcher and computer hacker who is brilliant, beautiful (despite her unconventional appearance) but is also somewhat eccentric totally lacking in social skills.

I will finish the book in the in the next few days and am really looking forward to the film. I also really like the look of the posters.

 

Negotiations are underway for the inevitable Hollywood remake with some big named stars and directors being suggested.

Battle Royale: Ross v Ross v Fandango v Aiden

Aiden R. from Cut the Cram Movie Reviews and myself were recently asked to join Ross McD and Ross McG from RossvRoss for one of their famous infamous movie battles.  Based around this years Oscars the Rosses picked four contenders Avatar, The Hurt Locker, Up In The Air and Inglourious Basterds. 

I quickly volunteered for The Hurt Locker, Aiden went for Inglourious Basterds, Ross McG, Up In Air and Ross McD must have drawn the short straw, he got Dances with Smurfs Avatar.

You can see the results here at Metro by clicking here.

Rising Star: Olivia Wilde

As a footnote to a list of Top 10: Young Actresses last year I added two names as possible breakout stars, one working in TV and the other a German actress.  The German actress Jenifer Ulrich doesn’t appear to be moving to Hollywood any time soonso is unlikely to be the next Franka Potente but Olivia Wilde is looking increasingly like a good call.  As well as Tron coming out later this year she is also in two drama/thrillers that are already in post production.  In NorthWood set for release later this year and The Next Three Days due out next year.  The Next Three Days is directed by Oscar winner Paul Haggis.  Haggis previously worked with Wilde on the TV show “The Black Donnellys” having directed some episodes.  She also counties to appear in the multi award winning House whose sixth season is currently airing in America. 

Possibly the biggest project on her horizon is the comic book/graphic novel adaptation Cowboys & Aliens.  Created by Mitchell Rosenberg it is the story of a group of cowboys and native Apache’s who battle against an extraterrestrial invasion of nineteenth century Arizona.  The movie is set to be directed by Jon Favreau and will star Daniel Craig as a mysterious gunslinger.  The script is provided by Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman (whose many credits include last years Star Trek reboot and the TV show Alias) and Damon Lindelof (who has spent the last six years working on a little TV show called Lost).  The movie isn’t set for release for more than a year and appears to be Jon Favreau’s only post Iron Man II project, this and DreamWorks name suggest it could be big.

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Edited to include some information of the image of Olivia Wilde used above. Something didn’t look right about it so I did a bit of searching on the internet. I found photograph that made me think the one above may be the result of a Tron fan with photoshop! What do you think?

The one below is genuine though, as far as I am aware!

Movies seen this week.

I have seen three movies in the past week and have been too busy to review any of them, I fact all my posts this week are ones I wrote weeks ago and have only just published them. Its Sunday tomorrow and I will be going to see another movie so I rather than drawing a line under this week here are slightly shorter than normal reviews for this weeks movies.

Edge of Darkness:  After an eight year hiatus Mel Gibson is back in front of the camera doing what he does best. A slightly off kilter character with a gun. The film starts out as a murder mystery. Thomas Craven (Gibson) plays a widowed Boston cop, his daughter (Bojana Novakovic) is shot dead whilst visiting him. It is assumed that he was the actual target. As he investigates the film descends into a conspiracy thriller as Craven begins to realise the true motives for the killing. For a film that is based on a TV series and has to compress everything into less than two hours it is actually quite slow paced. There is little action so the comparisons go Gibson’s Lethal Weapon movies are inaccurate. The main problem is the plot, it doesn’t make as much sense and it should and isn’t particularly original. I haven’t actually seen the original TV series that it is based on but the movie does come with a certain credibility as the share a director. New Zeeland born Martin Campbell who was also responsible for the best Bond films in recent years, GoldenEye and Casino Royale. Overall the film feels a little flat and fails to live up to the star and directors reputations. It is however worth seeing for Gibson.

