The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo

I finally sat down and saw the first in the Swedish trilogy.  I wanted to see what all the fuss was about.  Now I know.  The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo is a Swedish film done with subtitles all the way through, there is no English spoken.   I have no problem with that, some of my favorite films are foreign language (Amelie, A Beautiful Life, The Devils Backbone).  However, other than Noomi Rapace and Michael Nyqvist, I"d never heard of the other actors, they are all Swedish actors.  Most of them are relatively unknown, but this has catapulted them to stardom.  The leads have a long career in front of them, it wouldn't surprise me if Rapace gets picked to be the next Bond girl.
  The story is about a girl who went missing 40 years ago.  Her uncle wants to know what happened, so he hires disgraced magazine editor Mikael Blomkvist (Nyqvist) to find out what really took place.  This is just what Blomkvist needs as he claims he was set up by another for a crime he didn't commit and wants to hide from the public till his trial takes place.  Meanwhile, his story catches the eye of troubled computer hacker Lisbeth Salander, an odd girl with a genius mind (and a Dragon Tattoo that literally covers her entire back and part of her left leg).  She has a photographic memory and can find her away around a computer like you wouldn't believe.  She finds out what Mikael is investigating, hacks into his computer, and cracks a code that hasn't been solved in 40 years. 
  She sends the info to him and he finds her.  They form a partnership and friendship as they work together to solve this case.  This will take them down a dark path to an even darker conclusion. 
  This is a very complex thriller, I'm not even scratching the surface as the movie has so many layers.  It's exciting, engaging, and hard to look away from.  I haven't read the book so I don't know how close it is, but as it is, it's one good film.  The actors have a great connection on screen and they are developed well, so you actually care about them.  This proves that you can make a good exciting thriller without robots or Megan Fox (please, make her go away.)!
  It is rated R for language, violence, and nudity.  Be warned, it deserved it.  There is some graphic nudity and there is some very disturbing violence.  The language isn't too bad, just rough in spots.
  Even still, if you can look past that, it's easily one of the best films from last year, I can't wait to see part 2.  The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo gets a solid brick road.  4 out of 4 bricks for Oscar Worthy The Girl.  

Buried

Paul Conroy (Reynolds) is a truck driver for a company that delivers supplies to US troops in Iraq.  The convoy he was in was hit by a bomb and he survived.  He was kidnapped and placed in a coffin and buried underground.  He has a lighter, and a cellphone with him.  That's it.  He is manages to make calls and is trying to get someone, anyone to help him.  He speaks to the terrorist who kidnapped him and they talk throughout as the plans the terrorist has for him are explained and Paul has to figure out how he is going to escape. 
  He talks to a Special Agent Harris (Palladino) who is working on finding him as well as to his jackass boss (Tobolowsky).  He also tries to reach his wife (Mathis), but only can get her answering machine.
  This movie is far more intense than I thought it would be.  The whole thing takes place in one spot, there is nothing else.  Ryan Reynolds is an excellent actor and proves it here.  The film sucked me in... and then it punched me in the gut.  It's pretty darn good till the last few minutes, where it jumps off the tracks.  I don't know how or why it went where it went (no spoiler here, you won't understand unless you see it, trust me), but it wrecked the film for me. 
  The movie is rated R for language and some violence.  The language is pretty bad, but I don't think most people's reaction to waking up in a buried coffin would be "aw nuts"! :)  The violence just about turned my stomach, so be warned. 
  This still works as a thriller, if you like psychological thrillers, check it out.  Buried gets 3 out of 4 bricks.

