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Sunday, November 14. 2010

NOT Saturday Night Stupid Movie: The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

I plead happily and mindlessly guilty to a habit of watching stupid action and sci-fi movies on my zone-out Saturday Night Stupid Movie cavalcade.


Last night I broke with tradition and watched a critically acclaimed film, one of the best who-done-its I’ve seen in ages, The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo.


A notable theme: the beautiful, brilliant and troubled heroine refuses to be a victim or accept victimology-type excuses, holding others responsible for their actions and taking vengeance on those who commit heinous acts upon herself or others. The film is not for the squeamish.


There are two more films in the trilogy, The Girl Who Played With Fire and The Girl Who Kicked The Hornets’ Nest.  I really look forward to another two Not Saturday Night Stupid Movies.


The films are from Sweden, and if you go to Set-Up on the DVD you can get it dubbed well in English instead of distracting subtitles. You don’t want to miss a second.

Posted by Bruce Kesler in Our Essays, The Culture, "Culture," Pop Culture and Recreation at 20:53 | Comments (13) | Trackbacks (0)

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I disagree. It's a who-done-it. But after a while it doesn't really matter, what this movie is really about is showcasing sexual violence, there are 3 scenes. I was overwhelmed by the depravity of all including the 'good guy". It was a sickening display of human degradation. The story plot was under-whelming. I didn't care about any of the characters and what happened to them, which is the essence of a good movie after all. The ended on what you might call an upbeat. It was like coming out of a sewer only to find thick smoke in the air.
#1 Ratso on 2010-11-14 22:12 (Reply)
Read the books.
#2 Chuckles on 2010-11-15 07:17 (Reply)
You may be right Chuckles, but my comments were about the movie not the books.
#2.1 Ratso on 2010-11-15 17:29 (Reply)
Learned of the whole phenomenon through family. The books were laying about on Labor Day weekend. Tore through them as they are not terribly challenging. Mostly amused by the cultural differences between US and Sweden. Pepper Spray is illegal?

Thought the movie was pretty bad. Two reasons: first, you couldn't tell what was going on if you hadn't read the book; second, I thought everybody from Sweden is blonde! Even though I thought it was bad, I still watched the second one. I can't report much improvement. I now have so much invested in this pop culture moment that I'll see the third and will also watch the American remake of the first (which I bet will be awful).

I agree with Ratso. I thought the movie overplayed the sex and violence.

The first two movies of the series are available on the Netflix streaming service.

If you don't have it, you need to check out the Roku. My family turned off the satellite and bought a Roku. Dropped the TV bill from $85.00 to $20. Only miss the occasional sporting event.

I don't work for either Roku or Netflix.
#3 Mike (Link) on 2010-11-15 08:15 (Reply)
Mike is right, but I would miss Fox News and NFL, so I hang on to cable. Ratts...........
#3.1 Ratso on 2010-11-15 17:32 (Reply)
The books are worth the read. Larsson may not be the best writer (he gets bogged down on Steven King-like detail on name brands and tiny details) but he gets his motivations exactly right, something to which a lot of writers don't seem to pay the necessary heed.
Also, the movie changed some details from the book while allowing (IIRC) one glimpse into Salander's past that was absent from the book.
#4 BlogDog (Link) on 2010-11-15 08:25 (Reply)
Just finished watching The Girl Who Played with Fire on Netflix. Just as good as the first. Can't wait for the last one.
#5 gman on 2010-11-15 10:09 (Reply)
Oh boy! Have read all three books--the movies are a pretty accurate re-telling of the story. However, the lead hero/actor is not much in the acting department. Maybe that is because he is really Swedish!

I too will watch the third film, but was a little disappointed in the book. As you may know there is a huge controversy over this author: how much of the last book he really wrote. Also, in Sweden the woman who lived with him for more than 15 years will not get a dime of the royalties because she is not recognized as family, even though "everyone" knew he wanted her to have it and may even have completed the third book which was found a year or so (?)after his sudden death (age 54). What is particular interesting is the connection between a particular town in upper Sweden and the communist party.

Finally, if you want an extremely well written mystery story go to "Smilla's Sense of Snow". You will be stunned at what a truly good mystery story can evolve into when written by a very well-read author. Enjoy
#6 anotherone on 2010-11-15 11:12 (Reply)
A dark movie about some not very nice people. Also I suspect some social commentary on Swedish society, but I'm not Swedish enough to be sure. I thought it was done well, but as Bruce noted, not for the squeamish.

If you want something horrifying for your zone-out Saturday Night Stupid Movie Cavalcade, 'Splice' is your baby. (and yeah, there is a joke in there)
#7 SteveS on 2010-11-15 11:25 (Reply)
speaking of Larrson --how many folks both challenge the Odessa File AND die of a heart attack at 50 or so?
#8 buddy larsen on 2010-11-15 13:37 (Reply)
I couldn't finish the first book - I was BORED. I thought the movie was *horrible*, but did sit through it, sort of.

The sexual violence in the movie is way over-the-top and was the deal breaker for giving this movie any redeeming quality. I actually skipped those scenes when they got so bad. Without them the movie slow, meanders, and like someone else mentioned above you just don't care about the characters. I also thought the female lead was incredibly ugly.

So I really can't tell why people like either the books or the movie - maybe my bar is higher.
#9 Director Mitch (Link) on 2010-11-15 15:42 (Reply)
book starts out very slow, but speeds up as it gets closer to the end to the point where the story races along a bit too fast for my taste.

Not bad at all, overall. Only reason I'm not reading the next book atm is because Decision Points was released so I'm reading that :)
#9.1 J.T. Wenting on 2010-11-16 23:52 (Reply)
My wife and I watched both movies: we liked them. Are they classics that you will want to watch again sometime? Probably not. But good popcorn flicks nevertheless.
#10 Craig on 2010-11-16 02:53 (Reply)

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