The Girl Who Kicked The Hornet's Nest (Luftslottet som sprängdes)

THE GIRL WHO KICKED THE HORNET'S NEST (LUFTSLOLLET SOM SPRANGDES)

** SPOILERS **

The Girl Who Kicked The Hornet's Nest brings the sordid, lurid saga of hacker extraordinaire Lisbeth Salander to its inevitable conclusion. Picking up directly where The Girl Who Played With Fire left off, Lisbeth has been hospitalized from her near-death experience of being shot several times and buried alive before exacting vengeance on her evil crimelord father.  Unlike the more propulsive, almost Bourne-like Girl Who Played With Fire, which was driven by Lisbeth's actions to find out who framed her for murder and why, Hornet's Nest is a sprawling, endlessly-talky game of Keep Away - Keep Lisbeth Away From These Evil Scumbag Swedes Who Want Her Dead. As Lisbeth recovers from her wounds, even more shady forces - a secret cabal of sinister, old and frail scumbag Swedish men dubbed The Section - rally to finish her off once and for all. The Section even enlist the sinister old scumbag psychiatrist who had 12 year old Lisbeth committed, abused her while she was in his care, and then had her declared legally incompetent. Plus Lisbeth's hulking, mute, and murderous half brother continues to skulk around Stockholm. Fortunately, Lisbeth is again aided by her knight in journalistic armor, Mikail Blomkvist.  Although the Berlin Wall of Silence Lisbeth imposed in the previous film had fallen by its end, Blomkvist still spends most of Hornet's Nest away from her; he assigns his pregnant attorney sister Annika as her legal counsel while he moves into Lisbeth's apartment, sleeps in her bed, and uses her wifi. Meanwhile, as Blomkvist engages his magazine Millennium to publicly reveal the massive conspiracy aimed against this one girl with the dragon tattoo, he and his co-workers are besieged by death threats. This leads to one of the few and welcome bursts of action in the film as Blomkvist and a would-be assassin brawl in a restaurant. While hospitalized, Lisbeth composes her autobiography - No doubt if she published it in three volumes, they would become international best sellers and would have both Swedish and Hollywood films made of them. The performances are again very fine from leads Noomi Rapace and Michael Nyquist, though they've got these characters down to a T. His performance almost skirts the edge of perfunctory. It's unfortunate also that Rapace, who cleaned up so nicely in the previous film, reverts back to her offputting 1980's goth look, complete with mohawk and combat boots by the end. The DVD of the rape of Lisbeth in The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo - the most important and pivotal rape ever committed in Sweden - once again is referenced, as if any of us who saw it could ever forget it. 

Winter's Bone

WINTER'S BONE

** SPOILERS **

In Winter's Bone, Jennifer Lawrence is astounding as a type of teenager rarely seen in movies. Raised in her bleak Ozark mountain shanty house and surrounded by a community where everyone is related in some way or another ("bread and butter"), Lawrence is the caretaker of two young siblings and a mentally handicapped mother. She's tough and brave, resourceful and independent, underestimated by everyone around her but unflinching and proud of who she is and what she comes from. Her missing father cooked meth and has skipped his parole hearing. If he isn't found in a few days, she and her family will lose their house. Lawrence takes this responsibility upon herself without question or complaint and goes on a Hero's Journey to find her father, confronting her "kin" for answers. She is threatened, frightened, bullied (by her uncle played by Deadwood's John Hawkes), lied to, beaten, and nearly killed, but she continues on because there is no recourse but to find her father or proof of what became of him.

Lawrence's courage and inner strength is epitomized by the following exchange:

"What should we do with you?"
"Kill me, I guess."
"That idea's already been said. Got any others?"
"Help me. Ain't no one's said that idea yet."