Season of the Witch

Is it just me or is Nicholas Cage in every movie nowadays?  He's like Kevin Bacon, everywhere you look, there he is.  Fortunately for me, I like most of his work.  If you can forget Kick@$$, The Wicker Man, and Knowing that is... 
  Season stars Nicholas Cage (National Treasure), Ron Perlman (Hellboy), Claire Foy (BBC's Little Dorrit), Stephen Campbell Moore (The History Boys), Stephen Graham (Gangs of New York), Ulrich Thompsen (Hitman), and Christopher Lee (Lord of the Rings).
  Cage and Perlman play two friends, Behmen and Felson, battling through the crusades.  Something that they see will challenge their reason for being on the crusade, and the two leave their post.  In those days, abandoning your post was like signing your own death warrants, going AWOL was punishable by death.  The two go into a nearby town, where a plague has been killing people.  They discover that the plague is due to a young girl who is supposedly a witch. 
 Someone in town recognizes the men and soon they are forced to meet with a magistrate who tasks them with the job of taking this supposed witch with them to see a priest who holds a sacred book that will kill the witch a stop the plague.  All other copies of this holy book have been destroyed.  The magistrate sets them up with a band of men and off they go.  The story doesn't have much in the way of plot.  It's extremely campy and a whole heck of a lot of fun.  Cage and Perlman act so serious, but you can see they are trying not to grin.  This film is intentionally cheesy. 
   You will love this film if you like campy horror films or are a Nicholas Cage fan.  If you are expecting an Oscar nominated movie, steer clear.  For those concerned, there are a few gross out moments.  It's PG13 for Violence and Disturbing Images.  This was a rioutous good time while being one of the dumbest films I've seen in a while.  2 1/2 out of 4 bricks for Season of the Witch.  
 

Country Strong or How I Wasted Two Hours of My Life

  Hey all, this is Dan, Jonathan's friend, reviewing Country Strong, since Suzy didn't have time to watch it.  Country Strong starts Gwyneth Paltrow (Iron Man), Tim McGraw (The Blind Side), Leighton Meester (TV's Gossip Girl), and Garrett Hedlund (Tron:Legacy). 
  Paltrow is Kelly Canter, a once popular country singer who has spiraled out of control and is in rehab fighting an alcohol addiction.  Tim McGraw is James Canter, her husband who has stood by her and is ready to get her back on tour again, they will be touring with a hot new stage act, Chiles Stanton (Meester).  Kelly has met Beau Hutton (Hedlund) in rehab and developed a romantic relationship with him, so when she leaves rehab, she brings him along, not making James happy.  Along this chaotic road trip, James fights Beau when he finds out that Kelly and Beau were sleeping together, meanwhile, Beau also sleeps with Chiles.  Kelly can't kick her habit and that's about it.  Seriously, folks.  That scene you see in trailers where Paltrow sings, "I'm country strong, hard to break..."  That's about all the singing from her you get in this.  Watching the music video is better than watching this mindless sex orgy. 
  I was bored most of the time, and extremely disappointed.  The movie doesn't even get a happy ending.  So, don't bother spending a dollar on a Redbox of this.  To borrow from these guys (thanks Jon and Suzy for letting me post this), Drop a House on it.  0 out of 4 bricks for Country Strong.