Two Stars Out of Five

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Precious: Based on the Novel Push by Sapphire:  Before I talk about the movie I have to say I have a real problem with the title “Precious: Based on the Novel Push by Sapphire”. To give it a new title but to the convolute it with the title of the book it is based on lacks conviction in the movie as a piece of art in a different medium.  They should have just had the confidence to call it Push (used for a different movie last year) or Precious.

Precious (Gabourey Sidibe) is a girl who has been abused all her life, emotionally, psychologically, physically and sexually. She is obese and at 16 is pregnant with her second child having been raped by her farther. Being kicked out of school actually becomes the catalyst for her to start to get her life on track. This begins with attending an alternative school with a teacher who actually gives a shit. The film is not perfect, there is a very poor sense of time and space and as because of this the pacing of the movie can feel erratic.  The story often seems to go down avenues that are never explored or resolved.  The movie also unashamedly plays with the emotions of the audience by knowing exactly when to lift its characters up and when to kick them down again, it does this with the ease and bravado of a sports movie.  Many would praise a filmmaker for this ability but I found it somewhat contrived.  I also found all the supporting characters to be somewhat under developed.  That is why Mo’Nique’s performance as Precious’ mother is so impressive, she is given so little to work with. I find the accusations that the movie is racist preposterous for two reasons. The experiences of Precious are not related to her ethnicity and could happen to anyone. They also don’t portray her or her family as the norm for African American people.  At the end of Precious I joked that I wanted to go and see The Road to cheer me up. With occasionally uplifting moments the movie is not depressing; it is just a bit of a hard slog at times. As radio presenter Simon Mayo and film critic Mark Kermode are fond of saying in relation to one of last years hit movies “There’s a lot of slumdog before you get to the millionaire”, similar could be said of Precious.  It is not a film I am in a rush to see again but I am glad I have seen it.

Four Stars Out of five

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Brothers:  I normally hate Hollywood remakes of European films but Brothers benefits from the fact I haven’t seen the Danish original. If you don’t know what it is all about you haven’t seen the trailer that gives the whole story away. Captain Sam Cahill (Tobey Maguire) is in a a helicopter that is shot down in Afghanistan, along with private Joe Willis he is missing in action and presumed dead. Shortly before he left his brother Tommy (Jake Gyllenhaal) returns from prison. Over time Tommy grows closer to Sam’s Wife Grace (Natalie Portman) and butts heads with his farther Hank (Sam Shepard). Things are turned on their heads when Sam returns. In the early part of the movie Tobey Maguire appears that he can not match the acting ability of Gyllenhaal, Portman and the sublime Shepard. On his return he gives a twitchy edgy performance that is more than equal to his best early performances, Ride with the Devil and The Ice Storm.  Jake Gyllenhaal could easiy have come across as too much of a nice guy for his “black sheep” performance but he is always believable proving Brokeback Mountain and Jarhead were not flukes. Working best as a character study and an expression of the affects of war. The shortcomings of pacing and character development mean the film fails to live up to the underrated In The Valley Of Elah and the brilliant The Hurt Locker but the first rate acting make it well worth seeing.

Three Stars Out of Five

Mad Max 4: Fury Road

It’s been 25 years since Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome but director George Miller has never given up making another movie in the hit Australian series. Mad Max 4 is described by many as being in Development Hell for the last quarter century, it has actually spent most of the last decade in something more akin to purgatory! His most recent attempt was thwarted by the economy as the war in Iraq began. That may have been a blessing in disguise. That movie was to be shot in South Africa. Thanks to government assistance Fury Road will be filmed where it belongs in Australia. With studios in Sydney and the main locations in Broken Hill, New South Wales where Mad Max 2 was shot. Despite saying many times in the last twenty years that he would like to be involved it doesn’t look like original star Mel Gibson will be involved. It appears the character of Max Rockatansky will remain but played by a different actor. IMDB has Mark Hildebrandt listed, they also have Tom Hardy down to play an unnamed role. Other rumours suggest it will be in fact be Hardy who plays Max. English born Australian actor Sam Worthington has also been suggested but he may be busy with the inevitable Avatar sequel. The other names that keep coming up who it appears have been cast are Charlize Theron and Teresa Palmer; I think we can safely say neither will be playing Max. It appears the movie will be independently funded with no studio backing. That makes the suggested $100 million look impressive. This is going to be one big indie movie! I hope that budget is going on real sets and real vehicles and not on post production CGI. If ever there was a movie that needed to be real, even dirty and visceral it is a Mad Max movie.

