The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo : American remake

Mikael Blomquist(Daniel Craig), a journalist just expensively convicted of slander takes a job to investigate a decades old murder case, taking on a hacker, Lisbeth Salender(Rooney Mara), the girl with the tat, as an assistant.

Whatever the American production team may like to say about this being a re-interpretation of the source novel thats rubbish. It's a cynical move by an American studio to bring in cash by REMAKING an already popular title in English. To claim re-interpretation you have to produce something significantly different from the former effort (reviewed previously). If anybody could find a different take, David Fincher would be a good bet. But no such luck. This is ostensibly the same film. A little more stylish in looks, a little less gripping in content. It just doesn't reach the claustrophobic tension of the Swedish version which is disappointing from the director of Fight Club and Seven.

His is a perfectly decent telling of he story, Craig and Mara both throwing in decent performances but I thought Noomi Rapace was better before and this really only stands to serve those who can't be bothered with sub-titles. 

The Artist

As the era of "Talkies" dawns on the age of cinema, a silent era star finds himself behind he times, out of work and down on his luck. It's a well worn tale with few surprises for the plot to spring.

What has grabbed peoples attention is it being a black and white silent movie itself. Its a bold move that has stunned audiences and I do mean stunned. From beginning to end of the showing I was in people were rapt, no rustling popcorn, no unwrapping of sweets as though to introduce unplanned noise would be to sully this work of art.

You suddenly became aware of how important the score is. How note perfect, capturing the prevailing mood and carrying you along with he characters. Without words every facial tic becomes important and an experience that is fundamentally the same "watching a movie" suddenly seems fresh and exhilerating by stepping back to something very old.

Essential.

Sherlock Holmes : A Game Of Shadows

Robert Downey Jr. and Jude Law reprise their roles as Sherlock Holmes and Dr Watson respectively. Holmes is convinced the well respected academic Professor James Moriarty is at the centre of a grand conspiracy. Watson is trying to marry his fiancè and thinks Holmes is mad. Holmes of course is right.

And so ensues a fairly breathless chase around Europe as the mystery is laid bare. Fights, as with the first film, are explained while being predicted by Holmes in slow motion before playing out in real time. Still a trick unique to this series in portraying the mental side of fisticuffs.

Holmes and Watson still bicker as though it were they who were to be married. The sets still feel slightly charicatured, the characters more so. In adding Moriarty to the blend the heroes are left struggling to keep up and balance is added to guessing what will be the final outcome. But where Ocean's 12 tried to do this and lost all the verve and swagger that made the original so enjoyable, here the focus remains the bromance of the central pairing and another enjoyable romp plays out.

Hugo

Martin Scorcese, famous for gritty, violent gangsters and making Robert DeNiro a star suddenly turns away from 30+ years of entertaining adults to try his hand at a kids film.

A young orphan is convinced mending an old automata he has will deliver a message for him from his dad but to do that he must fix it. This of course means making a new friend who can help, unravelling clues and outwitting grumpy grown ups. So far so formulaic. Which it is, but in a positive way. The film is crafted with a passion for all the delight cinema can deliver, shining with the tradition of the craft and making the old feel new.

As with films like Amélie and Mic Macs, Paris is a perfect location for the adventure, an element of fantasy seemingly infused into every real location.

I can't convince myself the 3D filming was necessary but there were points where it did at least interest me and since the second half of the film revels in depicting filmmaking of the early 20th century it is at least appropriate.

To call this a kids film is perhaps doing it an injustice. I wonder if it might not be more engrossing to grown ups than kids, especially with a very sedate opening. Either way, a great example of quality story telling that you should enjoy aged 9 or 90.

Moneyball

In the world of Major League baseball, The Oakland As are the equivalent of Everton. Top talent bought by big teams and underfunding making it difficult to buy in replacements. The general manager (Brad Pitt) decides a new approach is needed if they are to compete and brings in a statistician (Jonah Hill) to find answers.

Aaron Sorkin, one of the writers, seems to be making an art out of writing films that aren't about what they seem to be about. The Social Network wasn't about Facebook. Moneyball isn't about baseball. It's barely glimpsed. Instead, it examines the fine line between visionary and lunacy. Spreadsheets become dramatic. Nearly.  Brad Pitt is the calm centre of the film, rarely moving beyond calm and charming. Jonah Hill, with stats theories and spreadsheets is brilliant in bringing doubt about his theories, never having the confidence in them his manager treats them with. Phillip Seymour Hoffman says virtually nothing as the angry coach left to run a team of misfits and as ever, nearly steals the show.

A great look at what it takes to succeed under fire, how close failure may be and sport off the field. You really don't need to know about baseball to enjoy this.

Midnight In Paris

A hack Hollywood script writer (Owen Wilson) on vacation in Paris reflects on choosing money and easy writing over literature. As he wanders Paris, away from his fiancee he keeps finding himself transported back to the 20s when Paris was alive with the great artists of the century, all of whom he manages to bump into.

For a film meditating on missed opportunity and the elusive better time, always in the past, this is surprisingly playful upbeat fare from Woody Allen. Had he himself been playing this role in the golden age of his great film making days, our author would surely have been a much more mournful and tortured soul. But with Wilson you get instead a slightly dazed character, alive with optimism but wracked with Allen's trademark neurosis, a refreshing variation.

There is light and frivolous romance, moments of farce and dialogue that sparks throughout. Each 20's artist is dashed off as a charicature lending each one a great deal of humour while still revering their art. The films reflections on life and art are made simply without contrivance leaving it much like a good chocolate mousse, insubstantial but light, rich and satisfying.

Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy

The British government recall a forcefully retired expert spy to uncover a mole at the head of the agency.

This is a brilliant film, artfully directed and wonderfully acted by the cream of British male actors and engaging from beginning to end. Yet not all will like it because it takes its time. There is very little action. Instead there are lingering shots of men thinking. Flashbacks recalling behaviour as much as incident. Sitting. Smoking. Drinking. As the film moves forward each detail is laid out plain as day. No trickery to try and cast then recast suspicion. It's all there for you to figure out, if your mind's as Sharp as that of George Smiley. A great who-is-it?

Gary Oldman is sensational as Smiley, his older frame and specs suggesting no danger but a cold stare and razor sharp manor giving away a lethal intelligence. Somehow, despite rarely indicating warmth to hose around him, he pulls the viewer into Smiley's world so you root for him all he same. 

It's sure to garner awards but massive box office takings show that people are more than happy to spend money on films that aren't young, dumb and full of bimbos.