Title: The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo Columbia Pictures Grade: B- Director: .David Fincher Screenwriter: Steve Zaillian, from Stieg Larsson’s novel Cast: Daniel Craig, Rooney Mara, Robin Wright, Stellan Skarsgard, Christopher Plummer, Joely Richardson, Embeth Davidtz Screened at: AMC Empire, NYC, 12/19/11 Opens: December 21, 2011 You can bet that producer Scott Rudin spent no more than two minutes thinking about the director he should hire for the American version of “The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo.” The story is right up David Fincher’s alley. Fincher, whose “Seven” deals with two detective tracking down a serial killer who uses the seven deadly sins as his method of operation, and whose…

Title: The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo Directed By: David Fincher Starring: Daniel Craig, Rooney Mara, Christopher Plummer, Stellan Skarsgård, Steven Berkoff, Robin Wright, Yorick Van Wageningen There’s been quite a bit of hype over this remake, hasn’t there? Well, apparently I’m one of few who’s never read Stieg Larsson’s books or seen the Swedish films and that proved to have a bit of an effect on my reception of David Fincher’s The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. Perhaps if I were familiar with the source material, I’d have had an easier time following all the details, but, then again, this should be a review of David Fincher’s film and…

Title: Melancholia Director: Lars von Trier Cast: Kirsten Dunst, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Kiefer Sutherland, Charlotte Rampling, John Hurt, Alexander Skarsgard and Stellan SkarsgÃ¥rd Lars von Trier is a good example of the auteur theory at work today. His films are very divisive, relentlessly punishing and emotionally heartbreaking, but at the same time there’s this lyrical beauty to them, looming in the background, in terms of the human condition and its extremes. Even at his most basic and simplistic, stripping away the limitations of cinema with his Dogme 95 films, von Trier tries to nail down the limits of human emotion. In his new film, “Melancholia,” von Trier evolves as a filmmaker…

A discussion and review the week’s new movie release from your favorite entertainment and celebrity website. Hello everyone, this is episode 18 of the Movie Night Podcast. This week Rudie Obias and is joined by Jeremy Kirk, a writer for FilmSchoolRejects.com and the co-host of The Golden Briefcase on FirstShowing.net, they discuss “The Thing,” the prequel to John Carpenter’s “The Thing”. Also, Rudie Obias and Perri Nemiroff discuss “Martha Marcy May Marlene,” “Melancholia” and “The Skin I Live In,” as part of the 49th New York Film Festival. Subscribe on iTunes or Download and Listen Here. “The Thing” features Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Joel Edgerton, Ulrich Thomsen, Eric Christian Olsen and…

Title: Melancholia Directed By: Lars von Trier Starring: Kirsten Dunst, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Kiefer Sutherland, Charlotte Rampling, John Hurt, Alexander Skarsgård, Stellan Skarsgård, Brady Corbet, Udo Kier, Cameron Spurr As someone with an appreciation for a more literal approach to storytelling, taking to Lars von Trier’s style of work has never been easy. However, with Melancholia, von Trier finds an absolutely impeccable middle ground, providing the audience with a uniquely sensible tale, but not holding back when dousing the piece with his authorial expressivity, giving us something that’s tremendously stirring. Broken up into two sections, the first part of Melancholia focuses on Justine (Kirsten Dunst). Right after marrying Michael (Alexander Skarsgård),…

Upon sitting down for a screening of Rod Lurie’s Straw Dogs, the audience got a nice surprise, eight minutes of David Fincher’s The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. I’d like to bet the material will hit the web soon enough, but, in the meantime, here’s a general sense of what to look forward to to the best of my recollection. The piece opens with a wintery setting. Christopher Plummer’s Henrik Vanger is holed up in a cabin on the phone with Steven Berkoff’s Dirch Frode. Vanger says, “I can’t take it anymore,” and we move to a city setting where Dragan Armansky (Goran Visnjic) is chatting it up, if I…

I think a lot of people have been waiting to see all of the Avengers in a shot together, and while Tom Hiddleston and Chris Hemsworth are the only two people in superhero costume as Loki and Thor respectively, it’s really neat to see all of the actors in this film in the same shot. And as far as costumes go, even though we only see two superheroes in full regalia, it looks like everyone else is in “superhero as regular person” costumes, because everyone looks really, really put together, like artfully so. Chris Evans, who plays Captain America, really looks like he’s in 1940s-meets-21st century style of clothing that…

Good evening, Shockya readers! Yes, it’s Sunday again and that means it’s back to school or work tomorrow, but at least we’ve got some great movie-related conversation starters to brighten up your day. Amongst the mass of information this week comes a few release date changes, some casting updates and news from the Cannes Film Festival. On top of that, Hunger Games addicts rejoice, because this week brought us our very first look at Jennifer Lawrence as the film’s heroin, Katniss Everdeen and she looks fantastic. Check out Lawrence all suited up for the arena as well as a shot of Tom Hardy rocking the Bane costume and more in…

In this recent interview, director Kenneth Branagh talks with Jimmy Kimmel about his new film “Thor” by director Kenneth Branagh (Frankenstein) and starring Natalie Portman (Pride and Prejudice and Zombies), Anthony Hopkins (The Wolfman), Chris Hemsworth (Star Trek), Samuel L. Jackson (The Avengers, Iron Man 2) and Kat Dennings. Click Here for more photos, news and videos from Thor. Synopsis: Paramount Pictures and Marvel Entertainment present the epic adventure, Thor, which spans the Marvel Universe from present day Earth to the realm of Asgard. At the center of the story is the mighty Thor (Chris Hemsworth), a powerful but arrogant warrior whose reckless actions reignite an ancient war. Thor is…

Paramount just sent us this brand new clip and featurette for the film “Thor” by director Kenneth Branagh (Frankenstein) and starring Natalie Portman (Pride and Prejudice and Zombies), Anthony Hopkins (The Wolfman), Chris Hemsworth (Star Trek), Samuel L. Jackson (The Avengers, Iron Man 2) and Kat Dennings. Click Here for more photos, news and videos from Thor. Synopsis: Paramount Pictures and Marvel Entertainment present the epic adventure, Thor, which spans the Marvel Universe from present day Earth to the realm of Asgard. At the center of the story is the mighty Thor (Chris Hemsworth), a powerful but arrogant warrior whose reckless actions reignite an ancient war. Thor is cast down…