It's interesting that everything Lawrence does is not to get ahead or achieve something for herself, but simply to maintain what little she has as a status quo, which is enough.  Some of the most poignant moments are of Lawrence in school gazing dreamily at the ROTC - she hopes to join the Army not as a way out, but only because they pay $40,000 for the five year commitment. What a sad scene it was when she explained to the Army recruiter she was only interested in the Army for the money, which she is desperate for, and he gently rebuffed her because she can't take her siblings with her to basic training, nor would she get paid the money she'd be joining for for five years.  The resolution to Lawrence's story offers a reward that feels like almost too much, but the final moments are moving and just right for this girl who would "be lost without the burden [of her family] on her back."

Winter's Bone is the second great film I've seen this year where the plot and salvation of the main character hinges on an amputation (the other being 127 Hours). It seems so much cooler when someone's arm gets chopped off by a lightsaber in Star Wars.

Smallville 10x6 - "Harvest"

ROLL CALL:

SUPERMAN! LOIS LANE! TESS MERCER! THE GREEN ARROW (absent)
Special DC Universe Guest Star:
LEX LUTHOR! (No foolin'.)

Smallville continues to bust out major happenings unexpectedly. The previews for "Harvest" made it seem like Lois and Clark stumble upon some sort of M. Night Shyamalan's The Village/Children of the Corn cornball homage, and they did, but that hardly did justice to what the episode was really about.

Lois and Clark deliver on what was promised last week when Clark finally came clean and told Lois who and what he is. The episode opened with the conversation we've always wanted to hear: Lois asking him direct questions about stuff from previous episodes and Clark answering them honestly. (Honesty! From Smallville's Clark Kent!)

"The Phantom Zone?"
"Kryptonian."
"Doomsday?"
"Kryptonian."
"The space ship I found?"
"Kryptonian, but that wasn't mine, it's my cousin's."

The whole episode could have just been Lois being dazzled by Clark matter-of-factly explaining everything Super about him and it would have been vastly entertaining. The Village stuff was appropriately creepy, with the demented town minister, the ritual sacrifice to their Lord, the reveal that they've murdered 20 girls in 20 years because these backwards rubes don't understand it's Blue Kryptonite that they're really worshiping, and the burlap sack hoods reminiscent of Scarecrow in Batman Begins the villagers wear when they go lynchin' and girl-killin'.

Because their town of Meeker Springs received a Blue Kryptonite meteor shower 20 years ago, not only are none of the villagers ever sick or lacking for bountiful crops, but Clark is powerless in their presence. They hacked Clark's gut with scythe and buried him alive! Somehow, being buried alive actually re-powered Clark up (no explanation offered), and there was an awesome moment when he saved Lois from a molten Blue Kryptonite bath by shielding her with his body, roasting his back in the process. Then Lois threatens the terrified Villagers that Clark will Heat Vision and Super Breath them and busts out Jules Winnfield's Ezekiel 25:17 from Pulp Fiction: "And he will strike down upon thee with great vengeance and furious anger!"

Hell, that was more than enough in one episode to send us into next week happy, but Smallville wasn't done. Clark gives Lois his Kryptonian diary, promising no more secrets between them. The way Erica Durance plays Lois as so into Clark, she's practically like a Warner Bros. cartoon with her heart bursting out of her chest.

And finally, Lois and Clark get it on. In Superman II, we know they did it but we only saw them post-coital. Smallville isn't timid, oh no. Lois and Clark get it on. It's Super sexay.

Meanwhile, Lex Luthor is back! Michael Rosenbaum is still MIA, but Smallville managed the unlikely feat of successfully bringing Lex back into the fold even without Michael Rosenbaum. The young (about 12 years old) Alexander Luthor clone Tess is trying to raise is not only aging rapidly ("accelerated mitosis" has caused Alexander to age four years in two weeks) but is becoming more and more unstable. Alexander goes into demented fits, drawing Superman's "S" shield over and over. When Tess, who's trying admirably hard to be mother of the year, confronts him about it, Alexander locks her in his room and runs away... to the Kent Barn.

