It's Complicated

Running Time: 120 minutes
Media: DVD

I have to confess I find Meryl Streep somewhat attractive, I loved her in Mamma Mia and I've at the same time despised her in both The Devil Wears Prada and Julie and Julia.

It is at this moment that I can say I found Meryl attractive again on this particular occasion. Here she plays Jane, a divorcee of ten years who finds the opportunity to rediscover the possibility of playing the field again... with her ex-husband Jake, played by the somewhat aging and slightly plump Alec Baldwin... who's remarried to the woman he left Meryl for!

Throw three kids and a potential love interest in the ever immortal and kid-at-heart, Steve Martin, playing Adam, an architect who has been retained by Jane to add an extension to Jane's home. Everything seems to be going smoothly until Jane swaps her ways with Jake for a more comfortable romantic interest with Adam. Jake as a result starts wanting Jane more than ever and does whatever he can to get her back.

The proverbial s[CENSORED]t hits the fan at a pivotal point that involves Alec Baldwin's nudity and a webcam, not a good combination by any extreme... for anyone (including the audience)! The idea of potentially seeing Alec's junk is not necessarily the only reason I'm giving this one less star, there's something that makes me feel that this movie's a little hammy, but not because of Martin, Baldwin or Streep, but some of the lesser known actors on the film.

All in all, I happen to have this film on Blu-ray and look forward to seeing it again on future occasions, though I may have to shut my eyes when Alec shows up in the buff! Four stars.

He's Just Not That Into You

Okay, my first rom-com review, woohoo! I don't normally do rom-coms, but I sat through this entire film one night on the telly and couldn't stop watching.

Nine people from Baltimore go through the trials and tribulations of love. It's a bit of a tangled web that's weaved. Let's go through the list of names here in the cast...

Let's see, Jennifer Aniston, she's like the queen of rom-coms and ever gorgeous... Scarlett Johansson who basically plays an absolute minx in this film... I kinda swooned in the scenes where she's present.Drew Barrymore, she's a little... laid back in this film; which could be explained by the fact that she also produced the film and so did not want too much attention drawn to her, and more focused on the other characters in the cast. Jennifer Connelly who seems a little older than the others, she seems like more of a 40-something than a 30-something in this film... No offence to Ms Connelly, don't get me wrong, I absolutely love her in the film, but she seems to strike me more as a more mature-age actor nowadays, her youth and potential that she displayed in Labyrinth all those years ago is no longer at its peak. And then there's the irrepressively cute-as-a-button Ginnifer Goodwin, she kinda made me feel good to be watching this film... I kinda felt I was seeing myself in Justin Long's shoes in this film... Bradley Cooper, Kevin Connolly and Ben Affleck finish off the ensemble.

So they're all trying to figure out who's into whom, whether one couple will work out or not... In the end there's a few people who get together, there's a few that don't... But all in all, it made me feel good about myself after watching this film... No sense spoiling it for anyone, you need to see it in order to truly appreciate this film.

There's one thing that stops me from giving this film a 5 star rating, and that's the compulsive paranoia of Jennifer Connelly's character... obsessing more on the honesty of hubby Bradley Cooper's cigarette habit than the honesty of their relationship; and then there's that "older" persona that she seems to ooze... Now here's a quick bit of math, Jen Connelly is 40 now, which means she was 38 when she made the film... But she still seemed to give an over-40's vibe in the film... far much more than Jen Aniston who ironically, was 40 when she made the film and yet gave a mid-30's vibe to her character... So I'm going to give it 4½ stars, and while it is just a ti-i-i-i-i-i-ny bit off because of the Jen-Con factor, this will definitely be in the near future part of my DVD collection as a re-watchable film over and over again.

The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo (2009)

Running Time: 152 minutes.
Media: DVD.

The book on which this movie is based, has but of course, become the next thing since the Harry Potter series and the Twilight Saga. Stieg Larsson brings his characters to life in the Millenium series, the first, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, is a best-seller. It seems every second person is reading this book... The Movie Madman has only just finished it last week, and is soon to follow it up with reading the sequel, The Girl Who Played with Fire.

But the real question is, how well does The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo translate onto the silver screen? I missed out on seeing this in the cinema and so I've had to resort to watching it on DVD. So I'll give you the best review I can.

One thing you'll come to notice is that this movie is in Swedish, and with English subtitles, so one thing I've come to learn is that you are continuously looking at the subtitles, as if watching a foreign movie on SBS. This can get annoying if, unlike myself, you are not used to having to read a movie. The title itself "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo" isn't even the actual translation for the Swedish title "Män Som Hatar Kvinnor" which translates to "Men Who Hate Women"; which kinda gives you a bit of an idea of how dark this story can actually become, and considering the movie features much more graphic and somewhat violent scenarios, the book seems a little lean in comparison. Having read the book recently, I've always been curious to see how well the book translates into film. Accordingly, I tend to have somewhat high expectations of such book-to-movie transitions. I have to confess, even some fifty minutes in, the movie does adhere considerably to the storyline, with a few minor alterations to help speed the story along, but nothing that would detract from the original altogether.

Noomi Rapace stars as Lisbeth Salander, the enigmatic gothic computer security consultant; who is actually quite gorgeous, despite the black make-up and piercings. She'll actually be starring in the new Sherlock Holmes movie coming out in December alongside of Robert Downey, Jr. Mikael Blomkvist, played by Michael Nyqvist, who stars in the newest film in the Mission Impossible film franchise, Ghost Protocol, is also pretty much spot-on in his portrayal of the troubled journalist. If anything, he fits my expected interpretation of his description from the book.

This movie does come with a caveat from me, as it does contain scenes of violence and sex-related themes which may offend or upset some people. To be honest, I would highly recommend reading the book first before even considering watching the movie as I am doing now; kinda prepares you for what you end up seeing. Mind you, now having seen the movie, I now have a strange desire to eat meatballs and herring, and buy stuff from IKEA.

I personally would love to see how the American remake of this film, starring Daniel Craig and Rooney Mara, as Mikael and Lisbeth respectively, plays out in comparison. I'll be giving this movie 4½ stars for an excellent interpretation from print to screen.