The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo: If you think the poster is shocking, just wait till you watch the film!

Disgraced journalist Mikael Blomkvist is hired by a wealthy businessman to investigate the disappearance of his grandniece. However she disappeared over forty years ago and the trail is somewhat cold, so he begins working with an investigator named Lisabeth. Together they uncover clues that could not only lead them to the grandniece, but also shed light on a series of murders with possible connections to her disappearance.

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo was not an easy film to watch. The gritty crime thriller, directed by one of the modern American auteurs in David Fincher and based off of the international best selling novel of the same name by Stieg Larsson, deals with Mikael and Lisabeth's investigation of  a girl's disappearance forty years ago. Along the way, they encounter a number of unsavory characters trying to hinder their attempts to uncover the truth. These unsavory characters, and the dilemmas they present to Mikael and Lisabeth, are what make for some of the more intense scenes of the film (those scenes between Lisabeth and you court appointed guardian Nils are almost unbearable, especially for women). Fincher never shied away from showing these things on screen, but he also never overindulged in the gritty stuff, thereby making those scenes all the more effective and shocking. Those scenes serve specific purposes to the film as a whole and are therefore integral.

The mystery the duo are trying to solve was complex and overwhelming at points, given the long list of suspects as well as the cryptic clues, but this only served to reel the audience in deeper into the film. Fincher was also able to lean on his actors to draw the audience in emotionally. Daniel Craig was sturdy and believable as Mikael, giving him a more physical presence than Michael Nyqvist did when he played the part in the Swedish version of the film. Rooney Mara was an absolute revelation as Lisabeth. She was haunting and delicate at points but able to turn into a fierce women who was ready to fight in an instant. It was impossible to take one's eyes off of her when she was on screen for you never knew what she was going to do. Individually, these two were interesting enough but when they joined up to work together and solve the mystery, it was beyond fascinating to watch. Their scenes together were played with an appealing awkwardness that kept the audience wondering just what was developing between the two of them.

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo was a classic who-dunnit thriller with an entertaining edge sorely missing in most Hollywood films nowadays.

Grade: A

The Adventures of Tintin: A serviceable adventure

World famous reporter Tintin and his trusty dog Snowy stumble into an adventure after he purchases a mysterious old model of a ship called the Unicorn. Along the way he must escape from the nefarious Sakharine and help Captain Haddock find his ancestors' missing treasure.

There certainly was plenty of adventure and excitement to be had in the film. Director Steven Spielberg tried to craft the title character into an Indiana Jones - like hero, putting him into dangerous situations in which he had to use his wits (and his muscle) to escape. However, if you took away the motorcycle chases, narrow escapes, and other action sequences the film essentially fell flat as its story and characters were dull and bland. One of the most glaring missteps was the fact that the audience was never given Tintin's backstory. It is explained that he is a famous reporter but that was it. It's understood that, to keep the flow of the story going, there was no need to spend a half and hour explaining how Tintin got his start as a reporter, how he found Snowy or how his hair is able to maintain its shape while he is dodging bullets but little nuggets of information here and there would have helped. The story seemed to focus more on Captain Haddock and his tale of redemption. And while that served to provide the audience with a valuable life lesson, the rest of the film was cheapened by poor storytelling and bad humor that lessened its potential impact.

The Adventures of Tintin contained breathtaking animation and enough excitement to keep audience members of all ages engrossed but it lacked the solid storytelling of those classic Disney Pixar films.

Grade: C

Cowboys and Aliens

Amnesiac gunslinger Jake Lonergan stumbles into the town of Absolution where he not only runs afoul of the man who runs the town, Colonel Woodrow Dolarhyde, but also a group of invading aliens who are intent upon destroying everyone. Jake must rally together the people of Absolution in order to save them from destruction.

