The Rundown

In the future, 12 districts make up the U.S. with a single (Capitol) city at it’s center.  Due to population unrest and past revolt, every district must give one girl and one boy to The Hunger Games, a kill or be killed tournament broadcast for the masses. Katniss Everdeen, to save her young sister from the Games, volunteers herself.

Disclaimer: I have NOT read Suzanne Collins’ novels.

Directed by Gary Ross (Big, Seabiscuit, Pleasantville) and staring Jennifer Lawrence (X-Men: First Class, Winter’s Bone), Woody Harrelson (White Men Can’t Jump, Zombieland), Stanley Tucci (The Devil Wears Prada, Captain America) and Wes Bentley (American Beauty, Four Feathers) THE HUNGER GAMES is definitely a big deal.

Based on the trilogy by Suzanne Collins, THE HUNGER GAMES is a sci fi epic set in a dystopian America with fighting, blood, killing and revolt at it’s center.

I’ll admit that I thought this was the next Twilight and I expected a teen love triangle swimming in angst and tears but I am happy to say, that is not at all what THE HUNGER GAMES is about.

Yes, there is a love “triangle” but honestly it wasn’t the focus of the film at all.  What is really at the heart is a young woman who places, above everything else, the will to survive.

Jennifer Lawrence is the only person I could see giving this role justice.  Katniss is clever and cunning and always has a plan.  Winter’s Bone proved that Lawrence carries all of these traits with ease and can handle a little action too. 

Woody Harrelson as Katniss’ coach along with (of all people) Lenny Kravitz as her “designer” were great in their roles as well.  

I should note that this film could have taken a turn for the worse VERY easily.  The story has camp written on it, luckily Gary Ross didn’t read it before he opened the box.

Everything was handled with care, in a sense that everything that could have been over the top was scaled down and the characters didn’t reflect on their surroundings so as to point out that they were in the future.  This often happens in sci fi films in the PG-13 range. Instead, the characters emotional states were very much like you and I would be if, say, we were placed in an arena and told to kill everyone around us to survive.  

The effects were great and not too crazy.  I didn’t care for the “wolves” that appeared at the end.  They didn’t look that great but I guess considering how bad they COULD have looked, I was okay with them.  As far as a story element, I didn’t like them at all but I understand their role (I guess).

For a PG-13 movie, there were some brutal kills too.  Little kids getting spears thrown through them, hacked by swords.  Of course there was a scary lack of blood involved in these killings (as if the absence of blood somehow makes it better for a 13 year old) but it forced the filmmakers to tell the story rather than rely on action.

From a story standpoint, everything was compacted and I wished for a bit more of the training session that Katniss was forced to endure.  But they only have 2 hours to tell the story and I have to admit they handled everything pretty well given that time constraint.  

I didn’t care for the cinematography though.  From the get go we’re right in every one’s face.  Medium shots galore.  I wished that Mr. Ross would have pulled the camera back at least a little when the story gets going.  Show some of the environment but we were limited to brief shots of future-esque rooms and some very simple stadium shots.  It was okay but I would have liked a little more “intro shot from Blade runner”.  There was an action sequence while Katniss is in the arena where another player tackles her and tries to stab her.  It took me a couple of minutes to figure out who was who and that the other girl even had a knife.  I was reminded of some of the less appealing fight scenes in Batman Begins. “Easy on the close ups, bro.”

I also didn’t like the use of the “sponser” term in the movie.  Let me explain.

When a player is in arena, they can receive packages that will give them something they need.   The person paying for this package to be sent usually has to really like that particular player.  It’s like American Idol, you want the public to love you and vote for you except instead of keeping you on the show they pay to get you something to help you survive.

Getting people to like Katniss was a central struggle of the film and she did get people to love her but the packages she got during the games were uneventful.  I was hoping for a little more use of this crucial element to survival.  She needed the packages to survive so they had to be in the movie but maybe they shouldn’t have put so much time into it. Hamish, her coach, spent all his time (while she was playing the game) trying to get people to like Katniss all over again. Why?  I thought she had already done that?  Shouldn’t it have been easy to get her packages?  Everyone already thought she was going to win, didn’t they? Whatever.  

I loved the ending though and am now anticipating the coming sequel to see where the filmmakers will take the story (Remember I have NOT read the books).  There is a plan here and I’m excited to see just how bloody this story will get.

Rating: 8/10

Review by Sean Coppens

seancoppens.com

Two young and dimwitted police officers are ordered to the classic “21 Jump Street” program that places them in a high school where a new synthetic drug is threatening the teenage population.

Based on the campy 80’s television show, 21 JUMP STREET stars Jonah Hill (Superbad, Moneyball), Channing Tatum (G.I Joe: Rise of Cobra, Dear John), Rob Riggles (The Other Guys, The Lorax) and Ice Cube (Anaconda, Friday) and is directed by Phil Lord and Chris Miller (Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, Extreme Movie).