A report on the Hollywood Reporter website suggests the movie is set not long after Beyond Thunderdome. Mel Gibson was 29 though I suspect his character is intended to be a few years older than that stretching the time between the original three films. The three suggested starts are between 32 and 37 years old so that fits in well with the plan.  There are various videos on the internet shot in the carriage works in Redfern Sydney that is acting as a studio for the production. This one from Sky news Australia has the most information of the ones I could find and includes a glimpse of a few of the vehicles that will be in the movie including Max’s “Pursuit Special” a 1973 Ford Falcon XB GT. The car was destroyed in the second movie so it will be interesting to see how they work it into the story.

After a twenty-five year gap where can the series go from here? The way I see it there are three basic options.

1. The one they are going for, ie a direct sequel set a few years after Thunderdome. The movie ended much like the second one, after helping the kids escape Max is alone again. The story can literally go anywhere from here. The vehicles constructed for the movie suggest that movie will be closer to The Road Warrior than Beyond Thunderdome, this can’t be a bad thing. My only concern, can there really be a Mad max movie without Mel?
2. 20 to 30 years after the events of Beyond Thunderdome communities are getting back together as small towns begin to crop up in the wastelands. Each town has its own natural recourses. Natural springs providing fresh water, oil reserves for fuel or fertile land for farming to provide food and bio-fuel. These towns are able to exist by trade between them. Over time the roads have been painstakingly reclaimed from the deserts. Vehicles are cobbled together from the relics of the past. The uneasy civilisation is at risk from nomadic bandits who survive by stealing from the trade convoys. As an important delivery is due the young impetuses driver is killed taking a stupid risk. Enter an unlikely hero the old recluse who lives on the outskirts of town. A man with an unlikely past Max Rockatansky (Mel Gibson).
3. It is the late 70’s the world is falling apart nomadic gangs of bikers rule the wastelands, they take whatever they want from whoever they want to without anyone to stop them. Living of the scraps of the old world society is looking for a hero. They may just find it in the MFP, the cops that are the only thing holding society together. When he loses everything one man travels the wastelands looking those responsible. Is he looking for redemption or just revenge? Sound familiar? A reboot of the first movie could start a whole new series of movies. But here is the twist, set in a different part of Australia with a different biker gang and more importantly a new character to replace Max. Mel Gibson is Max, anyone replacing him will have to emulate his performance, a new character would give an opportunity for a new young actor to emerge.

Whatever happens one thing is certain if there is a Mad Max movie directed by George Miller I will be watching it.

Possibly The First Cocktail

An Old Fashioned is possibly the first drink to be given the moniker “cocktail” and more importantly the preferred drink of Mad Men’s leading man Don Draper (Jon Hamm).

How to make: Place a small sugar lump in a 12 tumbler with a little water to dissolve it, add two dashes Angostura bitters , a large thin piece of lemon-peel a cherry and an ice cube. Fill a mixing glass with ice and add two shots of whiskey per serving and stir untilled chilled. Pour into prepared tumbles letting a little of the ice and serve with a slice or orange.

My favourite movie that was never made.