Then the bombshells really start dropping: Alexander has Lex's memories, describing conversations between Lex and Clark from the first two seasons in accurate detail. (I liked the contrast of Clark's honesty to Lois with Lex's memories of all the times Clark lied right to his face.) Then Alexander verbally takes Tess' apart, seeing right through all her deeply held motivations and hopes for redemption. That's because Alexander isn't just a clone - that really is Lex Luthor in that child's body. And he wants to be called "Lex."

When the specialist she hired to cure Lex's accelerated mitosis comes up with a serum that could become a cure, Tess decides she can't save Lex after all and throws it in the fireplace. Tess orders Lex locked up, knowing full well Lex will age and die from the disease in a few weeks! Meanwhile, Lex shaves his red locks down to a bald head. That was awesome stuff.

The kid they hired to play young Lex did an amazing job invoking Michael Rosenbaum's Lex and handling dialogue that would have been written for Rosenbaum to say as Lex. Rosenbaum has to be coming back to pay all of this off, even if it's all hush hush right now. This is too much of a promise of seeing the Lex Luthor we know and love not to make good on.

127 Hours

127 HOURS

** SPOILERS **

Adapted from the aptly-titled memoir "Between a Rock and a Hard Place", 127 Hours is the harrowing, powerful new film by director Danny Boyle, based on the true story of Aron Ralston. In April 2003, thrill-seeking mountaineer Ralston was trapped in Blue John Canyon in Utah. His right arm was pinned by a boulder. After five days, a desperate Ralston did the unthinkable and amputated his own arm, freeing himself and saving his own life. Following up his Academy Award winning Slumdog Millionaire, the best film of 2008, Boyle used his newfound Hollywood muscle to get 127 Hours made. Boyle and his Slumdog filmmaking team employ their considerable talents in high definition video cinematography and riveting sound design, utilizing every trick they know to craft "an action movie about someone who can't move." As Ralston, James Franco delivers an incredible, Academy Award-worthy performance, beginning as a cocksure adventurer and running through the gamut of emotions during his ordeal. Though he has interludes with Amber Tamblyn and Kate Mara at the start of the movie, and there are flashbacks to his life and to his sister (Lizzy Caplan, who oddly has no lines), Franco is basically on the screen alone for almost the entire film. The audience is trapped in that cave with him as he heroically tries everything he can think of to free himself, until he is ultimately forced to make a  choice to save his own life that many wouldn't. To the horror and revulsion of most audiences, Boyle doesn't flinch from showing the pivotal amputation, and while the entire film essentially builds to it, that terrible moment doesn't overshadow the uplifting and life-affirming message of 127 Hours.  In its own way, 127 Hours echoes the message of Boyle's 1996 masterpiece Trainspotting: Choose Life. 127 Hours unforgettably celebrates the desire to live and the indomitability of the human spirit.

The Girl Who Played With Fire (Flickan som lekte med elden)

THE GIRL WHO PLAYED WITH FIRE (FLICKAN SOM LEKTE MED ELDEN)