Remakes have been popping up all over the map.  In these “hard economic times” studios have been rehashing things they KNOW people will go see.  The standard reaction to this kind of film is, “Hell no, I will not go see that!”

This is normal.

But you’d be missing out on one of the funnier films of late.  21 JUMP STREET is full of action packed scenes, witty (and yet, childishly funny) dialogue and has a pretty good plot/story behind it.

The humor is ridiculous, of course.  Being a 26 year old male I got all of the references and thoroughly enjoyed the “dick” humor.  It’s a movie for high school males basically and works on that level perfectly.

I’m not a fan of Channing Tatum.  He hasn’t really done any film I thought was worth seeing more than once and even then, I wished I hadn’t watched it.  G.I. Joe was bad.  Dear John wasn’t my kind of film but what  I saw of Tatum performance didn’t seem to work.  21 JUMP STREET is exactly the kind of film Channing Tatum should be doing.  His standard dead pan delivery was absent during most of this film and I felt like he actually liked the character he was playing.  It was believable when he was upset and he delivered on the action scenes as well.

Jonah Hill was playing Jonah Hill.  If you don’t like a single thing about any of his other movies and everytime you see his face, you cringe, then you will not like this movie.  He helped write the script so every line he delivers was carefully thought out to be of the Jonah-Hill-Brand.  I like him so I liked his performance.

The story worked for me, basically, because it’s exactly like the TV show.  Everything was over the top about 21 JUMP STREET. The situation is over the top and could obviously never really happen high school kids but that’s exactly what happened in the TV series.  The film was tongue in cheek.  There is a great chase sequence where a group of bikers are chasing our heroes.  Jenko and Schmidt (Tatum and Hill, respectively) manage to take out a few of their pursuers and cleverly placed oil tankers and tubes filled of explosive gas are all over the highway.  Our heroes embrace for the explosion which never comes until finally a truck full of chickens erupts in a ball of fire.  It was exactly the kind of thing I would imagine Johnny Depp and his frequent partner, Peter DeLuise, would have had happen to them on the TV series.  It’s stupid and crazy.  I loved it.

There some great moments when Hill and Tatum, both having to prove they’re not cops, take the synthetic drug and hiliarity ensues. But I won’t go into that.

A single qualm I had was that some of the cutting was awkward.  There were shots that carried on too long and I just sat waiting for the next sequence to begin. It was a small thing but a film dragging on can be one of the worst feelings when you’re sitting in the theater.

I also have to admit that I didn’t laugh very much in the beginning of the film only because I had seen the trailer so many times and all the jokes were ruined.  It doesn’t mean it wasn’t funny, it definitely was, but I knew exactly what was coming and had heard everything at least a dozen times.  A good example of when a trailer can reveal too much.

I thoroughly enjoyed 21 JUMP STREET and judging by the box office numbers, so did a lot of other people. For those who have not had the pleasure of watching the original series, you might miss the point of 21 JUMP STREET but I guarantee you’ll laugh.

Rating: 8/10

Review by Sean Coppens

seancoppens.com

John Carter, a war torn Civil War veteran is transported to Mars where he is enslaved by tall green aliens.  John soon finds himself caught in midst of another world’s civil war and whether to get involved or find his way home.

The above synopsis took me over ten minutes to write.  Not because I didn’t know exactly what happened in Andrew Stanton’s live action epic JOHN CARTER but because I couldn’t put into two sentences what the movie was about.

JOHN CARTER is based on Edgar Rice Burroughs’ story A Princess of Mars (published in 1917) and has been the inspiration of many of our modern science fiction books and movies.  I’m not sure how Burroughs would have reacted but I found the film confusing, cluttered and, well, a bit over the top.

JOHN CARTER stars Taylor Kitsch (Friday Night Lights: The TV Series, The Covenant, X-Men Origins: Wolverine) as John Carter, Lynn Collins (X-Men Origins: Wolverine, The Lake House, The Number 23) as Dejah Thoris.  Costarring Dominic West as our villain Sab Than, Mark Strong as Matai Shang along with the voice talent of Willem Dafoe, Samantha Morton and Thomas Haden Church.  All were good and did the best of their abilties with what they were given (and it wasn’t much).

The characters motivation was what really killed me in this movie and caused the most frustration.  First off, John Carter didn’t like war.  This idea is pounded into your brain over and over at the beginning of the movie.

Me: “I got it.  He doesn’t like fighting.”

John Carter the film: “Good! He f-ing hates fighting!”