J. D. Salinger (1919–2010)

First published nearly sixty years ago The Cater in The Rye remains un-filmed. J. D. Salinger’s story of rebellion and alienation has always stuck a chord with teenagers and with its first person narration and snappy dialogue could have made a brilliant film back in the 1950’s. Everyone from Brando to DiCaprio via Kazan, Speilberg and Malick has looked into adapting it into a movie but the author has always blocked it. Possibly put off by the critical disaster of My Foolish Heart the 1949 film based on his story Uncle Wiggily in Connecticut, Salinger remained apposed adaptations of his work right up to his death last week (aged 91). Many newspapers have reported that Salinger’s literary agent Phyllis Westberg has stated the authors passing will not affect the veto on adaptations of his work.

Interestingly, in The Cater in The Rye the character Holden Caulfield actually says “If there’s one thing I hate, it’s the movies. Don’t even mention them to me”.* Even if the people controlling Salinger’s estate have a change of heart the wishes of the author has made the book virtually un-filmable. I don’t believe anyone could do the story justice without having total respect for the story and its author, and it would be impossible for anyone with that respect to go against his wishes making any adaptation flawed if not doomed from the start. We have to take into account a film adaptation would probably be a disaster, the filmmakers would want to update the story to the present day and cast a twenty-five year old star as the teenage Caulfield.

As a book I have loved for a long time The Catcher in the Rye is difficult to recommend to other readers, if you come to it too late, you will probably hate it. What is too late though, I would suggest anything beyond late teens or early twenties is too late. If you have already read the novel going back to it several years later will leave a very different impression on you.

Finally I have to make the confession the title of this article “My favourite movie that was never made” is a lie that would be Jack Kerouac’s On the Road, but as there may be a film of this in production at the moment it may become true in future.

* Thanks to Kim Morgan whose use of this same quote inspired me to write this article. I intended to write something about J. D. Salinger last week when I heard of his death but it seemed to have all been said. Take a look at Kim’s article.  She certainly pointed me in the right direction.

Movie of the Month: January 2010

Better late than never, my movie of the month blog is normally my first blog of the month. I have been snowed under with Oscar related blogs as well as none blog related things this weekend so it is a day late. The nominations are:

• The Road
• Daybreakers
• The Book of Eli
• 44 Inch Chest
• Up in the Air
• A Prophet

This month’s result may be a surprise. As I said last June being the best film may not be enough on its own to win, that month I gave the first ever movie of the month to The Hangover ahead of two superior films, Looking for Eric and Anything for Her.  This month The Road, Up in the Air and A Prophet the best movies of the month and unless we have a very strong year will all rank highly in my final year list. But the two movies that are in contention for movie of the month are the ones that are the most pleasantly surprising. Daybreakers and The Book of Eli should both be disposable crap, they are both actually quite good.  The winner is the movie that I have thought about and talked about more since seeing than any other movie this year:

I also saw Edge of Darkness and Ninja Assassin, neither were good enogh to make the shortlist. I will be seen Precious later in the week and will include it on the February list if good enough.

My Oscars: The Result 2010

Oscar nominations tomorrow. I got in early by naming my own nominations on Friday. In keeping with the trend here are my winners:

Best Picture: The Hurt Locker

Best Director: Kathryn Bigelow (The Hurt Locker)

Best Actor: Viggo Mortensen (The Road)

Best Actress: Carey Mulligan (An Education)

Best Supporting Actor: Christoph Waltz (Inglourious Basterds)

Best Supporting Actress: Mélanie Laurent (Inglourious Basterds)

Best Original Screenplay: Inglourious Basterds

Best Adapted Screenplay: Watchmen

Best Foreign Language Film: The White Ribbon (Germany)

Visual Effects: Avatar

Best Cinematography: The White Ribbon

Makeup: Jenifer’s Body

Original Score: The Road

Costume Design: The White Ribbon

Art Direction: The White Ribbon

Best Sound: The Hurt Locker

I will do this again closer to the Oscars based on the actual nominations.

2010: The year of the Vampire

You couldn’t move for vampire movies last year, will 2010 be any different? No!