The Green Hornet doesn't sting

   Let me first say, I grew up watching the Green Hornet (on Nick At Nite people, I'm not THAT old!), so I went in, expecting a fresh coat of paint on an old classic.  The film stars Seth Rogen (Knocked Up), Jay Chou (an Asian pop sensation), Cameron Diaz (Knight and Day), and Christoph Waltz (Inglourious Basterds) with cameos from Tom Wilkinson and Edward James Olmos. 
  Rogen plays spoiled rich kid, Britt Reid, whose father neglected him, so he has turned to a life of partying and drunkeness.  When his father is killed, Reid inherits his father's estate and his business, as well as his coffee maker, Kato (Chou).  He has no idea how to run the business, a newspaper company, so he hires Lenore Case (Diaz) to take care of it and leaves Mike Axford (Olmos) in charge.  Meanwhile, there is an evil creepy dude, Chudnofsky (Waltz) who wants to be the crime boss in town. 
  Kato and Reid begin a rocky friendship and Kato shows Reid some cool things that Reid's father had Kato build.  We never find out why he had them built or how Kato knows how to build these, but they are pretty kickbutt cool.  One night, they see a girl getting beaten, so Reid decides to step in and help.  He doesn't do much good, but Kato pulls out some sweet martial arts moves and kicks the crap out of the guys.  This gives Reid the idea that he and Kato will act like bad guys to trick the bad guys, so they will actually be good guys.  Are you still with me?  :)  The Green Hornet is born.  Meanwhile, Chudnofsky begins to feel like the Hornet is moving in on him, so the fight begins. 
  The movie boasts some very cool fight scenes, and the gadgets are fun.  (The gas gun lends one of the funniest moments in the film.)  Unfortunately, it offers little else.  Rogen needs to stick to comedy, he really can't pull off being a superhero and his chemistry with Chou felt forced.  Also, his relationship with Kato is completely different from the original, I mean we're talking not even close.  The romantic side is like watching a couple of 12 year olds, it's immature and not fun or believable, just akward and odd.   Sadly, all Diaz does in this movie is yell at them and be eye candy, her talent was wasted here.  Along with that, the big fight scene at the end was ridiculous.  I love a good "Hero" action ending with everyone taking shots and punching each other without any apparent damage (c'mon, I loved the Expendables!), but this was pitiful.  There is one big scene involving an elevator that was so stupid, I laughed out loud.  SPOILER ALERT**** A car is cut in half and still drives... yeah... um... thinking about the fact the the gas is in the back, being delivered through a fuel line that is cut, that's not gonna work! SPOILER ALERT****  In any case, this movie is one hot mess. 
  And for those that are worried about content, this movie has a shocking amount of swearing.  The violence is your typical action hero violence, but the language is pervasive.  I've heard less in R rated films before.  Nothing else to really worry about, but this movie sucks. 
  In keeping with our "Wizard of Oz theme" drop a house on the craptastic Green Hornet.  1 out of 4 stars.

Massive update

Hey all,
My apologies for not having read your emails, but someone hacked into our account and we can't access it anymore. :(  We are going to be changing our email to something else, preferably something less stupid sounding than moviesheshe. :)  Without further ado, let's get to some film talk shall we?  Jon is still the only one doing film talk whilest, I, Suzy, while be compiling my list of our top 10 fav and top 5 hated films list for next month.  Jon will be reviewing Season of the Witch, The Green Hornet, The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, and Buried.  We have a special guest reviewer weighing in on Country Strong as well.  Enjoy!

Devil: M Night Shymalan returns

Devil stars Chris Messina (Julie and Julia), Jacob Vargas (Death Race) Logan Marshall-Green (TV's Dark Blue), Jenny O'Hara (TV's Big Love), Bojana Novakovic (Edge of Darkness), Bokeem Woodbine (TV's Saving Grace), and Geoffrey Arend (500 Days of Summer).  The film was written by M. Night, but for once, he didn't act in or direct the film.
  The story is about a group of five people trapped on an elevator in a hotel and the detective (Chris Messina) trying to free them.  As the story starts, our narrator (Jacob Vargas) tells the tale is grandmother used to of how the prince of evil himself will come down to claim a certain amount of people occasionally.  Normally only those who have done heinous acts.  It will always start with a suicide.  So, our movie begins with a suicide.  The people all get on the elevator and when it shuts down, they wait for it to start up again.  Nothing seems to work and the 5 will get more and more stressed as time goes on.  Soon, the lights go out for a moment.  When they come back on, one of the 5 is dead.  All of them believe one of them killed the man.  Each time the lights go out, it is lights out for one character.  One of them is the devil, but who is it?
  Let me first say, this film is M. Night's return to what made The Sixth Sense so good.  It is well acted, and very creepy.  I was on the edge of my seat from start to finish.  I can't say anything without giving the story away, but there are plenty of twists.  Again, M. Night doesn't rely on gore, but the story and the setting make for quite a creepy story and the violence is kept tame.  It's not as good as Unbreakable or The Sixth Sense, but it comes close.  My only complaint was that it does seem to have a few convenient things that interrupt the flow of the film near the end, but other than that, it's pretty good.
  This is rated PG13 and quite deservedly so as there are some gruesome moments and a little language.  GD is used once unfortunately, but otherwise, a good spooky film and one that is quite respectful of religion.  3 out of 4 stars for Devil. 