So, of course, when John gets to Mars he finds out that he has incredible strength and can jump really really far  (This is explained in one sentence by Dejah and involves bone density or so she thinks, whatever I forgave that, didn’t need it.)  Anyway, John is very powerful and everyone wants him on their team.  John saves the extremely beautiful Dejah pretty early on and she asks for his help to save her ENTIRE CITY full of babies and children and alien puppies from being destroyed by Sab Than.  He says no.  Of course he does! He hates fighting!  So then she agrees to take him to a holy ground where the medallion that brought him to Mars might be able to take him home.  John agrees to let her help him?  Whatever.  So they both leave and take the outcast daughter of the Thark war tribe with them.  During there week or so long trip, Sola, the outcast daughter, tells John they’re going in the wrong direction.  Dejah is tricking them.  John threatens Dejah, she admits she was tricking them and John kicks her off her alien horse. 

Okay so this is where the script fell apart (only the first time of many)  Sola, the outcast, knows the way to the “temple”, John and Sola could have just left and John would be home in the next 10 minutes of the film.  He wanted to be home, he didn’t want to fight.  Check.  

Nope.  He turns around and comforts the crying (lying) princess.  She asks him to fight for her again.  He says no, again.  She agrees to take him to the temple, they leave.  So nothing was accomplished except that we know Dejah is a liar and will do anything to get John to stay and fight.

They go to the temple and Sola starts to get a boat ready to sail down the river to the temple.  John freaks out and tell her he needs her to help him after that she can leave and honor her people.  She agrees…then finishes getting her boat ready and they’re off….yes, it’s that confusing.  Why John stopped her I have no idea.  It was completely unmotivated and gave little to no story in the process.

The last thing to mention about the story and it’s theme (FIGHTING IS BAD!) is John’s reason for not wanting to fight.  About half way through the movie, we are led to believe that John is becoming the hero we want him to be.  The bad aliens (I’ll explain in the next section) are pursuing John, Sola and Dejah.  Dejah, who had killed a bunch of dudes with a sword earlier in the film with ninja like skills, trips over her own feet and it looks like the aliens will get her.  

Suddenly we get a flash back of what we assume is John’s cabin on Earth burned to the ground.  He’s not in military uniform or anything, just a burned cabin where he finds his wife and daughter’s body.  I GUESS that soldiers could have burned it down and thats why John doesn’t like fighting but honestly, I have no idea what this had to do with him and not wanting to fight.  Didn’t he want revenge against the faceless killers that did this to his wife?  Didn’t he want to know why his cabin far into the woods was burned to the ground for no reason what so ever?  I doubt anyone killed them because they knew he specifically lived there. Either way, it was weak sauce.  

John then jumps over to Dejah and saves her and is left to kill a horde of evil aliens.  After he is rescued seconds later by Dejah and her father’s army and taken to Sab Than’s city on wheels where Dejah is set to marry the evil Sab to unite the tribes and bring peace, Dejah asks John with tears in her eyes if he will help save her, to which he says no AGAIN!!!!  Dude c’mon! I thought we were past this?

I understand there’s a fine line between things that need to be said in a film and things that can be shown but when you’re on an alien planet and you’ve created this world and you only have 2 hours to tell a story, you need to explain some things.  Like when Matai Shang, the evil sorcerer behind the civil war, goes after John and Dejah at the temple he uses a race of tall green alien warriors who LOOK EXACTLY LIKE THE GUYS WE’RE SUPPOSED TO BE ROOTING FOR. 

Me: “Why are the good guys trying to kill John all of a sudden?”

Guy next to me: “Good question.”

Me: “Meh.”

It was too confusing.  Why not throw in a line of dialogue earlier in the film, say, I don’t know, maybe during the voice over in the very beginning? Something that outlines that this planet has more than just three pretty small cities on it.  Cities which we never actually see much of, save for a few medium shots with principal actors in them.

JOHN CARTER is full of these little things that confused me and everyone around me.  The story was a mess and after 30 years of trying to get this made, you’d think that the script would be flawless!  Everything thought out and perfect.  Not the case.  It could have been cut into an hour TOPS and made more sense.

I had high hopes for the music which started off great.  When John was on Earth and being interrogated by a colonel who wanted John to work for him, there was an Indiana Jones vibe going on and I was digging it.  That seemed to end though as soon as John got to Mars and everything went stereotype sci fi.  It felt exactly like George Lucas’ Episode 2: Attack of the Clones.  This is not a compliment.

The shooting and directing seemed to change when John got to Mars and I kinda wished the movie had stayed on Earth and been more about John and his battle on the western frontier but I guess then it would have been Dances with Wolves and that’s been done, right?

I’ll move to some aspects I liked or “hated less”.