We have already had Daybreakers and it was pretty good. An interesting twist on vampire movies set in a world where most of the population are now vampires. Written and directed by the Speierig brothers who were responsible for the Australian zombie horror comedy Undead. The great cast includes Ethan Hawke, Willem Dafoe and Sam Neill.  It looks prime for a sequel, if they do hopefully the surviving characters will return and be played by the same actors.

30 Days of Night: Dark Days is obviously a follow-up to 30 Days of Night (2007), it retains the main character from the first movie Stella Olemaun, however Melissa George has been replaced by Kiele Sanchez who you may remember as Gina, Timothy Olyphant’s girlfriend in A Perfect Getaway. She also appeared in Lost, although mainly a background character one really good episode centred on her character Nikki and her boyfriend Paulo. Anyway back to the movie; the story relocates to Los Angeles that as far as I am aware doesn’t suffer from 30 Days of Night in the winter. It is directed by Ben Ketai whose previous film was 30 Days of Night: Dust to Dust an online sequel to the original film. I suspect this one is more likely to crop up on DVD than in a cinema anytime soon.

Original 30 Days of Night director David Slade is busy working with glittery vampires on The Twilight Saga: Eclipse. Moving away from the autumn/winter release of the first two movies this one is coming out in the summer with the blockbusters, and why not they have taken shit loads of money.  Lets hope it has a bit more bite (bad pun completely intentional) than Chris Weitz lame New Moon.  All the main cast are set to return except Rachelle Lefevre whose character Victoria will be played by Bryce Dallas Howard.

Following the success (please note use of sarcasm and irony) of Lost Boys: The Tribe (2008) a third film is on its way. Lost Boys: The Thirst. Corey Feldman returns as Edgar Frog as does Jamison Newlander as his brother Alan Frog. Newlander was in the second movie too, his character not only had to suffer with now being a vampire, but he also had his scenes deleted. Again this will be direct to DVD trash.

Anyone who knows me knows my thoughts on Hollywood remakes of great European and Asian films. That’s why I really don’t want to see what a mess they make of my movie of the year from last year Let the Right One in. Just to prove how original they are they have changed the name to Let Me In (the name the book the original film was based on went under in America). One of the great things about the original movie was the great performances by the two young actors. In the remake the most interesting casting could be of Abby (renamed from Eli in the original) who will be played by Chloe Moretz who you may recognise as Joseph Gordon-Levitt’s young sister in (500) Days of Summer.

Priest is a vampire/western due for release in the summer. Based on a Korean comic book by Hyung Min-woo, I understand the movie is only loosely based on source material. Paul Bettany plays the priest of the title who along with young sheriff (Cam Gigandet in what could be a rare none villainous role) and Maggie Q as a priestess track down a group of vampires who have kidnapped his niece. I know a few fans (especially female ones) are upset that the casting of Gerard Butler fell through but the presence of Maggie Q promises a certain amount of ass-kicking action (she was the best thing about Die Hard 4). Also look out for a rare big screen outing for Mädchen Amick (Shelly Johnson in Twin Peaks). Directed by Scott Stewart, just his second feature, his first Legion also stars Paul Bettany and has just opened in America to mixed reviews and will be released in the UK in a march. This is one of those movies that couple be brilliant or terrible depending on the execution.

Stake Land is directed by Jim Mickle who has real low budget B movie credentials following Mulberry Street (2006). Little has been published about this film but internet rumour suggest it will be a brutal, bloody and violent movie. A couple of notes on the cast, top billing goes to Danielle Harris who appeared in the Rob Zombie Halloween remakes. It also feature Kelly Top Gun McGillis.

The Bleeding also has real B-movie credentials in the shape of Vinnie Jones, Michael Madsen and Armand Assante. It is also the feature début for Katherine von Drachenberg, who I hear you say, Katherine is better known as celebrity tattoo artist extraordinaire Kat Von D. The story features a family of vampires who live in a nightclub in a former chemical weapons factory, when they say family I somehow think they will have more in common with the Manson family than the Cullen’s.

As well as all these there are also numerous TV programs, internet movies and minimal budget B movies.