** SPOILERS **

All The Best Hackers Have Daddy Issues

If one can judge a sequel's quality by how much less it made my skin crawl than the original, then The Girl Who Played With Fire is a better movie, or at least a better movie going experience, than The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo. Your milage may vary. Myself, I appreciated the creepy, sordid woman-hating abuses and sexcapades of the Swedes taking a backseat this time around. Oh, plenty of sex was still there, as was the woman hating, but The Girl Who Plays With Fire thankfully lacks the brutal, hard-to-sit-through sequences of rape, abuse and sexual violence of its predecessor. Instead of the forbidding dread and gloom of Dragon Tattoo, The Girl Who Plays With Fire is a beautifully shot, entertaining, crackerjack mystery thriller. Noomi Rapace returns as Lisbeth Salander, the introverted, dragon-tattooed computer hacker and heroine of this saga. This time, a wealthy, well-traveled Lisbeth is framed for murders she didn't commit by enemies old and new. Lisbeth goes on a rather Bourne-esque manhunt throughout Stockholm to clear her name, all the while uncovering long-buried secrets about her past and family. The Girl Who Played With Fire delves deeply into the childhood of Lisbeth Salander, uncovering her links to a former Soviet GRU official who is now a crime lord, and a hulking blond brute who killed the people Lisbeth was framed for. When not brooding in her bay windows about how to untangle the labyrinthine web she finds herself in, Lisbeth finds herself in more mortal peril than ever before. On the other hand, living as a fugitive murder suspect was a welcome excuse for Lisbeth to shed her trademark piercings and goth apparel, revealing Rapace to be a radiant leading lady. Lisbeth cleans up very nicely, but it's fleeting, as by the final scene, she's been shot several times, beaten, and buried alive. But you can't stop that girl with the dragon tattoo! Lisbeth is aided once again by Michael Nyquist as crusading journalist Mikail Blomkvist. Blomkvist was the main character in Dragon Tattoo and remains the male lead, but here he is largely left out of the action, reduced to waiting by the sidelines investigating the trail of bodies and clues Lisbeth leaves behind. The pivotal moment for Blomkvist was visiting Lisbeth's spacious new flat and discovering the DVD of her being raped by her old guardian. He couldn't sit through it, but goody for him that he had the luxury of turning the DVD off, unlike the audience watching Dragon Tattoo in the theater.

I'm the one your Muggle mother always warned you about.

Legion

LEGION

** SPOILERS **

According to Legion, the biggest assholes in all of Creation are 1) God, 2) His angels, and 3) Man, although if you were to ask the God depicted in Legion, that list would be in reverse.  It would take the 90 minutes of Legion's running time to list everything terrible from a movie-watching perspective and offensive from a - never mind religion - but a common sense perspective, but here are the highlights: According to Legion, God has "lost faith" in Man because "He got tired of all the bullshit." "The last time this happened, He sent a Flood." Now, He does something infinitely less efficient and much more retarded: He tells his massive army of armored, tattooed angels (we never see the tattoo parlor in Heaven, but we do see Legion's Heaven is as underlit as the rest of the movie) to go down to Earth and wipe Man out.

But most importantly, the angels have to kill the unborn child of down and out waitress Adrianne Palicki (who skipped the fourth season of Friday Night Lights to make Legion - why?). It's really important for the angels to kill Palicki's baby before its born because - why? The baby would still be pretty useless and vulnerable unless it grows up, gets into a good school, and any of the bazillion things that would have to happen for it to be a threat to the scumbags up in Heaven.

The angels' tactics are as inscrutable as God's will: First, they attack the Mohave Desert diner Palicki works in by sending an old lady possessed by a demon to climb the walls. Then the angels send an ice cream truck with a demonic ice cream man. Then they send a wave of cars full of demon people possessed by angels. All of them fail because you can conveniently shoot and kill angels with guns. There are also hordes of locusts in the sky but they don't attack the diner, so they don't really fucking matter.

Palicki has a protector, Paul Bettany, who plays the angel Michael. Along with watching over mankind, the angels have also watched The Terminator because Bettany pretty much just does a riff on Michael Biehn as Kyle Reese. According to Legion logic, the first thing Bettany does in his first scene when he lands on Earth is cut off his wings, which then means he has to steal a police car and drive to the diner in the imaginatively named Paradise Falls. While all the rest of the angels fight with demonic supernatural powers, or even a big club as wielded by main angel baddie Kevin Durand as the archangel Gabriel, Bettany knows how to shoot guns and even instruct others how to shoot guns at the angels.

The rest of the "What the hell are all these people doing here?" cast hanging out in the diner for various insipid reasons include Dennis Quaid, Charles S. Dutton, Kate Walsh, Willa Holland, and veterans from The Fast and the Furious franchise Tyrese and Lucas Black. For all the dunder headed blatherings about faith and who has it, Bettany is a monosyllabic bore and none of these people trapped in the diner with him are particularly impressed by having a real live angel in their midst. The ending is literally a deus ex machina of the worst kind, where God has a complete change of heart (off screen) and calls the whole fucking thing off. My God, Legion is an unholy piece of shit of Biblical proportions.