The effects.  They were good.  Real good.  I know where most of the 250 million dollars of this budget went and I understand and appreciate that Disney wanted to make the aliens look real.  They did look very good and the movement seemed natural.  Even when Carter went leaping miles at a time, I didn’t have a problem with it.  

The set design and costumes did a great job of putting us in the world of early 1900’s Mars (or at least what I would like to believe it looks like)  I was reminded of Stargate a bit which I thought was a good thing.  I liked the world Stargate was set in.  

That was it.  

Those were the two things I “hated less” in JOHN CARTER.

I have to make a point about this film being in Disney 3D.  I will disclose that I am not a fan of 3D in general.  I have not seen a single film in 3D that was enhanced by the it being in 3D.  JOHN CARTER did not need to be in 3D.  It only made we feel worse after the credits started to roll and the bitching started and I realized I’d spent fourteen dollars on this movie.

I saw this film almost a week ago and decided not to write this review right after seeing it for fear of what I would say.  I gave myself time to process it.  Some moments that had me worked up, I forgave but the story I could not forgive.  It’s hard to believe that Disney executive’s were quoted saying that this movie needs to be the highest grossing film OF ALL TIME to warrant a sequel.  With just around 30 million dollars on opening weekend, it is very unlikely we will see a another JOHN CARTER film (As of today it has grossed 179 million worldwide, that’s not a lot.)  If it ever does happen, lets hope the second time around Disney will have the balls to keep the “From Mars” in the title.

Rating: 3/10

Review by Sean Coppens

seancoppens.com

Inexperienced CIA agent Matt Weston (Ryan Reynolds) is put in harm’s way when rogue CIA case officer, Tobin Frost (Denzel Washington), is brought to the safe house Weston is in charge of.

Director Daniel Espinosa makes his American debut with this “bourne-esque” thriller starring Ryan Reynolds (Green Lantern, Just Friends) and Denzel Washington (Unstoppable, Training Day, Man On Fire) written by David Guggenheim, who is also new to the feature film game. 

Everything about this film screamed Bourne Identity knock off.  Or at least in the trailer it screamed. The film itself confirmed it.  Everything from the shaky camera shooting style to the shot composition, to the music to the costume design and fighting choreography.  I was okay with it all but a little disappointed.

At it’s core, SAFE HOUSE is a well acted and engaging story about a young man who wishes to become a CIA Case Officer and get into the action.  Reynolds’ Weston character wants to do more for the agency but once he is told that Tobin Frost (horrible name, by the way, for a CIA agent) has been captured and is being brought in to his safe house, he essentially gets what he was asking for.  The only problem is, Weston doesn’t like what he gets (of course).

The whole movie played off this idea that nothing is what it seems and you should be careful what you wish for.  Both very overstated themes in the spy thriller genre.  Weston is clever and underestimated by Frost which leads to some pretty cool escape/re-capturing scenes, though.

I really liked the action in this film.  Nothing seemed too over the top and explosions/gunfights were motivated by the character’s needs which is always nice to see.  

Nothing about Weston’s and Frost’s story was very predictable either.  I mean, I knew that Frost was not going to die thirty minutes into the film but there are some moments that caught me off guard completely and I was thrilled about it.  

I should state that Denzel Washington makes this film for me.  I don’t fault Reynolds for doing anything wrong. In fact, he did a pretty good job with the character and motivation he was given.  But it’s Denzel F-ing Washington!   The guy upstages everybody.  There are a few moments when Frost’s life is in peril and he is wounded and I had to wonder if Denzel Washington has ever actually been shot.  He’s so believable!

That being said, the worst part of SAFE HOUSE is the storyline for Brenden Gleeson’s CIA handler, David Barlow and Vera Farmiga’s Catherine Linklater character.  There character’s gave us the most comparison to the Jason Bourne series and were EXTREMELY predictable.

Early on in the film, when Weston has escaped with Frost in custody, we are introduced to Barlow and Linklater (Barlow in charge of Weston and Linklater in charge of the South African sector) along with Sam Shepard’s Harlan Whitford CIA director character. They’re all in a large room, a bank of screens on one side and a room full of beautiful people as analysts.  They go through that standard dialogue of “What do you have on Weston?”  ” C’mon people I need everything on Frost now!” “Let’s go, let’s go, let’s go.” “Get me eyes down there, god damn it!”.  The bourne series has this exact scene in every one of it’s movie and it never gets any easier to like.  It’s the worst and most unbelievable scene in the Bourne movies and SAFE HOUSE did not need it. Period.

It also became very apparent who was behind this whole “get me Tobin Frost” scheme.  This was the most predictable side of SAFE HOUSE.  It was too obvious who was behind everything and I was disappointed when they made a big deal of it.  You will see it coming a mile away.

