PCP on DVD - The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

David Fincher is one of my favorite directors.  Seven and Fight Club are two of the best movies of the 90s, and his last film The Social Network was outstanding (my review here).  He is great at doing dark and twisted films, and also great at getting excellent performances out of his actors.  So even though I had already seen the Swedish version of this movie (my review here), I was excited to see his take on the franchise.

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo - 2011, rated R.  My rating:  8 out of 10. 

I really wanted to love this take on TGWTDT.  I did like it, but I found myself continuously comparing it to the Swedish version.  Also, having seen the Swedish version, I already knew who the killer was going to wind up being, (I never read the books), so that took some of the suspense out of the film.  Also, I mentioned in my review of the Swedish version of the film that not having familiar faces increases the suspense because you have no idea who the killer may be. Knowing who the killer was here killed a lot of the tension, so perhaps I would have liked this movie better had I not seen the Swedish version first and been comparing it to this one at every turn.

This version of TGWTDT is pretty good though, and if you haven't read the books or seen the Swedish versions, I do recommend it.  Fincher again isn't afraid to go dark on the film, showing some rape sequences that are horrifyingly brutal. Relative newcomer Rooney Mara is outstanding in the titular role, coming very darn close to if not surpassing at times the take by Noomi Rapace in the Swedish version.  All in all though, this film is good albeit bleak and depressing due to the violence and stark nature of the subject material.  The movie is definitely worth checking out, but not on a date night, that's for sure!

PCP in Theaters - Summer Movie Preview

Alright, my blog is finally back from hiatus, so thank you for your patience.  To reward you for coming back, here's a great long post to kick off my summer blogging season.

With the release of Iron Man 3 two weeks ago, it's official, summer movie season is here. So, in the spirit of my fall TV preview posts, I bring you my first ever summer movie preview. I'm going to break the films down into one of three categories:  those I want to see in theaters - i.e. the blockbusters that I am most excited for; those that can wait until home video; and those I'll pass on altogether. Unfortunately I don't have the time or the money to see all of the ones in theaters that I want to see, but whenever I do see one of them I'll be posting a review ASAP.

Disagree with where I put something? Let me know in the comments!

Formatting note:  All dates listed are the Friday of the week they are released, according to the upcoming releases tracker on IMDB.com. I'm sure many of these will be moved around to Wednesday or Thursday releases, but for simplicity's sake I'm just putting the Friday date.

In Theaters movies: (So many blockbusters, so little time. I just hope all of these are good and not a waste of time and money.)

• Iron Man 3 (May 3) - RDJ is the man, best hero in the Marvel film stable at the moment. Can't wait for this one, it has to be better than Iron Man 2.
• Star Trek Into Darkness (May 17) - The Star Trek reboot is my favorite version of Trek. I can't wait to see what JJ Abrams does with the sequel.
• Fast & Furious 6 (May 24) - The 5th film in the series was the best since the first, so I can't wait to see where they go with #6. As a car nut this series is like manna from heaven for me.
• After Earth (June 7) - Will & Jaden Smith's sci-fi action flick looks like it could be really good. Plus, Will Smith is the king of summer action movies, so count me in. On the other hand, this film might be dropped down to the watch at home category, considering it is directed by M. Night Shyamalan, who hasn't had a good film in more than a decade.
• Man of Steel (June 14) - A Superman reboot produced by the Dark Knight's Christopher Nolan? Yes please. If this movie is any good, we might get a Justice League film before long.
• World War Z (June 21) - The film looks promising, even if zombies are supposed to be slow. Even in the source book (a great read) this is based on, they're slow. Why did they have to speed them up?
• Pacific Rim (July 12) - Skyscraper sized giant robots fighting giant monsters? Directed by Guillermo del Toro? Oh yeah, this is going to be a lot of fun. Even if it's bad, it'll still be awesome.
• The Wolverine (July 26) - Hugh Jackman once again dons the claws in a standalone film outside of the X-Men franchise. Should be pretty good.
• Elysium (August 9) - Starring Matt Damon, Jodie Foster, and Sharlto Copley, this sci-fi story from District 9 writer/directer Neill Blomkamp looks like it has a ton of potential. District 9 took me by surprise when it came out for being unexpectedly awesome. Let's hope lightning strikes twice!

After the jump - see what movies didn't make the must-see list!

Blog returns with a bang next week!

Thank you to everyone for your patience during my extended hiatus thanks to grad school.  With the completion of finals yesterday, I can now resume blogging on a more regular basis.  And a regular basis it will be.  I've got a bunch of posts already written that have been sitting waiting to go live to the blog for about half of a year now, so check back next week for a slew of new posts coming!  There will be fresh content on the blog every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday at 7:30 AM through the summer until grad school picks up again in the fall, and possibly I might add in some bonus stuff at other times as well, so keep coming back all summer long!  Next week has 5 posts coming for sure, including my summer movie preview.  Thanks for reading and thanks for stopping by today!