Strangely enough a film about cowboys and aliens featured a story line similar to the alien invasion action film Independence Day. In both, different groups of people (for this film gunslingers, criminals, Native Americans, regular folks, etc.) must learn to overcome their differences and fight together to defeat an invading extraterrestrial force whose purpose for trying to conquer earth was vague at best (in this film the aliens were mining the earth for a precious metal, who knew gold was in such demand throughout the universe). Both films also featured enough action to keep the audience mildly interested and engaged. Where Cowboys differed was in the big names that led its cast. Daniel Craig and Harrison Ford should have been able to provide stellar enough performances as Jake and Woodrow (respectively) to make the film something beyond a prototypical summer popcorn flick full of sound and fury but representing nothing. Ford certainly delivered, his Dolarhyde was an atypical anti-heroic turn that showed he could play a character unlike those people are accustomed to seeing him play. Craig's Jake however was hampered by a script overwrought with explosions and missing chances for him to emotionally stretch in any direction. In the end, he was all grunts or hard looks and never became someone the audience could connect with. The rest of the cast did not add much value (although Olivia Wilde was stunning as the mysterious Ella), the story stammered and stuttered as it tried to combine multiple subplots and never hit its stride and the aforementioned ending where the different groups of people banded together to fight the aliens felt hokey and forced.

Dig a little beyond the big name stars and overwhelming action and you'll find that Cowboys and Aliens was nothing more than an average comic book to film adaptation.

Grade: C 

The Bourne Identity: The spy thriller reborn.

Back before Daniel Craig donned the tux and became 007, the cinema world was suffering through Pierce Brosnan's smug take on the role. Not only that, but the Bond movies back then were loaded down with "death rays" and cliched villians and seemed almost laughable. Enter Matt Damon and The Bourne series, whose realism and emotional depth made the spy genre matter again. So much so that if you look at a Bond film now you can see the Bourne influences.

A man is pulled from the sea with two bullet holes in his back and a case of amnesia. He comes to discover that his name is Jason Bourne and he has a violent past. With the help of a woman named Marie he hopes to uncover the truth behind his extraordinary abilities, and the reasons the U.S. government is so anxious to hunt him down.

Most spy thriller films tend to focus on action, be it hand to hand combat or exotic weaponry that the hero or villain employ. While The Bourne Identity contained a number of fierce fight sequences and an insane car chase, the main focus was on the story of Jason Bourne and his attempts to discover who he was. Bourne was not some suave secret agent that slurped martinis while spouting cheesy one-liners after he offed a bad guy. He was an intelligent, resourceful man looking to regain control of his life. To go along with having an uncommon spy as the hero the film also boasted a touching love story between Jason and Marie. Whereas in other spy thriller genre films in which the hero simply beds the lead actress because she was there, the romance between Jason and Marie did not feel forced. They came to care for one another and shared a terrific chemistry. The film had a heart to go along with the great action and intriguing story and was a distinctive entry in the spy thriller genre.

Grade: A

Casino Royale: The reboot they got right!

Hollywood reboots, they are a growing scourge these days with studios seemingly unwilling to take a chance on an original story. But sometimes, reboots work, and can breathe new life into a film franchise that had become a shell of its former self.

British secret agent James Bond has just been given his license to kill and for his first assignment, he must face a mysterious villain named Le Chiffre in a high stakes game of poker. If he looses not only would the money help finance terrorists, but he could wind up dead as well.

Truth be told the James Bond franchise had been dying over the past couple of films. On the watch of former Bond Pierce Brosnan the films were wrought with lousy stories, an over-reliance on gadgets or ludicrous villains and Brosnan’s oh so smug turn as the British super spy. With Casino Royale, a new era in the 007 franchise was born, one that concentrated less on jet packs, stealth boats and vacuous quips everytime Bond did something cool and gave the audience the type of action they have come to expect from the series along with a richly developed story and fully realized characters. Speaking of which, Daniel Craig, though initially ridiculed as the choice for the new 007, just might be the best Bond since Sean Connery perfected the iconic character. His Bond was a brute when he had to be, unafraid of getting his hands dirty when it was necessary and yet human and vulnerable enough to worry about how his life as a trained killer might affect his soul. That vulnerability extended to the female agent along on his mission, Vesper. Their interplay and dialogue was among the best in the film, making the fate that befell her all the more bittersweet. I have not even gotten into the stylish black and white shot opening, the breathtaking high wire confrontation Bond had in the beginning or the collapsing building on the Italian Riviera at the climax but the action more than matched the marvelous story and made Casino Royale a film you do not want to miss.

Grade: A