The music was very disappointing as well.  Composed by Ramin Djawadi (Iron Man, Mr. Brooks).  It was a complete rip off of some of John Powell’s killer Bourne Identity soundtracks.  Powell’s were good so why were Ramin’s not good? You may ask.  Well, because this wasn’t supposed to BE a Bourne movie and I would have rather had an original piece of music to carry across the themes rather than a knock off of an awesome score for a different movie.

Another string from the Bourne Series that found it’s way into SAFE HOUSE was Oliver Wood, the director of photography. Wood, who also shot Bourne Identity, is great. Don’t get me wrong.  But I’m sure he could have shot this a little differently had the studio/filmmakers not wanted another Jason Bourne movie without Jason Bourne in it.  What is this trend of trying to create a Bourne movie without Bourne?  I know the money is good but there were spy action thrillers before Jason Bourne!

All of these parallel’s to Jason Bourne, though, did not stop me from enjoying this movie and over time I have come to like it more as I ponder it’s story a little further.  I’ll just say, I didn’t regret paying to see it.

Like other spy thrillers that go overlooked in their time *COUGH* Body of Lies *COUGH* SAFE HOUSE should be taken for the action thriller it is and the original story it could have been.  I guess we’ll just have to enjoy it for the small contribution it gives to a cinematic world full of repeated spy thrillers.

rating: 6/10

Review by Sean Coppens

www.seancoppens.com

A group of Alaskan oil workers, on their way home, are involved in a plane crash leaving them to fight against the weather and a pack of angry wolves who see them as a threat.

Joe Carnahan (Narc, Smoking Aces, The A-Team) directs Liam Neeson (Taken, Star Wars) in a survival thriller set in the Alaskan wilderness.  The film costars Dermot Mulroney (Living in Oblivion, Zodiac) and Frank Grillo (Warrior, Minority Report) along with a bunch of other crazy looking dudes who must survive in the extreme Alaskan winter.  THE GREY is an intense and spooky thriller that poses the question, why the hell does anyone fly on a plane?

I’m serious when I say, I will think of this movie every time I am flying on an airplane.  It scared the sh*t out of me.  The film starts with a voice over by Neeson’s character, Ottway writing a letter to an unknown person.  He’s upset and sees himself as an asshole (Not sure why) but he basically doesn’t want to keep on living.  From the get go, the wolves play a huge part in Ottway’s life.  They save him from committing suicide, he feels bad for killing them (his character is a hunter hired by the oil company to protect it’s workers out in the wilderness) and he knows a lot about them.  This all worked very well. The voice over reveals a lot about his character and, with it, was some great camera work and great acting.  The emotional connection is solid going into the second act and I knew right then that I would really like this film.

The crash sequence is INTENSE! to say the least.  It was a genius use of sound design and editing.  We go right from grown men screaming and huddling in their seats to Ottway, alone, out in the snow.  He was thrown from the cabin and finds himself amongst the wreckage.  This was very reminiscent of the pilot of Lost, a show of loved and worked to show us the whole environment.  The film is perfectly paced after this.  Giving us time to learn more about the men who have survived.  I absolutely HATED Frank Grillo’s character and wondered why they didn’t kill him on their own but everything pays off when the men finally face off against the wolves bringing them together as a unit.  

Everything about THE GREY seems realistic (save for my one major complaint) mainly because the movie WAS shot out in the Alaskan wilderness.  Carnahan dragged camera and crew out into the freezing Alaskan winter and shot this film on location.  Well, a good portion of it.  There is some green screen to be sure.  I doubt they would let the actors stand on the edge of deep precipice.  But that’s besides the point.

Along with good pacing and great acting was great music.  Marc Streitenfeld, the composer for Body of Lies and Robin Hood, did a fantastic job of capturing the emotional arc of our survivors and helped the film build tension.  I loved every moment of the score  and can’t wait for his next film Prometheus, which will be his third film with director Ridley Scott so he must be doing something right.

The action of the film was done fairly well.  There were some of the top moments. Example being when one man is tasked with jumping across a ravine to tie a rope to the trees for the other men to cross.  It was over the top but I kept asking myself, “If I was wandering in the woods?  Would I do anything it took to survive?” The answer is always yes and who am I to say what is possible out in the Alaskan wilderness?  I’m not Liam Neeson so the answer is no one…

My one qualm with THE GREY was the CGI wolves, of course.  I know they couldn’t actually use wolves.  The budget was a lowly 25 million (hah!) and so much of this went to shooting on location, CG for the plane crash and actors fees, I’m sure.  But the wolves suffered for this.  They looked pretty fake.  Not as fake as the wolves in the Twilight: Eclipse trailer but nonetheless not very good.  Carnahan did a good job of controlling this though as we don’t really see the wolves that much.  They’re more of omniscient presence and only in the final moments of the film did we get a good look at the alpha male. Carnahan would be a good monster movie director as those films always lose their scares after everyone sees the monster.