Tron Legacy, or why a film should not get a sequel long after we stopped caring

Tron Legacy is the long anticipated sequel to the 1982 Disney classic Tron.  This stars Jeff Bridges (True Grit, The Big Lebowski), Garret Hedlund (Georgia Rule, Eragon), Olivia Wilde (TV's House) with appearances from Bruce Boxleitner (TV's Babylon 5), and Michael Sheen (Alice in Wonderland, Underworld). 
  Tron Legacy begins showing us a young boy listening to his father tell him of his adventures in "The Grid".  The man leaves for work, and is never heard from again.  This is all in 1989.  Fast forward to the present and the young man has inherited the lion's share of his stock in his father's company.  He is rich and not very interested in the business, so he leaves it in the hands of others.  His father's old business partner, Alan  Bradley (Bruce Boxleitner) receives a page from the boy's father.  The boy is Sam Flynn (Garret Hedlund) and his father is the Kevin Flynn (Jeff Bridges).  Sam decides to go check out his father's business and shows up at an old arcade store (I think, that wasn't really explained) and while checking it, is sucked into the computer that his father went into in the original.  Important note:  Programs in this film look like humans for the most part, or are at least humanoid.  
  That is where this movie gets weird.  I saw the original years ago when I was very young, maybe 6 and I don't remember much of it, this film expects you to remember what happened.  I suppose I should have rented the first, but I'm still not sure that would have helped.  I remember the bad guy being some Master Control program, this film throws that out the window and makes the heroes of the first film now become bad guys.  What?  Let me explain.  When Sam lands, he is immediately taken to meet Clu which was a program created his father in the first one to create a perfect world.  He and Alan had created Clu and Tron.  Clu rebelled and made a crazy world where any imperfections are destroyed.  Tron inexplicable shows up as a bad guy, no explanation is ever given, he just is bad.  It's odd. 
  Sam will meet his real father and he will have a girl with him who is an oddity herself.  She is part of a set of computer programs that just showed up one day.  They are different because they have some human DNA, though how is never explained.
  Together, this threesome will band together to try to take down the evil Clu and turn Tron good again. 
  I must say, I love a good scifi film.  This was not it.  I did not have high expectations for this, but I truly thought it would at least be fun.  It wasn't.  Why?  Well, as any person who appreciates a film can tell you, special effects do not equal a good film.  You have to have a story! And preferably one that tries to make sense.  I was lost most of the way through this mess of a film.  We never find out why Tron is bad.  Oh, and why is this movie called Tron?  We see him a few times near the end, that's it.  We don't get given a reason why we should care either.  Again, I understand it's a sequel, but with so many years since the first, we should at least be given a refresher and we don't get one. 
  Second, while Olivia Wilde is easy on the eyes, her character comes out of nowhere.  She wasn't in the first one, and her showing up is explained by Kevin Flynn as "a miracle".  Like the audience is going to say, "ok, we can buy that, it all makes sense now."  It doesn't!  It's stupid! 
  So, sure, I loved the effects, they were great.  Jeff Bridges is a great actor as always.  Garrett Hedlund was not.  He doesn't show surprise when he lands in Tronland and never conveys any emotion.  He's a terribel actor.  Also, he suddenly can fight, though where he acquires those skills isn't explained.  This was a patchwork film with pretty lights and some decent fight scenes.  The best work and the only thing that saved this film from me dropping a house on it are the bike scene in Tronland and the ending in the ship.  The rest was weird and confusing. 
  It is rated PG for fight scenes and one mild swear word.  There is nothing offense here.  The only thing this movie will offend is your intelligence.  1 1/2 star for the weak Tron: Legacy.  Skip it.

Coming soon!

We are working on coming back! Really!  Tonight, Jonathan saw Tron Legacy and he will be watching the new Nicholas Cage movie, Season of the Witch tomorrow.  We are going to be developing a facebook page as well, so be ready for that!  With one click you will be able to be our fan.  We have delayed the podcast, but keep your eyes open!