All in all, Neeson did an awesome job with Ottway and all of those involved were very believable.  What director Joe Carnahan did very right with THE GREY was capture the emotions of men left to die in the harsh and unforgiving environment.  This film, if it was about anything below the surface, was about just how fragile we humans are and where we would really be if wasn’t for our technology.

 A word of caution, though,  to those who think they’re walking into a “high-octane thriller full of fights and badass-ness the likes of a Dwayne Johnson film”.  You’re not.  It’s a survival story with a emotional core that just happens to have wolves involved. If you want a big face off at the end, you will hate this movie.  I was SO happy with the ending.  If it had gone any further I would have been disappointed.  So please don’t walk out of the theater at the end of THE GREY commenting on how “they must have run out of ways to kill everyone”  because, honestly, you missed the point.

Rating: 7/10

Review by Sean Coppens

www.seancoppens.com

A mystery thriller set in modern Sweden, THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO follows independent journalist Mikael Blomkvist and punk hacker Lisbeth Salander as they fight to uncover who killed a young girl amongst a group of Sweden’s Elite.

Directed by David Fincher (Fight Club, Panic Room, The Social Network) THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO is based on the novel by Steig Larsson and follows in the footsteps of the Swedish film by the same name directed by Niels Arden Oplev. 

When it was announced after the success of the Swedish films, that David Fincher was on board to direct THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO, I was excited.  I loved the Swedish version and couldn’t imagine what the U.S. filmmakers could add to the film but c’mon, it’s David Fincher!  His films are dark, funny and tell great stories.  I was pumped.  What worried me the most was the subject matter and where the U.S. film could go with it.  I don’t believe in remaking a film or re-envisioning the book if the film can’t give me something the others didn’t.  Call me crazy.  And the fact that the Swedish ones had subtitles was not enough to remake it.  

It was clear though, about half way through, that Fincher’s film had the budget and talent to stay a little more true to the book than the Swedish version.  

Coming in around two and half hours, TGWTDT starts with a simple scene of Chris Plummer’s character, Henrik Vanger, receiving a framed highland flower which is a calling card from the man who he believes killed his niece almost forty years ago.  Enter Mikael Blomkvist, a journalist and independent publisher played by Daniel Craig (Casino Royale, Layer Cake) hired to find out who in the Vanger family killed the girl.  

I was weary of Craig in this role.  There isn’t much to Mikael Blomkvist in the Swedish film but Michael Nyqvist (MI:4) who played him in Niels’ movie, did a pretty good job.  Craig doesn’t deliver a whole lot more to the role but he does have some good moments about half way through where he starts to uncover the truth behind the mystery.  He runs inside his cabin by the lake, all excited, and knocks a water bottle off the refrigerator which he catches, just in the nick of time.  It was a small moment and probably an accident on set but it helped establish his character as quick-on-his-feet and ready for anything kind of guy. I liked it.

Rooney Mara (The Social Network) takes up the mantle of Lisbeth Salander which she is being hailed for by critics.  This I didn’t agree with.  Mara was awesome in the role don’t get me wrong.  A bad ass for most of it. But better than Noomi Rapace?  I think not.  They were both very good at playing Lisbeth and I couldn’t find anything better in one that the other didn’t seem to have.  To say Rooney Mara’s depiction is better means you’re missing out on Rapace’s wit and charm.  I cheered for both women when Lisbeth was getting revenge on her rapist social worker. 

Getting back to my “why remake a film or book if you can’t add something to it” speech, I’m happy to say that the U.S. film DID add to the overall experience and story.

The side of the story that Fincher was able to flesh out more involved the love triangle of Salander, Blomkvist and his boss played by Robin Wright (Princess Bride, Forrest Gump).  You pity Salander by the end and the film reveals a more emotional side of her.  It makes a whole lot more sense when, in the second film/novel, Blomkvist and Salander are not really together at all and they’re blossoming love affair is non-existent.  It was confusing to me in the second Swedish film why they weren’t together.

In the novel, there is a brutal rape scene that sets up Salander’s revenge, side story.  The Swedish film did such a good job of presenting this brutal act that during that scene I had to look away.  For the U.S. film, the big question was “Will they show the rape scene or not?”  and there were a few moments where they cut to outside the bedroom and I thought for sure they weren’t going to show it.  They did include it, although it was not a graphic (which was fine), and it held up to the original films brutality.  I did cringed the whole time.

The only area that really stood out to me as something I did NOT like was the score by NIN’s Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross.  The duo did Fincher’s last film, THE SOCIAL NETWORK which I felt worked well with the subject matter but failed to impress in this film.  The droning and padded effects gave you sense that Reznor didn’t know how to score action or even how the characters felt.  I was very disappointed.

THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO wasn’t due for a remake and I still urge everyone to see Arden Opvels’ version but I’m glad I got to see Fincher take on this story.  With THE GIRL WHO PLAYED WITH FIRE right around the corner we can all hope to see Daniel Craig and Mara Rooney at it again.

Rating: 9/10

Review by Sean Coppens

Guy Ritchie’s second film starring Britain’s favorite detective, pits Sherlock Holmes and his sidekick, Doctor Watson (Jude Law) against the devious and cunning Professor James Moriarty.

I liked the first Sherlock Holmes but I never LOVED it.  There were some scenes where the dialogue dragged and, in my de-sensitized state, some action that didn’t really impress me.  Robert Downey Jr. was likable though and Jude law, Doctor Watson, did a good job playing the straight man.  Overall, it was a decent film in a sea of forgetful features.  The movie did gross quite a bit of dough overseas and here at home so…bring on the sequels!

Guy Ritchie (Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, Snatch) was at the helm again with SHERLOCK HOLMES: A GAME OF SHADOWS and I was ready to sit back and enjoy a film I knew I would never buy on DVD.  And, of course, I got more than I was expecting.

The film’s first half is much like the whole first movie.  It’s filled with pretty good action, a few comedic moments, slow motion fight scenes and a bit of witty banter.  It also carried long winded and, often times, hard to follow dialogue which I was less than thrilled by.  But I kept watching and shared a chuckle or two with rest of the theater.  My real love for this movie started in the second half, though.

Sherlock, Watson and their new found Gypsy friend, Madam Simza, played by Noomi Rapace (Girl With The Dragon Tattoo SWEDISH) must illegally cross the border into Germany to head off Professor Moriarty.  This is the first time Ritchie takes us out of 1890’s Western Europe and into the vast countryside.  I love epic environment shots where the camera pulls back and we see what our hero’s are up against and GAME OF SHADOWS had some really good ones.  During these scenes we also get the first big laugh of the movie with Sherlock being afraid of horses and subsequently having to ride a small pony. It’s hilarious.  This is also where the story and action pick up as Sherlock gets himself captured and we finally get to see just how devious Moriarty can be.  

This brings me to the most refreshing thing about SHERLOCK HOLMES: A GAME OF SHADOWS.  Jared Harris as Moriarty.  He was a villain I truly believed gave Holmes a run for his money.  In the first film, Lord Blackwood (played by Mark Strong who I really like) couldn’t out smart Holmes and you had the sense that Sherlock figured out the plot way too quickly.  Moriarty won quite a few battles against Holmes and Watson and the therein increased the stakes quite a bit.  It was World War on the line this time!

Paul Anderson as Colonel Sebastian Moran, our secondary villain or “the muscle” as it’s called, was good but didn’t come out of his shell till the second half when you learn he’s an expert marksman which pitted him nicely against Watson who is also a pretty good shot.

With a stronger main villain you see more from the heroes of the film.  They’re forced to do things they wouldn’t normally do which sets up an arc.  Sherlock and Watson were both forced to do things they never thought they would have too and I was quite happy with their characters by the end of the film.

My favorite action sequence also came in this second half.  As Sherlock and Watson flee Moriarty’s weapons manufacturing plant, they are assaulted with mortar fire, rifle rounds and a military sniper.  Trees explode around them in slow motion as they run for their lives.  I know it feels like the whole slow mo thing has been done to death but I found this scene refreshing.  When the soldiers are loading the rounds into the cannons, director Ritchie gives us his patented “off angles” (i.e. the camera set the viewer as the artillery round being loaded in to the chamber in one shot, it was sweet) and this in turn does an excellent job of building tension.  The payoff, when the mother of all artillery shells is fired at Sherlock, was awesome and I wondered why we didn’t have anything like this in the first film like, say, during the warehouse fire sequence.  I found that part to be underwhelming.

Overall, acting was strong, story was good (better than the first one), music was an improvement and action sequences were exactly what I was expecting.  I had a good time watching.

What I didn’t like was the first half dialogue which I thought went on way too long and was a bit confusing.  We’re not British so following the lingo takes a bit more time for us Yanks.  

There were also some coincidences that worked in favor of our heroes, namely when a soldier is about to shoot Sherlock and Watson but it is then revealed that Sherlock placed a lipstick case in the butt of that exact rifle which then misfires and save them both.  It was a bit of a stretch but I forgave it and moved on.

All in all, if you didn’t like the first film you won’t like the second.  But if you’re like me and enjoyed the first film but saw room for improvement in story and direction then you will love the second film.  Cheers to a series that seems to getting better and better.  I mean, it’s not everyday when you like a sequel over the original…

Rating: 9/10

Review by Sean Coppens

Set during the Cold War, TINKER TAILOR SOLDIER SPY stars Gary Oldman as retired British intelligence officer, George Smiley.  After a low level field agent is told there is a mole within British secret service, Smiley is tasked with finding the double agent who may or may not sit at the very top of Her Majesty’s Secret Service.

Based on John Le Carre’s 1974 novel of the same name, TINKER TAILOR SOLDIER SPY finally makes it’s way to the United States.  A British export, TINKER was directed by Tomas Alfredsen (Let The Right One In) and comes with an array of the UK’s best.  Gary Oldman, Colin Firth, Toby Jones, Mark Strong, John Hurt, Ciaran Hinds and newcomer, Benedict Cumberbatch (BBC’s modern Sherlock Holmes); I was blown away by the star power.  

From the very beginning I knew this was not your James Bond or Mission Impossible action film but rather more in line with Robert De Niro’s THE GOOD SHEPHERD or Fernando Meirelles’ THE CONSTANT GARDENER (which was also a Le Carre novel).  It was slow but methodical, full of mistrusting British spy’s and long, accusing stares.  It was awesome!  The story starts with John Hurt’s Control character meeting at his home with another agent.  They discuss a suspected mole within MI6 and Hurt believes is to be one of his top people.  Needless to say, something goes wrong on the mission and the mystery begins.  Not every nuance of every scene was explained.  Whole sequences unfolded with no dialogue at all but rather the characters movements, clever editing, great direction and a killer score.  It was a “thinker’s” film, to say the least.

What I really loved about this plot, in general, was, by the end, it all makes perfect sense.  The pieces align and questions are answered.  Like all espionage thrillers, everyone is suspect during the movie including Oldman’s Smiley, but through what I believe were pretty accurate methods to the time period, Smiley is able to find the agent.  It was expertly written and I would never have guessed who dun it.

Along those lines, adding to the intrigue and sense of paranoia, was the cinematography which was breathtaking and added a lot to the voyeurism the characters experience.  Great art direction and perfect costume design made the transition to the Cold War era pretty seamless and the actors looked at home.  This includes the smoke filled offices of MI6 and the classic British vehicles.

The acting itself was superb.  Toby Jones as Percy Alleline, the head of the “Circus” or MI6 was a great devious opportunist along with his right hand, Roy Bland played by Ciaran Hinds.  Colin Firth gave a very likable performance as the womanizer Bill Haydon and David Dencik as Toby Esterhase, rounded out the major suspects.  Gary Oldman can easily be pulled out as the standout name in the cast and his performance was great but I wanted to focus on Benedict Cumberbatch as the young up and comer at MI6, Peter Gulliam.  Gulliam is Smiley’s right hand man and gets put in the most dangerous situations throughout and, rightfully so, gets a bit unnerved by the experience.  He’s essentially spying on the greatest spies in the UK and stealing very secret files from his own colleagues.  Cumberbatch handles the role expertly and proves to be quite the spy himself.

Also notable was Tom Handy (The new villain in Christopher Nolan’s THE DARK KNIGHT RISES) who played field agent Ricki Tarr.  If there was any character who most resembles James Bond, it’s Ricki.  Ricki gets to see the his contact’s murdered, meets a beautiful young Soviet girl who tells him a secret which in turn puts him in the cross hairs of not only the Soviets but also his own organization.  He was awesome and played the part with more class than Roger Moore ever knew was possible.  I mean, it could have been blown way out of proportion but he kept his cool.

This IS a thinker’s film though and, unlike some of the action films out now, you have to be paying constant attention to follow what’s happening.  Alfredson and crew use British jargon like it’s common knowledge and at some points I got a bit lost in all of it.  Who is Karla?  Was that that dude he met with? Or was the guy on the phone?  It was a bit confusing at first.  Even by the end, my Dad and I had a thirty minute discuss to make sure we were on the same page.

There is also a bit of “time traveling” in a sense that we see events that happened before Smiley started his search and although there are a few queues, like Smiley’s glasses going from tortoise shell to the more modern black frames and the use of John Hurt’s character who dies in the beginning, it can still be hard to tell if what your seeing is the present or the past.  So don’t go into this movie without having the proper amount of sleep or if you’re looking for an “action packed thrill ride” where you can just munch on popcorn and forget your problems, this might not be you movie.

Once you learn the lingo and have invested in the plot you’ll be hooked, though.  With great performances and gritty dialogue, Tomas Alfredson’s TINKER TAILOR SOLDIER SPY is destined to become a classic amongst the espionage greats.  Now who rooting for Oscar nod to Gary Oldman?  I know I am.

(Note: The poster above is from the UK, the film opened January 6th nationwide in the U.S.)

Rating: 9/10

Review by Sean Coppens